Final preparations are underway for Crosspool’s annual Selborne Road street market on Sunday 28 June.
The event is your opportunity to buy local food, cakes, plants, crafts, jewellery, clothes and books from over 40 stalls and also enjoy entertainment throughout the afternoon.
During the market, Crosspool Art Group will be exhibiting in the garden at 55 Selborne Road where tea and picnic facilities will also be available.
Andrew Fisher and his crew of volunteers worked tirelessly for an hour and half shredding Christmas trees this afternoon to raise funds for the Crosspool Forum.
Over 120 trees were left by residents outside Direct Travel, with quite a number being over 8ft tall.
Money raised will help provide hanging baskets and floral displays in the Crosspool precinct.
On behalf of all who have and will benefit from their kindness, a big big thank you to Andrew (Complete Tree Solutions) and to Paul at (Direct Travel) for the use of the car park.
Please reciprocate their kindness by supporting these local services.
Final preparations are underway for Crosspool’s annual Selborne Road street market on Sunday 29 June.
The event is your opportunity to buy local food, cakes, plants, crafts, jewellery, clothes and books from over 40 stalls and also enjoy music and dance from Jacapella, Lydgate First
School, Tapton School’s wind band and an Irish dance troupe.
Many of our local shops will also open up for the day. Direct Travel is hosting a travel market and family fun day with free face painting and goody bags.
During the market, Crosspool Art Group will be exhibiting in the garden at 55 Selborne Road where tea and picnic facilities will also be available.
Thanks to everyone who bought their trees along last Sunday for recycling. Crosspool residents deposited around 200 trees, which were later on reduced to lorry load of mulch chippings.
Crosspool Forum was able to do its bit to help our community and the environment thanks to Paul Rushby at Direct Travel, a team of Crosspool forum volunteers and the generosity of Andrew Fisher of Complete Tree Solutions and his team.
Residents that dropped off trees also made donations of £115 for Crosspool Forum, which will be used in the community.
Help put lights on the precinct Christmas trees on Sunday
This weekend Crosspool Forum will be putting up 20 Christmas trees above shops in the precinct. It will be the seventh year that our local shops have been decorated with them.
The plan is to put them up in the precinct this Sunday, 27 November. If you an hour spare and would like to help with placing the Christmas lights on the trees, pop along to the area outside Direct Travel at 9.30am. We’d love to see you there!
After delivering milk to the residents Crosspool for the past 45 years, local dairyman, Ian Mosley, has decided to retire.
Ian and his two brothers, Peter and Keith, following in their father’s footsteps, have farmed in the Rivelin Valley all their lives. The family herd of dairy cows can be seen grazing on the hills visible from S10. Their milk was unique in this area in that it was produced, processed, bottled and delivered by one family, M.G. Mosley and Sons.
In 1966 (when England won the world cup), at the age of nineteen Ian started to deliver milk to the Crosspool area. He did this seven days a week until eight years ago when he had to take three months off work after undergo major heart surgery, retuning to deliver six days a week all year round including all bank holidays except Christmas Day and new year’s day.
Memories
Ian has many fond memories of Crosspool spanning the last 45 years. He remembers the first winter, when he was ‘young and daft’, running far too fast one Saturday morning and slipping on ice. He was outside Diane’s hairdressers (now Direct Travel) and fell, cuffing his hand on a broken bottle.
He went to Mrs Senior at the newsagent (now La Dolce Vita) to ask for a plaster. “You don’t need a plaster, you need a hospital” she said. By luck, Mr Jacob of Dransfield Road was also in the shop and offered Ian a lift to the Royal Hospital. Four stitches later, Ian caught a bus back to Crosspool and finished the milk round.
Winter weather
MG Mosley & Sons milk float in the snow last December
Rain, sleet, hail and snow have never stopped the daily delivery. One bad winter the tractor was needed to overcome the icy hills. The Fuller family of Barnfield Close ran a tote betting what time Ian would manage to reach them. Simon Fuller won the bet – it was 7:30pm that Saturday night before he made it!
Boxing day 1970 proved a great day for sales. After delivering every drop of milk over 30 customers were still awaiting their milk. Never known to give up, Ian returned to the farm, persuaded the cows to be milked again, persuaded his brothers to bottle the milk and then returned to deliver to the remaining customers. (That’s what you call fresh milk!)
As the round expanded Ian needed extra help. Customers and staff fondly remember his first full time assistant, Alix Hickerman, who sadly died in 1997. He has employed many milk lads over the years and in 1983 Ian was nagged by a “troublesome boy” who begged for a job as a milk lad. Ian finally relented: that boy was of course Alex Elwood.
Whilst Ian was at the frontman, bringing milk to the doorstep, his two older brothers were working hard, running the dairy and caring for the cows. The farm supplied milk to local restaurants and nursing homes and also to other milkmen in the area, thus ensuring that fresh farm milk was available to the entire district of S10.
Keeping milk local
In the 1990s supermarket sales hit the business hard as cheap milk was used as a loss leader. However, attitudes have changed in recent times as people realise that the re-use of glass bottles is the most environmentally friendly process available: better even than re-cycling. Customers have also become aware that supermarket milk can be as much as four days old before reaching the shelves; often having travelling in huge tankers for hundreds of miles across the country.
Ian set up his family home on a farm only ten minutes from Crosspool where he and his late wife Hazel found time to raise two daughters. Ian’s father, Milson, continued to deliver milk until the ripe old age of 86 when a stroke forced him to retire. Ian intends to spend his retirement working (full time) on the farm, so he only has another 21 years of working on the farm to equal Milson’s achievement.
Crosspool’s current milkmen
Crosspool residents are fortunate, in so much as, they still have a choice of two dairy men delivering milk in the area.
Robert Gray will be taking over Ian’s milk round, so the service shouldn’t be interrupted. Robert has worked for M.G. Mosley & Sons for the past ten years. They still have a herd of cows, but no longer have the plant to process the milk.
The other milkman serving Crosspool is Russell Lister. Russell and Ian had an understanding with regards to milk deliverers, and neither delivers milk on the same roads.
Ian sends thanks and best wishes to all in Crosspool for their friendship and acquaintance. Crosspool Forum wishes Ian a long and happy retirement.
Enthusiastic young people join in Crosspool's Spring Clean
Crosspool folk sprang into action last Saturday to clean up our neighbourhood.
As part of Sheffield’s third Annual Spring Clean, a dozen or so local residents, both young and old met at 10am on Saturday outside Direct Travel on Sandygate Road.
After brief introductions, the group dispersed in small teams to various locations where there was litter to clear up.
Despite the wind and the rain, and having to deal with obstacles including parts of a discarded piano, everyone enjoyed the camaraderie of the morning and the satisfaction of what was achieved.
We hope to arrange another group clean up for some date in the future so keep your eye on this website and the Crosspool Clarion for details.
As part of Sheffield’s third annual spring clean, Crosspool Forum is arranging for local residents to join together to help to keep where we live clean.
Weather permitting, we initially plan to meet up on the area in front of Direct Travel on Sandygate Road this coming Saturday 2 April at 10am, before moving off to spend a couple of hours cleaning up the neighbourhood.
You don’t need any specialist cleaning skills, just a bit of enthusiasm!
Cleaning materials will be provided. So that we can ensure we have enough materials, please can you let Ian Hague know if you wish to be part of the group: telephone 0114 335 1674 or email crosspoolforum@fs.mail.net.
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!
