Do you remember how mucky Sheffield was before the clean air act?

[Fareast]

I'm sure I remember a story from the 'Star' about 1961. It was about the sand-blasting of the buildings on Surrey Street. Apparently, there was so much accumulated dirt covering the buildings that when they were cleaned the workmen discovered carvings .....etc....on the facade of the buildings that had been completely forgotten.

 

If that was the city centre, imagine the East End ! There were some statistics given as

well ; some mention of 25 tons of dirt removed-------but I can't remember if that was from the whole of Surrey Street or just from one building ?

 

Yeah, Sheffield was a bit grimy in its day !

[biker]

Does anyone know what caused the thick orange smoke that came out of the enormous brick chimnies of English Steel at Brightside? This would have been in the late fifties.

 

I believe that the smoke was caused when they pumped oxygen into the molten steel in the furnace to burn off impurities in the steel.At Brown Bayleys Steels you could see the orange smoke crawl across the canal and blanket peoples washing.The melting shops had high roofs so that the smoke would gather at the top.The overhead cranes then had their drivers cab lowered below the smoke level so that they could see what they were doing.We used to say that you only saw the roof during the second week of the holidays.There was also more sand (from knocking out the moulds) than there was at Skegness !!!

[Redneck]

Hi Cat631. The different colours ( often orange ) were caused by the addition of alloying materials to the molten steel to get the desired final composition. After the first melt sample, the furnace men would be told how much of each material to shovel into the furnace. The alloys were in little piles perhaps 20 feet away from the furnace. The first hand opened the doors and a couple of furnacemen put their blue glasses on, put their sweat towels between their teeth,grabbed a shovel full of the alloy and did a little dance toward the furnace so that they arrived with their backs to the doors. In one motion they spun around and threw the material into the furnace, continued turning and walking back for another shovel full. The coloured smoke often came out of the doors as well if the draught was low.

[cat631]

Thanks Biker and Redneck. I can remember clouds of the stuff billowing into the sky, thankfully it was usually blowing away from where I lived.

[USUK]

I know this is an old thread but it brought back the memories of when they were sandblasting the buildings down town. What a mess and it seemed to take a few years before they finished 'em all.

 

We lived up crookes near the Bolehills and I can remember looking in amazement out over Hillsbro. when the smokeless era took over. A view we had Never seen before.

[hellabobby]

I remember how dirty the moors must have been, only we did,nt realise as kids. It was when we went a few years later we saw the difference in colour . So much greener.

[flyer]

But to be fair your neck stayed clean about as long as the shirt collar did

that was the reason for button down collars 6 to one shirt and of course no one went out without a clean one:rolleyes:

[USUK]

that was the reason for button down collars 6 to one shirt and of course no one went out without a clean one:rolleyes:

 

Woolworths paper collars, style 77. Wear em once then turn em inside out and wear em again ;-)

[harmston]

Had a friend come up from Windsor Berkshire summer of 1956 for a weekend ,Sunday morning walked up on to Wincobank Hill as it was a loverly day . Friend what are they sticking out of the clouds down there I explained they were steelos chimmies all in a line,and that people lived and worked down there to prove the point we caught the no4 bus from Wincobank Ave to Brightside lane and had a walk through Carbrook and Atercliffe you should have seen the face when my friend saw the works and the living conditions down there having been brought up in sunny Berkshire Never came again

[Janner]

I thought the Town Hall was built of black granite. When I went to Plymouth in 1949 my mother came for a visit, she couldn't believe people put their washing on privet hedges to dry & leave the washing out when it rained.