I was at an Antiques Centre on Saturday, sorting through a box of old postcards when I came across one I had to buy, almost irrespective of the cost. Luckily, it was only marked at £2.50 (about $3.80c) and so I managed to acquire it without having to raid the Holiday Penny Jar. The card features a picture of Crookes Valley Recreation Ground in Sheffield and the card was postally used in March 1909, so we can assume that the picture dates back to the very early years of the twentieth century. The reason why I had to buy the card is that it features a house that I used to live in (the second terraced house down to the right of the yellow chapel building towards the rear right of the picture).
When I lived in the house in the 1980s the scene had changed little from the one above - although the cannon in the park was no longer there. Our house was the middle one of the three in the picture on the left, which I took thirty years ago. We lived in the house whilst the Good Lady Wife was at Medical School in Sheffield (I was lecturing in nearby Doncaster at the time). But there is a second connection to that postcard picture in that if you search through that mass of terraced house roofs at the rear left of the postcard, you would be able to pick out the house where The Lad currently lives, whilst he is at Medical School in Sheffield. It is a postcard that nicely brings the family together. And as The Lad starts his Second Year exams today, it provides me with an excuse to wish him the very best of luck.
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I would have to say this might just be your postcard find of the year, Alan! Incredible how things hadn't changed all that much since you lived there. (I'm nutty about then and now pics.) Fun.
ReplyDeleteWillow : Next time I am in Sheffield I will try and take an exact "then and now" photograph from the same location.
ReplyDeleteNice to put the family all together... but when I got here I thought this was a photo of a prison yard! (sorry) -J
ReplyDeleteJayne : A prison yard!! Actually you have a point, and also it has a L S Lowry look to it.
ReplyDeleteWow. What an amazing bit of synchronicity! I love it when things like that happen. I have to admit, I too, at first glance thought it was the grounds of a prison or mental institution of some sort.
ReplyDeleteNanaJo : Mental Institution !!! It gets worse. Actually, you have a point, remind me to tell you about my neighbours some time.
ReplyDeleteAlan, I can't wait. Tales of mental neighbours rank right up there for me! I have a few of my own. Hmmm, maybe a Mental Monday feature ....
ReplyDeleteHow great that a post card like this can reconstruct a century old community.
ReplyDeleteWow! That's quite the find, Alan. I think the only place I'll ever see any of the houses I've lived is in a close-up on Google Maps/Google Earth.
ReplyDeleteHaha never has Sheffield looked so clean and pristine Alan . .I wonder if that green 'dip' floods when it rains. Great to have your house in pictures tho! And good luck to your son. I know a few going through the gruelling exams at the moment!
ReplyDeleteWhat serendipity. I join in wishing the Lad lots of luck in his exams. It's hard work training to be a doctor.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's at Sheffield Uni and last year was living in an area called 'Crookes'. Guess this is it!
ReplyDeleteLove the postcard, Alan...and the photo from later. I came over to take a butcher at it with me minces! haha.
ReplyDeleteFred: have the municipal gardens suffered since 1909? It's a little reminiscent of the municipal gardens at Southport - but my, how they have suffered.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful post card; & yes, "then & now" pix are always interesting.
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