IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Duncan Road, SHEFFIELD, S10 1SN

In 1945, when I was three, my mother and father rented a terraced house here. The loo was outside at the far end of the garden. It was a far cry from where my mother and I first lived with my grandparents - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1141785 In '47, after the first snow, my father opened the door and there was nothing to see, but snow. It was up to the bedroom windows.

I lived on this street from 1945 until 1949, but the terraced house I lived in was demolished a long time ago, the reason why I may never know. It was demolished along with five other houses. As the houses were built at the top of the street and just above bedrock I'm tending to rule out subsidence, so it may have been due to a fire spreading through the roof spaces. Below is a glimpse of the former Crookes Congregational Church - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1175483

One day I might discover why the first house my parents rented, was pulled down. It stood the furthest away in this gap. Although I have a very good memory for the past, I can't remember the inside of the house, even though it will have been almost identical to the one my wife and I bought, in Toftwood Road. I can recall the steep staircase, which scared me and I can remember it's dark green walls. I remember my father growing caterpillar infested nasturtiums in the raised garden and how could I forget the outside loo. There was a curler and headscarf clad neighbour who always seemed to be shouting for her daughter, "MARLENE"! Well we lived here from 1945 until 1949 and by then I was seven. I contacted T.B. in '48/'49 and when I came out of convalescent, in Southport, we'd moved to 239a Crookes - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1232062 We obviously spent the winter of '47 here and I saw the snow up to the bedroom windows. I was taken for a walk through the hard packed snow one day and on part of the walk we saw the triangular top of a road sign at our feet.

Looking in the direction of Rivelin Valley.

The Punchbowl public house dominates the scene. It was my local and I was very fond of going there for a game of snooker. Once married I never set foot in there again. No, I didn't get my arm twisted.

One of First's buses stops at the bottom of the road to pick up passengers. In the days when I worked on the buses it would have been one of the Sheffield Transport Department's dark blue and cream liveried double-deckers. The only single-deck buses to run on the route at that time were staff buses.

Between the telephone pole and the electric light is the remains of a sewer gas light. It was always lit, so why doesn't it need to be now I wonder.

The first house my wife and I ever owned. We turned into a seven-roomed house, from four. We set a trend by installing a dormer window, but building an extension out back never caught on. We were also the first to have the gas and electric meters fitted outside, but it was a big mistake moving the gas meter as it froze up in winter. We decided to knock the wall down in between the lounge and dining room. It was interesting lifting the 13'6" girder up into place. Having the walls sandblasted and waterproofed was OK in one respect, because it spoiled the look of it. It hasn't weathered much in 42 years, so it just shows what the lack of coal fires does. We installed central heating the year we left.

A familiar scene to me, from the age of seven. I lived at both the bottom of the road and then the top, from 1949 until 1973.

Fire engine on Toftwood Road, Crookes. It had just answered a call to a house opposite and appeared to be answering another.