Mysteries Manifesting At Millsands (2)

Mystery History?

fbb was stoutly upbraided by No 3 son for not telling readers, at the start of yesterday's blog, that he was writing about Sheffield. So now you know.

There are road name boards at the southern (city) end of the road, but the northern access is anonymous.

Helpful!

The best way to grasp what Millsands was is to look from Lady's Bridge upstream on the River Don.

It was an area of heavy industry, mainly steel works and fabrication companies. The road, back then, was little more than a lane leading to various yards. It led nowhere else. Over the years the grimy works ...

... were replaced by warehouse operations and by 1992 some areas were already being cleared completely.

The former "road", Millsands, ran up the middle of the site. 

Only one building of the original industrial area still stands. Note that it is historically ...

... Tennants Exchange Brewery. The Lady's Bridge Pub is named after its neighbour, the road bridge across the River Don.

The old brewery part of Millsands is officially preserved, but the pub no longer sells beer. It is simply offices. Note the two magnificent entrances to the yards still remain ...

... although the pleasing odour of hops no longer spreads temptingly across Sheffield's still evening air!

Latterly, Tennants was taken over by Whitbread. Basically only the former pub and the frontage remain.

On the river side of the brewery we can see the distinctive feature or Lady's Bridge weir. Clearly this was built to ensure a good head of water for industrial use ...  

... but it dates back further than the upsurge of heavy industry at Millsands.

It provided a head of water for the Mill at Millsands!

In the above undated plan, see the goyt running from the top of the weir (upper right) to the millpond; with the outline of the mill on the upper edge. None of this survived industrialisation when the weir was probably raised higher and strengthened.

Confession Time!

fbb remains reasonably knowledgeable about the geography of his former home city where he dwelt for over twenty years; and there aren't many areas that he has not visited. But, shame of all shame, he never wandered along Millsands. What is worse he did not know such a road existed, although he must have walked along Bridge Street many many times!

It was the start of the new SC2 free city centre bus route that alerted the old man to the news that something had happened in the dark and dismals corners that formerly surrounded the bright lights of the city centre.

Not only was there a completely new Millsands, but it now has its own dedicated bus route every 20 minutes seven days a week.

And the map show that the buses run via Millsands itself!

This white bus from the former Sheffield Connect fleet was shot by Sheffield correspondent Roy ...

... at the northern of the two stops. It was on a staff training run. Roy also sent a picture of the departure list information at the stop and fbb was in for a shock!

There was the SC2 at the bottom of the display and above it what appeared to be two departure lists for route 83.

So there is a bit more about buses at Millsands than at first meets the eagle (but slightly dodgy) eye of the fat bus bloke.

What's going on?

More tomorrow; but a P.S. The brewery has been there a long tome. Here an engraving view over Lady's Bridge complete with horse tram and an over-industrialised panorama of the city centre!

It was never as grim as that, surely?

Snippet

Equipped with his "Tablet", fbb has been enjoying much more bed time reading watching. As well as excellent blogs ... 

... there is so much stuff on YouTube that is good and fascinating. It is much more relaxing than trying to read in bed with a magnifying glass.

fbb does keep an eye on Sam"s Trains ...

... where Sam Turner reviews models that he has bought with his own money. That does make his reviews genuinely independent - which is good. They can be a bit repetitive - which is less good.

But recently fbb came across a spoof review which began, like Sam's with a whirling wheel ...

... and a very good impression of Sam himself from the YouTuber's 12 year old daughter.

It was she who fbb quoted recently as making animals out of OO tank wagons.

Anyway, they were reviewing, in the style of Sam's Trains,  a gift that they had received.

It came fron a chum, Scott ...

... more specifically his nan, also illustrated on the video.

So they named their gifted knitted locomotive ...

.... wait for it ...

A delightfully dotty video, proving that railway modellers are not 100% "anoraks" and do have a sense of humour.

Sometimes!

A virtual chocolate peanut is virtually on its way to Shedmouth Junction!

Puzzle Picture

What and where?

 Next Millsands blog : Wednesday 18th April 

Mysteries Manifesting At Millsands (1)

Three Bridge Streets?

We are looking at the area below and east of "Kelham Island", the area with "Govt" and "Courts" highlighted.

If you drive, walk or use a passing rickshaw to make your way ...

 ... along West Bar past the courts (above map, just off bottom left) ...

... you come to a junction just before a city centre road called Snig Hill.

You will be turning into a road called Bridge Street.

Just a few yards further on there is a second left hand turn (white car) ...

... which is into Bridge Street!

... meanwhile, the main road - Bridge Street - goes straight on. Sounds odd.

And it is! 

There never was a direct link from Snig Hill into Bridge Street - there were just two narrow roads called Coulston Street and Newhall Street. Then the roads were re-jigged.

... (GREEN line) and the new wiggle became the third leg of Bridge Street.

Sheffield Transport used the remnants of those two narrow roads to build a little bus station called Bridge Street bus station.

The bus and the shelter on the left are actually standing in Coulston Street and the name board remained on a building just off left for many, many years. Here is a view from the bottom of the hill looking up. Coulston Street is now on the right.

Likewise the bus station remained well into PTE times ...

... with the buses on the right (edge only) standing in Coulston Street.

But if we pop back to 1851 we can see the two little roads that became Bridge Street and its bus station.

It we look at a larger area (including Bridge Street) we find there is something missing. Today's Corporation Street does not exist and is shown as an fbb added red line.

A brand new bridge over the river Don was needed ...

... a bridge crossed frequently by a student fbb on his way from Sheffield Uni to his digs at Pitsmoor courtesy of the 150 or 151 bus, later renumbered 47 and 48.

Of course, sixty years ago, it would have been a real bus, a bit like this one ...

... with a conductor, of course!

But before we come to Millsands proper, we need to visit Love Street.

It was a turn off Bridge Street and, amazingly the turn is still there ...

... but only just!

Love Street had two claims to fame. It was where Dixons made sweets!

The company was taken iver by Moxons but some of its favourites retained the Dixons name.

Not far from Dixons was a small yard, once some industrial building but later demolished ...

... and here Sheffield Transport parked a few buses between the peaks. fbb can find no pictures of the yard or identify it from old maps, so the above is just a vague suggestion of what it once looked line. 

Here is Love Street on a modern map with lots of white space.

But no matter - it has all gone as we shall see tomorrow.

The above map also shows Millsands.

Puzzle Pictures

Wagon No 3 is by Rapido at £32

Wagon No1 is by Bachmann at £24

Wagon No 2 is by Dapol at £13

Did you guess correctly?

Does it make sense?

 Next Millsands blog : Tuesday 16th April