followed by the demolition of the Malthouses (houses built by World War II Italian POWs constructed from reinforced concrete sections) on Mansel Crescent, Mansel Avenue and Wordsworth Avenue. The long-term effect of this program, still underway in 2009, is to create a less crowded, greener environment for future generations. In June 2008, Radio Sheffield broadcast a play about the impact of this regeneration. Entitled The View, it featured four fictional characters and was used as a catalyst for an invited audience of Parson Cross residents to comment on the plans and to talk about the issues raised. It was written by Ashley Barnes, the artistic director of the Dead Earnest theatre company. Much of the content was inspired by the writings of present and former residents on the Parson Cross section of the Sheffield Forum, a website for all things Sheffield. In 2010 a book about growing up in Parson Cross in the fifties, “Get Thi Neck Weshed” by Graham Shepherd, was published by ACMRetro, specialists in Sheffield’s post war social history. This was followed in 2011 by “Gee’or Ruwerin” by Steve Bush, a similar account but based this time centred around a 1960s childhood. Both books are unashamedly written in the Parson Cross vernacular and contain a wealth of local idioms. Origin of the word “Eightfoot” A letter from the Parish Clerk to County Hall in Wakefield, January 1954, refers to the pathways between houses on Parson Cross, Wordsworth Avenue, Colley Avenue and Rokeby Rd, as “Eight-foot Pathways”. This was the name given to these walkways by the site architects. The paths are still known as “Eightfoots” by local residents. In 2017 a bistro pub called "The Eightfoot-Way" opened on the site of Chaucer School's Netball Court. References External links Firth Park Online People, Places and Spaces in Parson Cross and Foxhill The View - a Play about Parson Cross BBC Sources for the history of Firth Park Produced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives Wards of Sheffield