Reminiscences of my life in the village of Totley

I was born in 1928 outside the village proper at No.60 Totley Brook Rd. This was a new house just built that my parents bought prior to my birth. The only memories of this area are our walks across the fields and through a small wood to my Grandparents who lived at Twentywell. My Grandad being the signal man in the signal box just outside the Bradway Tunnel. I remember the house they lived in opposite to the brick works and on top of the deep cutting before the railway entered the tunnel. There were steps down the side to enable my Grandad to get to his signal box.     

From there we moved to No. 1 Mlckley Lane for a short time but regret I do not recall much of that time. Then we moved to the wonderful little cottage of No.l. Chapel Walk, right next to the school. The drawing of the school on the front of Totley Independent No.195 was taken from what would have been our garden, which was full of apple and pear trees. Rather strangely the drawing claims to have been made in 1933, which would have been the year I started school at what we called the C of E Church School. The building sticking out from the main building to the right of the drawing was the infants class. 

There I was taught by a Miss Marsden, who had previously taught my father, because he was born at Totley Bents. I remember my mother saying that Miss Marsden refused to make me change from writing with my left hand, as was the usual thing to do in those days. The part of the building next to the Infants class marked by a change in the roof from the main hall, was the next class you progressed to - class 1. The teacher of which I cannot recall.

The main part of the building was a long hall divided across the middle by a 6 foot high wooden screen. Each side of the screen were two classes. The headmaster used to sit behind this screen in full view of the classes that side. The name of the headmaster when I first went there escapes me but for most of my time is was a Mr. Woods. He lived in a new house built at the start of some waste ground on the left approaching Cross Scythes Hotel. (Someone told me that a new school was built on this site). I knew the house well as for a time I was pally with his son.

The smaller building at the end of the main building was a wooden structure which was used by the senior classes. I never was in this part of the school as I passed my exams in 1938 and went on to High Storrs Grammar School. The building at the extreme left is the roof of the outside toilets. Beneath those in our garden was our outside toilet too. Not good in the winter as it used to freeze up, apart from the fact that it was cold having to walk (run) across to it. Especially at night with a torch or even a candle, if the battery had run out!       

I have a scar to this day across the bottom of my chin, which was the result of running up the stone steps at the side of the cottage to feed the fowl we kept in the top half of the garden, My chin was very badly cut and my mother wrapped me in padding tied round shy head with a scarf, and we went to catch the bus down to the Doctors. Our Doctor was a Doctor Marshall who lived in the end house, opposite to Dore and Totley Railway Station, on the left going towards Beauchief. He stitched me up and then it was a case of waiting for the No.45 bus back to Cross Scythes.       

Mv father used to play for the Totley Cricket team and my mother used to be the scorer. Therefore every Saturday afternoon I would either be changing the numbers on the score board or travelling to some cricket field away from Totley. The team used to play in the Norton and District League Premier division. They won this league in 1939 and I have still got my father's medal he was presented with and still have the brush and crumb tray set, engraved, that they presented to my mother, I am also in possession of snapshots of the team taken over the years. 

The cricket ground was at Totley Bents in front of the Public House - The Cricketers Arms. The wooden pavilion was the opposite side of the field to the public house. I cannnot recall the cricket team using the Cricketers Arms, but I do remember them using the Grouse Inn. That was part of the farm that stood opposite the junction of Penny Lane and the road behind our pavilion (cannot remember the name of that one). I think that I am right in saying that the team more or less folded up when the war started. That field was also used for football and we used to go down there for school sports on one day a week. The whole class used to walk down Chapel Walk and down the footpath through Chapel fields to Penny Lane. 

I well remember the time that I received a hundred lines while I was supposed to be playing football. I hated football and used to try and get out of it but this one day they put me in goal. It must have been early in 1939 as I was standing by the goal post watching them doing a practice of raising the balloon barrage over Sheffield, While I was watching that the other side scored a goal! My hundred lines were - I must not watch the barrage balloons while I am playing football.       

The school gates were on Hillfoot Road and & drive led to the playground, as there was what was known as The Pound between the school entrance and the boundary of our garden. In the winter while living at Chapel Walk, we used to sledge down Hillfoot Hoad in the winter snows. That is until the local village Bobby used to catch us, then we would move to Chapel fields for a time. The Chapel at the end of Chapel Walk was where I used to go to Sunday School, and as a youngster used to appear in concerts, they had there from time to time. 

Village life centred around the shops for us children, of which there were three. The main local grocers was Evans shop on Hillfoot Road. Attached to the shop was a little bakery, and he used to bake his own bread there. Many is the time I have been to his shop to get a loaf of bread. I seem to remember that it was 4d (not quite 2p in present money) and was warm from the bakery, just wrapped in a sheet of tissue paper. None of the over packaging of today. Evans shop was not only a general grocers but a green grocery as well. Just a little further up the road, laying some feet back was a little sweet and toy shop. That was my favourite shop, as I could get 14 toffees for a penny from there. Sticks of liquorice, rolls of liquorice boot laces, bulls eyes, and half penny bars of chocolate.

At the corner of Baslow Road and Totley Hall Lane was the Post Office which was also a general store. Nearly opposite to the junction of Hillfoot Road and Baslow Road was a fish and chip shop. This was run by the owners of the farm, the Kirby family. Often in the summer holidays I used to help out with the wheat and corn harvest at the farm. At times I used to be allowed to ride on the back of the two cart horses that pulled the dray collecting the sheaves of corn to take them down into the farmyard to be fed into the threshing machine, worked by the big steam traction I engine. This used to visit all the farms in the area at harvest time, to separate the chaff from the seeds. Hay making was I another time I used to help on the farm, which stretched as far as Gillfield Wood down Totley Hall Lane and right up Baslaw Road as far as the footpath, that end, to Gillfield Wood. 

In about 1937 we moved to 357 Baslow Road. This was, a nice big house and much superior to Chapel Walk, as it had a bathroom! The toilet was still outside at the end of the garden though. I can remember hearing a conversation between my mother and father as to whether they would be able to really afford to rent this house as it was 14 shillings a week (10p). We only lived there until 1939 when we I again moved to live at 328 Baslow Road. It appears that my mother and father together with my grandmother and aunt had clubbed together to buy four of the houses in the row. This house was my home throughout the war years and until I moved from the village in 1950.

Before the second world war there were plenty of things going on in the village during the summer. Church fetes, Chapel picnics, but the biggest and best, as far as I was concerned, was the Abbeydale Gala. This was held on the sports fields of the Abbeydale Club, just past Abbeydale Hall, on Abbeydale Road South. In the lower area of the Rugby field was the open air dancing with a band in a roofed type of bandstand. High wire and trapeze acts, together with all types of side shows.

On the upper level there was always a spectacular firework display, including set pieces, every night when it got dark. Over the top rough area, to the right of the sports fields was a gigantic fair. In those days of course it was steam that provided the initial power. Some of the roundabouts, particularly the galloping horses, had their own steam engines in the centre to propel them round. Others that were worked by electric motor had the big steam traction engines belt driving the dynamos to produce the power. There was 1ittle use of gramophone records then as most music was provided for the fairground by steam organs. 

I cannot remember the cost of the entrance fee to go in, but we used to avoid this if we could. Sometimes I remember we were able to get under the fence at the back of the fairground and wander through the fairs caravans and steam engines, other times when for some reason we had to pay, we would note what stamp they were using. These stamps were used if you wished to leave the Gala grounds during the day and return, say, in the evening. They would stamp the back of your hand with a distinctive stamp, using a different colour of ink each day. We would then try and forge this on the back of our mates hands, so that they could avoid having to pay to get in. 

My memory is that this big event closed down during the war years, and to my knowledge was never restarted. Another big event was the Venetian Nights held at Matlock Bath. The LMS Railway Company used to run special trains from Sheffield to Matlock. We used to catch these trains at Dore and Totley Station to watch the pageant of candle lit decorated boats gliding down the river at Matlock Bath. 

Going on holiday was of course the biggest treat of the year. My parents used to take me to Filey, Colwyn Bay and Bridlington before the war. When we went to Filey and Bridlington we travelled by coach. U.M.S. Coach United Motor Services. We had to travel by the No. 45 bus from the Cross Scythes terminus to Beauchief to board the coach. The garage on the corner of Abbeydale Road and Abbey Lane was the starting point for the coach. When we went to Colwyn Bay it was by train which again we used to board at Dore and Totley Station. The route of the train I cannot remember but we did not have to change anywhere so it was a through train that used to stop at Rhyl and all the stations to Llandudno. 

In fact in July 1939 I was on holiday at Bridlington with my parents and we used to sometimes get moved off the beach as light tracked vehicles of the Army used to carry out firing practice at a target out at sea. Single winged aircraft used to fly over all the time and presumably these must have either been the new Hurricane fighters or the new Spitfires. Why I do not know but one thing does really stick out in my mind about this holiday, and that is that we went to the cinema and heard Florence De Yong at the organ and the film was 'The Four Feathers'. 

During the winter months there used to be dances held at Greenoak Hall. This was a largish hall situated next to the CWS (Co-operative Wholesale Society) shop which was near the junction of Mickley Lane and Baslow Road. My mother used to get her weekly order from the Co-op which was delivered every Saturday morning. During the week a man from the shop used to call and take mother's order. This was his job, to go round from house to house to take people's orders and offer special reductions they had on certain items each week. The orders were then delivered on whatever day you specified. Naturally when shopping at the Co-op you always gave your dividend number as your 'divi' used to mount up to spend at the main store in Sheffield. Also at Greenoak there was the barber's shop that my Dad used to take me to. It was in a row of shops opposite to the junction of Mickley Lane with Baslow Road. 

Mickley Lane also used to have the local orphanage. It was known as Cherry Tree Orphanage, and the boys used to attend the village school. They were always distinguished by their wearing the same clothes. Dark grey short trousers and dark grey shirts and pullovers. For some unknown reason we were not able to be very friendly with them, as they were not allowed out in the evenings so other than school we had no chance to befriend them.

In 1939 I sat my 11-plus examination at school and managed to get a high enough mark to pass for High Storrs Grammar School. The top school in Sheffield was King Edwards, the next was High Storrs, so my parents were very pleased with me! There was only one problem and that was that my parents were not wealthy enough to buy my school books and uniform. However they made a claim for assistance from the Education Department and they made a grant that allowed them to be able to purchase my school uniform and the necessary text books required. I was due to commence school in the September of 1939, but War was declared on September 3rd. Because the school had no air raid shelters we were not allowed to attend until these were built. Therefore we commenced what was called Home Service. This meant that a number of us in the same area used to have to go to someone's house for a morning or afternoon and the teacher used to come and teach us there. Each day including Saturday, we had lessons in someone's front room, either in the morning or the afternoon. 

At school all writing was done with pen and ink. As it was not practical to have ink wells in people's houses for us to use, we were instructed to buy a fountain pen. Normally these were not allowed to be used at all, so you can imagine the excitement of not only owning a fountain pen, but being able to use it during lessons. I am afraid that I cannot remember when we were allowed to go to school properly, but it was certainly after the winter of 1939/40. When we got to our new school we found that what had been the cricket field, was covered in a sort of wire mesh stretched on top of poles about four or so feet high from the ground. In the centre of this was an oblong building which used to rotate. We were told that this was a radio location device to pick up approaching aircraft. What of course it was, was the forerunner to Radar, which was very secret then. Further down the sports field were two anti-aircraft guns in their sandbagged emplacements. 

Many was the time that I used to get into all sorts of trouble when we used a classroom at the front of the school. Those classrooms overlooked these guns and when they used to receive some sort of warning that planes were somewhere approaching. bells used to sound and the gunners would dash out of their rest huts to man the guns. I used to watch this happening until the blackboard duster flashed past my ear, having been thrown by the master as I was not paying attention to him!

We used to have air raid drill, when we had to vacate the school and file into the shelters built underground in front of the school. Also if you arrived at school without your gas mask you were sent home to get it. 

Getting to school from Totley either meant the bus from Dore to Bents Green, or the No. 45 bus down to Abbeydale and then the inner circle bus to Bents Green. There were three of us from the village who attended High Storrs Grammar School at this time, and more often than not we used to travel together. During the better part of the year weatherwise, I used to walk across to Dore and catch the Bent Green bus. It was a walk down through the allotments to Hillfoot Road, then down past the Crown public house and a turn right after the big wall surrounding a large house on the right hand side. This footpath went down the field alongside the wall to a bridge over the river, then up the fields to Dore village. The return journey being made later in the afternoon and if the river was low we would make a short cut by crossing the river on some boulders rather than go round by the bridge. The river is the one that flows across the railway cutting by means of an aqueduct over the railway just before it goes into Totley Tunnel, alongside Totley Brook Road. 

The railway tunnel smoke chimneys, one at the start of Penny Lane, another behind the village cricket field pavilion, and one over by the Army Rifle Range were all guarded by soldiers during the war. Each chimney had a finer mesh 'pepper box top' placed Over the metal rid that covered them when they were built. The reason being so that bombs could not be thrown down them to sabotage the tunnel and railway system. Each 'pepper box' as we used to call them, had a sentry box by it, and the sentry used to march round every so often with his rifle at the slope.

When we were in the area playing we used to stop and talk to the soldiers when the truck used to arrive with the relief guard aboard.

They often used to give us sweets.

The soldiers were billeted in bell tents on the rifle range, which was used daily for practice firing. Army trucks and tracked vehicles which were Bren gun carriers used to be constantly driving past our house on Baslow Road, and down the road to the range. Twice it happened that a Bren gun carrier came up the hill and didn't engage his other track quick enough after turning the corner onto the main road, and crashed into our front garden wall. Each time it was rebuilt by the Army.

During the war the village was quite cut off early in the evening, as the last bus from Pond Street to Totley was 9.00p.m. Therefore the last bus from Cross Scythes to Sheffield was 9.30p.m., the journey being 30 mins. The cost of a return was 11d or 6d single (nearly 5p and two and a half pence). Children's fare was one and a half pence with no returns (approx half a pence). The trams were even better as anywhere on the network for a child was a half penny. When mother wanted to start her shopping at the bottom of the Moor, we used to get off the bus at either Beauchief or Millhouses and catch the tram which, providing we caught the correct one, used to travel along to and up the Moor.

At the bottom of the Moor was the big CWS (Co-op) store, where you could get any thing from a button to a bed and groceries as well. That was one of mother's favourite stores, as was Robert Brothers up the Moor, then past Barkers Pool and down to Coles store and Walsh's. Then it was down to Fitzal1an Square and so to Pond Street to get the bus home. 

One of our big treats was being taken to the pictures as a child, and our nearest one was the Abbeydale Cinema. It was not until I was older and allowed to go to the pictures with my friends that we went into the City, then it was to queue for one of the big cinemas, The Gaumont, The Hippodrome, Palace, Union Street, Central Cinema House or the News Theatre in Fitzallan Square. Very occasionally, when funds could run to it, I went to the Lyceum Theatre to see a show, but in my later teens it was a seat every Saturday night, first house, at the Empire where a seat in the circle cost 3/6d (seventeen and a half pence). 

The commencement of the Second World War did not affect the village too much until after the evacuation from France at Dunkirk in 1940. Then the road blocks started to be built in case the U.K. was invaded. There was one on Baslow Road just above our house. Traffic had to negotiate the large concrete blocks placed across the road which were guarded by the Army. The Army were also helped by the Home Guard. The other major thing in the village denoting that there was a war on was the complete extinguishing of the street lights. The buses also had very dim interior lights that made travelling very difficult. Apart from not being able to read it was difficult to know which stop you were at with no street lighting and a complete blackout of houses and shops. 

The biggest blow to the children, including myself, was the first 'blitz' on Sheffield. On the night of the 12/13 December 1940, the Germans bombed the centre of the City. We were able, being high up at Totley, to watch the bombing and see the mass of fires. It was a terrible sight, and the noise was frightening. As it was just before Christmas, all the stores had their Christmas gift and toy displays on, and virtually the whole of the Moor shopping centre was wiped out. The big store of Walsh's was gutted by fire, as there was no water to douse the flames due to water mains being cut by the bombs. It was a miserable Christmas that year, with next to no presents. Two nights later the bombers were back and this time blitzed the East End works side of the City. Again we were able to view from a distance the fires etc. in the city on that night. 

The morning following the first night's blitz there were no buses arriving at Cross Scythes, so we couldn't get to school. We were told by the local policeman that this was due to bombing at Beauchief. We set off to walk there to see the damage. A very large bomb, some did say that it was a landmine dropped by parachute, had cratered the road just past the junction of Abbeydale Road and Abbey Lane. The crater was very deep and contained a double decker bus and another vehicle. It was also filling up with water and sewerage, as all the main services had been broken. We were without water and electricity at home. Walking further on we came to the next lot of destruction at Millhouses. The line of shops just past the junction of Abbeydale Road and Archer Road had received a direct hit, and all the debris was blocking the road. 

July 1997

The concluding part of the his account, in Totley Independent Issue 205, is unfortunately missing.