The market display continues to surpass all that we had hoped it was going to be, we always had faith that it would be well received but we weren't quite prepared for just how much interest it has generated. This week we have been visited by Joe Scarborough who spent quite a time chatting to us and giving us some priceless advice for the Portland Works petition. Sadly some of the group members just missed Joe's visit.
This was followed by a visit from J.R. (Jack) Wrigley.
Jack has been photographing Sheffield for over 60 years and his books include, Wrigleys Sheffield, A Sheffield Camera, T`owd Locals and An East End Camera. I was fortunate enough to get to speak to Jack and we may be lucky enough to be having him as a group member in the near future.
As if that wasn't enough we were treated to 45 minutes in the company of 85 yr old Syd Barton who brought some of his prized mementos to show us which included a knife made by his father to be used in his work as a cobbler, with a blade made from a hacksaw blade and a handle made from a brush stale that was split in two and was almost identical in design to a Stanley knife, but was made before the Stanley company even came to Britain!
To say Syd was a bit of a character would be an understatement, he left us with 3 jokes, only one of which is repeatable and then casually mentioned that he was a navigator on the bombers during the war.
And to cap the week off we listened to a 91 year old woman who was recounting her memories of working in the Sheffield Steelworks during the war.
Looking forward to meeting more Sheffield folk in the coming weeks.
Jim Lambert