The Old Blue Ball- cause for concern

Here in Hillsborough and Owlerton- to accurately describe the area I have known for 64 years-the Old Blue Ball pub has closed and there is a rumour that a construction company has purchased it for redevelopment.

Many of us remember the Ball well, the bowling green and one of the most profitable pubs in Sheffield in the 1980s but there is far more to this failed pub - for that’s what it is -than memories.

Look at the oldest part of the pub-the rectangular central elevation, solidly built of stone, curiously at an angle - because it was erected on Owlerton village green- and its curious upstairs windows. How old is it? Its history during the the Great Flood of 1864 is documented and a matter of photographic record.

Together with the Java Lounge (former Hillsborough Inn) the Shakey, former Masons, older part of the Crown, New Barrack Tavern and the Barracks it forms part of the core of the Sheffield Flood Trail and one of the few coherent Heritage Trails in the city. Many of us in S6 feel that Hillsborough is the forgotten territory of Sheffield and that this process has accelerated since losing our seperate identity as a Parliamentary Constituency and being subsumed into Greater Brightside. This part of Sheffield has a tremendous heritage, sadly not as reflected as it should have during anotherwise remarkable event as Hillsfest.

Like Loxley Chapel and Dial House it’s the community and individuals within that community that has to speak up in a city as ever cavalier in its treatment of its historic buildings.

Ron Clayton

Malin Bridge, S6