Crosspool News – crosspool.info
The Crosspool community website run by Crosspool Forum
One of Crosspool’s oldest residents, Mabel Mabbott, sadly died on 26 January 2011, aged 92 years old.
Her husband Frank owned and ran a well-respected butcher’s shop on Sandygate Road for over thirty years on the site of what is now Bargain Booze.
Along with most shop keepers of the era, they lived over the shop before moving over 40 years ago to their new home on Barnfield Road.
There is a discussion about memories of old shops in Crosspool on this thread on Sheffield Forum.
A driver accidentally drove his new Mercedes into a Crosspool pub last week.
After enjoying a meal at The Sportsman on Thursday 3 February, the man left the premises at around 6pm to drive home in the car he’d collected earlier that day from the motor dealer.
Apparently being unacquainted with the layout of the vehicle, he inadvertently engaged forward drive, rather than reverse, and shot forward through the walled bay window, causing extensive damage to the front of the building .
Fortunately no one was sitting near the window at the time, and the driver walked away shaken but uninjured.
The bay window adjacent to the disabled parking spaces at the front of the pub is now boarded up on both the outside and inside.
After years of uncertainty, including rumours of closure and demolition, the future of the Old Grindstone public house in Crookes seems safe, at least for the moment.
The owners, Greene King, are refitting the premises with a view to reopening on 25 February. With a banner on the pub promising ‘new food and drinks at great prices’, it seems that a more comprehensive food menu will be a feature of the relaunched pub.
Greene King has also applied for an extension in opening hours to provide alcohol and entertainment from 9am-12 midnight Sunday to Thursday and 9am-1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
The application can viewed during office hours at the Licensing Department in the town hall.
The coffee shop situated on the plot between Manchester Road and Lydgate Lane has now closed.
An application to change the use so it could become a house was accepted by the council last year. The two-bedroomed property been put on the market for £264,950 and now includes planning consent for a drive.
Former Crosspool coffee shop, 315 Lydgate Lane property on rightmove.co.uk
Yesterday it was announced that Artisan restaurant in Crosspool has retained its status as a Bib Gourmand in the latest Michelin Guide.
Restaurants are named Bib Gourmands for offering good food at moderate prices. Eat Sheffield has pointed out that it is now the fifteenth year that Richard Smith’s Crosspool restaurant has been named a Bib Gourmand.
Featured restaurants in 2011 Michelin Guide
A planning application (10/03887/FUL) has been submitted for the Hallamshire Hotel building on Lydgate Lane. It proposes that the former pub is demolished to make way for four dwelling houses, two apartments and detached garage block.
The planning, design and access statement (PDF, 515KB) for the application states:
There has been a succession of short term tenants, all of whom have failed to successfully operate a sustainable and profitable business. Clearly licensed use for this site is no longer the most viable form of operation.
The pub has been closed for several months now, with the windows boarded up.
Residents have until 25 January 2011 to comment on the application.
Planning application 10/03887/FUL
Three computer courses are starting next month in Crosspool, two National Open College Network ones run by Crosspool Forum and one BBC First Click Beginners course run by Tuition Extra. Details are below:
Following in the success of the two previous computer courses, and wishing to build on the student’s achievements, Crosspool Forum has managed to secure patronage for two further National Open College Network (NOCN) 10 week courses.
They run on Fridays, starting on 14 January 2011 at St Columba’s Church Hall on Manchester Road. Laptops are provided. The two courses are:
Using ICT Computer Basic
Word, desktop publishing and paint
9:30am-11:30am
Word processing level 1 & level 2
11:45am-1:45pm
The NOCN courses carry a modest charge of £1 per hour for tuition, plus a £6 per term enrolment fee, so a 20 hour course will cost £26. Learners on income-related benefits pay to enrol and nothing else.
Anyone wishing to join either of the above courses should contact Ian, Crosspool Forum, on 0114 335 1674.
Have you got a new laptop, netbook or smartphone for Christmas and have no idea how to use it? Why not book in for a beginners course at Tuition Extra in Crosspool to help you get started?
Tuition Extra on Sandygate Road has teamed up with the BBC’s First Click initiative which aims to help out people who don’t know how to use the internet. We are planning to cover many topics including:
If you have your own laptop or other mobile device you can bring it along or you can use one of our computers.
Courses will be starting in the new year from 10-11.30am during the week at a cost of £5 per session. Tuition Extra is located in Crosspool shops in the flat above A Villa Caruso (52 Sandygate Road). Places must be booked in advance by calling Carolyn Sleath on 0114 230 9566 or 07875 039887. When we have five participants, the course will run.
You can also get more information at www.tuitionextra.co.uk or by emailing carolynsleath@tuitionextra.co.uk – but if you can do that, you probably don’t need us!
Earlier on today, volunteers and the Crosspool Forum committee met to put up illuminated Christmas trees above shops in the precinct.
It is the sixth year that Crosspool shops have been decorated with Christmas trees. As the photos below show, thankfully the team was blessed with fine weather compared to last year’s driving sleet!
The photos below, taken over the summer, show some of the dozen hanging baskets and four planters in the precinct at Crosspool.
Entering the Lord Mayor’s Sheffield in Bloom for the first time this year, Crosspool Forum’s impressive displays were successful in winning the Community Silver award.
Our thanks go to Norton Nurseries for making up such vibrant and spectacular displays, and Streetforce for maintaining them so admirably throughout the summer.
Funds allowing, and with the help and support of precinct businesses and shops, Crosspool Forum will be aiming for gold in 2011.
Sheffield chef Richard Smith is taking a trip down memory lane next month with a nostalgic evening to celebrate fifteen years in Crosspool.
Before its current incarnation as Artisan, the Sandygate Road restaurant was previously Thyme and prior to that it originally opened as Smiths of Sheffield – or Smiths as it was known.
On Monday 13 December at Artisan, Richard will be cooking some of the favourite dishes from Smiths days, including Thai tiger prawn cake, honey and rosemary glased shank of lamb and trio of creme brulee (view the menu here – jpg, 429KB).
For more information or to make a booking call 0114 266 6096.
What a fifteen years! blog post by Richard Smith
Crosspool News - crosspool.info 
