Joseph W Abson

                                                                  Old Post Office, Hillfoot Road

I was delighted to see the illustration of my old home in your May edition of The Independent. Number One (1) Hillfoot Road was the family home from 1934 for Mother, Father, myself, Brother Clifford, a sister Ketural, and later Betsy who was born there. Mother and Father continued to live there until the Council placed a Compulsory Purchase Order on the property, to provide a Bus Terminus of course, like many things, this never materialised. 

Obviously, as the street lamp to rear of the building suggests, illustration was based on a Post photograph. We came to Totley after I had been born in Prospect Road, Bradway (then in Derbyshire), moving to Cowley, near Holmsfield, and 7 or 8 months at the Vicarage, Unstone - No, Dad wasn't a vicar! Immediately before we moved in it had been used as the Post Office which was then transformed to it's present location.

Before that, the house had, at some time, been the Farm house, as with the house there were two cowsheds, with barns or haylofts over them, and pigsties. I made use of the cowsheds to grow cultivated mushrooms and kept hens in the pigsty and on part of the land at the back of the house. We had some very happy times at the old house, although there was no electricity, hot water, bathroom or inside toilet.

Downstairs we had two very large living rooms, with coal fires, and one with an oven and cooking range, a very very large pantry with a stone slab down the middle nearly as long as a cricket pitch,and which was icy cold summer and winter. From the massive oak beams were hooks for hanging bacon and hams. The kitchen was also large and had a stone sink with one water tap (cold) and a copper with a fire underneath to provide hot water for washing clothes and for bath water. Bathing was in the old zinc bath in front of the fire and be careful of catching your body on the hot side.

The coal house was situated inside by the kitchen. Upstairs we had four large bedrooms, (by today's standard), each with it's own fireplace. Every room had a ceiling supported by large oak beams, worth a fortune today, and all downstairs rooms were paved with flag stones, until after the war when Dad replaced them with concrete floors.

The front garden consisted of two expanses of grass or Lawns - of a fashion, and in the 30' s before everyone had a car, hundreds of people would come to Totley by bus on Sundays and weekends and quite a few would stop over to have tea served and sit on the grass. In the evening queues of people waiting for the bus to Sheffield, would stretch from the Cross Scythes right down Hillfoot Road. 

As youngsters we could nip out of the back gate to the Nook, owned by Mr, Unwin, from whom we would buy sweets, drinks of pop etc. and play cards and dominoes.

Looking at pre-war photos, I note the house below, first house on Summer Lane with hardware and general shop attached was owned and run by Mr & Mrs Sam Green. Hiding the main view of the shop was a log shed used by the Greens as a store house for paraffin,stoves, lamps, felt etc. My youngest sister, Betsy was born there during the war, and I lived there until 1948 when I married a beautiful young Land Army Girl, Joan, who was known later by many of the older residents of Totley.

Just before marrying I kept my own pig, which I had slaughtered and cured at Clowne and hung the bacon and hams at the old house until eaten. I remember bacon was still on ration and with having our own pig, we had to give our bacon coupons up.

About 2 years prior to the house being demolished, an Adams Butter lorry coming uphill towards Baslow, with no other traffic in sight went through the bedroom wall. My father was in the front room nursing a broken leg when this happened.

Happy days, happy memories.

June 1994

I was surprised to see the picture of my old home on the front page of the November issue of the Totley Independent. We as a family, mother, father, myself, elder sister Kit and brother Clifford, known to me as Toby, moved in 1935 from a cottage on Cowley Lane, near Holmesfield.

We lived there, at least mum and dad did, until it was compulsory purchased to make way for the bus terminus, this of course never happened, the land including Summer Lane was sold on for new housing and mum and dad were rehoused in a prefab on Greenoak. Before being a Post Office it had been a farmhouse. 

We still retained a very large garden and huts where I kept an assortment of 30 hens (road island reds, brown leg horns, white sussex). I also had a large barn where I grew mushrooms and we had a pig sty which we did not use. The house had 4 bedrooms, a large living room, a large sitting room (or lounge), a large kitchen and an extremely large pantry with stone slab, bacon and ham hooks. 

There was no electric, cooking was by over open fire range, gas lighting and hot water from the fire heated copper in the kitchen. I believe the picture has had a bit of licence. I have a much older photo depicting it as a post office with the village postman stood outside and with shutters to the downstairs windows. 

The shutters were still in place when we moved in. There was no modern street light at the back. The roof tiles were thick stone slabs held in place with wooden pegs. The tiles were blown down in the gales hitting Sheffield in the 1960s. I have many happy memories of 1 Hillfoot Road.

J W Abson

PS – To the writer of Doug Turner’s memories in reading the Threshing machinery, it came from Binghams Hilltop Farm, Cowley, just past the old hirst hollow pit. 

December 2008