Development Alumni Relations & Events. Experiences OF UNIVERSITY LIFE IN THE ACCOMMODATION DEPARTMENTS SOCIETIES RAG AND PYJAMA JUMP UNIVERSITY LIFE THEATRE AND FILM STUDENTS’ UNION SHEFFIELD GIVING BACK LIFE IN THE 80S Accommodation Halifax Hall was an all-girls hall of residence in those days, but of course many of us had Thank you boyfriends who would try to sneak in (and then out again the next morning!). This magazine is the result of a My then boyfriend gave up trying to slip out request for memories of student of the fire escape and decided that the best life from alumni of The University of option was simply to brazen it out and leave Sheffield who graduated in the years down the main corridor and out of the front door. For several weeks this worked fine 1980 to 1989. and he would happily pass the time of day Contents with anyone he passed, including, on several I wish to thank everyone who responded so occasions, the warden [Mary Sharrock] on generously with their time and sent us their her way to breakfast. She was a wonderful recollections and photos. Just a fraction of the Accommodation 3 woman and quite a character. She eventually material appears here; all of the responses will stopped him and asked if he’d be so kind as become part of the University Archives. Departments 6 to join her in her study for a little word …he was of course expecting a good telling off, but it was apparently by no means an unpleasant Miles Stevenson Societies 9 Director of Advancement exchange. And she ended by giving him the benefit of some wonderful advice, which consisted of the unforgettable words, Halifax Hall. Development, Alumni RAG and Pyjama Jump 10 Relations & Events “ Sex is also good in the daytime The University of Sheffield University Life 12 you know dear”! 40 Victoria Street Sheffield S10 2TN Theatre and Film 14 Mary Wallace (néeTrelfa) (BA Geography 1981, Email: [email protected] Students’ Union 16 MEd Training and Development 1999) Tel: +44 (0)114 222 1071 www.sheffield.ac.uk/alumni Sheffield 17 Giving Back 18 Making toast in Ranmoor Halls, Life in the 80s 19 1982 – Room 6S12. Editor Paula Sandham (BA French and Spanish 1985) It’s been a pleasure to edit this publication. The eyewitness accounts of the range and quality of bands promoted by the Students’ Union, the misadventures during RAG PARADE and Pyjama Jump and the various societies and sporting challenges that took place shows what a colourful experience it was to be Professor a graduate of this institution during that Abdelkrim Khaldi decade. I hope you enjoy reading the (BEng Mechanical magazine as much as I have enjoyed Engineering 1981) being a part of its production. Tapton was really the main centre of my social Sarah Hopkins I studied at the University of Valencia and study life during my time at Sheffield. (BA English Language with Linguistics (Spain) and I was an Erasmus student at the There were the continually convivial shared 2003) Department of Hispanic Studies in 1986/87. meals in the large dining room twice a day Alumni Communications Manager (three times at the weekend), combined I remember a film season that included black with the dressy formal meals (the men wore and white films (Doris Day, Rock Hudson, [email protected] ties) once a term. etc.) and the incredible concert-movie ‘Stop Making Sense’ by the rock group Talking Evenings were often spent huddling many Heads that made me become one of their to a room over coffee and biscuits, or biggest fans. Ranmoor Room 6S8. sometimes in one of the two TV rooms (the Paula Sandham Falklands war caught our attention in my And Halifax Hall with its secret codes… (BA French and Spanish 1985) final year). dustbins outside the door! Sue Jane Bird Angeles Rausell (BA French 1982) (Erasmus Hispanic studies 1987) 2 3 I went to Sheffield in 1984 and as soon as I was Like most student accommodation, I was on the all-ladies K Floor at Sorby. The rooms had no sinks and only a welcomed into Stephenson Hall, it was clear the flat was rather damp with only small metal bed but we did have a cleaner who told us off when we used the that the Beer Race was a great tradition! electric bar heaters for warmth (we white sheets for a fresher’s week toga party. We all had to share a shower The Beer Race was a drinking boiled kettles to wash with and used and wash room which overlooked Earnshaw, the men’s Hall of Residence, and to shower at the University). The lower for over a month after we started there were no curtains at the full length competition between part of the back door had rotted away windows, I don’t think the Earnshaw lads were complaining! Stephenson and Earnshaw and every night enormous slugs would Breakfast was toast grabbed from the downstairs dining hall on the way out slide under and explore the flat. When Halls, that I believe dated to struggle up the hill and hope to catch the bus to Firth Hall. Usually Ranmoor we remembered, we would leave a salt Hall had completely filled the bus, so a joyous 20 min walk in the cold. Bus fare back to about 1952. Earnshaw Halls. barrier across the bottom of the back Andrew Price was ridiculously cheap, 4p. The format of the event was that each team (BSc Computer door to discourage the slugs, but to of 20 had 80 pints on a table and that only Looking into bedroom window Science 1988) limited effect. I remember frequently We had three TV rooms at Sorby – yes there were only three TV stations then – one person could drink at a time. Any spillage in Tapton Hall and one of his friends showing off his arriving back in the early hours, going to and they were not to be changed. A big favourite was Thunderbirds on a Sunday would result in a fresh pint being added to handiwork. put the kettle on (for the essential hot lunchtime before trotting off to the dining room for a full Sunday lunch. We the table. I seem to remember the whole Dean Gilmore water bottle) only to have to deal with were well looked after food wise although there was a lot of stodge. event taking seven minutes! The venue (BEng Mechanical Engineering 1984) the giant slugs that had found their way would alternate each year between the two onto the kitchen counter. My room was The common room had one or two Pac-Man TV screen halls. Rumours of sabotage would always at the front of the building but the slugs play stations and, apart from a bar manned by students, circulate where the home team would be got there too, and I’d wake up to find accused of warming or chilling the beer to that was it for entertainment. silvery trails across the carpet. their own advantage! Sorby had a hall ball Christmas 1981, Mari Wilson was the act and I remember I have clear memories of the Pyjama This flat had one tremendous advantage: it being great fun. She came and performed at the Union a year or two later as Beer Race, Jumps, despite the consumption of having moved in we discovered there ‘Just What I Always Wanted’ was a big hit in 1983. Stephenson Hall. vast amounts of alcohol. I was ENTS was a cellar. Behind a door off the hallway Chairman of Halifax so organising the a steep flight of stairs led down to a Alison Mary Nowicki ball and dancing with Les the porter Ranmoor House Party dark room (no electricity down there (née Holdsworth) until the early hours is another fond 5K 1982. of course) which opened into another (BSc Biochemistry 1984) memory. Martin Street (BSc Genetics 1982) room. The second room was somewhat We also created RAG floats dodgy; there was a pile of bricks and I studied Latin at Sheffield University 1983- rubble in one corner where the wall - that was a long night, I fell 86, staying firstly in Stephenson Hall (which had caved in, and the large hooks (meat was men only at the time: no-one I spoke asleep in the bath later that day. hooks?) hanging from the ceiling were to in the hall had actually chosen to be in a rather creepy. However, the first room single sex hall). There was many a night when a fire was a brilliant venue for parties and we alarm found you in the wrong place We used to go rock climbing around Froggatt, made good use of it during the year. at the wrong time. The newsletters Stanage and Curbar Edges and get our hands Sorby Hall. published by the various Halls were an torn by the grit stone. This stood me in good Some extension leads, baked spuds, amusing account of recent events and stead, though, when I left something at a a cassette player and plenty of beer a good way to poke fun at people. friend’s room in Halifax - the ladies’ hall - and needed to get in after lock-up time. I simply – what more did you need?! Hilary Southwell climbed onto a garage and then in through (née Church) a landing window. My quest was entirely Another annual event on the Stephenson Sarah Caffyn (BSc Physiology 1988) innocent, but the sash windows around the (BA History 1982) calendar was the Jung Ying Run.