Sheffield FridayNightRide

we have nothing to lose but our chains

2009/03/13 Public Education

Dear all,

Last reminder about the next Sheffield FNR.  You will have to miss Comic Relief on BBC and Steve and Becky’s wedding on Corrie, sorry but that is what catch up TV is for!  You may wear a red nose but Mick won’t.  Mick will be doing his best tourist guide impression – anyone remember Ivor Cutler in Magical Mystery Tour?

 

Sheffield FridayNightRide

Friday March13 2009 Public Education (1)

(- there will be a (2) sometime!)

Meet 6-6.30 for a 6.45 start meet at Leopold Square

Bring lights and locks!

A ride starting at the city centre and then out through the west of town Broomhall, Sharrow, Brincliffe to past school, college and university buildings of all kinds – it’s almost an educational zoo – we get out to High Storrs and then back down through Fulwood, Broomhill and back into the town centre be amazed at your leader’s erudition and historical knowledge and then guess who got the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Sheffield for Xmas.  Enjoy the ride and reminisce about your own schooling and studifying.  Finish at the Shakespeare pub at the end of Furnace Hill.

Heads up! This is all on roads with street lights and will suit any type of bike there are some climbs and a perilous descent but it should all be fun.Total distance approx. 11 miles.

map at

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=53.371808,-1.480751&spn=0.011445,0.027466&z=15&msid=108285123450551660446.000464370b6e255fac033

Start Leopold then Barkers Pool Division St, Broomspring Lane left into Gloucester St and cut through into Park Lane and then around Collegiate Crescent campus over Ecclesall Rd to Pomona St (could do detour to Sharrow Lane at this point – see map) and end up at Psalter Lane up to Ringinglow Rd and High Storrs, back down to Hangingwater Rd and then Fulwood Rd to Broomhall pick up Glossop Rd and down to Western Bank and then across to Netherthorpe, under inner ring rd up to Mappin St, down Portobello, Trippet Lane, round the Cathedral, on to Campo Lane, Paradise Square and then over to West Bar and the Shakespeare.

See the map for route, landmarks and sites

Sheffield Friday Night Ride is not a club or society and there is no formal membership or sub; it is a mix of cycling, interest in one’s city and beer.  It is just something I, and others, organise; all are welcome to join in on the rides or organising rides as and when they want – email sheffieldfridaynightride@blueyonder.co.uk to get on the mailing list – standing ad in the Sheffield Telegraph.

 

Ride report  Horror! I never wrote one at the time; my memory is that we met in Leopold Square and the security there tried to bar bikes from coming in the square – privatised public space again.  We just said that was silly and we were not going to cause trouble.  They backed down.  Ahh its coming back to me – about 10 or 11 of us I think – Anyway a good tour around the Leopold Square buildings saw the entrance to the Pupil Teachers Centre and the Science School and on to Springfield School, gaze at the Victorian gothic splendour and then over past Broomspring Centre which had been a school and up Broomspring Lane left on Gloucester St to emerge on Park Lane and the top end of Collegiate Crescent Campus. Glance up at Southbourne which used to be a grand family mansion and then round Collegiate Crescent past all the mansions until we got to Main Building which was built about 1816 as an Anglican Grammar School and an extra floor added in the early 1900s.  Down to Coll Hall in the centre of whichis the carcase of the original HT’s house and the wings were added in the early 1900s to build a vast residential and teaching block which was still used as residential accommodation into the early 70s.  Over Ecclesall Rd to Pomona St and the Edwardian Porter Croft School which was built in the second wave of state school building in the early 1900s.  Then along to bottom end of Cemetery Rd and on up to London Rd end of Sharrow Lane to find the original special needs school in Sheffield at the back of Mount Pleasant – still used today as an educational building.

Onwards and upwards on Sharrow Lane over Sharrow Lane top and then up Psalter Lane to the now closed campus of SHU.   The original building there used to be the Bluecoat School and which moved there from East Parade by the cathedral in the early 1900s.  Have an argy-bargy with a disgruntled driver who wait for it – had to wait to overtake us – he blasted his horn and when he tried to huffily give us some lip we just gave some forthrightly back and he backed down.

Then a steady climb up Ecclesall Rd to Ringinglow Rd and up to High Storrs School and perfect example of 30s secondary (grammar) school which was built when the City School moved out of the city centre just leaving the technical school at Leopold St.  A few minutes gazing at the fine, well lit facade facing the hills.  Then the mad descent towards bottom end of Fulwood and through a really nice gennel – nice peds gave way for the lantern style parade line of us – and into the Rising Sun for a pint or two.

About seven of us emerged to complete the ride; down Fulwood Rd past Notre Dame, formerly Mark Firth’s mansion, the new student accommodation where Ranmoor hall used to be and the to the Victorian and imposing Broomhill School, the only opt-out school in Sheffield, where Ed told us what it was like to be a pupil there.

About three more dropped out then and the last four went back via the University, the Mappin Building and Applied Science Building, the first new building for the University of Sheffield (founded 1904) and the back of the Cathedral to see the original boys and girls public schools and then two made it to the Shakespeare – which was full of raging punks – so we had the last drink in the Kelham Island Tavern

 

Excellent!