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Sheffield Civilian WW2 deaths

Hurt Harry 44 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Hurt Mary 48 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Laycock Harriet 60 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Laycock Thomas 30 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Parkin Annie 64 yrs 15 Dec 1940 16 Fleet Street

Parkin Florence 25 yrs 15 Dec 1940 16 Fleet Street

Petty Annie 24 yrs 15 Dec 1940 22 Fleet Street

Petty James 31 yrs 15 Dec 1940 22 Fleet Street

Petty Raymond 22 mos 15 Dec 1940 22 Fleet Street

Brown Annie 42 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Brown Emily 63 yrs 22 Dec 1940 Royal Hospital, Fulwood

Brown Eric 12 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Brown Frank 10 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

Brown Harry 39 yrs 15 Dec 1940 18 Fleet Street

 

 

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Thanks Edmund for the info went to local studies today,look at Sheffield star & telegraph for the Sunday 15 Dec 1940 but it as been omitted it goes up to 14 Dec then jumps to the 16th?

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3 hours ago, roy1942 said:

Thanks Edmund for the info went to local studies today,look at Sheffield star & telegraph for the Sunday 15 Dec 1940 but it as been omitted it goes up to 14 Dec then jumps to the 16th?

The papers were produced in Sheffield day and night without fail apart from two days in December 1940.  They were then printed at Withy Grove Manchester and were brought over by lorries.   Courtesy Sheffield At War 1939/1945.  W/E.

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Here's the report on the Sheffield bombing on the 15th December from the Lincolnshire Echo.  I'm not sure that there would be any more detail than this in the Sheffield papers.

598f1ec16ec56_Blitz15121940.thumb.png.092decf778977279662f6ad6a86217ff.png

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Thanks for the newspaper cutting, is there a map that shows were all the public bomb shelters were situated around Sheffield.while working on wincobank ave in the 80s we found the stairs to a public shelter

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I found the grave of the petty family who died in the fleet st bombing in shire green cemetery there are 5 of the family in it.

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4 hours ago, roy1942 said:

Thanks for the newspaper cutting, is there a map that shows were all the public bomb shelters were situated around Sheffield.while working on wincobank ave in the 80s we found the stairs to a public shelter

Have a read of this - memories of a public shelter under the green near Heather Road:

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-948490.html

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In 1935 ( yes that early) the Home Office asked local authorities to identify suitable premises for first aid, decontamination ( after a gas attack) and air raid shelters. Sheffield was a high risk target and aerial attacks were expected to maim and kill thousands. By 1939 hundreds of suitable sites had been identified and booklets were issued identifying them and their proximity to the bus and tram networks. Many were in shops, churches, schools, converted passageways, trenches and purpose built surface shelters...but none were supposed to replace the supposed safety of home! They were intended for use by those caught outside and unable to get home.

There was no typical size. Some were large as in Exchange Street where the Market Hall could accommodate 525 whilst one in Pond Street could squeeze in 10.

( From "Sheffield Armourer to the British Empire", Stewart Dalton, Wharncliffe Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-903425-13-1)

On the nights of the blitz  my Mum and Grandma used the shelter in Brushes playing fields, Firth Park...they had little faith in the garden Anderson shelter ( Dad was on duty in the Home Guard and Grandad , a train driver, was stuck in Woodhead tunnel  where he was for over a day until it was considered safe to carry on. He was driving a petrol train from Liverpool .Post War I well recall the disused underground shelter at Hartley Brook School...entry into which was strictly forbidden.

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I worked on the flower estate refurbishing the houses from 1983 to 88 and the large greens in the centre of the houses we fence off and gave each house a separate garden with access to each garden via a foot path down the centre

 

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There wasn't only concern for people's safety. My grandparents lived at 323 Crookesmoor Road during the war. Access to the common back garden of Nos. 319/321/323 was  via an arched passageway reaching up to upper floor level of No323 wide enough to take a fair size van. 

Not long after the war started Grandma enquired of two men from I think the RSPCA what  were they up to in the passage. It transpired they were concerned with animal safety and by the time they left there was a prominent sign upon the crown of the arch declaring it to be a "HORSE STANDING". The idea was that on the event of an air raid any passing carter could pull in and take shelter without asking permission. We gathered Grandma did not take kindly to the idea of  horses  stamping about under her bedroom floor.

In the end it didn't work. Horses and carts were rare, though the railway companies still used them and air raid warnings generally  came during the night when  horses were back in their stables. That sign lasted for years after the war. It did no harm and as usual it was nobody's job to remove it. Occasionally somebody noticed and asked what it meant. Interest faded along with the sign.

The obvious question  is were there any others? I never saw one. We may never know.

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On 12/08/2017 at 16:31, Edmund said:

Here's the report on the Sheffield bombing on the 15th December from the Lincolnshire Echo.  I'm not sure that there would be any more detail than this in the Sheffield papers.

598f1ec16ec56_Blitz15121940.thumb.png.092decf778977279662f6ad6a86217ff.png

An interesting report for an odd reason. Declaring my interest I grew up in Sheffield, and as Father was called up into the R.A.F. (49 and 617 Squadrons) we  spent some time at Lincoln. Later I moved to Lincoln permanently to work. . The Echo was then the exact equivalent of The Star and very much a local paper.

Looking at the report what strikes me is that from the bottom two paragraphs of the first column onward the reporting is what we came to.expect. The details are blurred, no specifics by order.  "Sheffeld" would normally have been  a "large northern city". A report  of an air raid on Hull and Grimsby came out as " East Coast ports were attacked" Details of casualties and damage were banned on the grounds that it could indicate to the enemy  the success of their locating and attacking.  We weren't stupid; we found out but not from the press or radio. Films were usually somewhat delayed particularly if visits by distinguished visitors were involved..Only London was named,  being too well known. Usually they had a " but we're still carrying on" sort of ending anyway.

Anyone not actually there probably cannot comprehend the stress on secrecy.  Everywhere there were the posters  " Careless talk costs lives". With that in mind the headline at the start of the piece and the detail  of place, time, people's comments and so on come as a surprise. It was just not the done thing. How the Echo got  it so swiftly is probably the mate on a phone. Publishing in that detail Is curious. Lincoln had a ring of some twenty odd bomber bases, there but not mentioned in the press. (Actually there was no doubt; the High Street was a sea of blue uniforms.) Why the Echo chose to go that way is a mystery to me;  what was allowed was well known.

Just jotted down for the record.  No point in pursuing the Echo: a change of owners and down to one edition on a Thursday.  A useful wartime curiosity that's all. And before anybody asks, I was in an Anderson shelter at Banner Cross at the time. 

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