Thanks for all your ideas for where to plant our spring bulbs. The three locations earmarked to receive this year’s allocation are the top of Stephen Hill, the triangle at the junction of Watt lane and Dransfield Road and on Manchester Road, possibly between the two churches.
Can you spare an hour on Saturday 15 October to help Crosspool Forum plant them on grass verges near to where you live? We’ll be meeting at 10am on the verge in front of the Crosspool Tavern.
If you fancy popping along then telephone 0114 335 1674, email crosspoolforum@fsmail.net or just turn up. You don’t need to bring anything, but if you do have a small spade then please bring it along.
Artisan restaurant, Crosspool: featured in the 2012 Michelin Guide
Artisan restaurant in Crosspool has retained its Bib Gourmand status in the latest Michelin Guide.
Restaurants are named Bib Gourmands for offering good food at moderate prices. By our calculations, it is now the sixteenth year that Richard Smith’s Crosspool restaurant has been named a Bib Gourmand.
The only other Sheffield restaurant to feature in the guide was The Old Vicarage in Ridgeway, which was awarded one star.
Update 10pm on Friday 7 October: good news, Max has returned home.
A large black and white cat answering to the name or Max of Maxi went missing from the Watt Lane on Saturday 1 October around 6pm. Have you seen him?
He is a solid cat with a white tummy, white stripes on his back legs, white front and back paws, a torn ear, a white bib and central white facial markings.
The owners are asking whether local residents could check garages, basements, greenhouses and sheds in case she is trapped inside. He may have been a constant visitor to your garden.
Any news of Max, dead or alive would be gratefully received. Please contact Jane on 07981 078762.
A limited edition pack of five greetings cards featuring photos of Crosspool in the Spring has gone on sale in Craft Angels.
You can see below some of the local scenes on view in the set, which include daffodils on Manchester Road, the wonderful blossom on Watt Lane and Spring in the precinct.
Envelopes are included and the cards are blank inside so you can use them for general greetings cards, at Christmas, birthdays or other special occasions.
The cards are available now from Craft Angels on Sandygate Road. A pack costs just £2.50 and any money raised will go towards local community group Crosspool Forum.
Don’t forget that Geoff’s Crosspool surgery takes place between 12.30pm and 2pm on the third Wednesday of the month (except December) in St Columba’s Church on Manchester Road.
He is also happy to see constituents at other times – contact him on 0114 273 5588, 07581 214783 and geoff.smith2@sheffield.gov.uk. You can also follow him on Twitter at @geoffforcrookes.
A Crosspool house was featured on a BBC TV programme yesterday.
The distinctive new-build home near the top of Darwin Lane appeared on To Build or Not To Build, which was broadcast yesterday morning. You can watch the show again on iPlayer for the next seven days.
The Friends of Lydgate Green are organising a day to work on the flower beds.
This Sunday 2 October, volunteers will be weeding, moving plants, litter picking and tidying up.
They’re inviting anyone interested in helping to come along from 10am. It’s a family affair, the more the merrier – bring your forks, spades, barrows & buckets!
There are gaps to be filled so any spare perennials for donation are also very welcome.
Lydgate Green is on the Lydgate Lane/Lydgate Hall Crescent junction in Crosspool.
Can you solve the mystery of the Crosspool tunnel?
Joe Castle writes:
Digging in his back garden a while ago, the resident of a semi-detached house on the top side of Manchester Road hit a real snag when his spade struck a sizeable stone some three feet below ground level.
Further digging at either side exposed even more stones and, in fact a line of them extending the full width of the garden.
Naturally, very curious, and with some prizing (and fortuitously great care) he was met with an unbelievable sight witnessed by his equally inquisitive 12-year old son who had arrived on the scene. More stones were lifted and there, a yard or so below, several lines of setts were revealed.
Carrying a camera the lad gingerly jumped down into the hole. His, (adult verified) findings were a circular-shaped tunnel, some 20-25 inches in diameter, constructed of irregular shaped pieces of stone and stretching both ways into the darkened distance. There was a covering of silt on the tunnel floor.
A knowledgeable resident told me the tunnel’s two terminals were: at one end The Sportsman and at the other the bottom of Coldwell Lane. Apparently, many residents who had alterations made to their houses (the tunnel passes through the back-gardens of 51 properties) had been made aware of its existence.
Why is it there, anyway? What purpose does or did it serve; any ideas? I’ll put forward my theory in the next issue of the Crosspool Clarion but your views will be very welcome.
I have looked at the old maps of Crosspool and nothing is shown on them to indicate what the mystery tunnel can be. However I do know that there was an adit – an opening to a coal mine – just behind The Sportsman. Maybe it could have something to do with that?
There are coal seams all over this area and several of the people who lived in Clough Fields hamlet were miners. There was a Hallam coal field but where exactly it was I have not been able to find out.
An interesting addition to this is that there was a footpath from Manchester Road up to Sandygate Road- approximately where the gennel is on Manchester Rd, coming out at the top of Ringstead Crescent.
And yes, if you are from Sheffield its a gennel and not a ginnel!
What do you think? Do you have any ideas about what it might be?
