Appeal for your memories of Crookes in Sheffield in the 1930s and 1940s

Your memories of the Sheffield suburb of Crookes in the 1930s and ’40s are wanted by a Star reader.
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Garth Brameld, who works for BBC Sport, contacted The Star after reading this retro story on Crookes in the 1940s.

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He said: “I’m getting in touch to see if there was any way of tracking down some older Crookes residents who would have grown up there in the late 1930s and 1940s.

Reader Garth Brameld is appealing for your memories of Crookes from the 1930s and 1940sReader Garth Brameld is appealing for your memories of Crookes from the 1930s and 1940s
Reader Garth Brameld is appealing for your memories of Crookes from the 1930s and 1940s

“My father David Brameld grew up in Crookes. He lived on School Road with his parents, Hubert and Florence Brameld and sister Mary.

"Their house was next door to Dr Blakely’s surgery and from what I understand the house is now incorporated as part of the modern day GPs there.

“My father used to tell me stories of taking a sledge down school road onto a steep hill down Conduit Road with his friends Phillip Schofield and Donald Mobbs. He also talked about playing with his neighbour David Blakely."

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Blakely was shot and killed by his lover Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom. He was a racing driver and had been violent to Ellis.

Garth says Blakely was a few years older than his father, who was born in 1934.

He adds: “My father’s sister and husband Mary and Jack Slater spent all their life together on Truswell Road so I have many happy memories of visiting them there.

“I wanted to find out a bit more about my father’s childhood in Crookes through anyone that knew him and his family. He left Sheffield in the early ’50s to do his National Service with the RAF before working around the country - London, Newcastle and Edinburgh for a women’s fashion store chain.”

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He settled in Bridlington, where his parents had retired to in the late ’60s to set up his own businesses and serve for many years as a senior town councillor.

Garth adds: “Unfortunately during the first lockdown he was admitted to hospital with an infection and subsequently caught Covid there and died in early January 2021.

It would be fantastic to find anyone still alive who knew him from his Sheffield days.”

To contact Garth email him at [email protected]

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