Summer 2001

The milklads of Derbyshire; Rinderpest; Post Box; Bradway's part in the war of the boffins; Happy memories at the old Abbeydale Cinema

The milklads of Derbyshire

Twice a day summer and once a day in winter, milk was brought to Sheffield from farms up to seven or eight miles from town. It came in barrels by mules or Galloway's (asses or ponies) and was sold house to house, or delivered by whole load to some person appointed to retail it to weekly customers.

The price was two pence halfpenny in the summer and three pence in the winter. The beasts were conducted by boys who sat either aside or astride on the rumps of the animals, and with incessant application of the whips, galloped together in gangs. Sometimes there was a score of these milk lads and they endangered everybody on the roads while converting, as they did so, a great deal of the milk into butter on their way into town.

The rudeness of the boys and their reiterated insults to travellers of all descriptions induced the neighbourhoods to apply for an Act of Parliament for regulation of this trade. It was then enacted that the boys would not, under the threat of a heavy penalty, gallop down the road or behave in an indecorous manner. It was further ordered that every milk seller must have his name painted on the packsaddle, which supported the barrels.

Numbers of these boys came from Dronfield, Norton and no doubt from Bradway, Greenhill, Dore and Totley and it was said that the raucous behaviour of these lads, belonging to a "fraternity proverbially wicked and incorrigible" was hard to lose in later life. However some became good men and shining characters.

In his later years, Sir Francis Chantrey, the famous sculpture, advised a guest from Yorkshire. "You are going in the coach and will reach Sheffield in the early evening along with coaches from other directions and, a few miles this side of town, you will pass scores of asses carrying milk in barrels with boys sitting on their croups behind the saddles and jogging merrily along the road. Then you should think of your friend for I was once a milk lad and travelled in the same manner".

Chantrey was born on 7th April 1781 in a cottage still standing off Cinderhill Lane at Jordanthorpe, Norton. After working as a grocer, he became apprenticed to an artist and set up a studio in Paradise Square. Eventually he decided that his fortunes lay in London where he learnt woodcarving and sculpture before carving a name for himself with his statues and busts of the famous, including Victoria, Raffles and Sir Walter Scott.

When he died in 1841, his body was transported for burial in Norton and it was there that the twenty two foot high obelisk was erected by public subscription in 1854 and there it stands today close to the church. Not bad for a milk lad!

Brian Edwards

Rinderpest

The present outbreak of foot and mouth disease has a number of historical parallels. In the autumn/winter of 1865 and through into the spring of 1866, the country was ravaged by Rinderpest, a virulent affliction of cattle (the name Rinderpest is derived from the German for cattle plague).

In this area the first case was recorded in September 1865, when a cow with the disease was offered for sale at Rotherham cattle market. At the beginning of October, the Hull dealer who tried to sell the animal was fined for "Exposing for sale in the Rotherham Cattle Market, a beast infected with Rinderpest."

Sheffield Town Council were sufficiently worried by the plague to debate the whole matter in Council on October 20th and by the 22nd the disease had made an appearance on a farm at Bradfield. By the 28th of the month the spread had rapidly extended.

The plague continued to spread and by November 19th cases had been recorded in Stannington. On December 6th the West Riding magistrates banned a sale of livestock at Loxley. December 12th saw the first case within the town of Sheffield and the Mayor took the step of closing the cattle market until February 1st and by the 18th Rotherham and Eckington magistrates had closed their respective markets.
The New Year brought no respite, all West Riding cattle markets were declared closed on January 8th. On January 16th, a deputation of Sheffield butchers persuaded the Mayor to re-open the cattle market, providing that all cattle brought to the market were slaughtered within 48 hours.

Nationally the whole plague reached such proportions that a Bill was taken through Parliament to restrict the sale and movement of cattle; this became law on February 20th 1866. On February 26th a case was reported on the farm of George Hawksley at Owlerton.
Then as now, farmers received compensation for animals that had to be slaughtered as a result of the disease, and in a Vestry meeting in early March, B Cartledge was appointed as valuer of cattle slaughtered in Sheffield township under the Cattle Plague Acts.
By April 6th the price of meat in Sheffield was raised by 1 1/2 d per pound due to shortages caused by the cattle plague; but by April 16th, the fat cattle market had to be suspended again to reduce the risk of disease.

Reports of the plague occur less often after this but at the Town Council meeting in May it was resolved to raise a special rate to pay for the salary of Mr Cartledge and to cover any additional expenses incurred as a result of the cattle plague. On August 29th the butchers and cattle salesmen of the town held a grand dinner to celebrate the re-opening of the fat cattle market - the dinner was held at the Bull and Mouth Hotel.

Information about the cattle plague was gleaned from the Sheffield local Register for the years 1865-66. The register is a chronological record of happenings in Sheffield and the surrounding district and can be found in the Local Studies Library.
This article first appeared in the Sheffield History Reporter, and is reproduced by kind permission of Sheffield Local Studies Library.

Post Box

Dear Sir,

Recently I reviewed three copies of the Bradway Bugle. These came courtesy of an Uncle and Aunt from Holmesfield. What a delight they are. I read them cover to cover, including the happenings in the area.

Various items brought back many memories for me, none the least Tom Holmes yard, the Addlington Farm etc. etc. These in turn reminded me of my life in Bradway from my birth in 1948 and a subsequent further 20 years. My parents moved into 166 Bradway Road upon marrying and for better or worse, both of them died in the same house, although by then it was 186. This resulting from the building of the stores further down Bradway Road, and in renumbering on that side of the street.

My thumb nail sketch of my memories starts with going to Bradway Infant school. Miss Clarke at that time being the teacher, followed by Mrs Eldridge and Mrs Gratrix as the dinner lady. At that time the police box was in the bottom corner of the playground and the building at the top corner housing the gym equipment. A large sand pit was built behind this building with the school rabbit hutch being adjacent to this. I enclose a photograph (aside) showing Miss Clarke, along with the school rabbit, Christine Champion, Peter Levick and myself.
What a fantastic beginning to schooling. The building itself was partitioned into two rooms, with the partition being retracted for gym lessons and other collective activities. Back in those days we were taught to knit and sew. Both capabilities remain with me to this day. This was a true community, with both my sisters, Leilia and Joan being May Queens at the school, and do not let us forget the May pole. Possibly one of the schools, then largest treasures. The pole being kept in the roof of the school yard shelter and the ribbons in a cupboard in the foyer. In addition to my attendance at infant school I returned for my cub and scouting times with the Anglican group.
In further nostalgia, I recall the building of the shops on Twentywell Lane along with the houses on Kenwell Drive. Tathams had the Chemist shop, Tom Motley had the Greengrocers and Fishmongers, the next shop was the knitting shop, I forget the name, then came the grocers/butchers and in turn the card shop. I recall the Gillets having the newspaper store at the top end by Bradway Road.
My first memories of the "Off Licence", adjacent to our house was the Ruddles, followed by the Jessingers. Down the street was a little store run by the Seagos. These cottages now being gone. I do recall the last bay being taken from the fields, that is now the Burchitt Estate, by horse and cart.

Childhood friends that come to mind are Terrance Jones who lived in the now demolished cottages on Bradway Road. John Crawshaw lived in the house across from Kenwell Drive, David Motley lived above the greengrocers shop, Peter Levick lived "up" Bradway Road, Jimmy Halliwell lived in the cottage by Bowlers potted meat factory. Christine Champion lived "up" Bradway Road, Susan Ermont lived on Conalen Avenue and eventually the Longley twins on Birchitt Road. Oh, so many memories. Selling flowers from the Howards garden.
As your magazine re-ignited my memories, perhaps, if you should choose to print any part of these recollections, possibly others may be rekindled. Thanks for a great magazine and keep up the good work.

My life in Canada is wonderful but is by far the better for only having lived in the Bradway neighbourhood, with some special thanks to the neighbours... The Wraggs, Bookers, Gratrix, Stoppards, Arnolds, Jones, Crawshaws, the list goes on and on.

Mr. W. Eckersley,
Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada

Bradway's part in the war of the boffins

Talk of the epic Dam Buster raid intended to cripple Germany's wartime industry can always be guaranteed to stir national pride and emotion, writes Roger Davis, and there is no area of the country with greater claim to be linked with the venture than the valleys and moorlands to the west of Bradway.

The unmistakable drone of a Lancaster bomber's four engines can still be heard in the Bradway skies a few times a year as planes from the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight pass overhead on route to various summer air displays. The crews aboard will glimpse the Derwent Dams where the young airmen stationed at Scampton, just north of Lincoln, first practised the intensive low level flying and bomb aiming techniques required to drop the 'bouncing bombs' developed by Dr Barnes Wallis and his boffins.

Little imagination is needed in the dusk of a May evening in the Derwent Valley to hear the 16 planes of the famous 617 Squadron flying into action in 1943 with Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who was to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry, before being killed in action in 1944.

A memorial plaque and museum at the Derwent Dam pays tribute to the 56 men who died on the raid, when eight of the Lancasters were shot down with only two men parachuting to safety.

The Dam Busters have well and truly flown into a richly deserved page of our national history since those perilous days, but many present-day Bradway residents who were only young children between 1939-45 also 'did their bit' to help the national war effort in a great variety of ways, as well as giving the scientific boffins plenty of raw material to work on!

I myself well remember the Monday morning National Savings stamp selling at a village school in West Yorkshire, boosted by such regular national promotions as the Spitfire Fighter Fund, Wings for Victory, and Salute the Soldier.

For several hours a week, all the pupils, girls and boys, used to knit endless lengths of scarfs for the sailors who were risking their lives against German submarines "to bring us food" and the teachers also encouraged us to go out and collect rose hips, "so that the doctors could make medicines to help sick people get better". I wonder how many medical boffins were hard at work brewing up potent mixtures of rose hip syrup?

While seeing in the new Millennium in deepest Hertfordshire with my son and daughter-in-law, I picked up an old copy of a church magazine and found still further evidence of wartime boffin activity. A retired headmistress was proudly recalling the achievements of her pupils in collecting one-and-a-half tons of horse chestnuts for the Ministry of Munitions, and no less than two tons of acorns for the Admiralty!

The mind boggles at the thought of the total weight of conkers and acorns that today's Bradway grandparents could have collected in those now distant days. Just what would all the boffins have been working at in their secret laboratories? Perhaps the horse chestnuts could have been hollowed out to accommodate secret radio transmitters and issued to all the members of Dad's Army, or dropped over Occupied France.

As for the acorns, could they have been used in experiments to encourage the rapid growth of oak trees so that the Navy could be completely converted to all wooden ships to defeat the menace of magnetic mines?
Who knows? Anyone in possession of this once classified very top secret information is invited to spill the beans in a letter to the Bradway Bugle.

Roger Davis

The Derwent Dam Museum in the West Tower, is open Sundays and Bank Holidays from 9.30am to 5pm, and on selected Saturdays.

Happy memories at the old Abbeydale Cinema

There is good reason why many Bradway area residents now approaching their 40th birthdays, and who have spent most of their lives locally, should have recently started to feel sentimental and mildly romantic again in a 'teenage sort of way! And they will have shared these emotions with thousands of others of similar vintage from the surrounding communities in the great South Sheffield land sprawl.
Many of the now more senior and sedate generations can also be excused for the occasional secret smile and chuckle, or perhaps a nostalgic sigh or tear, with the news that the old Abbeydale Cinema building is on the property market again, in search for an enterprising new owner.

The dominating white tiled building on Abbeydale Road well merits its place in the last century folklore of Sheffield, with the very first cinema queue forming on the pavement outside over 80 years ago, on December 20, 1920, and the final performance taking place a quarter of a century ago, on July 5, 1975.

Regarded as a "super cinema" when it opened, the Abbeydale was warmed by hot air that changed every five minutes, boasted a large stage, and had a resident orchestra of ten musicians. The film projection was considered perfect, with the sightlines for 1,800 patrons described as excellent. In 1921, the cinema achieved further distinction with the installation of a £3,000 great orchestral organ, the first of its kind in Sheffield.

The Abbeydale played a major role in the social life style of the whole area, for even at the time of the final closure it was not uncommon for family life to go on quite happily in Bradway without even a black and white television set in the home, and there were many without BBC 2 and ITV programmes. Colour television was just a distant dream.

Families established a ritual of at least a weekly visit to the Abbeydale, and "a night at the flicks" was part of the culture of growing up, and hoping to get a seat on the backrow with a girlfriend!

Romances in plenty blossomed in the alluring atmosphere as the lights dimmed, while the Abbeydale also played a part in shaping the wartime careers of many Sheffield youngsters.

Harry Hibbert of Everard Avenue, Bradway, decided to join in the action with the Royal Navy after watching a Saturday evening cinema newsreel of the Battle of the River Plate, when the German battleship, Graf Spee, was scuttled in the South Atlantic. He went on to sail in the Mediterranean and Arctic convoys before joining the fire service, and becoming Sheffield Divisional Commander.

The cinema building provided shelter during the Sheffield blitz for Beauchief boy Donald Andrew, among others, who decided to become a fighter pilot in the R.A.F after walking to work the following morning through the grim city bomb damage. He was soon flying a Spitfire in Malta.

Much of the nostalgia surrounding the Abbeydale building is captured in a well known painting by former Bradway artist, the late Peter Owen Jones, showing the building as a welcoming beacon on a rainy evening, with two veteran trams trundling along bound for Millhouses and Vulcan Road. Over the entrance, the cinema is advertising the 1950s film, "Happy Go Lovely", with the painting appropriately titled "In Glorious Technicolour".

If the idea of taking over the old Abbeyale appeals to you, a local firm of estate agents, FAIRWAYS, has the property on their books, and reports that a number of potential clents have been making enquiries. A Grade 2 listed building, the property is understood to remain very much in its existing form, with the white tiled exterior preserved. Described in the sales brochure as a well known landmark, it is offered on a long term basis as "being in need of repair and refurbishment". The Abbeydale is for sale for any uses "subject to the appropriate local consents being obtained" In view of the building's present condition, no fixed price has been placed on it, but "as a guideline offers are invited in the region of £150,000.

The sale is restricted to the cinema premises only and does not include the lower ground floor snooker club and associated private members club bar which has separate access from the side car park and from Abbeydale Road respectively.

***Have you a interesting tale to tell about the old days at the Abbeydale cinema? If so, write to The Bugle and entertain other readers with your memories! or email editor@villagepublications.co.uk

Roger Davis

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