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Guest jeayris

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Guest jeayris

Hi all, my name is Jo and I am a student at Sheffield Hallam currently doing a Masters in History - The Local and the Global.

I discovered this fine site in my first tentative search for information on Sheffield in the Second World War, in particular the Blitz which I am thinking of looking into for my dissertation. My ideas at the moment are pretty vague due to the fact I need to include a local and global angle to it and I have to come up with good enough reasons to justify the fact I want to do the topic, not just because I find it interesting! lol

I have already had a snoop in the Sheffield at War section and found the very 'stuff' which will be helpful in getting me started. I am thinking I may do some oral history element as well which judging by some of the stories posted on here will give me a wealth of information not to be found in the typical history book!

I may well be hounding these boards frequently over the next few months for any advice/information etc etc. :)

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Welcome to the forum. On the subject of the Blitz there are a couple of local books you could usefully consult.

It's a Bit Lively Outside; The Story of the Sheffield Blitz

Compiled by Joyce Holliday from the memories of local people

People's History of Yorkshire

Yorkshire Art Circus

In association with Crucible Theatre and Sheffield City Libraries

1987

Sheffield Blitz : in words, pictures and memories, Paul License

Sheffield Newspapers,

2000

Sheffield Blitz : story and pictures, J. S. Abrahams

Pawson & Brailsford,

[1942?]

There are also a couple of videos available from Sheffield Libraries concerning the Blitz and Sheffield at War.

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Welcome to the forum. On the subject of the Blitz there are a couple of local books you could usefully consult.

It’s a Bit Lively Outside; The Story of the Sheffield Blitz

Compiled by Joyce Holliday from the memories of local people

People's History of Yorkshire

Yorkshire Art Circus

In association with Crucible Theatre and Sheffield City Libraries

1987

Sheffield Blitz : in words, pictures and memories, Paul License

Sheffield Newspapers,

2000

Sheffield Blitz : story and pictures, J. S. Abrahams

Pawson & Brailsford,

[1942?]

There are also a couple of videos available from Sheffield Libraries concerning the Blitz and Sheffield at War.

There's also Raiders over Sheffield by Mary Walton and Joe Lamb. Mary was the Reference Librarian and Joe Lamb the Chief Librarian at the time. The Central Library was the clearing house for information for those made homeless, relatives trying to trace Shefield people etc. It was published in 1980 but there are some lending copies around in the City libraries.

Oh, and as Gramps said, welcome to the Forum. If you can't find what you want, feel free to ask, we relish a challenge, and who knows, as your research comes along you might be able to answer a few for us!

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Guest jeayris

I have got the Raiders book on my list of ones to look at, it is growing all the time!

As part of my Advanced Research Methods module I went to the Local Studies library this evening with my Masters group and was introduced to the wonders of the place and the possible sources of information I can look into.

Any tips gratefully received!

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It might be a bit late to help the original poster, but I have one of the original copies of this: Raiders Over Sheffield, Sheffield City Council Emergency Committee, 1942

I have thought for a while that it's of little benefit sat in my desk drawer, when it ought to be accessible online (f.o.c.). Noting the sterling job that someone's done with scanning the OS maps of Sheffield, is there any way that we can get it scanned and made available on these forums ? (110+ pages, bound foolscap format ?) Are there any copyright issues ?

Regards,

Dave.

Sheffield City Council Emergency Committee - Extracts - Raiders Over Sheffield 1942.pdf

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It might be a bit late to help the original poster, but I have one of the original copies of this: Raiders Over Sheffield, Sheffield City Council Emergency Committee, 1942

I have thought for a while that it's of little benefit sat in my desk drawer, when it ought to be accessible online (f.o.c.). Noting the sterling job that someone's done with scanning the OS maps of Sheffield, is there any way that we can get it scanned and made available on these forums ? (110+ pages, bound foolscap format ?) Are there any copyright issues ?

Regards,

Dave.

Hi Dave, welcome to the Forum. The book Raiders over Sheffield was published by the City libraries in 1980. What you appear to have there is the source document from which it was compiled. It's difficult to say whether there would be an issue over copyright, since it would appear it was probably not 'published' in the usual legal sense. A generous offer though!

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Hi Dave ... It's difficult to say whether there would be an issue over copyright, since it would appear it was probably not 'published' in the usual legal sense. A generous offer though!

Many thanks ... Perhaps copyright rests with the council, as it carries the name of one of their committees ? So I suppose it would be courteous to seek permission (from the local history unit maybe). In any case, I still think that it ought to be placed in the public domain, so that younger generations (inc. me) can better appreciate what our parents and grandparents lived through in WWII.

Dave.

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Many thanks ... Perhaps copyright rests with the council, as it carries the name of one of their committees ? So I suppose it would be courteous to seek permission (from the local history unit maybe). In any case, I still think that it ought to be placed in the public domain, so that younger generations (inc. me) can better appreciate what our parents and grandparents lived through in WWII.

Dave.

I quite agree. I can't believe there'd be any objection, particularly with the anniversary coming up.

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I quite agree. I can't believe there'd be any objection, particularly with the anniversary coming up.

I'd like to see it and I fully agree with both of you.

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I'm still to hear from Local Studies, but I indicated that my copy is probably the one supplied to the Emergency Committee chairman (William Asbury, my maternal grandfather), and that there is a possibility he was also one of the report's co-authors. I've since ordered Walton & Lamb's 'Raiders over Sheffield' (1980), to see if it gives any clues. Also, the Local Studies' copy is 'draft typescript', so I've offered to donate mine once it's been scanned.

Dave.

William Asbury - Sheffield & Other Obituaries 1961.pdf

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Hi Dave

I've a copy of the book, the title page says

"Compiled from official records by Mary Walton and the late J P Lamb".

In the foreword by Mary Walton she says

"I worked with Mr Lamb, then City Librarian and Secretary of the Information Committee, on the first version of this book in 1941, and we revised it together in 1944;in 1952 a final typescript suitable for printer's copy was made. ... I do not know who first thought of writing this account. I hazard a guess that it was either Mr Lamb or Councillor Albert Ballard, Chairman of the Information Committee, or both....It was finished, duplicated and, as a confidential document, sent out to all the departments concerned and to the wartime authorities of some other centres of industry, in July 1942. In 1944, in the light of comments we received, we went through it and revised it in the hope that after the war it might be published; we checked facts and put in some statistics not allowed by the censor in the earlier version..."

So it would be interesting to compare the copy you have with the published version, to see what was added!.

Bayleaf

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Hi Dave

I've a copy of the book ... it would be interesting to compare the copy you have with the pulished version, to see what was added!."

Bayleaf

That's most helpful. I'm now less sure about the authorship, but it looks as if the library catalogue is referring to the revised publication (1980), rather than the Censor-approved version (1942).

Dave.

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That's most helpful. I'm now less sure about the authorship, but it looks as if the library catalogue is referring to the revised publication (1980), rather than the Censor-approved version (1942).

Dave.

It sounds as though your grandfather wasn't a co-author, but his role as Chairman of the Emergency Committee would very likely have involved him in the selection and provision of much of the content I would have thought, and given his position I would think he would be on the distribution list of the early draft, and hence the source of the document you have.

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It sounds as though your grandfather wasn't a co-author, but his role as Chairman of the Emergency Committee would very likely have involved him in the selection and provision of much of the content I would have thought, and given his position I would think he would be on the distribution list of the early draft, and hence the source of the document you have.

Bayleaf - I've since received a copy of the 1980 version, which is clearer about the authorship (Wilson & Lamb), and I'm inclined to agree with you.

Comparison: a quick skim through Chapter 1 of each version suggests that much of the content might be unchanged, primarily a spot of 'fine tuning' and occasional additions here and there. The index looks materially the same (apart from repagination), but of course the 1980 document has some photos (40). I've attached the 1942 Foreword and the 1980 Authors' Note, which is a derivation, for possible interest.

I've received an acknowledgement from Local Studies, but a reply is still pending. Ideally, I think a planetary (camera) scanner is what's needed to scan the 1942 original:

Bookeye Scanners http://www.digitise-it.com/sales/bookeye/index.html

Dave.

Raiders Over Sheffield - Foreword 1942 vs Authors Note 1980.pdf

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Update - I have received a response from Local Studies, expressing an interest in the report. I've also traced a suitable scanner, at Nottingham University, and am now waiting to see whether they can help and at what cost. I'm told this will take 2-3 weeks, so I'll post again when I hear more.

Dave.

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A snag has arisen, primarily to do with recouping the out-of-pocket costs. I'm not bothered about a few quid but they could amount to £80-£100 overall and unfortunately Local Studies are unlikely to be able to cover this (budget cutbacks, redundancies imminent, etc.).

So I'm trying to find a sponsor of some sort who'd be happy to cover these, so that we can scan the pages at Nottingham U. (without damaging the spine), convert them to an Acrobat document and upload it here. Once completed, then the original document would be donated to Local Studies.

Alternatively, the report could be offered, after scanning, for sale via ebay - to help offset the costs - except that it would probably end up in a private rather than public collection. But I'm not very keen on this option.

Any other ideas would be welcome.

Dave.

5/12/2010: I sent an enquiry to The Star a week or so ago, to see whether there was any interest in an article about the report and making it available online (they've been soliciting recollections, below), but as I've not heard anything, then I guess not.

Share your memories of the Sheffield Blitz, 23 November 2010

http://www.thestar.co.uk/letters/Share-your-memories-of-the.6636296.jp

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