Tribute to Sheffield artist Eric Leslie - who documented life growing up in the city in the 40s and 50s

When I was about 10 years old, I won a competition in The Star.

It was to celebrate Father’s Day and I had to write about why I thought my dad was a great dad.

Nearly fifty years later I’m doing something very similar.

This is a tribute to my Dad, the artist and joiner, Eric Leslie, who died recently at the age of 83.

Apart from leaving his four children bereft, he left an amazing legacy of artwork that documented life growing up in Sheffield in the 40s and 50s.

He was the boy who loved to draw trains and these were always his first love but living behind the tram sheds in Holme Lane, these ‘creatures that moved in pre-destined grooves’ ran a close second.

His teachers at Malin Bridge School would often find him standing on a chair, chalk in his left hand, drawing an LNER loco on the blackboard.

He had many happy memories of growing up around Hillsborough, Malin Bridge and the Rivelin Valley and recorded some of these in his books ‘Trams, Tiddlers & Tizer’ and ‘Oatcakes, Pikelets and Sarsaparilla’. The latter was published by his old school followed by ‘A Backward Glance’ which reminisced about Sheffield transport.

In fact, he went back to Malin Bridge school in the early 80s, sharing his stories and experiences with the pupils and helping make local history come alive for them. Later the school honoured him by naming the junior school building after him and Dad could not have been more chuffed.

After he left Sheffield School of Art, he followed in the family footsteps and became a joiner on the railways.

I remember him joking he thought he might be the only artist who could also make his own easel.

As an apprentice at Woodburn Workshops he was paid ‘the princely sum of 30 bob a week’ and out of that had to buy his own tools - as was the custom then.

These tools, each with his initials carved into the wooden handles, continued to be used right up to and including his long retirement. They served him on working parties with the Sheffield group of the Ffestiniog Railway Society and helping run the Gala weekends with the Leek & Manifold Railway in the early Eighties.

It wasn’t only his practical skills that were in demand, of course, he was also able to make a valuable contribution by designing leaflets and posters to publicise the railways. And then it wasn’t too long before the societies realised the evocative scenes he drew lent themselves really well to all sorts of merchandise – from mugs and tea towels to postcards and Christmas cards.

Over the years these have succeeded in raising lots of much needed funds for societies like the Ashover Light Railway in Derbyshire.

His illustrations are loved not just because he got all the details right - something which he took great pride in - but because he told a story about the people who were there.

We see Jack Horner the window cleaner off to his next job, children catching tiddlers at Rivelin Valley and the long queue for Hillsborough Kinema. He

always liked to put people at the heart of every picture. Even his railway illustrations often featured someone giving a cheery wave to the engine driver.

He overcame many obstacles in life including childhood polio, a quadruple bypass, a hip replacement and a major stroke, not to mention several near misses on the railways.

In spite of, or perhaps because of this, he maintained a great sense of humour and it all added to the plethora of stories he had up his sleeve. We never

tired of hearing these stories of old Sheffield, especially the fun and scrapes he enjoyed with his good friends and workmates.

My competition entry all those years ago didn’t mention any of the above.

I was a little girl grateful for all the toys and fun that Dad created for us.

And maybe that was his greatest success - as a dad, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Eric Leslie died on August 30.