Autumn 2000

It is nice to see Makinsons maintaining their rebellious stance.
In our last issue we reported the overwhelming response from the public in favour of them being able to keep their colourful footpath displays. Ironic really, when the council has subsequently put it's own large flower displays on the same length of pavement in front of the Twentywell shops. Attractive they are, and welcome, but does the bureaucratic official, who challenged the original Makinsons display as blocking the footpath, know about them? At least the Makinson displays are put away each night!

This time, in response to the overwhelming wishes of their customers, Makinsons are offering to sell fruit & vegetables in pounds & ounces. A nice touch, and within the law, provided metric scales are also available.
It seems their could be hope yet in getting a bigger say in how we lead our lives locally, through the medium of a Parish Council. (See letter on page 6). Sheffield is a big city, probably too large for one tier of civic administration. How do people feel about this idea? Does anybody want to start a campaign?
With the start of the new term, the chaotic traffic congestion at the top of Prospect Road will no doubt be worse than ever, as the local mums who know the drill from previous terms compete for the prime parking spaces from which their children will have the shortest distance to walk into school.

Sadly there is no sign of any improvement in road safety at this point, with still no crossing patrol. Despite parental concern and police monitoring, nothing seems to be happening to ease the situation. Let us hope it does not need a serious accident before some initiative is taken.

John Baker, Editor

The Council's Area Initiative was launched with the aim of involving communities more directly in the work of local government, to gain a better understanding of their needs and to achieve better co-operation and co-ordination between service providers. Regular public meetings are a key element of this process and over 100 residents attended the meeting at Dore Church Hall on 19 July.
The next public meeting of the panel will be at 7.30pm on 27 September in St Luke's Church, Blackbrook Road, Lodge Moor.

It is nice to see the old farm buildings (ruins) next to Hall Farm Mews being incorporated into a modern stone bungalow, rather than simply demolished.

This year the Group is supporting "The Meningitis Trust". As well as proceeds from the sale of millennium badges, just over £200 was raised in May from refreshments sold to voters on election day. The next fund raising event will be in the autumn, when we aim to lay a mile of money for meningitis with 1p & 2p coins.

The annual Bradway Craft Fair will be held on Saturday 25th November. Stalls booking to Beverley Ashmore on 236 9579.

T.O.A.D.S.

You may remember that a year ago, T.O.A.D.S. went International when we were asked by the author of our May play, "Return Trip", to take it to Switzerland. It was a fantastic experience, all expenses paid, performing in a beautiful theatre perched halfway up a mountain overlooking Montreux and Lake Geneva.
Apparently it was so well received that we have been asked back this July to perform the same play - a "Return Trip" for "Return Trip"!
Our Autumn play is that wonderful classic by Oscar Wilde "The Importance of Being Earnest". Everyone knows the line "A Handbag", but the play is full of equally funny lines that people never remember afterwards.! It will he performed at St. John's Church Hall, Abbeydale Road South, Wednesday to Saturday, November 22nd to 25th at 7.30 p.m. Tickets are £2.50 and £2 concessions from me, Kate Reynolds, nearer the time on 236 6891.

Sheffield Round Walk

July 2nd saw the launch of revisions to Sheffields 'Round Walk' adding another 4 mile section to bring the walker in a full circle, back to the starting point in Endcliffe Park. The new section runs from the old finish in Graves Park via the Gleadless Valley Woodland Park, Meersbrook Park, Brincliffe Edge Wood, Chelsea Park and back to Hunter's Bar.

The original walk, which evolved between 1937 and 1947, has proved extremely popular, especially over recent years, as more people have taken up walking for leisure. The route has been re-signed in a clockwise direction, costs precluded these being done both ways. Much needed repairs to parts of the route will be undertaken over the next few years.

A new booklet on the walk, The Sheffield Round Walk: a fourteen mile walk through picturesque south-west Sheffield, is published by Sheffield City Council, price £ 2.50. It is available from Destination Sheffield or Sheffield Scene. More details from 250 0500.

Sheffield Council has now produced for consultation a draft five-year management plan for Ecclesall Woods. Two public meetings have already been held to discuss the plan but comments are still welcomed.
The detailed plan, running to 90 pages, provides a description of the physical and ecological aspects of the woods, future management options, and resource implications. It then proposes a management plan for implementation over a five year period. Summaries of the plan (about 15 pages) are available from Sheffield Leisure Services, Parks, Woodlands & Countryside, on 273 6387.

Race walking

The sport of race walking goes from strength to strength in the Bradway and Greenhill area. Three local girls Rebecca Mersh, Laura Perry and Julia Barker took the national under 13 girls 2km title at Dartford competing under the new City of Sheffield AC banner. Rebecca's unexpected second place earned her selection to represent England against Ireland in Dublin in July.
This follows the success of Nathan Adams who won two under 20 national championships last year and raced in the GB Junior team 5 times.

Sixteen year old Emma Frost from Bradway won the women's 'Star Walk' by 3 minutes at the end of May. Starting and finishing at Hillsborough Park, Emma covered a 7 miles plus course in 76 min 36 secs, finishing just 13 seconds behind her father Simon who took first place in the men's race.

Anyone interested joining this successful squad can get more details on 237 7364.

Brian Adams

New lights

New street lights are being erected at the junction of Bradway Road and Greenhill Parkway as part of a refurbishment programme. The old standards were in a poor state, while the new ones should provide more light up to modern statutory requirements.

Dear Sir

Having a dog today is a responsibility in which I take very seriously, clearing up after my dog is a necessity, but I do feel that dog owners are not represented in this area. I feel that Dog Poo bins should be placed around residential areas. Yes! most caring dog owners do take excrement home with them but if they supplied as many poo bins as "fine"signs (positioned virtually on every lamp) it would elevate the problem we have today.

Phil Mason

Dear Sir
With reference to the article 'Life behind bars', by Ken Cottrell, it depends on which part of Bradway you live as to whether your parish church is St John or St Peter Greenhill.

If you look at a map of Sheffield, both Upper Bradway (around Tinker's Corner) and lower Bradway are mentioned.
The boundary between St John's and St Peter's Greenhill is Twentywell Lane. Looking down from the old village school the shops and houses on the left are in St John's. The Threshers and cottages to below Sycamore Grange are in Greenhill Parish.
Historically Upper Bradway would have been in Dronfield Parish, then Dore and then St John's Abbeydale. Lower Bradway from Twentywell Lane to the S17 Boundary at Fox Lane/Beauchief Drive including the Birchett Road area, are in St Peters Greenhill, formerly part of Norton.

C. Of E. Services were held in Bradway Mission Hall from the 1890's and finally ceased in 1965. For Holy Communion, Baptisms, Weddings, etc. people from Lower Bradway went to St James' Norton.

On completion of St Peter's in 1965 these services ceased. So Bradway, which has expanded so rapidly especially from the late 50's onwards, belongs to two parishes: St John's Abbeydale and St Peter's Greenhill.

I am in the process of writing a history of the parish of Greenhill and would be interested to hear of any anecdotes from Bradway residents, about the religious services and Sunday School in Bradway Hall. At its height in the 1950's there were over 100 Sunday School scholars at the mission. At various times Mrs Guard, Mr Nall and Mr Nixon were Superintendents.
I also played the piano and St Peter's Church Choir sang at the adult services.

David Memmott, Pastoral Worker/Organist, St Peter's, Greenhill.

Dear Sir

I am an active member of Sheffield U3A, The University of the Third Age. This is a self?help organisation and a charity involved in Life Long Learning . It is part of a worldwide organisation started in France and there are 1,600 members in Sheffield. Membership is £4, you then have access to over 50 subject groups ranging from archaeology to sea yachting and Spanish to woodcarving. We do not run courses and there are no rewards for attending group activities.
The only qualification you need to join is, to be over 50 years and no longer in full?time gainful employment. We have a bi?monthly newsletter with group news called Links. Most of our activities take place in the SW of the city. We have 14 walking groups for different levels of ability; 7 local history groups; 7 Bridge groups: several art groups; chess; gardening groups; language groups; a theatre group; travel group etc. etc.

I am involved with travel - educational day visits, short breaks and longer haul tours. We have a sub?committee of 5 who run these. One member took a party to the Dome earlier this month, another is taking a group to Norfolk and later this year to The Cities of the Hapsburgs. I am taking 21 people to Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. In the last 10 years various groups have been all over the world walking, playing Bridge, sketching and going on educational tours etc.
Our Enquiries Officer is Maureen Hessell, 1 Abbey Lane Dell, S8 0BZ, tel. 262 1995.

Yvonne Gutsell

Dear Sir

It would seem that due to a little known existing law and with a Government White Paper due in the autumn, we now have the opportunity of having our own parish council. The support of only 10% of the local electorate is required.
Bradway certainly does not make the most of its natural scenic advantages. We have Twentywell Lane but not one well made into an feature. The grass verges, when they are cut are left with long grass clippings on them. Missing road signs, litter etc.
Surely if the local people were in charge of making the best of Bradway we could do better. Perhaps Joining forces with Dore and Totley to make a more viable entity.

Roy Cooper

Dear Sir

It is worth watching your local crows! They are around Bradway in plenty and though they might seem snootily uninterested, are actively intelligent and witty characters. They mate for life, or until the death of their partner and closely observed, you can see their glinting eye and their blinking. Less persecuted today, they are increasingly confiding and willing to let us see into their lives.

The Poynton Wood Crescent pair have been together for several years and tend to produce a youngster with the odd white wing feather. The teenagers are still with parents in our garden until the following spring, when they are chased off by their romantically inclined elders.

Yes, they love romance in their lives. All through the second half of May, the pair has loafed around the local rooftops, the male gently nibbling the head and neck of his consort, who crouches in seeming ecstasy. For half an hour at a time, this goes on, but if approached too closely, embarrassment seems to set in and they sidle out of sight over the roof ridge.

Crows are aerial busybodies, that is, keen to keep the skies to themselves. A heron frequently labours over the Bradway skies and every crow pair in turn will rise to show their unwelcome, crowing at, flying at, and trying to pull the tail of the unfortunate fisher. The crows lose interest, once their territory is left, but another pair immediately takes over the battle.

Tenser and more dramatic affairs altogether are crow/sparrowhawk skirmishes. These are frequent over the foot of Twentywell, Poynton Woods and Longford to Wollaton. In Spring, the crows below Bloomer's newsagents battled hard and long for several days in a row to remove a large female sparrowhawk. You could hear the noise a kilometre away. The crows kept losing the upper hand to the raptor, which could twist and turn and get behind them, to their great annoyance. The sparrowhawk eventually drifted away, but took a long time, making the point that it was not going to be forced out!
In late May, a lean and rather tattered fox crossed our front lawn (in broad daylight, 7am, milkman time!) And stood by the car. A huge racket followed from the crows, which flounced down and strutted round the fox full of anger. They succeeded in moving the fox, probably because having attention drawn to it was too risky.

Look out too for bats from April onwards; the tiny finger length pipistrelles. They hunt at dusk round Poynton Wood Crescent and along Rosamund Avenue by the woodland edge. More are to be seen over the bungalows on Bradway Road near Tinker's Corner. In early May, three were chasing in a circle in early evening daylight, over the paddock by the side of Totley Lane below Longford. Sometimes five will chase each other round the rowans and birches of our garden. They love new houses as well as old, do no harm in a loft, and are fully protected in law, so please don't block their entrance points or spray poison their way.

The fox has reappeared in June, strolling along Rosamund Avenue in the late evening light, eating the bird's food on our lawn, two metres from the window.

Lapwings are one of Britain's most threatened birds. The wet pastures they love to breed on have largely disappeared because stocking levels are now higher, leading to their nests being trampled and because fodder grasses are cut as early as mid-may and their nests and young are wrecked. Nationally the population has more than halved since 1990!

Some can still be seen near Bradway, tumbling through the air and giving their plaintive peewit call. This spring, they were on the field opposite the pub at Owler Bar, two were on the field beyond Tinker's Corner on the right as the road begins to rise, and four more were opposite the entrance to Mickley Farm. Unfortunately I don't know if they managed to raise any young.

John Kirkman

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