Who remembers the old Sheffield?

[parsleydiva]

Can you remember the old trams with the wooden seats that you could alter according to which direction you were going in.Also loved eating the liquorice roots,cinnamon sticks & that black liquorice.I think Wicker Herbalist still sells liquorice sticks.

 

Sure can remember the old trams and the most uncomfortable wooden seats! Wasn't keen on the liquorice sticks though.

[Plain Talker]

I remember being lifted off my feet and almost blown through a shop window in Fargate as I walked across town from school to Pond St. on the day of the Hurricane; what year was that? 1962 also?

 

there are huge threads across the Sheffield Forum, about the Sheffield Gales of February 1962.

[athy]

Thanks, Mr. Rowley and Mrs. Talker, I'll have a look. Maybe I'll find a photo of myself semi-airborne in Fargate!

[sweetdexter]

What we used to buy was 'Liquorice Root'

Whether it was root I do not know ,It was very fibrous you could chew it for ages ,the chewed end would get like the bristles on a paint brush

[hillsbro]

Sure can remember the old trams and the most uncomfortable wooden seats! Wasn't keen on the liquorice sticks though.

Those slatted wooden seats were certainly uncomfortable. I always tried to sit at the front of the top deck - the seats went round in a semicircle. I remember three types of liquorice - ordinary (as in Allsorts), "Spanish" (little hard sticks with a stronger flavour) and liquorice root. The root came in six-inch lengths and was very fibrous - chewing it was supposed to be good for your teeth, I suppose as it cleaned them. You can still get liquorice root from some herbalists and health food shops but it doesn't seem to be as sweet as it once was, unless my sexagenarian taste buds are deteriorating...

[parsleydiva]

Those slatted wooden seats were certainly uncomfortable. I always tried to sit at the front of the top deck - the seats went round in a semicircle. I remember three types of liquorice - ordinary (as in Allsorts), "Spanish" (little hard sticks with a stronger flavour) and liquorice root. The root came in six-inch lengths and was very fibrous - chewing it was supposed to be good for your teeth, I suppose as it cleaned them. You can still get liquorice root from some herbalists and health food shops but it doesn't seem to be as sweet as it once was, unless my sexagenarian taste buds are deteriorating...

 

Sorry, it was liquorice root I didn't like!! Like eating a piece of tree!!

[shinyhappy68]

Ooo....got all nostalgic after my last post on another thread and all the shops on Crookes that were part of my childhood, I can remember some, please fill me in any missing gaps if ya can!!

 

Kandy Kabin

Pet Shop

Watch menders??

Chemist

Woods Newsagents

Patience Wall - wool shop (my mother spent hours in there)

Mrs Scotts Library - scary, wierd little shop

Gills Fruit & Veg

Toyland - for beanies in match boxes and silly putty yeah!!

Pointers sweet shop

Mr Claytons fish shop

Heel Bar

Fletchers

Ballins - OMG!! such lovely clothing - how could my mother!!

Pricekeen

The posher clothes shop near Punch Bowl - Witsuntide outfit only!! haha

The butchers shop with sawdust all over floor

Carrack wallpaper

 

and my fave shop - The Joke Shop - yeah!! Itching powder, blue mouth sweets, stink bombs, false ciggys and chewy that snapped ya fingers.

 

Memories were made of this, .........

[Andy the dj]

Just been looking at the photos on mainlymono.com,yes SOME of Sheffield was grubby,dirty and run down in the 70s.

now tell me i am looking at Sheffield through rose coloured specs.

I was born in 1965 and have lived in Sheffield all my life up to now,but i think it was a better place than it is now,it's lost all its caractor and identity it was a working class city with a thriving night life like the fiesta,top rank and other entertainment venues which were full nearly every night of the week,because as a working class city most people were working.

The night life in Sheffield catered for everyone,places like the Fiesta. not just for the students which are taking over the city.

The council tell us they are making improvements to the city,but have you seen all the empty and boarded up shops in the city center! meadowhell had something to do with that,but its not all to blame,have you seen the big silver balls at the back of the peace gdns,whats all that about?

Do we need an arty farty city ?

No im not a Stereo typicall Yorkshire man who still want cloth caps and whipits,but the goverment over the years have ruined the city and the country. in the 60s and 70s when you left school it was almost certain you was going to get a reasonable job,yes it may have been in the steel works etc. although a lot of other jobs were avalable it brought in a good wage,most people i knew in those days had more money to spend.

sheffield had its fair share of trouble but it wasnt as bad as it is now,drunken louts only out of short pants hanging about on street corners,terrerising the neighboughhood.

this country has gone to the dogs.

YES Sheffield was basic and a little working class but i know most if not all the people i talk to over thirty was happier in thoes days.

yes somethings in the world have improved like technology (thank god for the PC) ,rechearch in to medicens,but where is the money to pay for it all,not in the nhs.What you never had you never miss.

This is only a small part of my rant if you want to comment please do so i love a good debate,ill post more as time goes on.

[PopT]

I remember the old Norfolk Market Hall where we went every Saturday morning to see the fish at Mace's pet store and to pinch a few aniseed dog biscuits to eat from the large sacks on the pavement outside.

 

We would go into the Market hall with all the smell of the fresh flowers and go and look at the stamp shop near the fountain and then buy some broken biscuits from THe Broken Biscuit Company in the corner.

 

From there we would go outside and down the steps to Philip Cann's record shop and listen to the latest 78's.

 

That was our best part of our Saturday mornings.

 

I wish I could go there now.

 

Happy Days!

[Falls]

Do You Remember:

 

The old Norfolk Market Hall with the floor made of stone flags,

(Demolished 1959)

 

The hole in Exchange Street where the B & C Co-op had been (Destroyed in the Blitz-Dec.1940) If you wanted to get to the Fish market from Exchange Street, they eventually built a foot bridge which crossed over the hole.

 

The Castlefolds Fruit and Veg Market. ( Don't ask me to explain where it was. There isn't a building or structure left in that area that I can use as a reference.) All moved out to the Parkway by the early 1960's.

 

When Sheaf Motors where actually on Sheaf Street.

 

The Corn Exchange (Gutted by fire in Jan. 1947. Left as a ruin but finally demolished in the late 50's)

 

The Cloth and Insect Market ( official name was Sheaf Market but every body knew it as the: Rag'n Tag)

 

Another big hole where the first C & A used to be (also destroyed in Blitz but eventually rebuilt)

 

The burnt-out wreck of Burtons at the top of Angel Street. Not finally cleared until late 1950's and rebuilt as Peter Robinson. Now entrance to Trimark

 

The destruction of almost every building on Angel Street. Only Symington and Crofts survived at the corner of King Street and they only had the ground floor left.

 

The North side of King Street being just one long pile of rubble.

 

The pile of rubble where Marples used to be.

 

The gutted Kings Head Hotel on Change Alley. Change Alley itself come to think of it.

 

The burnt-out Walsh's Store on High Street. They moved to The Mount on Glossop Road until the new store was finished in 1954

 

All the shops on Fargate that aren't there any more: Cole Brothers, Tuckwoods, Proctor's, Field's Cafe (don't forget the coffee roaster in the window), Marshal and Snellgroves, Hope Brothers, Anne Lennards, Etams and so on.

 

Next time I will take you back down the Moor of the 1940's and 50's

 

Regards