Ward Street
Looking at the next set of pictures, top left is up 'old' Ward Street. There was a tennis court and poplar trees on the bend where the distant red-bricked house is now. Next is half way up Ward Street, near where I was born. The red bricked houses on the left were council-owned until the 'right-to-buy' was introduced in the 1980s and those on the right are mostly social housing. Next is the low building of Weaver's Court, an old people's centre nearby, which was built after 'Airey' houses on Wilson Ave. were demolished.
Green Road
Top right is the lower part of Ward Street as it joins Green Road. Penistone is relentlessly expanding and new houses have arrived next to Rose Hill but this picture is from 2006 before they were built. Bottom left is Green Road opposite the old David Browns steelworks. Cubley Brook goes under Green Road on its way to the River Don at Springvale. There was a bad flood here in the sixties when the water rose halfway up the raised pathway to about where the roof of the parked car is. The 2007 floods did not rise as far.
Next is Green Road, towards Waddie's Shop (with its old VR postbox) with the long red-brick wall of the old David Brown's. The slope up to the right went past an old red-bricked chip shop until recently (probably demolished 2006), towards Castle Dam. Older locals will remember it as 'Winnie's Chip Shop' after the local character, Winnie Adams. She used to bite a piece off a chip to test the cooking and the other half went back in the pan. People avoided eating half chips. More recently it was nicknamed 'Chippie Geof's', after Geof Beard.
Last two pictures are new Barrat houses (2007) built on the site of the old Hitech X-Ray machine. Biffa City it aint. I remember the tv adverts for Barrat homes where they landed a helicopter next to their homes. The story went round that the houses fell over from the breeze. Untrue of course. These are called Saunderson Gardens. An odd name given that they do not appear to have any.
Towards Spring Vale
Carry on around along Green Road, past Waddies shop and you come upon another bridge. As a bairn, I used to walk under the bridge to Springvale school. I recall the wonderful, sulphurous smell of steam engines and there was an actual working gas lamp attached to the wall with its ticking clockwork timer. It was the only one that I had ever seen working for real and must have been the only one left in Penistone, or even Yorkshire. The VR post box of Waddies is shown here.
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Towards Green Road's junction with Sheffield Road is Green Acres - a new large housing estate (top right). Opposite that road is 'Birdcage Walk', shown bottom left. Cage-like railings used to adorn each front door but many have gone now.
Just beyond that is where I took the last and rather sad picture. For decades, the Working Men's Club was as a thriving institution in the area. It had comfortable seating, a games room, regular entertainment and ample car parking. Their club trips were legendary. I recall counting eight full railway coaches, chartered for one of their hugely popular seaside trips. The young ones were always given pop and crisps. For many years it was boarded up and abandoned but it has been demolished now and part of the junior school is being built (2007).
