Lost Answers, Lost Questions
Writing Challenge 2023
Posted by Chris Sissons on Jul 26, 2023
Writing Challenge ยป Chris Sissons
In the photo, you can see a view of a part of Sheffield. The large tower near the middle on the horizon is the University Arts Tower and behind it is the Hallamshire Hospital. You can also make out a number of different types of housing: tower blocks, deck access, new flats and houses.
Life is being lived in every house and flat. It’s impossible to find out what is actually going on in every dwelling. Leaving aside the intrusions into privacy, there’s too much to take in. Most likely everything happening today will in time be forgotten.
This is only a part of the city and we could multiply the number of stories several times to take in the whole of the city. But the city does not just extend through space (Sheffield is the fifth largest city in population outside of London) but also endures through time.
Sometimes I imagine my ancestors walking these streets. My father as a metal worker visiting factories in Lower and Upper Don Valley, my mother at Hunters Bar or shopping in the city centre, and my grandfather, a buyer for Wilsons chain of greengrocers.
My grandfather drove a horse and cart every morning to the vegetable market, on what is now Sheaf Square. In winter there would be icicles hanging off the reins. He bought fruit and veg from the wholesalers and then delivered them to shops at Hunters Bar, Broomhill and Crookes (I think that’s all of them!). He was a gentle man but could be very firm. In winter, he told the shop assistants off if they closed the shop door. A closed door put off the customers. That’s why they wore those gloves without fingers!
Sometime in the 1960s, the veg market moved to a new venue on the Parkway. On its last day on the old site, he took me and showed me around (I think by then he had a van but he couldn’t drive so presumably he had a driver too. Anyway, I’m sure I’d remember the horse if there was one!)
The old market was a series of higgledy-piggledy stalls and underneath there were tunnels, where they ripened bananas. I was young and didn’t want to be shown around when I saw how dark it was. The new market, the following Monday, was clinical rows of stalls and not nearly so fascinating.
This was my glimpse of his life but he lived here most of his adult life and must have seen a lot. He knew pre-blitz Sheffield and so must have seen so much more than I can imagine. I wonder what he would make of his city now, 40 years or so after his death.
These are questions I can never answer. Maybe they’re not the right questions – we lack not just answers but the right questions to ask. If he was with me now I would hardly know where to begin.
This year's Writing Challenge, fueled by prompts, is about the City of Sheffield. Be surprised by what's included and even more surprised by what's left out. This is Post 16 and there are 21 altogether. Share your thoughts and your love for the City in the comments. The first Post 0 is Context: Sheffield. The last post 15 is From Rioting to Supermarket. The next post 17 is Paradise.
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