Trains, Trams and Buses ....

 .... At Norfolk Bridge

... and on Leaves in Street, the observant pigeon may spot this "stuff" on both sides of the tracks

This is the remnants of Attercliffe Road railway station. It opened in 1870 and hung on with a minimalist peak hour service in 1995.

Facilities were always 'limited' ...

... as above in the 1960s. It was hardly lavish in steam days.

Norfolk Bridge would have been a great place for tram spotters.

FOUR frequent Tram services passed by. Until 1954 (?), when the new road bridge over the River Don opened ...

... through trams ran between Sheffield and Rotherham, jointly operated by the two corporations.

Rotherham trams were notable as being one ended, so the route used a loop of town centre roads at rach end.

After the bridge break in service. trams ran from Sheffield to Tinsley ...

... and from Rotherham to Templeborough.

See. It is a bus on to Sheffield!

Unfortunately the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital does not provide access to a Sheffield and Rotherham tram and bus archive, but fbb's slightly unreliable memory is that trams would have run about every 4 minutes plus huge numbers of works extras.

There were also trams via Norfolk Bridge that veered off the main drag and ran to Sheffield Lane toop, further adding to the frequency.

Replacement buses were

17 to Sheffield Lane Top

24 to Tinsley

69 to Rotherham

In the 1960s the 69 bus ran every FOUR minutes Saturday daytime's, somewhat more frequent than Monday to Friday off peak.

In 2026 there are approx 8 buses an hour all the way from Sheffield to Rotherham but not all via the traditional main road.

Confused.com? Here's the tram map again.

 

 Next come the Trams to Handsworth. 

Again they would have run about every 4 mins during the day.

Replacement buses were

52 Handsworth, Ballfield & Woodhoouse

At its peak the core service ran every 6 minutes.

Running alongside the 52 as fast as Darnall were trams to Prince of Wales Road.

Again these ran at least every 4 minutes with extra works services at shift times.

Replacement buses were

71 Prince of Wales Road

At its peak, buses ran approx every 6 minutes. but there is no direct equivalent. Only service 6 runs almost the length of Prince of Wales Road.

in 2026 route 6 serves just a short part of this once busy tram and bus road with a few evening and Sunday 6a buses all the way.

The 18 is a sort of replacement for Sheffield's much loved and much lamented Outer Circle route. It does get into the city centre but a very long way round.

It is not quite the same as a tram ever 4 or a bus every 6 minutes!

How the mighty are fallen!

But overall with three tram routes at every 4 minutes plus extras you could spot approx 25 trams and hour in each direction!

WOW!

Of course, the whole area has changed out of all recognition; there a few house, fewer employment opportunities and fewer ships.

Here is a 1979s bus map of Norfolk Bridge.

Medical Report 

A bit of a setback yesterday. A repeat of last Wednesday's explosion in the waste disposal department caused by internal bleeding. The endoscopy on Thurs showed the bleeding had stopped! More tests!

Matron (NOT played by the late Hattie Jacques) defined the "event" as a "blip"

Some blip?

Ooooh Matron!

Three Bridges : An Attempt

This blog was 'imagined' whilst sitting, lying, dozing and screaming (silently!) for the rest of the tests. Mrs fbb visited at 1130 so just  few minutes of on screen action.

Then fbb was trundled off for an Endoscopy. He returned later and continued the blog.

The above picture (Google Earth) is looking towards Rotherham along the traditional main road via Attercliffe and Tinsley.

The former Midland Railway main line crosses the road on a bridge which fbb has always called "Norfolk Bridge" It then crosses the River Don on multiple arches which is also called Norfolk Bridge in many articles.

Running parallel to the railway is a road called Leveson Street.

fbb believes that Leveson Street traverses the River Don on the real and genuine Norfolk Bridge. Here are the three bridges plus the main road in geographical context.

And here are the three viewed from the east across Burton Weir.

To be pedantic, the road bridge is off shot to the right but fbb liked the preserved train! Burton Weir did not always look so pretty.

Here we have today's view!

Pity about the graffiti! Broadly the buildings remain much the same. But the pollution has gone.

But here is a teaser. 

What has this former industrial corner of Sheffield got to do with a rather flat county way out east? The answer is him ...

... the 18th (and current) Duke of Norfolk, or even him ...

... the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. 

Duking is a historic, ancestral and mysterious game somewhat lost to the puny minds of snivelling forelock tuggers like us.

Suffice it to say, the Dukehood of Norfolk is very noble, just below the monarchy in status, and hugely rich.

And his dukemess has his ancestral seat, not in Norfolk, but in Sussex at Arundel Castle.

The Duke of Norfolk owns vast chunks of  Sheffield, estates that were managed from a very posh office block in the poshes part of the city centre.

The the hospital internet evaporated.

Then fbb's tabled decided to lock up and become useless.

Then dinner arrived.

Then fbb's phone found the internet but not fbb's stock of pictures, carefully curated and downloaded for these blog posts.

 

FBB FAILED UTTERLY!!

Procedure expected yesterday morning did not

happen until 1500, so a second night stay!

Boy it was HOT!

Back home later today?

fbb

WOT NO BLOG?

 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL OF SERVICE

fbb has enjoyed a one night stay in the NHS's finest hotel at Wonford, Exeter.

Mainly for tests and general check.

This is fbb's first overnight hospitalisation since tonsils removed age 8 (?).

Further info in tomorrow's blog.

A Tale Of Three Bridges (2)

 Blame The Midland Railway!

In 1838, the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway opened the first train line into Sheffield from the north east. The terminus was on the fringes of the city just north of the road called Wicker.

A link was engineered with the North Midland Railway at Masborough some distance from Rotherham town centre. The Sheffield line continued to  more central terminus at Rotherham Westgate.

Clearly such a weedy link to what was becoming a major industrial city was soon wholly inadequate. So the Midland Railway built a brand new line north from Chesterfield and through the hugely challenging Bradway tunnel ...

... to serve a brand new Midland Station. The route was challenging but simple in one sense. Just dig a gurt big tube through solid rock then run the tracks alongside a minimalist river.

OK, it got a bit more tricky as the rails approached the city centre and that river had to be buried to make way for the station - but the approach from the north was tricky as well.

The new main line opened in 1870 when Wicker was demoted to being a goods depot. 

We will get to our Three Bridges soon, honest.

So let's let the train take the strain as we chunter cheerfully southbound to Sheffield Midland. In this Google Earth view ...

... we see the main line entering top right and making its exit bottom right. Bottom left is the square block that is Tesco on the site of Wicker station, passenger then goods.

It is just about possible to draw a theoretical straight line frim top right to bottom left, the route taken by goods trains to Wicker until closure in 1965.

Moreover, we can explore the 1870 new line c/o Google Earth as it approaches Midland Station..

So here goes! Here we may spot our three bridges ...

... two rail and one road as the River Don is crossed. Next we cross the Sheffield and Rotherham canal ....

... as seen from the canal towpath.

 Keep an eye on the chimney, far right. 

We burrow under the Sheffield Victoria line.

 Next we are below the Sheffield Parkway A57 ...

... noting one of many disused roads that once crossed the line. There will be many more! Our next bridge is Sheffield's Supertram, namely the route to Meadowhell and Rotherham.

Then cast a bewildered eye on even more bridges and arches where trains from the east join in ...

... and even more ...

... as the tram tracks to Halfway filter in.

The tram then crosses over to the east side of the big train tracks ...

... and we are at the throat of Midland Station.

And we are told that HS2 is "challenging"!

It should be a doddle compared with getting the Midland Main Line through Sheffield! And the railway companies were doing it all over the UK!

Tomorrow, at last, we get to explore the Three Bridges..

  Next Three Bridges blog : Thurs 28 May 

A Tale Of Three Bridges (1)

Please note : fbb is still "fragile" and recovering far too slowly from a really heavy cold and other associated nasties. Helpful Seaton chums report that there is a lot of it about.

Three Bridges, Where?

But not the above trio. What about Three Bridges station?

There is even this junction in Southall, London.

The "Three Bridges" of this blog is not an official name of an area in Sheffield which has three obvious bridges and quite a few more nearby.

Well that's one bridge seen in a before and after montage. Neither of these pictures is dated, but Sheffield's last tram route ran under this bridge and was withdrawn in 1960. fbb suspects that the trams are older than that.

Courtesy of Google Earth we can see the junction in its recent guise.

The white building with the rounded end is a useful clue to aid matching the pictures with the view from fbb's helicopter!

So, let is take a drive from the city centre to the photographed bridge. There is, however, a health warning. It is no longer possible to follow fbb's route exactly due to road "improvements".

We would start by travelling along Wicker, erroneously called The Wicker by many.

The arches mark the point where Great Central trains crossed on their way via the Woodhead route to Manchester.

The bridge is a lot cleaner now, a testament to the decline of heavy industry in the city. 

The left fork under the bridge leads up Spital Hill which ultimately becomes Barnsley Road. Guess where that leads!

But we fork right along Savile Street. The land on the left used to be the Wicker Goods Yard of the Midland Railway.

It was huge!

Savile Street is on the right. 

Just past the yard, the road splits..

This point (once a tram junction) was known as the Twelve o Clock junction after a pub which stood in the apex

A modern block ...

... is called Twelve o'Clock Court.

The left hand fork leads to the inappropriately named Brightside, location of some of the city's heaviest and smokiest industry.

The smoke has all gone as has much of the heavy industry.

Soon afterwards we come to our bridge ....

... or maybe bridges. 

Just under the bridge on our left ...

... we see the former Midland Railway main line on its merry way to Barnsley and Rotherham. The road is names Princess Street and plays a very small part in a Sheffield bus route.

Part 2 will look at the railway and its bridges in more detail.

  Next three bridges blog : Weds 27th May