IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Crookes Road, SHEFFIELD, S10 5BA

This road is a former tram route to Crookes, but since the night of 8th October 1960, buses have taken over. There never was a tram or bus stop here though. Nor would there have been room to construct a lay-by as properties were not set back from the road, as they are now. The building at the junction of Spooner Road was a Grocers and Off Licence, back in the 50s and 60s.

A former Grocers and Off Licence at the junction of Spooner Road. In common with most building premises, which serve the public, a ramp has been constructed for the infirm and disabled and the pavement has also been lowered.

Looking south.

Branches off Crookes Road close to the centre of Broomhill. Mainly houses, but has a builder's yard half way up. Taken from near the South Sea public house http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1006967

The pub is nothing like its predecessor, a stone built building, which was demolished some years ago; along with houses and shops. The pub stands in a different location. It was on Crookes Road and now stands on Spooner Road and has taken the place of some of the houses.

Viewed from where a small manufactures once stood. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/934074 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/983944 The former factory made sports equipment. The pub itself stands where terraced houses used to be and bears no resemblance to its predecessor, which was pulled down years ago. A part of the site where I'm standing, namely the car park, is the subject of much controversy. I'm just glad I didn't park there, even for a minute.

This cross roads at the heart of Broomhill. To the left is Fulwood Road and to the right, Whitham Road. The Stagecoach bus is picking up passengers at the bus stop on Crookes Road, which is situated almost at the bottom of Spooner Road. Sir John Betjeman said of Broomhill. "I thought of the leafy district of Broomhill on the western heights of Sheffield, where gabled black stone houses rise above the ponticums and holly, and private cast-iron lamp-posts light the gravelled drives. Greek, Italian, Gothic, they stand in winding tree-shaded roads, these handsome mansions of the Victorian industrialists who made their pile from steel and cutlery in the crowded mills below. They lived in what is still the prettiest suburb in England."

Just here, at the bottom left of Spooner Road, there once stood a thriving Cottage Industry. It was a small industry that hand-made sports equipment. The main items were Cricket bats and Hockey sticks. A Jim Wade and Ronald Ellis ran the business in the two-storey building, which survived the gales in Sheffield, with very little damage, but the upper floor had to be replaced after a fire. Six or seven people including Wade & Ellis and me worked at any one time in conditions which would not be allowed these days. Wood dust and wood shavings were everywhere. At the age of 15, I started working there on Saturday mornings. When I left school I started full–time and served my apprenticeship from 1957-1963. The building stood to the north end of a court yard. Attached to it was a long row of wooden buildings that were probably stables when first built. An archway led to some steps that dropped down to an alleyway. The alleyway ran between a row of shops, and through to Fulwood Road. Adjacent to the alleyway was a Baker's shop that sold yummy cream buns, egg custards and apple charlottes. Across the road a Butcher's shop sold hot pork sandwiches, in a bread bun, with loads of crispy crackling. The Baker's shop went when the others in that row were demolished. The factory was razed to the ground as was a pub called the South Sea Hotel. The pub has been replaced, as have the shops, which now have a roof-top car park. Because the courtyard space was available for building on, it meant the shops could be set further back from Fulwood Road. They now also have shop-front parking spaces and a separate adjoining drive-through parallel to Fulwood Road. Making the Hockey Sticks The Handle – The handles of the hockey stick were made of Manila cane, which arrived in its rough state, bent, and about 3m long. The canes were sawn on an unguarded circular saw to almost the correct length, which then had to be straightened by brute force. Each length was held in a Coopers vice and a steel tube about 60cm long with an inside diameter of about 60mm was placed over the end to bend the cane to shape. Occasionally it would snap in two and send you flying backwards. Sometimes the cane was too thin and so two lengths had to be hand–planed on one side and then glued together and tied with hemp. After the glue had set, short lengths of cane were hand–planed to later be glued to the handle end of the longer canes, to thicken it for the grip. Before that could take place the ends of the cane had to be tapered to accept the short pieces. The short pieces sometimes broke away during turning on the lathe even though they were formed first with a Cooper’s knife to alleviate this. Turning in the lathe was hazardous for all sorts of reasons. Complete lack of dust extraction and no protection for the eyes. The chuck wasn’t ‘live’ and so over tightening between the centres could cause the ends to smoke from burning and almost catch fire. You had to breathe this in as well. The ‘ends’ mentioned earlier, occasionally flew off and struck you a sharp blow and some times the cane would split apart at the join and fly off the lathe at great speed – it was quite dangerous work. I’ve seen pieces hit the wall beyond the lathe, run up it and then along the ceiling and drop behind me. After turning, the cane was also sanded in the lathe – more dust. The end to be glued to the head was then cut to a V–shape. The Head – The heads were either Mulberry or Ash, which had been bent into shape after being ‘steamed’. The Ash heads arrived pre–shaped, but roughly formed and without the V–cut to insert the handle. The Mulberry heads were almost fully formed, but also without the V–cut. NOTE – The Mulberry heads did not have the hook shape of today’s heads. The cut–out was marked on the head and the shape was cut out on a band saw. Once the handles had been V–cut, an animal glue was applied and the two ends hammered together and then bound with hemp and tied. Once tied, wedges were driven between string and handle (the inserts cut out of the head, became wedges) and hammered home. This tightened the grip of the head to the handle. The glued components were then left for a day to dry. Later removal of the string cause cuts to the hand. The squeezed out glue adhered to the string and became like shards of glass. The string was used over and over again, until it was unworkable. The Hockey Stick – The head and handle were shaped together using a Cooper’s knife, a rasp and a smoothing plane, a spoke shave and a scraper. The ash heads had to have the ends rounded with a rasp and then tapered and then spoke–shaved to shape. The rasped end of the head was smoothed on a large sanding disc, which was attached to the same shaft as the unguarded circular saw. Three cuts were sawn into the handle ends for the ‘springing’. The cuts were 50–60mm long and strips of rubber were glued and inserted into the cuts, supposedly take the shock out of the handle from contact with the head and puck. Next day, the rubber inserts were trimmed back to the handle and then further sanding was done on a belt sander. The dust from the machine was extreme to say the least. A hood attached to a dust extractor inadequately coped at one end of the rollers. The final sanding by hand using glass paper was done in a Cooper’s vice, but only after a cabinet scraper was used to remove the deep lines caused by the belt sander. Hand–sanding the Hockey sticks with glass paper made your hands bleed. It was very painful in wintertime. After sanding was completed, a binding of tape was applied from just above the splice at head and handle, to the very end of the handle. The tape was hand–painted with a white cellulose paint to just below where the grip would later be applied. In a small spray booth, which was ventilated only by a small extractor fan, a spraying of clear cellulose was applied to the whole head and the previously part. Once dried, transfers were added and thin strips of coloured tape for decoration. Then more coats of clear cellulose applied. When the paint had dried a length of rubber tubing was rolled onto the handle as a grip. Once positioned, the rubber grip was rolled back, a thin coating of animal glue was painted onto the tape, and then the grip was rolled back again to cover the handle. I don’t remember how many handles I could turn on the lathe a day, but I could and did shape 48 Hockey sticks. The Cricket Bat - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/983944