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Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars - Oral HistoryInterview Summary

Interviewee DetailsName: Carol Saxton

Place of Birth: Nether Edge Hospital Sheffield

ID Number: 116

Year / Date of Birth:

Interview DetailsInterviewer: Vicky Romégoux

Place: 22 Chatsworth Drive, Aston

Date / Time: 14th May @ 19.30

Audio File Nos:116_Carol_Saxton_ZOOM0005.WAV116_Carol_Saxton_ZOOM0006.WAVSummary

Time Description

116_Carol_Saxton_ZOOM0005.WAV

53 minutes 05 secs

So things started to change but the people were more or less the same were they or did people before the houses were demolished was it the same people living there that you grew up with or had people moved out started to move out beforehand

People were spilt up and moved to different areas and we lost contact. I don’t know what happened to most of the neighbours on the opposite side of the road.

Do you remember any of these people from Harworth Rd (reads names from electoral roll)?

I can’t remember the names but might remember faces. My Mum was a person who kept herself to herself. Down at the bottom where Trevor’s Mum’s husband George had the shop at the corner. George’s first wife had the wool shop in Burgoyne Rd next door to Deniffs the butcher. There were corner shops all over. There was one on the corner of Elton St and Harworth St and more shops up at the top on Daniel Hill St, a bakers and fruiterers, and more shops on Walkley St. My Mum used to go to

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the hairdressers up there.

I have bumped into Lynne Butterworth who lived at the bottom of Burgoyne Rd at the Childrens Hospital. I have never seen Susan Siddall again, since I left, which I would have liked.

The Siddalls sold everything. Mainly grocery and you always had it on tick. They had a little book. People used to say I’ll pay you next week, when my husband gets paid.

When we used to come home from Top Rank on a Tuesday people used to be coming out of the Bath Hotel and there was always one woman, rather loud and drunk, a bit comic, saying I’m going to catch the 31 bus home. I don’t know her name or where she lived.

My Dad and Uncle Ted used to go to the White Horse pub on Grammar St. There used to be an overgrown garden behind the pub where we could play and have a bag of crisps sat outside . It used to be freezing sometimes at 10 o’clock and we used to shout to them saying are you ready yet and they would bring us a bottle of pop to keep us quiet. It was the only time my Auntie Edna went out on a Saturday night and she was very popular with the men because she always took sandwiches. She was like my Grandma, who I never knew, who had a reputation for being very generous and making sure neighbours had food if they needed it. She fed the kiddies in wartime if they didn’t have food. She was interested in decorating, and they were the first family in the yard to have wallpaper in the house. That was at 202 Burgoyne Rd.

My grandmother had about 9 children. The family lived on Industry St before and Springvale Rd. They moved about quite a bit. So did my parents. That’s how people used to live then. Not that different to today. Lots of people are renting. We were fortunate to be in the era where you could buy your own house, a

My Mum always wanted to live in Rivelin, round the Hollins end. My dad always said we couldn’t afford it. He always said there weren’t any places you could go for a mortgage, but I knew that Aunty Pat and Uncle Reg had got a mortgage. My Dad was afraid of committing himself. And yet he did a lot of work to his house and spent a lot of money.

I don’t know who owned the house. All we know is that the rent man used to come round. I remember it being 10 shillings and

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then it went up to a pound. I remember the rent man doing the rounds of all the houses. I think the houses were owned by the steel firms for steel firm people. I heard that they made the owners a good offer and that’s why they pulled them down, not because they were bad but because they had plans for the land and were offering good compensation to the owners. When you look round now, its not much better. They killed a community that was quite good.

My Grandad Pickering came from Lincoln, from Butterthwaite we think. He came over with his brother in search of work and got a job at a tool firm that paid good money at the bottom of Burgoyne Rd, round the back of St Batholomew’s Church. He was fortunate to have work, and that’s why Grandma always had food on the table and could be generous to others.

He stayed at that firm until he retired. Uncle Ernest lived at the top of Whitehouse Lane with his wife Lil and their one son Norman. She came from a well to do family, her family had got some money. I don’t know much about that.

All our family lived in that area. I remember an Aunt Lil who lived in Burgoyne Rd who might have had Parkinson’s disease and I remember always being in bed in the front room. I used to go to school with Janet and didn’t know that she was my second cousin at the time. My Uncle Cyril lived in Otley St. He was a long distance lorry driver who got killed by another lorry. He had one son Stephen. My Grandma’s sister married a Marriott and they all lived on Otley St as well. Harold, (another uncle of my mother’s, on the Spencer/Pickering side), lived on Bransby St.

Do you have any family left living in the Walkley area?

Not to my knowledge, no. My cousin Jean, daughter of Aunty Margaret and Uncle Arnold, who lived on Bloor St when she was married, now lives in Stocksbridge. She became the sister in law by marriage of the Howards from 40 Harworth St. They will be able to remember a lot of people from that side of Harworth St. Keith Howard had a brother Hayden, who was fighting in Aden and came home in a fantastic red uniform with a flat cap. I don’t know what happened to him.

Jean and Trevor moved from Bloor St to Scowerdons in Hackenthorpe and then to Dudley Rd in Hillsborough and then

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out to Stocksbridge.

Trevor’s sister, who married Keith Howard , has lived in Stocksbridge since they were married. He is a builder and they live in a very nice house. They have 2 boys.

I don’t know where the Cundys went or what happened to the Middletons. One minute people were there and then I came home from work and the houses were boarded up. You never really got to know where they went.

It was a last minute thing for my parents. It was just me ringing up and this chap saying that he’d got this flat coming up because he was moving to Stradbroke and we did the exchange there and then. It wasn’t what you know but who you know to be honest.

Uncle Ted’s family from Hawksworth all moved over to Dewsbury when he got a promotion to be the manager of the Express Dairies depot over there, when I was about 11. Before the demolition. Those streets haven’t come down.

My Aunty Nora moved from Tennyson Rd to Oxford St as she’d got x amount of children. I’ve got a book about her family the Stokes.

Alan has died. He would have been the one who would still have lived there.

From Uncle Frank’s family, Gloria went to S Africa and came back. Rita went to Canada and is still there. Pauline married Simpson the butcher at Upperthorpe. They had about 7 children. Their family have moved over to Mablethorpe where they own several properties.

Valerie, Jean’s sister, moved to Berkshire. She has one daughter who lives in Southampton.

Uncle Gordon married Hazel Adler from down south and had 7 children. Hazel and my Dad are the only ones still alive now.

Uncle Will, the eldest of their family, moved down to Salisbury.

Uncle Cyril got killed.

Don’t know what happened to the Marriott cousins.

Down a generation, my cousins. Uncle Frank’s son William lives in Deepcar near to Jean. Kenneth and Margaret have lived in

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Wentworth at Harley since they were married. We’ve all moved around the outskirts of Sheffield. There’s one in Barlborough. I’m here in Aston. Jean’s in Stocksbridge and one or two have gone abroad with their partners. Rita’s husband, an only child from Rotherham, is a scientist in Canada.

When I got married, I bought a two bedroomed house in Brinsworth. Now my son Ian is buying a house in the new development at Orgreave. Ironically the development is part of Harworth Estates!

The Indian Vicar at St Bartholomew’s

I went to Bartholomew”s church Sunday school with my Polish friend Anya. There was an Indian vicar and his wife who seemed very exotic and glamorous. They lived in vicarage on Burgoyne Rd, built in 60s. It had stairs going up behind big front window – very Vivienne Leigh. His wife wore sari with bare midriff and had 2 little girls with hair in 2 plaits looped up at side. I was very impressed and wanted my mother to do her hair in same way. My mother realised why when she met the Vicar’s family. I saw Vicar’s wife wipe up spills on floor with cloth using her foot in very lady like way. I went home and spilled something deliberately so that I could wipe it up with myfoot. Mother was horrified! I remember opening a door at vicarage to a large room with pipes. I realised later it was the organ.

Foreign people

The vicarage family were the first I had come across from a foreign country. There were a few Polish who had stayed around from the war, including my friend Yanya’s family and relatives who lived in the house with an orchard in Upperthorpe.

Youth clubs and going out

Later I would go with Yanya to St Marys church where my Mum got married, to the youth club. Then I would walk up to library with school friends Tina and Vicky to meet up with first boyfriends. Then we would go on to the Bole Hills where we would sit sometimes in the dark. Could roam quite safely then. Not something you could do nowadays.

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When I was a little bit older in my heydays I got in with the Mods. I had boyfriend with scooter. I remember nearly falling off when going up Greenhow St as a pillion passenger with helmet. Good fun.

My husband was a mod with a skinhead. Times were easy. You didn’t have to worry, but mother did worry because nobody had a phone and she was often waiting for me at the end of the gennel when I was late home. I was never back on time.

Burgoyne Rd school

Burgoyne Rd school very impressive. I was hit in the mouth by accident when Mrs Clark threw a blackboard rubber at Malcolm MacBride who sat in front of me. Teachers didn’t think anything of throwing things in them days. I was sent down to sit outside Mr Cohen the headmaster’s office and threatened with the cane for not eating all mydinner. I didn’t like greens, especially cabbage and sprouts but they tried to make me eat them. Some sad times.

I was always in school nativity plays as an angel, because I was one of tallest in class. We did stage shows as well. We still had senior people in the school before they went to Myers Grove. They did the plays. I remember making fruit baskets out of plasticine for props. I was always petrified by being on stage when I got older.

I remember a very nice teacher, Mr Davies, who taught handwriting. I had very nice handwriting at the time because of him.

Holidays and Days Out

I took half a crown a week to school every week for saving. Saving was a big thing. It was a way of saving up for family holidays. People didn’t get holidays much, although I was fortunate as I went on holiday to Newquay in Cornwall with my Mum and Dad.

We went to Skegness a lot with my family and cousins where my Uncle Frank had caravan. Cousins came as well – up to 30 of us staying in caravans or just up for the day.

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My dad had a car. This made it easier for him to get to his job as a milkman. Times were getting better. He had a maroon Cortina but hired a car when we went to Cornwall. We went to Dartmoor to see the ponies but Dad was mortified when a pony kicked the car and put a dint in the side. We went with Uncle Reg and Aunty Pat. He avoided going back via Dartmoor in case the pony got the other side of the car.

Uncle Ted had a pick up. We used to go to Langold Lake near Worksop because there was a swimming pool. We went to Millhouses to the Lido and picnicking at Fox House. Had orange boxes with thick rugs and sat in back of pick up with cousins Janet, Hazel, Chris, her Mum and Aunty Edna. Her dad and Uncle Ted sat in the front. No seat belts in those days, but there weren’t that may cars in those days. Fortunate because we had a vehicle. The men were happy to take us out on a trip if there was a pub. People weren’t as much aware of drink driving in those days. Not that they drank a lot. Often came back via Norfolk Arms in Rivelin where the cousins played on the boat swings. In spring we went bluebell picking in Ecclesall Woods. That’s wouldn’t be allowed these days. Good times. Eventually went to the Lake District. Hired a big house and had Barbarques with the cousins as they got older.

You travelled outside of Walkley quite a bit, then

As I got older I used to travel on the bus to see Aunty Nora who moved to Cammel Rd in Firth Park, and in holidays spent time with Aunty Edna in Dewsbury. Spent a lot of time with cousins Janet and Gloria who were both two years older.

Later on my parents and other family members and friends got caravans at Laneham Ferry, which was a fishing place but they didn’t do much fishing. Lots of friends that we knew out there. Watched skiing, lots of pubs, visited Lincoln. Eventually had to move off when the caravans were replaced by mobile homes.

Fashion and clothes

I had a Saturday job at Spiers handbag shop, owned by Jewish family. Mrs Kettering was the manager. I earned £1 for the day. day. I used to save money up to spend at Chelsea Girl in Kings St and buy a nice dress for £3. Went to Top Shop and sometimes C&A although that was more of a place for getting clothes when you were younger, like Whitsuntide

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dresses, there were racks and racks of them big fluffy things with big nets underneath which itched your legs when you sat down. You had to wear cardigans which your Mum knitted. Once she bought me a beautiful kilt and she knitted me a nice yellow cardigan with pockets at either side to go with it. There was a wall outside the house with stumps of railings which had been cut off during the war. I was waiting for my Mum and Dad to go out sitting on the wall when I jumped down to talk to a friend and ripped my kilt on the railings. I was crying and my Mum was so upset I don’t think we went out in the end. I was in bother, as things weren’t cheap then and it was new on. A neighbour Mrs Wardlow said “Eh she’s only a babby, leave her”.

Home comforts

At front of house there was a bit of space, which you shared with the neighbour. It would have had a gate in the past but it was just a path. It’s where the coal went. You could make a bit of a garden. Heating was coal. You were always warm at the front and cold at the back. We had a coal fire in the back room. When my parents did the front room out we had a carpet and a curved settee in moss green and brown cushions with an electric fire with two bars which lit up, but you had to put it on for about 3 hours in the winter to warm it up. When I was courting me and Pete used to go and sit in there. We had a telly in the front and a telly in the back. When I was little we had a very narrow little telly in a casing which my Grandad had bought for the Coronation and we progressed to this telly we had to put money into, half crowns or florins, I’m not quite sure. The money used to run out half way through a programme. We always had television, even in the one up one down house in Commonside. I used to watch Andy Pandy and Wooden Tops, Watch with Mother and Sooty. I started at Western Rd school before we moved to Haworth Rd.

I used to have to go to watch Sound of Music with my mother, she loved the cinema and was a big fan of Elvis Presley. We were always queueing at the ABC or the Gaumont. When I was a baby, my Dad had take me out of a Debbie Reynolds matinee because I was crying.

There was one cinema in Walkley on South Rd where Netto is where I used to go to Saturday matinees when I was about 10. It used to be sixpence. I remember being terrified seeing Hayley Mills in Whistle Down the Wind. I used to go to the

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cinemas in town, the Classic and the Odeon.

Did you go out in Walkley when you were teenager or up to town?

I started working when I was 15. On Saturdays I used to clean the house from top to bottom for my mother with her not being so well, so having done my duty, my reward was being able to go out. I used to meet up with my friends and go to the Broadwalk, next to Dolcis opposite Walsh’s. Top Rank on Tuesday night. On Thursday we went to the Mecca in the Locarno (now flats and Sainsbury’s). Sunday we used to go to the Heartbeat next to the Ice Rink on Queens Rd and then there was an upstairs disco in Heeley. They only ever served pop, we didn’t drink alcohol. I went out Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturday nights. When the Fiesta opened we went for chicken in a basket and saw Dave Allen and Marti Caine.

We were out from Saturday afternoon till 3.00 in the morning. We walked home, couldn’t afford taxis. It was safe then. Pete would walk back with me sometimes. Sometimes I walked back with no shoes on! I used to sleep on the floor at Yanya’s sometimes, if I didn’t want to walk up Burgoyne Rd. It was ahappy enjoyable time. Now times have changed, I’m the one waiting in for someone to come home now.

My Mum had a rough time. She didn’t get much schooling due to the war. Children were dispersed to people’s houses for schooling as the authorities were worried about putting all the children in one place because of the bombs. My Uncle Arnold was an Italian POW and wrote a little book about his experiences, including a forced march of 600 miles. My Uncle Frank was a Home Guard and dealt with the bombings at the bottom of Bloor St. My mother was the youngest. She worked at Blanchards, the only job she ever had. The lady she worked with helped her get her first house at Commonside. My Dad served milk to the prefabs on Hollythorpe, and knew Dave Berry’s family. I sat on his knee! I used to help my Dad with collecting the money in the summer on a Friday evening.

My Dad worked for Express Dairies all his working life. He worked from 3.30 to 11 a.m. He always liked to call in for a pint just the one on his way home. He was the first one in the pub, probably the Bath Hotel! He retired after 40 years.

When supermarkets came in, they had to get up at midnight to

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deliver to them. The job changed. My husband went into the milk delivery business. We had a milk round in Ringinglow. My Dad helped. We had a big Transit van.

Did women work when you were young?

My mother worked in Blanchards. Aunty Edna didn’t work, but she had to take over running the household when her mother died until she married Uncle Ted when she was 18. She was very clever, we thought she could have been a teacher. If women worked, they were just in shops. I don’t know if my grandmother worked, but she had an interest in decorating and earned a bit of money through that.

What did the men do?

My Uncle Ted was a milkman since he started as a young boy. My Uncle Arnold was a joiner. My Uncle Frank was a self employed plumber. Uncle Gordon was in the army and travelled around with my Aunty Hazel. Uncle Wilf moved down south. Uncle Cyril was a lorry driver. My Aunty Pat’s husband Reg was a builder. They did a lot of manual jobs in those days

My family were involved in the milk business. My Aunty Margaret delivered milk before she met Uncle Arnold. She used to carry milk up Blake St with a wooden stick across her shoulders and sell it out of tubs. She was a milk lady. I don’t know when that was, it might have been during the war. Aunty Nora was another clever lady. I’ve got a book about them.

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