IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Colchester Road, SHEFFIELD, S10 1SY

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.

I remember a time when there wasn't a lean-to here and the doorway was a mirror of the one on the left. It was built in the '50s and back then it was metal, rather than asbestos and painted black. The other must have rusted away. It was handy to climb on to retrieve tennis balls out of the gutter, not that there is a gutter on the extension now. It's remains are lying on top of the lean-to. As a child, I often wondered what the shopkeeper used the lean-to for, but never asked. The shop is A & K - Butcher’s Shop. It was Peat's back then and next door was Melias - Fruit & Veg, which later became Joe Winter & Son - Plumber and Building Contractor. The next property on is F.A.B.L.E. - Charity Shop, which used to be the Sheffield Savings Bank. The bank had a nine-roomed flat and this is where I lived with my parents. At the other side of us was a Bakers and Confectioners. Very handy, but we never monopolised them because they hosted cockroaches, which occasionally came through to the flat. They had a dough mixer, which droned on for hours sometimes. I don't know where they had the ovens, but they didn't keep our flat warm. Every winter our bath, wash hand basin and toilet froze solid.

Back when I was a child this yard had a smooth surface and was ideal for hopscotch and cricket. I've belted many a 'sixer' over these roofs, which was pretty easy as we used a sponge ball, or a tennis ball. There was an iron drain cover at the far end of the yard and we used to play marbles around it. The various passages, nooks and crannies and lowed walled gardens here and about offered excellent places for hide and seek. I got 'caught' smoking behind the lean-to once, by a policeman who came to check if the bank's (more about that here - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2181581 ) doors were locked. I was only eleven. My school mate nicked the cigarettes from his mother's shop and taught me how to smoke. Not a lot to thank him for. Across the road is http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1232525 Present Moments - Card & Gift shop, which was Macduff - Fruit & Veg Shop. As a child I once dug a trench through the thick snow for my mother to get to the shop. A bit later a milk float came down the road and bounced up and down the trench. I legged it when I heard the crashing of glass.

A general view of Crookes as seen from the bottom of Toftwood Road.