So What?

Burngreave Cemetery Apple Day #BAD11 #FOOD

Today is the Blog Action Day and the theme this year is World Food Day. 

It was also Apple Day in Burngreave Cemetery.  And so that is my food theme: apples. 

Let me start with Burngreave Cemetery.  It is a fantastic open space in Burngreave (which is the name of the ward, it's really Pitsmoor) in Sheffield, England.  It has an interesting history and its friends meet most Sundays in the chapel (right), which they are turning into a museum about the cemetery and the surrounding area.

This Sunday was their third apple day.  It's never been a big event.  It is an opportunity for people to bring their apples to swop for other's apples.  And there is a small display of local apples.  By local I mean grown in Sheffield.  I copied the list of apple varieties present and here it is:

In the photo, starting on the left of the back row:

Ribston Pippin

Pitmaston Pineapple

Wyken Pippin

Cider Apples (Kingston Black and Dabinet)

Golden Spire 1850

Lane's Prince Albert

Golden Noble

Newton Wonder

Cockpit

Peasgood Nonesuch

Keswick Codlin

On the front row there's a quince and a medlar and then left to right:

Worcester Pearmain 1873

Epicure

Ellison's Orange 1911

Beeley Pippin

Margil

Egremont Russet

Adams Pearmain

Orlean's Reinette 1773

Ashmead's Kemel

I've deliberately listed these at the risk of being dull because there is a point to be made.  How many of you heard of?  You will know the names of Cox's Orange Pippin, Braeburn, Spartan, Russet (perhaps) and of course the all too dreadful Golden Delicious (frequently neither), Granny Smiths and of course the Pink Lady that inevitably tastes of sweetened polystyrene.

Most of these varieties are not British apples and have been developed because they provide a consistent product for the benefit of the supermarkets.  The supermarkets are the reason so many orchards are closing and rare varieties being lost.  Today it's the odd tree in a garden or allotment that preserves these varieties.

This year I am told has been good for apples.  (So, good they could afford to squash them, right.)  I've been given more than usual and even those with all too familiar names have more flavour than anything I normally eat from supermarkets.

Pitsmoor is notable for its specialist shops, particularly grocers selling foods from all over the world.  On the last day of this month, one of the largest branches of Tesco in Europe is to open on our doorstep.  We're hoping the little shops, with the genuine choice they offer, will not be forced to close through competition. 

If we're not careful we'll lose more than our apples.

Related articles

• Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield , Yorkshire - Free Headstone Images (ancestrycentral.wordpress.com)
• Apple day: A celebration of core values (telegraph.co.uk)

Sheffield Street Art

I went to a very small book launch last night.  Sheffield Street Art is a set of images by Hedley Bishop and Jim Lambert.  I believe it is possible to purchase it on Ebay but I can't find it.  I suggest if you would like to purchase it (£5), you follow the link and leave a comment.

I am impressed by the amount of street art that's around us in Sheffield.  Perhaps the best known street artist in Sheffield is Kid Acne (bottom left above), who has an exhibition currently at the Millenium Galleries.  (On until 23 October upon which date this link will presumably die.) 

My favourite artist is Phlegm (top left above) who has a fantastic piece of work not far from where I live at Riverside.  This can be found on a website called Sheffield Street Art, which just to confuse everyone has nothing to do with the book and although it features some of the same artists covers mostly different works.

The book was expensive to produce and so won't make much money.  The authors are hoping to use the proceeds for a future 'Pictures of Sheffield Old and New' publication and they hope the proceeds from that will be substantial enough to go to the Alzheimers Society.

Why Christmas is early this year

It's not even Advent and they're already playing carols in the shops.  (Advent may I remind you is the name given to the fast before Christmas.  It starts next Sunday and between then and Christmas we're not supposed to go to parties.)  Usually, the carols start in the shops during Advent; Advent hymns (there are many and much better than most carols) are generally unknown to the public, intent upon a month of feasting (followed by 12 days of more feasting) (followed by fasting in January - sometimes ...).

Last year I wrote during Advent about the idolatry at the heart of Christmas imagery and this link will take you to the first of these posts.  However, the explanation for this year's early start may be quite different ...

First, however, some pictures (all taken this afternoon) from Sheffield Peace Gardens (there's also a stage on Barkers Pool and a Grotto (for our national god) at the top of Fargate.

and some skaters with penguins ...

... and the shops, which opened this last weekend ...

... and also on Tudor Square ...

So, why do we have to put up with all this?  In this week's 'New Statesman', David Blanchflower quotes (on page 19) from Julia Evans of the National Federation of Builders:

Despite official figures showing an impressive industry growth, the industry's own figures point to a fall in output, falling prices and fewer enquiries.  This all points to a depressing Christmas for the industry.

It is no coincidence that we turn to our national religion with renewed vigour, during an economic crisis.  We're going to have weeks of this because they're all afraid their profits are going to be depressing this year.  They know the cuts to services mean there's less money in the economy, even if the government doesn't.

East Midlands Trains' Alternative to Ticket Barrier

A major controversy has been raging in Sheffield for several months now.

You will be aware that Sheffield is (like Rome) built on seven hills (otherwise, it is not at all like Rome).  One of those hills is behind Sheffield Midland Station.  A footbridge, built through local taxation, passes through the station, linking people living up the hill with the town centre.

East Midlands Trains (a new franchise) decided some time ago this footbridge is an open invitation to fare dodgers and so proposed installing barriers open to ticket holders only.

To cut a long story short, the opposition to this proposal was pretty much universal and the council threw it out.

EMT went to the government and the plan was resurrected.  So, a few weeks ago I joined a protest march across the footbridge.

We then heard that EMT and the government had withdrawn plans to close the footbridge although they reserved the right to erect temporary barriers.  I imagined this would be chains of staff holding hands and capturing fare dodgers, in order to extract due recompense.

Imagine my horror, as I hobbled (sprained ankle) into the station this morning to discover the terrible truth ...

I understand Winston Churchill tried something similar during the second world war and it almost ended in tears.  If EMT persists with these drastic measures they'll have another demonstration on their hands.

Lent 18: Ebenezer Elliott

Shall crime bring crime forever,

Strength aiding still the strong?

Is it thy will, O Father,

That man shall toil for wrong?

No! say Thy mountains: No! Thy skies;

Man's clouded sun shall brightly rise.

And songs be heard instead of sighs:

God save the people!

(From: Methodist Hymn Book, 909, verse 2)

Some of us discovered this hymn in 1982, when I lived above Grimesthorpe Methodist Centre in Sheffield.  Elliott was known as the corn law rhymer and his statue is in Weston Park in Sheffield.  The house where he lived is marked with a blue plaque in Upperthorpe, Sheffield.  The members of the Grimesthorpe Methodist Centre, who were in their late eighties, told us they were not allowed to sing this when they were young because it's telling God off!  More likely it was frowned upon because it was written in the nineteenth century soon after the National Anthem.  When wilt thou save the people? enjoyed a renaissance in the musical Godspell in 1970.  It is usually sung to Commonwealth.

I still believe this hymn should be sung more often.  It is a miracle it found its way into the hymn book in the first place and it is significant it is not in the current one.  The lyrics might be seen as sexist but I hope this can be excused this one time.  We should ask ourselves why Christians are so reluctant to sing revolutionary songs these days.  We seem to have given up on anything other than anodyne worship songs about nothing real.

Midday in Sheffield

Pictures of Sheffield old and new is a very successful group on Facebook.  Members are invited to upload their pictures of Sheffield and by now there are thousands.  The group has captured attention all over the world and has many imitators. 

Recently, on 12 September, the group asked its members to take a photograph of whatever was around them at midday.  This video is the result.  Can you spot mine?  As far as I can see it is unique amongst these photos, do you agree?  Why?

The video is available on YouTube and is being made available on various networks around the world.  In the new year 150 pictures from the site will be on display in Sheffield, at the invitation of the local authority.  I suppose it is a small initiative in the world of social media but it is proving to be an interesting way to record and celebrate the city.

This is my photo.  And if you look closely at all the pictures, I think you'll find it is the only one which shows a clock!

How to get out of Pitsmoor

When I was in the sixth form, between 1970 and 1972, I joined the Conservation Society.  This was one of the earliest environmental groups, which gave way to later organisations such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Green Party.

At the time the big name in environmental groups was York 2000, a group set up to oppose the York ring road and its country-wide offshoot Transport 2000. 

This provided the inspiration for one of Sheffield Conservation Society's campaigns; opposition to the building of a dual carriageway across Wicker to link up the ring road in Sheffield.  I think our campaign must have been a success.  The plans for a dual carriageway cutting across Wicker on stilts were never implemented. 

We might have been better off with the stilts as now not one but two dual carriageways cut across Wicker.  They encircle the main access routes into Pitsmoor.  If anyone wanted to cut Pitsmoor off from the city centre they could not have found a better way to do it.  Access to Pitsmoor is now an obstacle course on foot or by car. 

Any attempt to explain access by car is doomed to failure.  I know how to do it and usually navigate the labyrinthine route without getting lost too many times.  On foot it is a daunting prospect of seemingly endless streams of speeding traffic.  Whilst the basic principle of the dual carriageway is that cars travel from one direction, these junctions are so complex it takes great presence of mind to remember where to look.  A matter further complicated by frequent malfunctions in the crossing lights.

The first photo shows the carriageway between the Wicker Arches and Spital Hill, see photo and post here to get orientated.  Despite being a dual carriageway, there are three sets of lanes for the pedestrian to navigate as well as the junction with Spital Hill, which used to be the main route through the area.

The second photo is the actual ring road.

Despite its run down nature, Wicker  was designed on a grand scale and was a fitting entrance to Pitsmoor and the Lower Don Valley.  Recently several new curry houses have opened or been refurbished with insurance following the floods in 2007.  They are now cut off from Pitsmoor.  The city had the sense to ditch these ridiculous and unnecessary plans in the seventies, why on earth were these roads built 30 years later?

Sheffield's Brandenburg Gates

Sheffield's geography depends not only upon its rivers but also its prevailing winds.  The wind blows from south west to north east.  So, over the years, the wealthy moved to the south west, where the winds blow from the Pennines, leaving the poor to live in the north east where the winds picked up industrial pollution. 

Therefore, you will see from the diagram, the Lower Don Valley was the most polluted area.  Of course, much of this was remedied during the 1960s when Sheffield boasted it was the cleanest industrial city in Europe.

The main access to the Lower Don Valley is along Wicker and through the Wicker arches.  (Wicker has no definite article, but the arches do!)  These symbolically access not only the main industrial area but also the poorer areas of Sheffield.  They form a symbolic line between the richer and poorer areas of the city, just as the Brandenburg Gates, between 1961 and 1989, formed a barrier between east and west Berlin.

These arches actually comprised over 50 arches of various sizes and original functions.  Sadly some have been demolished but at the time this was a significant piece of architecture and even today once you twig its extent, it is still impressive.  The arch in the picture carried the railway line from Sheffield's Victoria Station (long gone) and Manchester's station of the same name.

If you look through the main arch, behind the bus, you will see the road forks and the left hand fork is Spital Hill.  This is the main route into Pitsmoor, so it is not unreasonable to to see this arch as the gateway to Pitsmoor.

... during ... ?

Where is Pitsmoor?

I suppose many cities, like Sheffield, have their own myths.  Sheffield was built on seven hills (like Rome), it used to be the cleanest industrial city in Europe (no longer industrial and probably not as clean these days), and of course it is the country's biggest village.

If there is any truth in the last claim, it is in the sense that Sheffield is made up of many villages.  It is a mosaic of small communities, sometimes one inside the other like Russian dolls.  The boundaries are rarely clear; reference to a map doesn't really help, as the name is written in the general area and boundaries are rarely shown. 

So, Burngreave is a ward and its boundaries can be found on maps.  Pitsmoor is somewhere in Burngreave and there are some places in Burngreave that are definitely not in Pitsmoor, eg Fir Vale.  There are other places such as Woodside and Pye Bank which despite their names seem to be part of Pitsmoor.

My diagram shows how Pitsmoor relates to local geography (click on it to see a larger version).  The confluence of the the River Sheaf with the River Don is visible from the gents (see photo above) on Blonk Street.  It is possible to see the confluence over the wall to the right  (from where the other photo is taken) but I am told the best view was from inside the Gents.  Sadly the Gents has been closed for many years.  If the confluence were worth seeing, as you can see from the photo below, it is not, then there would be an argument for reopening the Gents as an observatory.  Wicker crosses the Don close by the confluence and links the city centre to Pitsmoor.

The rivers tell the story of Sheffield in their geography.  Remnants of the old grinders' wheels can be found along the tributaries and the earliest industrial development was along the Sheaf valley.  The later developments along the Don Valley marked the time of the growth of Pitsmoor, which was until then a small village on the edge of Sheffield. 

Most of the ward is on a hill, surrounded to west, south and east by the Don.  The Sheffield floods in 2007, worked their way down the Don Valley.  They started in the north east and rapidly propagated along Wicker and down the Lower Don Valley.  This lasted a few hours.  Floods further downstream in Rotherham and then Doncaster, persisted for longer.  During the floods Pitsmoor was surrounded by a moat.  Property was not affected  but residents outside Pitsmoor had difficulty getting home.

If you would like a rough idea of what Pitsmoor looks like, there is an aerial photo.  In my opinion, this photo does not show all of Pitsmoor and some of the distant areas are not a part of it.