In defence of Sheffield.
It was the city where we were raised and gave us our working class roots and values, neither to be found in Conservative Mablethorpe or Christian hang em, flog em and shoot em Republican Kansas.
Plus within a 30mins drive of the city centre you can be in the most spectacular countryside which surrounds the city, neither of which the above can boast.
The view from the top of Jaw Bone Hill down into Oughterbridge valley is hard to beat and I can see it every day.
We also have 'Cole Brothers', a 'Big Wheel' and 'Meadowhall' all not to be sneezed at.
I have loved my times spent in Kansas and Aus with Family, treasured memories you cannot buy, but still have a soft spot for my home town and feel that living here is just as good as anywhere else. Home is where you make it.
3 comments:
Yes it's true, home is where the heart is. All the things you love about Sheffield are the very things that I want to escape from. I don't care if I never go to meadowhall again.Big wheels terrify me and I live with spectacular views everyday. Jawbone hill is o.k. but the thousands of cars and people etc that have to be endured to get there. Horrendous!
This morning I am going to the doctors. It's about three time further then the doctors would have been in Sheffield but takes about the same time to get there. On the way I don't see litter and boarded up shops. Or unemployed people looking threatening. I will see Deer, sheep,cows,ducks,hens, foxes and Swans etc.
No I don't hate Sheffield, only what it has become!
Sheila x
As a Rotherham area lad albeit midway between Sheffield and Rotherham,I do miss the work possibilties that a big city affords,and having lived longer in Sheffield than my home town and still not addicted to hendersons relish,I am not really a dee dar bleeder,so I am not disloyal if I say that it's not the city I remember fondly,the changes are major with blocks of flats built on every bit of spare ground,and we did live in the city not the outskirts,so the change to country living is a major change,and with the winter of life a much more congenial environment,I too was enamoured of the ewden valley and environs and produced many landscape paintings of the area,and would have happily lived there but property prices were out of our range,and really it is'nt Sheffield ,the centre of Sheffield was the same as any large city,I remember the centre of Turin being grubby just the same with discarded needles in the small parks,one of the major factors in our flight to the country was finding the residue of drug taking in the privet hedge bordering our property,needles tinfoil ganja pipes etc,Iam afraid that this is the lot of many city residents and we are fortunate to have escaped it,many can't,Expats always think of England as cricket on the green,beer at a country pub and such rose coloured memories,the reality is most people do not live that kind of life,but trapped in overpopulated cities,and abandoned by the very political party they voted in to further their interests,through my paintings i have always tried to show through the mining theme the lot of the working class and would never dream of supporting the capitalist parties who have long been their enemy.I know where I came from and I am proud to be the great grandson of a yorkshire miner from Mexbro,and itinerant agriculural labourer from Hatton lincolnshire.
I suppose an extra bonus of living in a field is there are few retail outlets and my most hated pastime, shopping ,is a rare event.
Speaking as one who isn't living in the Motherland, I miss Sheffield dreadfully. I wish I could go back and live there and not spend the rest of my life in horrible Lancashire.
I would say as cities go, it's tremendous, the right size, not intimidating and friendly.
Plus, all my family live there, and I'd love to be closer to all of them.
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