After World War Two Attercliffe prospered again for some 30 years. Workers came in from the Indian sub continent, the Yemen and the carribean, due to the ever popular demand for labour. In particular the Asians came to regard Attercliffe as the centre of their community and still do today. Their shops, restaurants, banks, mosques and a cinema lined Attercliffe Road. It still is a noted centre for Asian businesses and restaurants today too.

But by this time the programme for clearing the slums of Attercliffe was well underway. And one by one the terraced streets disappeared and came to rubble under the bulldozers. And even after most of the residents had moved on, the shops, pubs and small businesses still hung on. It wasn’t until most of the surviving works started to close around the 1980,s that many of the residents left. Finally moved gave up and moved out.

The idea planned in the 60,s and 70,s by the Council was that the land in the east end vacated by the slum clearance would be used for the steel industry to expand. And it did happen.Unfortunatley a decline in the steel industry in the late 70,s just as the slum clearance was complete. Stopped this from reaching its goal. Soon many of the great names and works were closing, and becoming themselves vacant sites.

By 1985 over one third of Attercliffe and its surrounding valley were derelict. Only in the time of the Blitz was it ever this bad.

Rather than rebuilding a heavy industrial estate again. The Council first then the Sheffield Development Corporation decided a new vision for the area. The vision was to bring back and regain some of its original greenness and beauty. Working to make the canal and the river a lot cleaner. As well as letting nature re grow the lost trees and grass once swallowed up by these huge factories and pollution. Also the area has seen a massive growth within sport and leisure, including the Don Valley Stadium, where some of the world’s biggest artists have performed as well as major sporting events. The massive shopping centre Meadowhall was also built where the ruins of the vast steelworks stood, where people from all over the country and further afield come to shop and relax. These high tech industries have come to work side by side with the established industries still surviving. And now housing is also coming back standing where the old streets stood, bringing a strong local community supported by a local campaign.

The area is far more attractive now than it has ever been for any century. New buildings with strong green surroundings and wildlife have risen from the dereliction of the past decades. But the more we build the more landmarks we lose, including the recent Tinsley Cooling Towers (covered later).

All the more reason for history to be recorded and not to be forgotten. And for people like me to share their own memories of life gone by.