Sheffield and Expats

[sandie]

As an expat born and bred in Sheffield now living elsewhere I still think of Sheffield as home.

Even though I moved away from the home town as many people have. I still and always will have a very proud protection for the town.

 

I would like to know how many expats feel the same way.

 

Thanks

[normanmarina]

As an expat born and bred in Sheffield now living elsewhere I still think of Sheffield as home.

Even though I moved away from the home town as many people have. I still and always will have a very proud protection for the town.

 

I would like to know how many expats feel the same way.

 

Thanks

 

Yes I echo the sentiments,trouble is have a feeling its rose tinted specs syndrome!! I left in 1975 couldnt have chosen a better place in which to grow up!! but sadly my beloved Sheffield like everywhere else has changed and not for the better!!still refer to it as home though!!

[sandie]

Hi normanmarina.

I understand what you are saying and Sheffield has changed over the years, but to be a Sheffielder holds a pride even though we might be away from the city our roots will never leave us. Even today I look in the drawer and fortunatly I still have knifes with made in Sheffield on them and a Steel to sharpen them. Sorry for the rant

[normanmarina]

Hi normanmarina.

I understand what you are saying and Sheffield has changed over the years, but to be a Sheffielder holds a pride even though we might be away from the city our roots will never leave us. Even today I look in the drawer and fortunatly I still have knifes with made in Sheffield on them and a Steel to sharpen them. Sorry for the rant

 

Yes I feel exactly the same but sadly sheffields steel industry along with the rest of british industry has been decimated!!it started in the late 70s,we were the envy of the world till then,now all that skill and knowledge has gone to be replaced by work in the fast food and leisure industry!!

[PopT]

The other day I was sat in the sunshine enjying a coffee when an English couple from London joined our table.

 

After the usual how do's etc. the Londoner asked me, 'Where I do you come from'?

 

I replied, 'Sheffield'.

 

He then spoiled himself by saying, 'I suppose someone's got to come from there'!

 

I was so angry at this, I just got up and walked out.

 

If I hadn't left his company I think I would have slotted him, as old as I am.

 

I am very proud of coming from Sheffield and I know we have our share of pillocks in the city but I will not put up with pillocks from London generalising about Sheffielders in an almost racist way.

 

When I return I do notice a lot of changes, some very good and some that I cannot come to terms with but it is the place I was born and bred and a place that is still a part of me, with some great memories and with some of the best people in the world.

 

Happy Days

[normanmarina]

The other day I was sat in the sunshine enjying a coffee when an English couple from London joined our table.

 

After the usual how do's etc. the Londoner asked me, 'Where I do you come from'?

 

I replied, 'Sheffield'.

 

He then spoiled himself by saying, 'I suppose someone's got to come from there'!

 

I was so angry at this, I just got up and walked out.

 

If I hadn't left his company I think I would have slotted him, as old as I am.

 

I am very proud of coming from Sheffield and I know we have our share of pillocks in the city but I will not put up with pillocks from London generalising about Sheffielders in an almost racist way.

 

When I return I do notice a lot of changes, some very good and some that I cannot come to terms with but it is the place I was born and bred and a place that is still a part of me, with some great memories and with some of the best people in the world.

 

Happy Days

 

How can anyone make derogatory remarks about anywhere unless they have lived/spent time there!!especially a londoner!!they dont even have a head on their ale for god's sake!!!.

I wouldnt like anyone here to think I dont love Sheffield I do and I have some wonderful memories from a wonderful city,its just when you leave somewhere and go back any changes are more noticeable and its changes in the whole nation that annoy me,dont care what the politicians/do-gooders say things now are worse and the fact that our once great nation has been voted worst in europe makes me ashamed!!!!!

[sandie]

I feel very possesive of my home town and as normanmarina and PopT have said this town remains as home wherever we live. Sheffield was the capital of the world in the steel industry and yes it was decimated in the 70's due to Europe and Germany's influence because of the subsidies they offered their workers. Our goverment would not recipricate that was the problem.

 

I spent a year with a company called United Coal and Chemicals where we used to analize the coal samples from the local Pits and choose the Pit with the highest carbon content for the Steel industry.

PopT I am proud of your responce to the Stupid Londoner, you as most of Sheffielders would do the same.

 

Sheffield might not be my place of residance anymore, but I will defend it and will not hear it put down. I think it is one of the few places where people who are born there are so proud to be a Sheffielder first, a Yorkshireman second,English third and finally British.

As I live in the North of Scotland I am accepted as a Sheffielder and a Yorkshireman.

I have never met a Scotsman who has ever said where is Sheffield our steel is well known here. My inlaws used to live in Kent and the amount of arguments I have had with the southen pillocks some verbal and some slightly physical who ask where is Sheffield and Yorkshire, my reply was always Sunday dinner you have Yorkshire Pudding and eat it with a Knife and Fork and more often than not it says Made in Sheffield. The conversation then usualy stops

[sweetdexter]

I have lived in Canada 14 years longer than I lived in Sheffield having been over here 41 years, yet Sheffield will always be home.

It does not matter were in the world you are just look in the cutlery drawer or tool box and you will probably find something made in Sheffield.

Example-When I first met my wife I was invited to the family cottage on Georgian Bay in the boat house (it was used as a catch all) there were a pair of sheep shears made by John Guy about 1900." Made in Sheffield " is never far away

[buck]

I think this forum links all of us ex pats together no matter where we live. We wouldn't be here talking to each other if we didn't feel we belonged. I have seldom been back to Sheffield since I left 39 years ago, the last time being when I came down from Scotland where I was over on a working trip. My cousin drove me around all the old places in Attercliffe where we both grew up, and it looked as if the luftwaffe had been back. When I read some of the posts full of gloom aand doom about crime, road accidents, and attitude it seems this is not the city I was born in any more. But I'm sure there are plenty of the good folks who made this city so special still around.

[Jossman]

My wife and I left Sheffield in Sept. '04 for the sunnier climes of Kent. We now live in Tonbridge the equivalent of Bakewell..ish. It is greener, cleaner, warmer and a very laid back county. Sheffield will always be our roots, but having been back twice to see both sons, we would never return. The Sheffield we were born in has gone. We bend to progress but it was not the city we wanted to retire in.