Dore to Door internet edition

Local history - Summer 2005

Jean recalls - Letters - Oral History Collection - Beauchief Gardens

Jean recalls

Firstly may I say how much I appreciate the people who noticed my absence from the Spring issue.

In the letter from Margaret Moore, she mentions Mrs’ Cook and Green doing the school dinners. I would like to correct this error. Mrs Cook was assisted by her younger sister Mrs Warnes. Hilda Warnes is still alive, now in her nineties, in the cottage on Townhead Road, where she has lived for over 60 years. Hilda has witnessed many changes in Dore. When Hilda was growing up, Dore was, I cannot say a pretty village for it was never that, but at least it was a village. Until the 30's it was in Derbyshire. I guess the rot set in when it came under the umbrella of Sheffield.

Dore had 4 butchers and soon now it won’t have any. There were several grocery outlets, Huby, Friths, Marshalls, Moseleys, Mrs Thorpes, The Co-op, Tiddy’s Frith’s dairy at the bottom of Brickhouse Lane and the little shop at Fisher’s Nursery on Newfield Lane. The sweet shop near to the village trough, where villagers laid their bets on race days through the kitchen window. Dottie Green’s newsagents and a gents hairdressers. There was no chemist until later, but we did have a blacksmith.

The closing of Green’s marks the end of an era here. Unfortunately a sign of the times we live in. Mr Roy and George Green began the shop in a little wooden hut in their builders yard and when building stopped due to Mr George’s advancing years the present shop was built. My husband Don worked with Roy and Roy’s wife, Ivy until Ivy was forced to give up due to arthritis. Mrs Shaw from Leyfield helped part-time and when she moved to Wales, I took her place. We still had the builders yard supplying sand, cement and concrete flags to the local builders: Ashby’s, Cook’s, Hallamshire Builders, Mottram’s etc. there are no local builders left now. Don Fisher was the last of them.

George used to say we sold so many concrete flags on a Saturday, he was surprised Dore wasn’t covered in concrete. When he retired Don and his brother Dick took over. Unfortunately Dick was taken seriously ill a short time later, but with the help of loyal friends, and here I’d like to mention Lee Hutchinson and Richard Clark, we were able to carry on till Dick was well enough to return. When George died Reg bought the buildings and on the untimely death of Don, Nick took over. However over the last few years it has been very difficult and he has had no option but to call it a day. He has moved, as I’m sure most people know, to Reg’s old workshop on Rushley between the Scout Hut and Limpits Farm Cottage. He will be pleased to see customers old and new there, for bike repairs, lawn mower servicing, shear sharpening etc, and also picture framing. So I hope the village will give their support.

I could write a book about life behind the counter in Green’s and the odd requests people have made over the years. One old lady who had new batteries in her radio came back a short time later and asked if she could have English batteries because she wanted to listen to Desert Island Discs and all she could hear was a foreigner!

What happened to Doremouse in the last issue. Has he/she gone on strike too!

Skips and vehicles are still churning up the pavements and grass verges. Parkers Lane is a disgrace, since workmen started to alter a bungalow opposite the way in to the Scout bonfire field. I hope by the time this goes to press they will have rectified the damage.

I had to laugh On my birthday, I received a card which boasted ‘Made in China’. What on earth are we coming to? Is nothing made here!

Jean Dean

Letters

Dear Sir,

I have just been reading Reg Skeleton’s conversation in the Dore to Door. The lady in question who owned Knowle Green was Mrs Reid, we used to call it Reids instead of Knowle Green. There were a lot of Canadian soldiers stationed there after the British moved out, a lot of them were lost in the fiasco at Slapton sands, and lots more on D day.

My Dad Edgar used to work with him (Reg) at Wagwood house. I seem to remember the house being struck by lightening not once but twice, and Reg was lucky to escape one of them.

I remember the wooden chip shop run by Chippie Holmes. We used to go to Greystones Picture house, it was 1 penny on the bus to Ecclesall terminus 1/2p on the tram to Greystones and 9p to get in to see the film. If it was an A film we asked someone to take us in. Then to the chip shop and fish and chips was 6p, so the whole night cost less than 2 shillings

His conversation brought back many memories as I can recall all the legendary characters and a few more. Francis Coats, Nurse Frith, Joe Denniff, Willie Arthur Frith local milk man delivered by horse and cart, Teddy Swift, not forgetting all the men in the Dore football team as we had a very good side in those days. The matches with Totley and Tideswell were always what are now known as crunch matches, especially the Totley one, which was usually played on Boxing day

J Taylor

Dear Sir,

Mabel Lingard deceased. Late of 49 Devonshire Road.

Readers may remember Mabel Lingard who died in April 1999. She was a small, gentle lady with a delightful Scots/Irish lilt and made numerous friends on her cruises to various parts of the world. Her only surviving relative was a sister, Hilda Pattinson of Rushley Drive, who has since died.

Mabel left a substantial sum to the RNLI and was one of five major contributors to a Severn class lifeboat (total cost almost £1.9m). It is to be called the "Margaret Joan and Fred Nye" after the principle contributors and its number is ON 1279. The launching will take place at Poole, Dorset on 5 May 2005.

Mabel had many friends and good neighbours in the village who will be delighted with this news. Also, they may wish to know the lifeboat will be a relief boat, replacing station lifeboats which are damaged or are out of service, so we might see it anywhere around the coast of Britain.

Pat Brearton, Executor

Dear Sir,

Hello there in Dore! Can you please let me know how to subscribe to the magazine? I have been meaning to do so for ages!

I was brought up in Dore, when my family moved there in 1960 (I was 5) and have my happiest childhood memories associated with the village where I went to the old primary school in its last 2 years or so and remember going to the 'new' school for my last year and 11-plus!

My mother still lives in Dore so I do visit regularly but would like to support the village society and the magazine and keep in touch down here in Berkshire so please let me know how to pay the subscription. Kind regards.

John Fox

Ed. This request was received by e-mail. Dore to Door can be sent direct to any UK address. So if you leave the area or have friends or relatives that might be interested in the magazine, all we need is a name, address and a cheque for £4 pa made out to ‘Dore Village Society’ and sent to the address on page 2.

Dear Sir,

Did your village, town or community once have its own brass band?

I am carrying out research in the history of brass bands in local communities, and would like to ask if you know of any information about any such extinct bands in your area.

The late 18th and early 19th centuries were the "golden age" for these bands numbering, it is said, up to 40,000 distinct bands at their peak. Many of these bands were associated with local industries, often being a "works" band. Others provided a musical focus for many small towns and villages in the days before the gramophone and the wireless. Today, in contrast, only some 1,500 or so are left active in the UK.

Sadly many of the bands left little in the way of information about their existence, and what does exist is widely scattered with individuals, local archives and national collections.

Part of my research is to identify these lost bands, to collect together material to provide a central database of information - containing a mixture of primary information as well as references to material held elsewhere (e.g. in local archives).

Any information you can provide would be gratefully received. Whether actual information or pictures of any bands, or pointers to resources, or sources for further investigation. Even knowing that a particular band existed is significant!

Currently much of the information I have collected is available online, as a freely available resource, at http://www.ibew.co.uk/ - in various locations, for example, in the Reference section under "Extinct Bands" or "Vintage Pictures".

With best wishes for your continuing research in local history,

Gavin Holman

The Internet Bandsman's Everything Within

Oral History Collection

In conversation with Jean Pearson (nee Clark)

Jean was born in Sheffield, the eldest child of Frank and Margaret Clark. In 1929, when she was eighteen months old, her parents came to Dore to take over the tenancy of the Hare and Hounds public house. Jean’s younger brothers John and David and her sister Lynne were all born at the Hare and Hounds in the 1930s.

In those days the pub was much smaller and occupied only the churchyard end of the present building. Jean explains "There was Jack Thorpe’s butcher’s at the other end, the Post Office and a little grocer’s next to our front door." The postmaster was Stanley Mace helped by his wife Hilda and the sole public telephone in the village was actually inside the Post Office. "At first they lived up the stone steps in our back yard and the rear part was the post office sorting room. Their red bicycles were kept in a shed next to our coalhouse." The occupant of the little grocer’s was a Miss Shaw, "a very genteel lady", who lodged with Mrs. Farnsworth on the Green and did lovely knitting.

The Clark family lived over the top of the pub but had a large downstairs kitchen with a black-leaded Yorkshire range, big copper flour bins and iron ham hooks. Jean says "As children, we weren’t allowed in the pub, you know; we had to run through into the kitchen or straight upstairs, there being no other access." She can see again the spittoons on the floor and the stuffed birds and fish in glass cases. Frank and Mrs. Clark (as she was always known) must have made a good living, because Jean remembers two live-in maids, sisters Mary and Eleanor, who wore daytime and evening uniforms.

Jean’s parents were strict disciplinarians especially at mealtimes and although they were never hit with the cane there was always one on the table. They were frequently reminded to "Sit up straight!" and "Don’t speak with food in your mouth". On one occasion Mother broke the cane banging on the table so Jean was sent very unwillingly to buy a new one. The four children were also made to line up for their regular doses of cod liver oil, syrup of figs and brimstone and treacle "whether we needed it or not". There was no chemist in Dore so Mr. Hobson used to come from Millhouses with a delivery of packets "beautifully wrapped in acid free tissue and tied up with string and sealing wax."

However, they had a very happy childhood and attended the village school when Mr. Speight was Headmaster. It would seem that the girls were generally sensible but the lads "got up to all sorts of tricks." One scene Jean clearly remembers is of Miss Hodkin washing out a boy’s mouth with soap because he had been swearing.

In those idyllic days when Dore was still in Derbyshire the cows used to come through the village from Frith’s farm on Church Lane. Jean recalls "The highlight of my early life was to go round, before school, in the milk cart with Willy Arthur, just round the church and back." Milk was measured out from big churns into the housewives’ own jugs. When she was older Jean enjoyed riding her pony, before school and a photograph of her on horseback once appeared in a national newspaper with the headline "Jean Clark Rides to School on her Pony Every Day". She laughs at the memory "Well! The stables were at Dore Hall Farm which was three times further away than the school!"

Behind the Hare and Hounds stood two terraces of cottages, one backing on to the school yard, the other fronting Savage Lane. Jean remembers a lively community of families who lived and worked where cars are now parked. On the corner was Moseley’s, corn merchant and general store. Kenneth Moseley’s father kept pigs, pigeons and hens behind the shop and "the squealing of pigs being killed on a Sunday afternoon is a nightmare memory."

Opposite the front entrance to the Hare and Hounds was Fred Marshall’s shop which sold wonderful ham, pies and sausages all produced from their own farm on Townhead Road. Jean recalls that her father, who was a master butcher, made sausages at Marshall’s farm. Mrs. Marshall always kept a sign in her window saying "Hot Water Supplied" for the benefit of passing walkers or cyclists. Jean describes with pleasure that sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, having been to Church and Sunday school, the four Clark children and their cousin Jack were allowed a treat. "We were given money to go and have tea at Mrs. Marshall’s. Everything was home-made and lovely. She was a dear old lady!"

At the age of eleven Jean passed the scholarship but because her mother did not like the idea of her going on the train to Dronfield she went to Notre Dame in Sheffield. "I was only there two terms when war broke out. They closed the school which was then evacuated out to Derwent Hall, now under the dam. I did not want to go, to board anywhere. I wanted to stay at home. So I went to Dore and Totley High School, Miss Trott’s."

Jean’s memories of wartime are very vivid. "We slept in the cellar for months during the war. We had bunk beds down there, we four children. When the Blitz came it was rather unpleasant, especially when the bombs dropped in the village, nine of them! We heard them, you know, whistling down. Father said "It’s only the guns" "Oh no it isn’t" we chorused. We knew, we heard the whistle". Later when they looked towards Sheffield "It was so awful because we could see the sky all red."

Frank Clark was head of the fire-watching group for his sector and Jean recounts many instances of her father’s humour in the "Dads Army" situations. "Father would be standing at the front door, not having gone to bed, and the sirens would go and then the A.R.P. wardens would be coming along in pyjamas and overcoats to go and meet in the chapel. And father would be saying "You’re late!" Jean laughs. On one occasion Frank said to his men "We’ve got all the important buildings in this sector- the two pubs, the chapel, the church and the school. So, we’d better have a practice on the church roof." Afterwards, he was hauled over the coals for causing alarm and despondency. Frank also had to deal with any animal that had run amok as a result of injury during bombing raids. "He’d got the humane killer in the bedroom. Mother didn’t like it at all!" Jean exclaims.

Mrs Clark, who was "good at organizing everything and everybody" did her bit for the war effort by running a knitting circle and raising money for the Hare and Hounds Cigarette Fund. Women started to come into the pub on their own because their husbands were away in the forces and the Lounge Bar provided a meeting place for them. The Tap Room, however, remained a male only domain where Mrs Clark played the piano to accompany the rousing choruses from the visiting troops, based at Knowle Green and camped in fields between Kings Croft and Gilleyfield Farm. All this was happening in our village sixty years ago.

Jean’s reminiscences of her childhood draw to a close, but for many of the post-war generation she will be remembered for her own contribution to the Clark family tenancy of the Hare and Hounds, which ended in 1972. In the swinging sixties, all the groovy people of Dore and beyond would gather to gossip and drink dry martinis in the modern surroundings of Jean’s Cocktail Bar. But that’s another story!

Maureen Cope

Dore Oral History Group

Beauchief Gardens

Many were the gifts which Alderman Dr. John George Graves (1866 to 1945) donated to Sheffield. His name is, of course, commemorated in Graves Park (1926) and the Graves Art Gallery (his portrait is on the right just as you go into the gallery). But it goes much further – for instance, there would be no Round Walk without his generosity.

In 1933, the Graves Trust donated what was to become the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet museum. Then in 1935 came the nearby Beauchief Gardens, which many readers will remember with affection. Central Library archive photos up to 1980 show their beautiful layout, with immaculately striped lawns. The website www.picturesheffield.com shows two of these photos.

But times change, and not always for the better. Never again, we may assume, will Beauchief Gardens have a full-time gardener. Over recent years they fell into a very sad decline. Now, many people do not even know they exist.

And yet their position is an excellent one: adjoining the lake (Beauchief Dam) next to the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, and at the end of one of the main paths through Ecclesall Woods. The woods, of course, have recently been greatly improved by the co-operation between Friends of Ecclesall Woods and the Council, resulting in the coveted Green Flag award.

It was during a guided tour of the archaeology of Ecclesall Woods – which, again, have more to them than many people realise – that someone pointed out to Paul Whyman the extent of the decline in the fortunes of Beauchief Gardens. When another person made a similar comment a few weeks later, Paul telephoned Friends of Millhouses Park, who readily accepted the challenge. Sheffield Newspapers enthusiastically supported the venture with publicity. At the first clean-up event on November 6th 2004, twenty or more people dramatically transformed the paths and foliage on the side of the gardens adjoining the lake. Further transformation was achieved in March 2005.

The Friends are enhancing the historical archive of the gardens. Photos can be a big help in trying to restore the gardens as sympathetically as possible. If you have any that show off the layout of the gardens, these could prove very useful. These will be promptly returned, and no copies will be published without permission and accreditation. Please send any photos to Mike Kidder, 89 Dobcroft Rd, Sheffield S7 2LS.

Work sessions are on Saturdays, from 10:00 to 12:00. The remaining 2005 sessions are July 2nd, September 17th, and November 12th. Tools are provided. Why not come and have some fun? It’s cheaper than going to the gym! Contact Brian Hayes on Sheffield 2365084 or Mike Kidder 2960550 (e-mail mike.kidder@blueyonder.co.uk). for more details.

Friends of Millhouses Park