Here is an account of some experiences of living and growing up in Britain and more specifically in the Lower Don Valley (LDV) (2) within Sheffield in the late sixties and seventies. My childhood memories the initial separation from the rest of my immediate family: mother, brothers, and sisters in Azad Kashmir, are strong and who came to UK in September 1970. These include my childhood experiences of living at Attercliffe and attending Huntsman’s Gardens School, Phillimore School in Darnall and Burngreave Boys High School in Pitsmoor. At that time, fears about deportation as an ‘illegal immigrant’ were rife amongst Asians living in the LDV.
As a youngster of eight years old, I experienced Attercliffe's ‘sense of community’ and later the Pitsmoor/Burngreave area – which I feel had unfairly inherited a negative stereotypes in terms of the media’s image of it being a ‘crime ridden neighbourhood since the late 60s’ that can be mainly be attributed to inequality and lack of long-term planning and economic investment by the successive governments. In those days, large groups of Asian youth attended the Bodmin Street Mosque and there was only about 3 Mosques in Sheffield for learning and memorizing the holy Qu'raan. I then moved permanently moved to Pitsmoor in 1968-69. Today, there are over 20 Mosques in Sheffield! After which, many youths made their way to Coleridge (Attercliffe Youth Club) although the word “club’ had dodgy connotations for parents i.e. nightclubs. The other focal points for us were the Pavilion Cinema, Ripon Street Park, John Banners store, the canal and apple scromping around Pitmoor's Roe Woods. On most occasions we ended up in Ripon Street Park – where we played hockey, Guli-Danda (3) and other English games or we went to the Adventure playground.
The majority of the youth who attended Bodmin Street Mosque, during this period and who formed the Asian ‘gang’ within Attercliffe and Pitsmoor/Burngreave, are now in their early and late forties. Most of their children now attend the many local mosques – most within yards of their homes. Some still reminisce about those ‘good old days’ and ‘bad old days’ at the Pavilion Cinema, where many had watched Asian Musical films, as a form of escape to have a good time away from their parents (mainly fathers). Our experience of learning the Qu'raan at Bodmin Street were in the main a mixture of good and bad, where many suffered corporal punishment. Nowadays, corporal punishment is not allowed and teacher can only impose detention. It seems funny now, though a t the time we lived in dreaded fear of getting the danda (4) for forgetting our sabakh (5). My Father and rest of my relatives moved to Pitsmoor ( attended Burngreave Boys High School – precursor to Middle School and now Byron Wood) and I later went to Earl Marshal School (named & shamed by David Blunkett, MP in 1994-95 and changed its name to “Firvale” around 1998-99).
However, in the late 70s I began getting involved in local leagues by organizing, playing and watching (Sheffield Wednesday & United) Football and Cricket matches.
In 1973-74 I left school and got a job at Edgar Allen Foundry (later Aurora Holdings), I served a five-year apprentice-ship upto 1979 and qualified for my full tech certificate in Mechanical Engineering 1980-81 & NEBSS by 1982. In April 1981, I carried out a research study “An investigation into the present production methods and production costs of dredging (buckets) equipment” (6) in conjunction with my technical college (Stannington (now Sheffield) College) on my Mechanical Engineering studies course in 1980-81. Coincidently, David Fletcher (elected President of UK Steel, in 2001) was the Managing Director at Aurora Holdings, and who later joined Forgemasters in 1986 commented on my study as I described the takeover by Aurora Holdings in June 1979 – which he hoped was not too ‘traumatic’. The study was interesting and it saved the company 17.5% in production costs & limited the number of job losses in the company, as a result of competing overseas markets and the world recession that began to bite and its impact on Sheffield Steel. The word ‘recession’ sounds very familiar today as it did in the late 1970s & 1980s and nowadays the exact location of the old steel producing site at Meadowhall has more to do with consuming and not producing!
I left the company in January 1985 and today the Edgar Allen Foundry no longer exists (relocated in Scotland) and Aurora were themselves taken over by Firth Rixsons! The old Edgar Allen’s & Aerex were demolished to make way for Meadowhall.
In the early 80s, I was involved the setting up formal groups and continued to maintain strong links with the Asian community within Sheffield by helping to set up the “All Stars Firvale Youth Group”, Asian Cricket League: Inter-Alliance Cricket (IAC), Asian Youth Council (later) Youth Movement, Sheffield Anti-Fascist Network (SAFN), Sheffield Defence Campaign (SDC) and the nationally celebrated campaign for better housing by the Akram (Yasmin) family from Pitsmoor/Burngreave; Sharrow Campaign Against Racism/Fascism (SACARF) and in a voluntary capacity with the Meridian Youth Community Association (MYCA) (formerly known as Asian Youth & Community Association) in Burngreave around 1992. Not forgetting, doing voluntary Youth work from 1979 and paid part-time 1982 and full-time in 1986 with the Sheffield City Council’s Education Department at the Everyone’s Centre & the Asian Youth Centre (Sharrow) and Darnall/Tinsley from 1990 to 2000. Also, Burngreave Community Action Forum & Trust (BCAF/T)) from 1997-2002.
The feeling and affinity I have for both Attercliffe and Burngreave/Pitsmoor are a mixture of sadness and distress are powerful reminders of the possible continuance of history repeating itself or the continued ‘legacy’ of unfairness and negative labelling, respectively. The irony of this point is that BNDFC most newest slogan is called: ‘legacy and not history’.
My intuition seems to be signifying the possible ‘night-mares’ to come in terms of present development after the first 6-7 years of Burngreave New Deal For Communities (BNDFC). It can be scientifically be proven that past experience has shown that same groups of people are likely to miss out on any new developments, environment may be changed, but many longstanding issues will not be resolved. This is what the BNDFC agency within Burngreave is currently experiencing. In the late 1980s, I carried-out Action or field study research by studying and researching the implications of what has happened to the North East are of Sheffield, in particular the experiences of Black workers and future implications for the younger generations of BME communities within the area. In November 1989, I did a joint Community Study on the “Lower Don Valley (Sheffield’s East End" (7)
WE NOTED THAT:
“..The power held by business people is an important factor determining the future of any area”…
WE ASKED:
“..What are going to be the effects/implications for the area after five years of new developments and what cost the Sheffield’s population going to bear in financial terms in helping to regenerate the valley and to stage the Student games in 1991?
Will local communities benefit from the Meadowhall developments in terms of gaining employment?
Postscript:
In terms of the Student Games, since this research was done, the Games happened and Sheffield City Council is still counting the cost of staging the World Student games in 1991 and still paying the financial debt in 2008.
More specifically, we asked what would happen to recruitment of ‘BME in the context of new initiatives’, and whether there has been any improvement in the facilities for the Gypsy and Traveller communities.
WE CONCLUDED:
“..Past experience has shown that the same groups of people are likely to miss out on any new developments. The environment may be changed, but many long-standing issues will not be resolved. Is this another phase of the East End (Lower Don Valley)’s historical cycle? On paper the new developments appear to offer the path to Sheffield’s prosperous’ future. It remains to be seen whether everyone in the area will benefit or just a minority involved in the various business ventures.”
This research seems to back up the recent experience of Burngreave community’s most likely outcome from the 55 million pounds of BNDFC money up to 20011. Already the writing seems to be on the wall, if you follow the developments within BNDFC since October/November 2007. The local press has had a field day in attacking the New Deal agency as spending over 3 million pounds on administration and other irregularities of incompetent management. The motivation of majority newspapers is to sell more newspapers and the more sensationalist the news or headlines – increases readership and circulation! By bearing this in mind, we have to partly agree with the press that everyone has a right to ask questions and get answers to our genuine queries/concerns.
In 1990, I returned to work in the East End as a Senior Youth & Community Development Worker based at Coleridge Centre (Attercliffe Youth Club. So, my life has once again undergone a full circle, or is it history repeating itself or a legacy? In terms of the current historical condition and trends which I feel are repeating themselves like fashion, styles and government social policy tend to hark back to a particular historical period of say thirty years ago. For example in the immigration & nationality acts of the 1960s & 1980s were passed to tighten immigration to UK and from January 2004 everyone who is over 18 and is applying for British Citizenship needs to attend a Citizenship Ceremony as part of her/his application process. This is mainly aimed at Asian and African immigrants and not against European Union migrants. As I mentioned, in the first paragraph of this piece of writing by mentioning:
“…fears of about deportations as an illegal immigrant were rife amongst Asians living in Sheffield…”
My own experience of arriving to the UK was such and when I set foot in Sheffield, Victoria Station (adjacent to the wicker Arches) on 15th October, 1967, the only think I remember was that the flashing pelican lights opposite the cinema on the Wicker! The weather wasn’t what I expected. It was cold, damp and very foggy, the night I arrived to Sheffield and my uncle’s house in Attercliffe on Bodmin Street – very close to the Mosque which still exists today. On that foggy night in October, 1967 I wouldn’t ever dreamed of anything like this (although I was under the illusion, whilst living in Kashmir, that in Vilayat (8) ‘streets were paved with gold’). What is the scenario now?
The reality for another young Asian coming from Pakistan/Kashmir to the UK in 2008 and landing at Sheffield & Robin Hood Airport and then passing the Meadowhall complex in full view from the M1 Motorway. I am sure for the first five minutes that person would be fooled into thinking ‘Streets in Viliyat (Mother Country) are paved with gold’ – In terms of the visual imagery of Meadowhall complex and the recent hype used in Burngreave to promote and project the success of the BNDFC and Meadowhall in 1990s of proving hundred of local jobs for local people.
After that first five minutes, the reality will hit home and as some young Asian people did – when Meadowhall first opened in 1990-1 and in recent months the BNDFC in Burngreave has so far not fully lived up to the expectations of benefiting local people. This time, TESCO Foodstore is promising hundreds of Job in Burngreave!
The myth and reality are very different scenarios. Since the development of Meadowhall and more recently the BNDFC development, there has been the rhetoric of providing improved community facilities and hundred of jobs for local people. The Improved facilities is the re-vamped Burngreave Vestry Hall – left empty and was vandalized for over ten years – and cost three-times as much to renovate & newly completed Sorby House. The reality is that the LDV will not be same again for another decade or more – if urgent action is not taken to develop the economic base to attract investment and the equal re-distribution of investment to benefit local people and not multi-national companies like TESCOs.
For BME the experience or working and living in the LDV isn’t going to very different from previous generations, in terms of social justice and equality. The bond that kept the ‘community’ not ‘communities’ which is not used by the state and policy-makers – in fact, it is (divisive) and is used to divide us along ethnic lines. The historically well-known, ‘Attercliffe community Spirit’ may return again by resembling the ‘old days’ and the negative image and stereotype held (by some of the of local and national media) of Pitsmoor/Burngreave as ‘crime-ridden neighbourhood’ may continue unless we counter the media disinformation and the law-enforcement agencies ‘hidden agenda’ to turn a blind-eye to crime in Burngreave and that it remains crime-ridden – hence it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
In conclusion, no matter how much hype Meadowhall used over fifteen years ago and within Burngreave the hype used by the BNDFC, local and national government in recent months to applaud local volunteers with awards. This has only come about, due to local criticism of not acknowledging the work of local volunteers and the ‘bad’ publicity in the media about the BNDFC – the reality is that history has a tendency to repeat itself or is it ‘our’ or my legacy to be continually treated unfavourably?
MATLOUB HUSAYN ALI KHAN
(Freelance Journalist, Sheffield)
NOTES & REFERENCES
(1) This an updated and follow-up version of my writing in “Who’d Thought of It? The Changing Face of Sheffield's East End” book published by East End Publishing (ISBN: 0 9517031 0 2), in 1990. Refers to an article I wrote under (my former name, prior to July 1999) Matloob Hussain entitled ‘My life has Turned Full-Circle’ at pages 99-102. This book is currently out of print. (2) The LDV is the area that starts from River Don at the Wicker and runs all the way to Tinsley (including parts of Burngreave, Brightside and large parts of Darnall/Tinsley). (3) Guli-Danda – A Asian game played with a stick pointed at both ends. (4) Danda – stick or cane, used to punish children. (5) Sabakh – Lessons related to learning. (6) “An investigation into the present production methods and production costs of dredging buckets” at Edgar Allen Foundry, Ltd. April 1981 by M. Hussain in conjunction with Stannington College. (7) Special thanks to Karen Harkness (co-researcher), Seni, Nicky Ahmed and rest of staff/volunteers at Star Works, Darnall (Now Darnall Education Centre (DEC) (8) Viliyat – The ‘Mother Country’.