My upcoming tour of Parson Cross!!!

 

On Saturday the 5th of October I will be running a (subjective) tour of Parson Cross council estate as part of the Art Sheffield 2013 festival. At 10.45 am I will pick up interested people in a mini-bus outside of Site Gallery on Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS and take them to Parson Cross. On the way there I'll provide something of an overview of the estate. Once we arrive, we will visit various places where significant things happened to me when I was a teenager there in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Come along and find out something about one adolescent's life on a poor council estate at that time. On the way back to town I will answer any questions.The total time from pick-up to drop off will  be about 2 hours.
This is a one-off tour and places are limited to 7 people so you will need to book early. You can do this at:
https://paulallendertour.eventbrite.co.uk/


Look forward to meeting you on the morning of the 5th!

me and parson cross

I lived on the estate between the ages of 11 and 21 (and my mum and dad still live there).
We lived on Holgate Road with our back garden coming out onto what is now known as (and probably always was officially) Tongue Gutter. We called it the Brook. There was a concrete pipe out of which one of the two brooks on there emerged. It was at the bottom of our garden. It is still there. This is a very recent picture of it:

The iron grill preventing entry into the pipe wasn't there when I was young. So, me and a friend went up it. Very quickly we came to a place that opened out into a comfortable space. In the concrete was written (it would have been in wet concrete and written with a finger) the words P.O.W. and then a date that I can't remember but was 1940 something. Maybe there was a name too?

Anyway, I found out later that part of the council estate was built by Italian prisoners of war - after the 2nd Word War. Our houses were said to be built by them. Here was proof! And such an exciting thing for teenage kids to find.

That's one of my Parson Cross stories.

photography

Last week's session  with Georgia didn't happen - the rain was just too hard. We are re-scheduling on a weekend because she has now started at Sheffield College. What did happen though on Friday was a session with Sarah Caldwell, taking pictures in the Winter Gardens. It was fun - even though the camera batteries died - that is twice now with Sarah and no times with anyone else! Here are my favourite pictures - photographer: Sarah Caldwell from Parson Cross.

I love the last one!

It's raining!!

I am meeting with Georgia this afternoon for her to take some outdoor photographs in town. After a long hot and dry summer, this is the first day of rain. She must feel as if the odds are against her. Or maybe not. Different kinds of photographs.