World War One Heritage

[duckweed]

Besides the obvious war memorials are there any places associated with WW1 in Sheffield?

[Bayleaf]

Redmires camp, Hill 60

[Edmund]

Wincobank Hill - there was an anti-aircraft emplacement there. On the one night a Zeppelin bombed Sheffield, not a shot was fired as all the officers were at a dance...

[duckweed]

That's the kind of info I want. Is there visible signs of the gun emplacement now? When was the Zeppelin Raid and where did it hit?

[Edmund]

Only 1 zeppelin made it to Sheffield - on Monday 25th September 1916. It came in from the South East, bombing Burngeave cemetery, four houses on Corsey Road (8 dead), corner of Petre Street and Lyons street, Princess Street Methodist Chapel (demolished), several at Washford Bridge (domestic property, no deaths), Woodburn Great Central Railway junction, Britannia Road . 36 bombs fell (18 HE and 18 incendiary), 28 deaths mainly women and children. The gun batteries at Manor, Wincobank and Ecclesall never fired a shot as their officers were at the Grand Hotel.

The site was updated and reused in WW2 with the addition of a searchlight. It was a brick octagonal structure, rendered with cement and was on the south east perimeter of the iron age fort, next to the lane that went through it. It was in reasonable condition in 1930 (see Tattons drawing)

Although the site of the WW2 searchlight base is still visible, the gun emplacement site has been covered by redeposited soil/erosion - the hill was a very busy place during the 20th century.

[lysander]

Sheffield had two aircraft landing sites ( Redmires and Coal Aston) where a detachment of the RNAS as well as "A" flight 33 sqdn RFC were based, tasked with nocturnal sorties in the primitive home anti-aircraft defence force.

The Coal Aston aerodrome was where present day Jordanthorpe is and shouldn't be confused with the landing strip at nearby Apperknowle or Norton aerodrome which was built as a WW2 barrage balloon centre. The Redmires site, used as a POW camp in WW2, was considered as a possible site for Sheffield Airport in the 1950s and, again, in the 60s.

[duckweed]

Thanks so much. Didn't they use college at Collegiate crescent now Hallam University as a college for retraining and rehabilitating WW1 soldiers?

[RichardS]

Wharncliffe War Hospital

[Stuart0742]

Thanks so much. Didn't they use college at Collegiate crescent now Hallam University as a college for retraining and rehabilitating WW1 soldiers?

Yes it was, along with a lot of other schools and hospitals in Sheffield, see http://www.sheffieldsoldierww1.co.uk/Hospital/

As Richard says Wharncliffe War Hospital

http://www.wharncliffewarhospital.co.uk/

[duckweed]

What a great website. So much information there.

[lysander]

There is also a building opposite Sheffield Club on Abbeydale Road which was used as a hospital ( a wall plaque gives details). Shiregreen school on the Flower estate was also used for that purpose. Janson Street in Brightside was the site of the Admiralty premises which inspected the enormous range of guns, armour plate, shells and gun shields which Sheffield produced for the War effort...in 2 World Wars. The Admiralty also had offices on West Street!

[peterwarr]

Don’t forget the memorial in City Road Cemetery for Belgian refugees (overall 3,000 in the city) and soldiers who died here; and the plaque to Herbert Hughes in Sheffield University’s Mappin Street building (where Sheffield Committee on Munitions of War worked [initial Chairman: Herbert Hughes] and where much government research was conducted.

[peterwarr]

It's not quite correct that Wharncliffe War Hospital was in Collegiate Crescent. That was the Third Northern General Hospital, which had about 50 outstations in the city and neighbourhood (including the one in Dore)..

Wharncliffe War Hospital separately took over the Wadley Asylum, which later became Middlewood Hospital. The Wharncliffe Hospital had its own Commanding Officer, Matron and other staff.

The two hospitals had over 4,000 beds, and overall the city housed some 60,000 wounded and sick soldiers during WW1.

Peter

[duckweed]

I understood that Belgian soldiers went to Shirle Hill. Does anyone know exact sites where the Zepplins fell? I am told one fell in Burngreave Cemetery but does anyone know where about & is there indication now?

[peterwarr]

I think the Belgian refugees who were first accommodated at Shirle Hill were civilians. (They then moved to other accommodation elsewhere in the city.) Soldiers who were wounded were sent to the Third Northern General Hospital. (If they weren't wounded, they were presumably deserters from the Belgian army!) (But a small number came on leave -- possibly to visit families here.)