Sheffield Retro: These are the things people loved doing, growing up in Sheffield from 1960s to 90s

Sheffield city centre was the place to go for shopping, with no Meadowhall or internet, making for a very different world to that where youngsters are growing up now.

But Sheffielders have told The Star what they loved to do in that lower tech world of the 20th century, throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

We went out onto the streets of Sheffield to ask people: “What did you love doing as a child, growing up in Sheffield?” And we have also put together a picture gallery to look back at some of those memories, at the bottom of the story.

Sandra Harte, of Woodhouse, remembers growing up in the Upperthorpe area of the city, wandering around the area, and Glossop Road baths.

She said: “We were allowed to wander. There were lots of swimming baths, I remember – in any area you could go there was a swimming baths. Also, I remember Rivelin used to have all those paddling pools, and there was the lido at Millhouses.

“We had Roxy’s – it was a disco, and Saturdays were for under a certain age, and they had a Tuesday night one for older teenagers. That was good.

“We had youth clubs. I used to live at Upperthorpe, and there’s a big green called Ponderosa, and that used to have what was like a youth club. There were people who took you on long boats. There were crafts to do, snooker to play, there were discos there too.”

Mike Chapman, from Bolsover, remembers coming into Sheffield as a youngster. Speaking to us on Barker’s Pool, he said: “As a child, we’d come into Sheffield on the trams, and it would be mainly around Christmas time, because we lived out of Sheffield. I enjoyed the kid things that there were, like going to the cinema, going to the theatre, and the shopping of course.”

He said the Lyceum was his favourite theatre.

Ali Hayward, of Gleadless, said she used to love coming in to town with her mum. She said: “She used to take me for a coffee and a biscuit somewhere, and that was always a big treat. We used to go to Cole Brothers a lot of the time, and to Walsh’s. And there was a shop on Glossop Road called Bringing It All Back Home. She used to take me there and I’d have a piece of tiger cake.”

Paul Axelby, from Mosborough, said he used to enjoy playing football and cricket on the side streets near his home, and going to the youth clubs.

“I really enjoyed life in general,” he said. Firth Park had been his favourite park to go to. “Whitsuntide, we used to march up there with big banners and everything. I was in the boys club, the Boys Brigade, and went to the youth clubs.”

Trina Axelby, also from Mosborough, enjoyed going to the shops in the city centre. She said: “I used to go down to the Sheaf Market, where they used to sell all the goods, pottery, and I used to get all my shoes from that Elston’s, down there.”