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Important Historical Documents Being Destroyed


duckweed

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I have been told that Sheffield Parks is in the process of shredding their old Parks records. I am trying desperately to contact Council officials etc to ascertain if this is indeed true. I and a number of other local historians have been asking for some time that all old records be transferred to the Archives and we have been fobbed off or ignored. To say we are upset at the news we have been given is too mild a word. If anyone hear has any links that might help halt the destruction please help.

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I have had a statement from Isobel Bowler (Councillor in charge of Parks) and she says they are working with Sheffield Archives. I will be keeping a watching brief. If there are as we think some interesting records there they will need to be catalogued. Possibly we could get some volunteers to offer help?

We have been trying for years to have access to these records just to know the simple things like who lived in Bishops House between 1920s and 1960s. What precautions did they take during WW2. Which parts of the park were dug up for Dig for Victory? How much were the first park employees paid? Where did they get the Bandstand from and why did they knock it down?

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What kind of sick enjoyment does our council get in destroying our history. :angry:

God knows, but l left Sheffield a long timed ago and even then it was compulsory for councilors to have there brains removed.

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I think it's highly unlikely they would shred the records, but the Council departments are in such turmoil at present anything's possible.

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Sheffield Archives are good at acquiring material, and all Council depts are obliged to offer records to them before otherwise disposing. SA will accept material, even though they can't actually catalogue it etc. The important thing is preservation.

I know of a collection of letters from the Sheffield Information Service at the time of the blitz from people trying to trace relatives, which SA took under their wing in the mid 1970's, but there's no trace of them in their catalogues., and any enquiries are met with blank looks and scratched heads.

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The problem is that the Parks department have not been sending their material to the Archives and now they are moving out. There is a huge problem as much will not have been sorted and our Archives staff are so few. I am sure the Archives will do their best but they are seriously undermanned.

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Lack of respect for historical documents has been continuing for many years. One example is the bonfire of paper records that burnt on the Wentworth estate for weeks. Another example is what happened after the 1925 Act of Parliament that did away with the need for property owners to provide evidence of title any further back than thirty years. Hundreds of years of title deeds were made redundant and thousands were destroyed, their parchment being used to make lampshades.

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Doesn't just happen in Sheffield. My brother found a bonfire in London and retrieved plans re London's underground and other London Transport documents from their planning department.

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Its like Parish records. For a long time there has been a demand that the clergy deposit the records in an agreed archive so it means the condition does not deteriorate. Some churches complied. Others did not and so some church records are now unreadable. Some denominations are better than others at ensuring regular donations of records in the archives. I suppose what you need at least for public bodies is some kind of agreement to regularly deposit their records. However that still leaves the problem that they have to be sorted and catalogued and some will not be useful. It is a problem that is ongoing. How do you decide what is important? In my research I was doing I found in a catalogue that there was something in Rotherham Archives with a family name on it. It turned out to be a very small piece of paper about the size of a till receipt from the 17thc. It was a bill for grazing horses on 2 farms. What was significant to me was it mentioned the father's name and his farm as well as the Son who I knew. Someone could have thrown that piece of paper out and I would never have found the information. We can at least in modern times scan documents but even digital storage has its problems as technology changes and systems become obsolete.

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One possible way of relieving pressure is for people to seek help from the Archives on how to look after their documents, catalogue them themselves but leave information so people can contact them. Then possibly will them to the archives after they are gone? Not a perfect solution I know.

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I know Sheffield Archives do talks from time to time on looking after your documents. Don't have a lot of documents but do have family photos that go back 4 to 5 generations.

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Isobel Bowler is one of my local Councillors...with whom I have, on occasions, crossed swords. If necessary, I should be only too happy to contact her...as a constituent.

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Sheffield City Council's archive department is not the only place that will look to take historically important records, especially if they have some significance in a particular area of interest.

For example, I have been making informal enquiries to Caphouse Mining Museum, South Yorkshire Transport Museum, Industrial Railway Society, and such like about the kind of stuff that they would be willing to accept.

To my mind, anyone, but Sheffield City Council.

Not that I have any issues with the archivists themselves, just their bosses, and their bosses', bosses, and their bosses', bosses', bosses, ad infinitum.

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I know Sheffield Archives do talks from time to time on looking after your documents. Don't have a lot of documents but do have family photos that go back 4 to 5 generations.

I have already spoke to her. I suspect she does not realise what pressure the Archivists are under now their staff levels have been cut. I realise in the scheme of things the archives have a very low priority given present economic difficulties. But all the more reason to look at other ways of protecting records and looking realistically at what the Archives can store.

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I would not disagree with that statement at all.

As we have discussed elsewhere on this forum, on many an occasion, we live in a city in which the community's elected representatives, have never fully embraced its historical legacies, as can be evidenced by so many examples of officially sanctioned, wanton acts of vandalism and they have demonstrably failed to capitalise on many of those opportunities that have been given to them as a consequence.

Whereas other authorities have recognised those opportunities as a means of selling their communities to a wider world, in terms of tourist and visitor attractions and such, Sheffield, unfortunately, has ever really done so, and I cannot see that situation changing any time soon.

I am afraid that within Sheffield, that the preservation and promotion of its' historic legacy, at all levels, whether this be in bricks and mortar, or in ink and paper has not, is not, and probably, never will be one of its' priorities.

I think that the level of officially funded resource that is devoted to such matters will never, ever be anything more than the absolute minimum that is needed to "get by" and that puts all of us, with an interest in such things, whether as members of the public, or as employees of the authorities in a very difficult position.

There is clearly no political appetite to change that situation, and I doubt really, as to whether there will ever be that much public pressure to effect that change.

It will always be argued, that there are much greater social and economic pressures within the city that by necessity, dictate the allocation of its' resources in the way that they are presently apportioned.

That may well be true, and I for one, would not argue against it.

However, this is a situation that has been building up for years, during which time, there have been several keys decisions made within the city, [which were clearly crass at the time, and which are still crass in retrospect], which have placed us in the position that we are in today.

As a result of this, it is going to be up to the likes of ourselves, and others like us, and those piteously few council staff that are allocated to such duties to do the best that we can, with whatever private, or public resources that we have, to preserve what we can, when we can, in the hope that one day, that future generations will appreciate and enjoy the effort that was made.

I know that I paint a pretty bleak and miserable prospect, and my apologies for having done so, but it is something that I do believe and rather passionately care about.

I did not intend to rant, but as I see it "the house is on fire, so save what you can and get out of the door".

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For a number of years Sheffield has had the unfortunate reputation of being a ;City run by Philistines. There are standards laid down by the Local Government Association ( and Government???) as to how long documents must be kept, depending on their importance. There was also a scheme whereby Council documents were being micro filmed. I am not sure whether this still happens but I do know that several years ago, whilst assisting a colleague who was writing a tome about the City's failed plans, we researched Council records ( not archived) and came across " the backs of empty cigarette packets", where notes on important proposals had been made...These had been retained.!

I do know that a few years ago, under the FoIA I requested several documents about the take-over and closure of our City Airport. Several of them...including a pretty vital marketing plan... had vanished!

The "cut in budgets" is a stock answer and conveniently covers up much Council negligence!

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I don't disagree that the Council undervalues our heritage. I don't think this can just be put down to mismanagement of funds as it isn't about finance it's about attitude. If you look at other cities websites you will see much more heritage on their websites. Doesn't take finance to put things on an existing website or use Twitter etc to promote heritage or add historic buildings to their list of buildings to hire for conferences and events.

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I don't disagree that the Council undervalues our heritage. I don't think this can just be put down to mismanagement of funds as it isn't about finance it's about attitude. If you look at other cities websites you will see much more heritage on their websites. Doesn't take finance to put things on an existing website or use Twitter etc to promote heritage or add historic buildings to their list of buildings to hire for conferences and events.

You are of course correct, the present situation is not just down to a lack of financial resource, it is a situation that has been developing for many, many years.

A lack of financial resource however, is a ready and easy, "stock in trade" explanation for that situaton, and it will probably, always be the excuse of "first resort", certainly as far as this local authority is concerned.

In fact, I am sure that it sits up there as "excuse number one" in the Sheffield City Council, Book of Standard Excuses.

It is a sad reflection of this city that there is perhaps a better and more readily accessable, potted resume of Sheffield, and of its' history, its' achievements and its' most notable residents displayed on the walls of The Bankers' Draft public house, than in most of those places owned by Sheffield City Council.

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I just look at the typical guide books you get if visiting a city. It will talk of ancient pubs and good meals in heritage buildings and historic hotels. Sheffield has all that along with ancient woodlands and waterways and a bloody big chunk of the Peak District National Park within its boundaries. I see Food producers like Moss Valley, our Cow Molly and Birdhouse Tea company and Silversmith's restaurant and Eten Cafe win national awards and then someone says Sheffield is rubbish and doesn't do as well as Leeds. And yet Leeds aren't winning the awards! Its the same with Sheffield Heritage. People always imagine there is nothing worth noting in Sheffield. We have probably the most important iron age fort in the country, a Cemmentation furnace which is only 1 of 2 complete furnaces in the world. We have the works where stainless steel began, and the remains of the most important medieval castle in the North of England and in the top few for rest of England. We have one of the oldest farms in continuous use in the UK in Whirlow Hall Farm. So many of our listed buildings are older than stated and should be up-graded. There isn't any big conservation projects ever been in Sheffield where other cities have had major English Heritage spending. Our museums have had their Arts funding cut and what Heritage Lottery funding is given to Sheffield projects is minuscule compared to other places so not sure if this is because outside funders believe people saying there isn't anything or whether it is locals believing outsiders that there is nothing. Either way we need to get local people taking notice of and realising how valuable Sheffield's heritage is.

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There isn't any big conservation projects ever been in Sheffield where other cities have had major English Heritage spending. Our museums have had their Arts funding cut and what Heritage Lottery funding is given to Sheffield projects is minuscule compared to other places so not sure if this is because outside funders believe people saying there isn't anything or whether it is locals believing outsiders that there is nothing. Either way we need to get local people taking notice of and realising how valuable Sheffield's heritage is.

I think most of the people living in Sheffield do realize how valuable their heritage is. The problem is we are sick and tired of the council throwing money at major projects only to see them pulled down twenty odd years or so later. If you can, take a look at the film Sheffield...City On The Move, and marvel at just what we did have in those far off days.The now closed Castle market has got to be good for at least another twenty or thirty years, why not re-vamp it to serve its loyal abandoned customers that came from far and wide for all those years. At least then the old castle ruins could be left in peace for a while longer. W/E.

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I certainly would not disagree with the statement that "Heritage Lottery Funding given to Sheffield projects is miniscule compared to other places".

If I, as an individual, can have serious reservations about making a bequest of my own, rather small collection of heritage artefacts to them, then I am reasonably sure that others, with much larger resources available for distribution could well have similar concerns.

After all, if you want your "gift" to be used wisely and fruitfully, then you would probably not look towards Sheffield City Council as being the most suitable recipient available.

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Indeed but most heritage organisations including the Museums are charitable trusts and although it is true that MS and SIMT have some Council funding it is no longer the bulk of their money nor does the Council have so much control over what they do. So you can safely donate to the Heritage groups and the Museums without Council interference. The Archives do not have that luxury. The Council of course cannot make bids for Lottery funding in its own right only alongside a charity. The problem is that the Council is not used to working in tandem with these groups and more used to being in control. The Council had more control when it was in a position to add to any funding organisations such as Shepherd Wheel were getting. It hasn't those kind of funds any more so they are having to learn to be more in partnership. Council Officers I think have been well aware of a need to change but they are in a difficult position because of MASSIVE cuts in their departments especially re heritage officers and archaeology departments. Actually I can see that as having advantages if heritage groups are a bit more pushy because they have the knowledge and the expertise and they are also the ones who can ask for funding so in effect have the upper hand. The Council needs extra funding and only the heritage groups can get it.

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Well one thing I can assure you of is the state of the interior of the Archives. Having been on a guided tour of the 'Inner Sanctum' a few years ago after its state of the art refit. We were told all about the flood protection, temperature control (it was cold behind that MASSIVE reinforced door) and sprinkler system so I hope we can rely on those improvements for a few years yet. It's such a good thing that those changes were made before these swingeing cuts were introduced.

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