Supertram

 

Is it a train? Is it a bus? No - it's Supertram! Some cities, like Melbourne in Australia or Miserable Manchester, have mere trams but Sheffield has Supertrams! They began serving this city in 1994.  It is a great system with a few lines but the network does not cover the entire city. The Edwardian system that was shut down in the 1960s was far more comprehensive. 

My nana - Nana Morris - was a Sheffield tram conductress for a couple of years in the early 1930s. I wish that I could talk to her about how it was back then but she died in 1988 just before our Frances was born. If she were still alive today she would be 125 years old. She was born just before the death of Queen Victoria.

Anyway, this past week, I went on not one but two Supertram adventures. On  Wednesday,  I travelled to the southern terminus at Halfway and on Friday I rode the tram to the northern eastern terminus at Rotherham Parkgate. Of course, my journeys were free because I am an old fogey with a senior travelcard.

On both occasions, after I reached the termini, I set off on planned long circular walks. Naturally, I wore shorts to show off my muscular Majorca-tanned legs. Keep back ladies!

I always think that "Halfway" is an odd name for a place but it is not the only one in England. It was a stagecoach stop that was literally "halfway" between Sheffield and Chesterfield. I think that's how the story goes. Nowadays Halfway is home to several modern estates with their samey, rather characterless houses.

That walk took in nearby Killamarsh, Nethermoor Lake, St Giles parish church, former railway lines and the overgrown coal mining wasteland that lies between Halfway and Killamarsh. It was a great eight mile workout for me and I saw many things of interest before getting back to the Supertram stop.

Railway footbridge at Halfway

Birds in Nethermoor Lake - once an opencast coal mine

St Giles's Church, Killamarsh

Friday saw me walking away from the Parkgate shopping complex and out into the countryside between Greasbrough and Rawmarsh before climbing the hill to Upper Haugh then down into Rawmarsh itself.

Quarry Street, Rawmarsh

That area has special resonance for me. Quarry Street, Rawmarsh is where Nana Morris was born and raised and it's where my mother and her brother Derek were also raised by my maternal great grandparents after Nana and my blood grandfather Wilfred Henry Jackson split up in or around 1929.

Mum always remembered those days with warm affection. It was the land of her heart. Years ago, when she was an old woman, I took her back to Quarry Street on a magical mystery tour. It brought tears to her eyes. When she was a girl, she could never have guessed back then how her life might turn out and of course she could not have foreseen World War Two when she volunteered to serve in The Royal Air Force.

Amazing cobbled bridleway heading up the hill to Upper Haugh

As I walked through Haugh Road Cemetery, it crossed my mind that Mr and Mrs White - my great grandparents could be buried there but in spite of looking I did not see their gravestone - that's if they even had one. I know that my great grandmother was called Annie but I have forgotten the first name of my great grandfather. This may spur me on to do a little family research.

First World War grave in Haugh Road Cemetery.

This is the grave of Fergus Law. He died of his wounds

in a convalescent hospital in Epsom, Surrey on May 15th 1917.

The bottom inscription reads:-

"SOME DAY WE'LL UNDERSTAND"

but frankly I doubt that.