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Sheffield 1939


k french

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Hello,

I am hoping someone can help please.

I am writing a book, it is fiction but I am after some facts or details of everyday life in Sheffield just before the war.

I have lots of questions. Here a just a few:

Where would  the more affluent places to live in the 1930s be?

What profession would you need to afford a house there?

Trams to these areas? Where would they stop etc?

Local cinemas, dance halls, schools, department stores in town

I have lots more

 

 

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Dore would certainly rank amongst the "best" places to live and Directors and Senior Managers of our steel and engineering works lived there,as well as doctors and solicitors. There was no tram service but Dore railway station , which had been built  so that they could enjoy the "fresh, clean air yet be in their works in Attercliffe and Brightside within minutes".( That's how the Midland Railway advertised their speculative development of Dore Road when first built) and must have attracted some custom ...but I would suggest the private car was more affordable in this affluent suburb and, as such, used more.

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Thank you. How affordable would it be to use the train? Do you know?

I don't suppose you know what a girl 16 would do in an area such as Dore? Would she work or go on to further study?

Do you know how local people were affected by the depression? I have so many questions, sorry.

Could people afford to go to the cinema?

Thanks for your help so far, no worries if you don't have the answers to the above questions

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Ranmoor and Broomhill were still very affluent back then.  Much more central than Dore (within walking distance or a short tram ride to town) and home to educated professionals like Lawyers, Professors, Medical Doctors etc. 

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Might I suggest you try and pay a visit, if at all possible, to our Local Studies library and archive for your research. I think you will find that to be far more reliable. However, you asked me some questions which I will try to answer.

Train fares in the 1930's were, so I read,  far more affordable for the majority than they are today and the fare from Dore station would be just a few pence.

I do know many original Dore Villagers were far less affluent than the "newcomers" and I do know young girls from there went into shop, domestic and office work....As for the affluent I really have no idea...except  having a feeling that education wasn't as much a priority as mixing in society and the finding a suitable husband was!

The cinema was the "escape from reality" for many and films and cinemas were booming in 1939...Prices were affordable.

By 1939, with rearmament,  and , as a consequence, full employment, the worst of the Great Depression was over...but it had affected all groups of society...some more so than others. Not many realise that its effects on Sheffield was much worse than in comparable cities. As an example, in 1931 the unemployment rate in Sheffield was running at 23.1% with over 50% of its steelworkers unemployed. Glasgow was 21.4 %,Newcastle 20.8%, Liverpool 20.6%. That year the Education Committee supplied 1,126,111 free school meals...in some cases 3  times a day. I doubt the more affluent parts of the City had cause to apply for  free school meals, let alone children's boots...with a hole punched in the uppers to stop them being pawned.

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Thank you Lysander, very helpful. Unfortunately, I no longer live in Sheffield. I will, at some point, be back to visit family so I could pay a visit. Where is the library please?

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21 hours ago, lysander said:

children's boots...with a hole punched in the uppers to stop them being pawned.

I have never heard of this practice; is it true?

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Yes it is.. Indeed, my father and two brothers had to take it in turns to wear the solitary pair of boots they had  that fitted in order to go to school. This was not entirely uncommon ...hence the supply of "Corporation" boots. I researched this, years ago, as a part of a published history I wrote..

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I've heard of boots being shared, or rather alternated,m between siblings, but never of their having holes punched in them. Presumably a pawnbroker would refuse to accept them if they had this feature.

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He/She wouldn't want egg on their face if someone came in from the local Constabulary/ National Assistance Board and found such boots having been pawned...which meant "Sonny Jim/Jane" still couldn't attend school!

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Thanks for all your comments.

Can anyone shed light on housing around Botanical Gardens. The houses there are old. Who would have lived there?  I haven't ruled out Dore for my story but I remember as a child really loving the houses in the Botanical area of Sheffield and Endcliffe park. 

Can anyone recommend a good history site or book as my searches are coming up blank.

Many thanks

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On 1/20/2018 at 15:31, k french said:

Hello,

I am hoping someone can help please.

I am writing a book, it is fiction but I am after some facts or details of everyday life in Sheffield just before the war.

I have lots of questions. Here a just a few:

Where would  the more affluent places to live in the 1930s be?

What profession would you need to afford a house there?

Trams to these areas? Where would they stop etc?

Local cinemas, dance halls, schools, department stores in town

I have lots more

 

 

Department stores in the 1930's in sheffield was

scolfield department stores behind the ABC picture palace opposite the co-op

john lewis known as cole brothers

rackhams depatment store

Atkinson the moor

if you was brought up in the crooks moor area

Birkendale Road & Birkendale view had important people living there it was 2 roads preserved for old sheffield but in decay now.. the residents at the time owned the roads and had each a key to the back gate that went out onto common side walked opposite st josephs convent.

other areas of good taste was crooks going towards crospool and broom hill look anywhere where there is huge stone houses this was where the monies was now most are business or student lets.

you was deemed posher than the attercliffe area nottingham street and such the like

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Schofields did not appear in Sheffield until the 1970s when they took over Cockaynes who had been trading on Angel Street for many years.

The co-op was not opposite this in the 1930s, only relocating there after the large B & C department store on Exchange Street was bombed in the blitz.

Rackhams, similarly, did not appear in Sheffield until the 1970s. Until that time it was Walsh's. John Walsh's store was a quite splendid building on High Street until Hitler did for it in the war.

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On 1/21/2018 at 10:09, lysander said:

Might I suggest you try and pay a visit, if at all possible, to our Local Studies library and archive for your research. I think you will find that to be far more reliable. However, you asked me some questions which I will try to answer.

Train fares in the 1930's were, so I read,  far more affordable for the majority than they are today and the fare from Dore station would be just a few pence.

I do know many original Dore Villagers were far less affluent than the "newcomers" and I do know young girls from there went into shop, domestic and office work....As for the affluent I really have no idea...except  having a feeling that education wasn't as much a priority as mixing in society and the finding a suitable husband was!

The cinema was the "escape from reality" for many and films and cinemas were booming in 1939...Prices were affordable.

By 1939, with rearmament,  and , as a consequence, full employment, the worst of the Great Depression was over...but it had affected all groups of society...some more so than others. Not many realise that its effects on Sheffield was much worse than in comparable cities. As an example, in 1931 the unemployment rate in Sheffield was running at 23.1% with over 50% of its steelworkers unemployed. Glasgow was 21.4 %,Newcastle 20.8%, Liverpool 20.6%. That year the Education Committee supplied 1,126,111 free school meals...in some cases 3  times a day. I doubt the more affluent parts of the City had cause to apply for  free school meals, let alone children's boots...with a hole punched in the uppers to stop them being pawned.

Some researches are mis spelling data and not always reliable, crooks was a good area as well as crooks more and Birkendale just look where the large stone houses were

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