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The white cottages on Winco Wood Lane
Here is what my father, D Briggs, told me the other week, about the cottages on Wincobank Hill.
He used to work for a company in Sheffield called Snowite Laundry and in 1950, a year before he did his National Service in the army, he made a delivery to the cottages on Winco Wood Lane. He said they were situated opposite Wincobank Castle, they were Medieval in appearance, had a communal yard with toilets across the yard.  There were about eight cottages, built of stone with stone stabs on the roofs and flagstones as the flooring, no carpets.  He also remembers hens going in and out of the cottages with hen muck all over the place.  Mark Briggs

A May Queen walks down Memory Lane
My childhood was spent playing on the 'hill', attending Sunday school and becoming May Queen (Violet the 2nd)and attending Sallys' dancing class(held at the chapel)for many years. I was brought up by my grandparents on Daffodil road. They lived on the flower estate before the war and were blitzed on Clematis road. They moved to Daffodil Road in the 50's. I attended Shiregreen School and moved to Hinde House when the senior school closed. When I was 18 I moved away and in the early 80's my grandparents died. I had not been back since; until earlier this year!! I took my husband down 'memory lane' and the first port of call was the hill. It must be nearly 40 years since I played on it, but managed to find areas and paths used long ago. It has matured so much. I used to walk with my granddad and the dog every Saturday from the bottom of Daffodil road through the wood to the 'bottom' (Grimesthorpe) to put a bet on the horses at the betting shop!! I found the path and came out at the bottom of Daffodil Road to find appartment!!!! I also noticed 'the tip' is totally covered with greenary - you wouldn't know it existed! And all the allotments have disapeared, my grandad used to have one connected at the bottom of the garden and shared it with Mr Stringer. That day brought back memories I had forgotton and a few tears and smiles too!!!     Sharon Burrows nee Parkin

Wincobank Castle
I used to play on Wincobank Hill, when the Castle was there and the farm houses were there, I remember going up there and onto the gun stands, but my brother had a budgie that flew away and the lady who lived in the castle found it feeding with her chickens.  The lady saw the advertisement that we put in the shop and so my mother took my brother up to the castle, so we went inside and the bird was in there and he collected it.

The Gun Stands
I went on Wincobank Hill to play up there and there was the gun stand. There were two of them, one was a light stand, a big light stand and the other one was an actual gun stand.

The Cottages
I lived up here, I was born in '52, so up until the Sheffield Gales, where the roofs were actually taken off the rows of cottages and then they were compulsory purchased by the Sheffield Council…so that were ..  the Gales were '62 or '63 ..I’m not sure.  When the Sheffield Gales came about, they took the roofs off and so the council came and said "we're re-housing ya", with compulsory purchase.  That’s when we moved and we went into council accommodation. I used to live in those cottages. The roofs in the Sheffield Gales were ripped off all across the back and exposed the actual attic areas.

Egg Rolling
Now one of the things, another bit of a story for here, every Easter on Easter Sunday we come here to the chapel and go up to this little bank here and we have egg rolling. So there’s been a tradition of egg rolling, so all ages bring our boiled eggs and roll them down. It goes back a while, I think the Chapel people have been doing this for as long as most people can remember, and whatever we think about egg rolling in these days people will still come.

Halloween Season
In the past what people have done is we’ve made lanterns at the chapel, paper lanterns and then, on the 31st of October, we come here and walk in these woods with our lanterns and tell ghost stories. So this is well lit up at night, on Halloween night, the woods there.  These woods are quite old ancient woods, they're some of the oldest woods in Sheffield.

New Year
...she said "I used to go up on New Year's Eve and dance", I said "ay we all did", and we used to go up on the hill and dance on it...we just used to sing, majority of time…they were happy times, everyone was in the same boat, nobody had a got a camera you know…and then I started playing the accordion so I used to go up and take the accordion and do dances...

Old Man Habajab
He used to have a horse and cart, flat cart, which he used to take down the hill, down onto the Flower Estate to pick up garden rubbish, vegetables, bread, anything that people give them, and the people who gave most at Christmas got the biggest piece of joint cos they use to slaughter pigs separately, that the Ministry didn’t know about, cos they use to mark the pigs and keep them to one side for their own use, to sell, and for their own consumption and reward people who provided the stuff for them...

Flower Estate
I got married to my wife when I was 20, when I came out of the army and she was 19, and the only house they could give us were on here…the Flower Estate…and we come in, and there were fighting in the back yards, and scrapping, and knocking people over railings, and drunk, and hitting people with iron bars and she said "I’m not stopping here!"  So we locked the doors and didn’t come out for a bit.  Then they got arrested and moved out.  Then we got a nice couple in next door, with two babies and we had a boxer dog and they had a little dog, and then it got better and better and better and better…

May Queens
I started coming here in probably about 1954, for Sunday School, we were in this room for Sunday School and then I’d be about 14-15 when I was Sunday School May Queen, Queen Freesia the 2nd, and I was here till I was about 18, and I moved from here and went to Southey Green Baptist Church.

You were voted to be May Queen by the older Sunday School group, sort of peer group. You had to vote for who you wanted to be May Queen each year, so I was voted that year.  It was quite a thing. You sort of spent your life through Sunday School thinking ‘Will I ever be May Queen?’ You had to choose two attendants and a cushion bearer and there used to be a Sunday School May Queen and a Captain, but by the time I was Sunday School May Queen I think the boys were long gone, and probably about a couple of years before that they stopped having a Captain as well, so I think I’ll have to ask. There was probably a Captain sort of intermittently I think, it depended whether there were any boys in Sunday School at the time.
 
The cushion bearer was generally a little boy who would hold the cushion behind you with your crown on.  You processed into the church hall, there would be girls with garlands of flowers making the walkway for you to walk on, and then you’d go onto the platform and sit on a throw and then someone would come, they were always invited, come and crown you. It generally took place on two days, I think Thursday and Saturday, and I think traditionally one of those days it would be a past winner Queen who would crown you, and on the other day some invited guests. During your year of office you had to do some sort of fundraising event for chapel funds.  When I was May Queen Sally Carmichael’s dancing group put a show on.