Autumn 2004

Bradway Action Group - A Short History of Time - Post Box

Over 70 people attended the latest Bradway Action Group (BAG) Open Meeting held at Bradway Annex on May 25th, including Bradway residents, Councillors, City Council staff, and two members of the South Sheffield Crime Prevention Panel. Before the meeting discussed other issues of importance to Bradway, two excellent presentations were given:

a). Public Open Space: Options for the possible development of the field by Bradway Annex for the benefit and use of residents were discussed. Dave Aspinall (South West Area Panel) and Ian Mitchell (Parks Department) spoke about the various types of sports and play equipment available. Many ideas and suggestions were made including the provision of seating, play equipment for young children, to 5 a-side nets and basketball. All comments were collected for display on the notice boards, and will be discussed further. It was especially heartening to have input and ideas from a group of younger Bradway residents who attended the meeting especially for this item.

b). Neighbourhood Watch: Stephen George of BAG spoke about the benefits of Neighbourhood Watch schemes. A new group has recently been reintroduced to the St. Quentin Rise/St. Quentin Drive area, following concerns expressed by residents at the last Open Meeting. Stephen called for volunteers to improve the coverage of the scheme in other parts of Bradway. An active group already exists in the Wollaton area. Two members of the South Sheffield Crime Prevention Panel demonstrated various personal security and anti-theft products. Many items can be bought at significant savings, so please contact Stephen on 236 4564.

Parking issues. Other discussions centred on parking in Bradway. Some points made have been already been taken up by the Council in their recent "Proposed Waiting Restrictions" document covering Twentywell Lane/Kenwell Drive/Bradway Road. They called for comments by the middle of June, so hopefully you will have sent yours directly to the Council. We await events. Concern was also expressed about the continued use of motorbikes on the Rec. Some progress has been made, as one entrance is now blocked. The police have apprehended and destroyed two motorbikes. We all need to continue to monitor the situation.

Summer Fun Day. BAG is organising Bradway’s first Summer Fun Day on Thursday 26th August. Other local groups are helping and the Council are sending the Sports Bus, with qualified staff to organise games and events. The action will all take place on the Annex field from 11am till 5pm. All are welcome, so come along, bring your family and friends and, weather permitting, why don’t you bring a picnic? For any further information contact Dorothy Astle 236 6134.

Seats and Planters. We now have the first of the new seats in place on the corner of Bradway Road and Twentywell Lane. This has been provided through City Council funding, and tired shoppers and other local residents already report enjoying using it. The location of the second seat, kindly presented by the Bradway Neighbourhood Association, has yet to be decided. We hope that the Council will soon be providing the area with some planters, especially now that Ian Makinson has undertaken to provide us with flowers for them throughout the year which will brighten up our neighbourhood. Thanks to all those involved.

Annual General Meeting of BAG. This will be held at The Bradway Annex on Tuesday 21st September at 7.30pm. As BAG will be a year old it is time to hold the annual elections for your committee and office holders. If you wish to make any nominations, please send them by the 14th September to BAG’s secretary on (email:JPandAB@aol.com) or by post to 28, St.Quentin Drive, Bradway. The meeting also provides an opportunity for residents to express their views and bring forward more ideas. So please make a note in your diaries and come along on the night.

South West Area Panel. There was a good turn out for the meeting at Sir Harold Jackson School on 21st July. B.A.G chairwoman Dorothy Astle gave an update on progress since the May 25 public meeting and it was also an opportunity to express thanks to Dave Aspinall for all his advice, information and encouragement that has made such a valuable contribution to establishing the group. We would like to welcome Andrea Peers who will be taking over his duties for the next few months.

Meanwhile, as ever keep watching your notice boards on Twentywell Lane by the Nat West Bank and on Bradway Close/Prospect Road.

B.A.G. Committee

A Short History of Time

Many technical innovations have contributed to the development of the modem wrist watch, due to the restrictions of space and reader boredom I will try to summarise the main points of interest.

Until the late 17th Century, pocket watches were luxury ornamental items rather than accurate timekeepers, and French makers were pre-eminent until their English counterparts made important technical advances. Thomas Tompion was instrumental in developing the balance spring which enabled watches to be accurate to within a few minutes. Hour and minute hands replaced the single hour hand, and Arabic minute numerals appeared on the dial in addition to roman hour numerals.

In 1687, Daniel Quare developed a repeating system that allowed the watch to sound the hours and quarter hours. The use of jewels as bearings to reduce friction was a major breakthrough c. 1700. Watchmakers of this period paid great attention to the decoration of their watches, repousse work on the cases developed in to its golden age, white enamel dials became popular, as well as hand painted scenes of famous battles, portraits etc

From approximately 1750 new types of watch movements were developed, others were refined and improved, they became less bulbous, slimmer more robust accurate timekeepers, these improvements made watchmaking very competitive. The appearance of the case became even more important and engine turning was introduced. This decorative technique was often used with enameling to beautiful effect.

During the period 1820-1850 Swiss watchmaking came to the fore, producing all types of watches for a wide range of markets and adding calendars, perpetual calendars and automaton features. French watchmaking entered a fairly quiet period, the English concentrated on new ideas and from this Thomas Prest patented a system for keyless winding, the automatic watch was born. As improved technology made watches smaller and more wearable they became more attractive to women, and it became common for the lady of the house, as well as the master, to have her own watch or watches.

The period 1850-1950 saw the development of the inexpensive mass-produced pocket watch, the small workshop was replaced by watchmaking companies that employed 40 or 50 watchmakers. In Switzerland, George Frederic Roskopf founded a new low priced watchmaking industry that produced an everyday pocket watch costing just 20 Swiss francs, and in the USA in 1896 the brothers Robert and Charles Ingersoll sold a pocket watch through mail order for one dollar.

Although produced as early as 1850, wrist watches didn’t really capture the market until the end of the 19th century. German naval officers were being supplied with Swiss wristwatches, and some seven years later, English ladies out hunting were wearing small Swiss pendant watches strapped to their wrists in leather cases.

Growing industrialisation, increasing mass production, and the development of the railway system all contributed to a faster pace of life that fueled the need for a reliable portable time piece. In the trenches during world war I the advantages of having a watch strapped to the wrist rather than in a pocket became obvious. While much of Europe struggled with the war effort, Switzerland’s neutrality allowed Swiss companies to dominate wristwatch production, winning huge contracts for mass produced troop-issue watches in Europe. America had its own indigenous manufacturers in Waltham and Hamilton.

As the 20th century progressed watches became increasingly accurate, more dustproof, and ever easier to maintain. After post war austerity came the consumer boom. Everyone wanted and expected to have at least one wristwatch in an increasingly time conscious world. By the time that electronic watches were pioneered in 1957, by Hamilton in the USA, the whole world had become style conscious, and changing ones watch was a matter of course in a disposable, style and status driven society. In the 1960s the Swiss developed the quartz watch, with no moving parts, in 1983 the Swatch watch appeared - the ultimate throwaway fashion watch.

As with many industries Japan now leads the way in modern quartz watches. The technology to produce a watch that requires no battery has given us solar powered and other automatic generating systems, who knows what the future holds for the ever developing watch industry.

David Smith, D.W.Garrett, Woodseats

Post Box

Dear Sir,

Farming to the south-west of Bradway and Totley remains fairly traditional and we can be thankful that there are woods and copses. Some large trees have gone in the past 15 years, but not many and plenty remain. Fields have not been enlarged to allow in huge machines and so almost no hedge has been removed. In fact, Mickley Farm’s hedges along Rod Moor have been beautifully managed and young hedgerow trees planted in the last two years.

The results are at least two-fold: the scenery remains an attractive patchwork of small pastures, sheep, cattle and trees, clumped or scattered. Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon shire offer far less to the eye - and cost the tax-payer far more.

In addition, wildlife has been hammered far less, so outside our suburb are cuckoos, yellowhammers, skylarks, linnets and warblers. In some areas of the country, gardens are the only refuges for beleaguered wild plants, insects, mammals and birds; which is a truly disgraceful state of affairs.

Next year is to see a major change in Europe’s agricultural policy. For decades, subsidies have been based mainly on how much the farmer produces, regardless of the demand for the product or the environmental cost of producing it. Consequently, farmers intensified their methods, to raise output and therefore income. Previously, raising output risked flooding the market, collapsing the price and actually reducing income.

Under the previous policy it paid farmers and the agricultural chemical companies, to pump in pesticides and fertilisers, tear up woods and hedges and use every parcel of land; to the huge detriment of nature. Many farmers were not happy with this and I suspect pesticides have been the only major problem in our district, partly because soils, climate and slopes work against massive crop growing.

In future, farmers will receive only one subsidy and it will not be decided by how much they produce. Instead, farmers will have to comply with a set of standards concerning how they manage the land. Considerations will include the environment, public health and the well-being of plants and animals. In addition, governments can decide how much of the farm budget goes into truly wildlife-friendly farming.

Currently, the government is proposing that 5% of the total should go into that. The RSPB suggests a doubling to 10% and a letter to our MP on that figure would not go amiss, or to Elliot Morley, MP at the House of Commons, London, SW1 1AA.

The future does look a little brighter. Perhaps the lapwing will return to breed in the Sheaf headwater and the skylark multiply to fill the sky with its challenge.

Sadly, Bradway gardeners still seem to be going the other way, at great cost to wildlife and financially to themselves - more and more decking, spreads of sterile gravel, concrete terraces and masses of tree bark continue to cut the food chains from beneath the feet of our mammals and birds. Save your wildlife and your money!

John Kirkman

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