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 TIME WE'LL UNDERSTAND"
but frankly I doubt that.
Excellent walking, Mr. P.!
ReplyDeleteI sure wish we had trains like you do. I guess our country and even states are so spread out that it would be very difficult to create a system that would cover so many locations. And you know how much we Americans love our big old gas guzzlers.
I'm pretty sure you're right about us never understanding. There is no way to understand why we wage war, even now.
You and your gas guzzling vehicles! But I think that over the decades, most American cars have become more fuel efficient and often smaller too.
DeleteYou've made some super transitions here from trams to Nans and long ago thinking.
ReplyDeleteMy mind is as fluid as fluid Red!
DeleteAnother great adventure! I enjoyed it along with you.
ReplyDeleteI am glad we could ride the supertram together Deb.
DeleteI think the inscription is "some time." Could be read almost as a kind of sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction Chief Eagle Eye!
DeleteYou didn't supply a list of what makes Supertrams superior.
ReplyDeleteThe bridleway must be very old, yet still serves, at least as a foot path.
Supertram list:-
DeleteThey are as smooth as ice.
They are carpeted.
They have bars onboard.
They travel like bullet trains.
They can fly.
No Australians, MAGA Americans or Russians are allowed on them
Thank you for taking us along on yet another fascinating walk.
ReplyDeleteThe cobbled bridleway looks very enticing, it makes me want to explore where it leads to.
As you are an enthusiastic walker too you will appreciate my delight upon seeing that cobbled bridleway. I have tried to google its history but could find very little.
DeleteApart from colours, your supertram looks much like our trams do, and we also do not have full city coverage, probably never will. I remember trams when I was four and we lived in Adelaide, they went down so many more streets and they had steps to climb in and out of the tram, back in the days when women "dressed" for town and men wore hats. Then the cars took over....
ReplyDeleteBack then - when you were four - were the trams pulled by horses?
DeleteA journey(+walk) in Time as well as in distance... :) The Supertram sounds great. Only a few cities in Sweden have trams, best known for them is Göteborg/Gothenburg. Stockholm has some too, but is better known for its underground/subway. 8 miles is a long walk - I'm glad if I manage 2 these days...
ReplyDeleteIf you manage two that is brilliant given your knee injury that so incapacitated you Monica.
DeleteThanks for clearing up what a supertram is! I wish we had this type of transport where I live. I enjoyed looking at the photos from your very long walk!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to ride on the supertrams - especially when those rides are free!
DeleteOne thing many areas of the US lack is public transport. We need it here in SC.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a couple of great days out. You speak of modern housing as being "samey", look at Quarry Terrace, and probably the street you live on. Most urban and suburban neighborhoods are a handful of floor plans, with at most ever so slightly varied exterior finishes. Building this way is not something modern, it has been done this way for well over 100 years.
ReplyDeleteThe Victorian tenement in which I was born looked down on the Tramlines.
ReplyDeleteMiss a tram, another came two minutes later.
Councils all over Britain got rid of their trams. It happened quickly.
The decommissioned tramcars were snapped up by scrap metal yards.
Big sums of money were exchanged. Bribes. Corruption.
Eco-friendly trams were replaced by buses spewing out diesel fumes.
Railway lines were closed. Britain's motorways were extended.
Country railway stations stood abandoned. Communities stranded.
Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Transport, backed the powerful
Motorway Lobby. They made a fortune building even more motorways.
Parkinson said that public transport was a dated socialist concept.
Retiring from government he set up his own public relations company.
He called it Planet Online. He sold it in 1999 for £75 million.
Alas, we haven't any Trams in Blackburn. Super or otherwise. They look fabulous though.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could still walk 8 miles.
The quote "some day we'll understand" is very sad, isn't it. We've visited ancestors buried in France . They were 19 and 25 years old. What a waste.
Is Morris a family surname may I ask?
It's good that you are still getting out for long walks. Isn't it sad that we still have wars...
ReplyDeleteA tram must be a pleasant way to travel.
ReplyDeleteWar graves appear in unexpected graveyards and always give me pause for thought. I hope they make others consider, too.
Here in Toronto, we don't have trams. super or not. We have streetcars. Red Rockets.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I doubt that too.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Killamarsh, from 2 - 13 and it will always be full of special memories. I went to Endowed Infants then Killamarsh Junior School before Eckington Comprehensive. It was a great childhood with loads of countryside to explore. I remember on Saturday mornings we would walk to halfway to get the bus to Sheffield as the fare was 2p from there.
ReplyDelete