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There is a good article on Wikipedia about air raid shelters, with pictures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_shelter#Anderson_shelter

Hi there. Not sure if this is the best category to post in (@Admin - by all means move the post if not!). We live in S2 and have that is believed to be a (concrete) sealed WW2 bomb shelter in our garden. I say "believed to be" for two reasons: 1) The former owners indicated that's what it was when we were shown around the house (though hadn't investigated it themselves, nor had any more info) - and 2) If it ISN'T a sealed shelter of some sort.. I can't think what else it could be! I can and will post some pictures in due course, but to get the ball rolling I wondered if anyone on here has any knowledge of "domestic" WW2 shelters like this (potential) one? One immediate oddity is that the house also has a sizeable seller (two rooms - one larger, one small) - so it seems unlikely any such shelter would have been required..? That said, the garden is long / thin - so the location of the potential shelter is some distance away from the house (and in turn safer, I suppose..). Also, as far as I know there are no such shelters in the gardens of other properties on the street (the house is a Victorian mid-terrace). Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. Depending on what response I get I may then also put some pictures up here of the suspected / potential shelter. Cheers, John.

I know this is not strictly Sheffield to be in this category but we get the 271/272 to get here. The best Fish and chip shop is ? Bradwell fisheries, the fish is huge, the chips soft and still a little greasy(just as I like them) and the mushy peas yummy!! The prices are good value, we got Haddock, chips and peas, Cod, chips and peas and two cans of pop and it was around £13.00. The service is impeccable and everything cooked fresh to order. You get all this and you are surrounded by wonderful scenery, could you ask for more?

Thanks for your response, I'm not quite sure what year the photo was taken but I know from census records that they were there from 1919 and my Great Grandfather would have been 24 years old then. It's great to see all the old pics of times gone by.

My Great Grandfather was John Henry Law Undertaker of 70 Sidney Street from 1919. I recently took a couple of photographs of where the business was and here's a family photo of John Henry outside the business all those years ago.

Moving slightly sideways, many of us will remember when the fish & chip shop was the only take-away available, especially in the evenings - except that it was never called a "take-away" in those days, simply "the chippy". I would guess that the next type of shop to enter the fray was the Chinese food outlet - for which the expression "take-away" was probably invented. But when? I remember the first one opening in the town where I then lived, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, about 1970, run by one Johnny Wong; but I suspect that the "chinky chuck-out" as they were rather dismissively called back then, would have arrived in big cities such as Sheffield before that.

I just remembered some concrete ones that I knew many years ago at Birley East Pit, but those were built into a bank with an entrance at the front and a hatch in the roof further back.

This is good !

A Morrison Shelter was an indoor shelter, a cage like thing. Apart from anything that has been cast in place the only concrete one I know of was the Stanton Shelter but they were concrete strips bolted together so it doesn't look like one of those. The easiest and safest way I can think of testing the depth would be to use a long masonry drill bit but beware of pipes or cables. Keep us informed, I like a good mystery.

Not quite blank, it had faint "engraving" presumably from stamping the wet concrete with dies with some initials, presumably the company name.

PS here's a more recently image showing the metal edging removed + one of the (hollow) corner "posts". There is no sign of an obvious join / gap at ANY point all the way round - and yet the rectangular area (see preceding picture) IS flat (compared to the "mound" below) - and also gives the impression of being a "lid" section / piece... which is odd.

OK... here's a picture of the entire area. NOTE: The square smaller slab and bird bath are NOT attached (we've added those ourselves, to try and brighten it up a bit!). The concrete (larger) area is a mound, of sorts - in that it is raised / domed slightly from the ground. Also... tempting as it looks, that corroded metal edging turned up to be something of a tease - as although it *looks* like the edge of a hatch / door / lid, having now removed it there are no signs of gaps / joins (though I still suspect there will be, somewhere in there..). Since this picture was taken I've prised away the metal - no joy there - but the 4 corner "posts" remain in the ground (these are hollow and I can get a screwdriver / stick approx 4 inches into them). I can provide close up pictures if the interest is there. Based on this image + description do people agree that this is most likely *some* kind of shelter...? John

Interesting, but pictures definitely needed.

Not an expert on this subject but I think there was a move away from using cellars as, easy though they were to re-inforce, if the house collapsed on top of them there was no means of escape.

I have almost no knowledge of these things so Googled it and came across the site linked below. Quote from the site --- "The Liberty Bodice was invented by a corset firm called Symington's and designed as a health garment to "liberate" children (especially girls) from tight corsets and stays that progressive people were beginning to consider harmfully restrictive and binding on growing young bodies--hence the term "liberty" suggesting liberation from the old ways of dressing children. " --------------- http://histclo.com/style/under/gar/waist/waist-lib.html

I think you mean "without" and, unsurprisingly, I completely disagree with you...It wasn't so much push biking in general I was making the remark about but the shear arrogance of some cyclists. However, I don't think a History Forum is the place to argue the point about. ... I would add though that a new ,rather impressive, cycle way appears to be being been constructed around the rear of Littledale estate and Parkway Drive ( CostCo) ...now, that's the future of cycling for the 1.5 million who cycle on a daily basis....dedicated cycle ways...after all, they estimate that sales, repairs and distribution of cycles creates some £100 million in taxation annually and it should be spent on cycling ,where an average of 100 deaths are caused by traffic accidents in the mix between heavy vehicles and unprotected human flesh!

Sprats were very popular when fish came in fresh from the east coast and even at home we always battered and deep fried them. Talk of fish made me wonder is there a fish market in Sheffield at the moment, and if so, where is it please?

I ran a chippy in Sheffield for a time while also doing other jobs, our fat mix did include some dripping. We never went in to the foreign stuff, not even curry, there never seemed to be a demand for it at the time, but one thing we did do that has not been mentioned was battered sprats.

It's Hereford Street / South Lane Picture Sheffield ref s17129 Hereford Street at junction with South Lane, premises include No 21, City Exchange, Secondhand radio and television supplies, No 23/25, Yospa Gordon, Retail Jeweller, No 27, Wm. Talbot, Butcher

Yet more great detective work from the Sheffield History members! Thank you everyone for your continued use/support of the site

Welcome to the site! I don't know where this is but it certainly looks like an interesting building. Hugh

Hi everyone, I posted some details last year looking for where my relatives including my GG and GGG grandad, who had been buried in St Philips, had been moved to. It was thought they may have been moved to Warsend Cemetery. Right..... I have been round the houses a bit and tried Archives, Bereavement Services and Sheffield Council but have just received an email from their legal department. Bereavement Services confirmed that all the remains were taken from St Philips to Abbey Lane cemetery, Section H and placed in a communal grave and no memorials exist. ( I dont know where the headstones went as I recall there being headstones and memorials in that cemetery?) I then tried the council to see if anyone had made a record of who exactly was moved, my email was referred to their legal team to see if there were any details collected when licences were gained to exhume the remains but the final answer I have just received is that it doesnt seem that any records were made of who was moved. I have asked if they can keep my details just in case anything ever turns up, which I will then of course post on here! When I replied I said that I understood that this cemetery was subject to a significant amount of grave robbing in the past but that it was very sad that no-one was identified and no records kept. I hope this info helps anyone who may have been looking for their rels who had been buried in that cemetery. Karen