Slideshow: Happy sporting memories of Sheffield's Birley Spa

The recent coverage of the fate of Birley Spa in Sheffield, which has gone up for sale, prompted one Star Retro reader to get in touch with memories and pictures of happy times there.
Hockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back rowHockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back row
Hockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back row

The Victorian bath house and grounds, that later became a popular recreational area, has been put up on the market by Sheffield City Council.

G Musgrave wrote: “I am following your articles on Birley Spa in recent Retros and news in The Star.

Hockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back rowHockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back row
Hockey team including Bernard and Norman Moore, fourth and fifth, middle row, and Clyde Hague fifth from left, back row
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“Did you know that there used to be a very flourishing sports club near the building called Birley Spa Sports Club?

Both my mother’s and my father’s family spent many happy hours there in the early 1930s – as you will see from the pictures attached.

“We visited the Spa when it was opened one weekend in the late 1990s to see what we could see of the tennis courts and wooden pavilion, but all we saw was a little edge of the red gravel tennis court. It was totally overgrown!

“It was barely accessible to the left of the spa building and overlooked the valley below – Normanton Springs.

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“My father’s family lived at Birley Farm on Lindley Lane at the time, and this was later demolished to make way for the Frechville estate.

“So I am enclosing pictures, taken in the 1930s, and would to know if anyone else has parents who played there.

“The first and second photo were taken at the Spa, then three at the tennis courts, showing the pavilion and courts, and the hockey team in the last photo.

“My father, Bernard Moore, is the extreme right of the group in the middle line, and I have two uncles on there, Norman Moore, being the fourth from the left, middle row, and Clyde Hague, fifth from the left on the back row. Practically a family team! My aunt used to play goal. And I inherited my father’s interest in hockey, as I played for my school, then for High Storrs Old Girls, and Sheffield Girls Hockey Clubs. I have many more photos of these times at Birley Spa. It would be lovely to keep and renovate the place!”