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The Story of the Sheffield Blitz


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Glad you enjoyed the story. My dad is 84 and has a hundred stories of life in the east end in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. I also have stories of other family members. I will try to write more if they could be of interest to other Sheffield lovers.

Oh yes Pat that's what it's all about! Look forward to further posts, especially about the East End lol

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Glad you enjoyed the story. My dad is 84 and has a hundred stories of life in the east end in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. I also have stories of other family members. I will try to write more if they could be of interest to other Sheffield lovers.

I'm with Dunsby, keep them coming Pat, this is the stuff that doesn't often get written down!

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I'm with Dunsby, keep them coming Pat, this is the stuff that doesn't often get written down!

Count me in too. One of the things about being a Sheffielder is that we share so many common experiences about our City that other members family stories (which are after all part of our history and heretage) always seem to contain something that we can all relate to as being familiar.

Furthermore, elderly relatives don't live forever and unless their first hand accounts of historical events are passed they are ultimately lost forever.

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Guest janine

Hi

I too love the stories and my Hubbys grandfather is 92 and is [i believe] the only surviving fire fighter who served in the Sheffield Blitz !

He was one of the first to arrive and he say's they knew they were never going to put out one fire cos there were too many of them. he then gives a little laugh and tells us not one fire was successfully put out that night.

He also mentions that he drove a really old fire engine which was used in ww1, its top speed was 30mph and had no breaks and when he drove it he had to bend down to change gear and he couldn't see through the window. He jokes that he had more chance of knocking someone over than putting out a fire.

He also served in Hull and the firefighters slept in an old tanning house and that all his clothes used to smell of rotting animals.

He later joined the RAF and his stories are great, he was a lifeguard for them when they were training new recruits, and because no one would practice at weekends he used to get a false pass and go down to London on the trains and sneak back in.

He did get medals for the war but he doesn't want them; he says that like so other men he was doing a job and that it's only our generation who seem to want them.

He also went to India, and is so full of knowledge on many subjects i have lots of stories jotted down and i meet up with him to find out more. my husband complains that i have stole him.

He had medals for the fire service but when he left he forgot to take them with him and his big old leather fire coat, he says he'd love to get them back but he knows there long gone.

Regards Janine

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Hi

I too love the stories and my Hubbys grandfather is 92 and is [i believe] the only surviving fire fighter who served in the Sheffield Blitz !

He was one of the first to arrive and he say's they knew they were never going to put out one fire cos there were too many of them. he then gives a little laugh and tells us not one fire was successfully put out that night.

He also mentions that he drove a really old fire engine which was used in ww1, its top speed was 30mph and had no breaks and when he drove it he had to bend down to change gear and he couldn't see through the window. He jokes that he had more chance of knocking someone over than putting out a fire.

He also served in Hull and the firefighters slept in an old tanning house and that all his clothes used to smell of rotting animals.

He later joined the RAF and his stories are great, he was a lifeguard for them when they were training new recruits, and because no one would practice at weekends he used to get a false pass and go down to London on the trains and sneak back in.

He did get medals for the war but he doesn't want them; he says that like so other men he was doing a job and that it's only our generation who seem to want them.

He also went to India, and is so full of knowledge on many subjects i have lots of stories jotted down and i meet up with him to find out more. my husband complains that i have stole him.

He had medals for the fire service but when he left he forgot to take them with him and his big old leather fire coat, he says he'd love to get them back but he knows there long gone.

Regards Janine

Hi Janine. My old friend Ernest Nixon [sadly now deceased] told many stories about firefighting in the Sheffield Blitz. Having joined the Sheffield Fire Service just before the war he too was a driver and also served in Hull, after the war he remained in the sevice and retired from Elm Lane around 1966. The next time you see grandfather would you ask him if he remembers him please. Regards W/E.

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Guest janine

hi

yes i will ask him and let you know, at the moment hes on a months holiday in greece with his 87 year old sister! hes got a better life than me an i,m only 39 , but he can say hes earned it!

regards janine

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Been reading this with interest and thought you might like to see a newspaper article we were given during some family history research. The article title is 'Quick Work by Veteran' 'Erecting Steel Shelters at 77' and is about my Wife's Great Grandfather, John Harrison. The article was published in the Sheffield Star during 1940 and John Harrision passed away during the following year. We don't have the original cutting and there is no date on the copy we have so I can't be more specific on exactly when it was printed, but they were certainly made of tough stuff back then!

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i read on here that sheffield was bombed by the Germans in dec.1940.

I was not born then but in 1944 & i only remember taking my sis down a hill to get on a bus with her was a case containing 2 empty milk bottles.At tea time we picked her up again with 2 full bottles of milk.I guess i thought she was a magician?

I do remember living in a house that smelt weird & a lady-turned out this was my grandad hodkins house at parson cross & the lady was his cleaner/cook.She used this polish she made herself hence the weird smell.

When i was about 17 my parents took me to this house & the lady was still living next door & the same smell.As soon as we walked him memory hit.

Apparently where my parents lived on beeley st., the houses across the street were totalled & until we left there in 1959 ish the empty lot was still bare.

So presumably i was born & taken to live at grandads for some years b4 the house on beeley st., was fit to live in.

Geez thats a long time.

Thanx to this site i now know a bit more.

Another weird thing we left beeley st., & went to live in brightmoor dr.flats not far from where the original hodkins lived i am told.

shawn hodkin

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Guest oldpete

Hya, I'm new to the Sheffield History Forum, so "hello".

I've been doing some family history research and I am interested in the bombing which took place on Oxford Street. My mother & her family lived there. The family house was badly damaged during the raids. I understand that some of the neighbors sadly were killed. Are there any details or photographs of the damage.

Pete

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Hi Pete, and welcome to the forum. The best collection of photos of blitz damage is in the Local Studies Library. Many of these are on Picture Sheffield, the online collection, but I've checked through and can't find any of Oxford Street. It still might be worth checking with the library though.

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Hi Pete,

have you taken a look at the early 1950's large scale OS maps available on here,

they give a very good example to the housing layout before and shortly after the last war,

and cover the full length Oxford Street.

1950's OS maps of Oxford Street in N/E to S/W order;

link .. OS

link .. OS

link .. OS

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Guest oldpete

Brilliant. I will follow up on the suggestions.

Only found this site by accident today but it's absolutely spot on

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Guest oldpete

Hi Pete,

have you taken a look at the early 1950's large scale OS maps available on here,

they give a very good example to the housing layout before and shortly after the last war,

and cover the full length Oxford Street.

1950's OS maps of Oxford Street in N/E to S/W order;

link .. OS

link .. OS

link .. OS

Thanks for the maps. They show an enormous amount. I can search the electoral registers now and hopefully find the house number.

I lived on Martin Street until we moved under the slum clearance program. Our house number was 5 Court 3 but when you look at the detail on Map 30 our house is numbered "6". I'm sure this is wrong. The house behind us was actually on Martin Street & of course they were back to backs.

Will start looking for relations from Burton Street & Burnaby Street WMC soon

Thanks for the excellent leads

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I can remember my nan telling me about the Sheffield blitz, one night they were in air raid shelter which was at the back of there house 24 Barrack Lane , my nan , her sister and her mother. She told me an incendiary bomb rolled into the shelter, so she grabbed her mothers fur coat, wrapped it around the incendiary bomb, and threw it out, by all accounts, her mother wasn't to impressed with having her coat burnt :rolleyes:

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More, many more tales like this needed. Brings "real life" to the place, never mind about the historical facts; more family tall tales please.

I can remember my nan telling me about the Sheffield blitz, one night they were in air raid shelter which was at the back of there house 24 Barrack Lane , my nan , her sister and her mother. She told me an incendiary bomb rolled into the shelter, so she grabbed her mothers fur coat, wrapped it around the incendiary bomb, and threw it out, by all accounts, her mother wasn't to impressed with having her coat burnt :rolleyes:

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<p style="text-align: center;">I have just received a book called the &quot;Sheffield Blitz&quot; by James Abrahams of Newsphotos Press Agency. It was printed sometime during WW2 as it has<br />

passed by Censor for Publication on it.<br />

<br />

It has made and interesting read and the photographs are great. Being born at the end of the War I remember vividly many of the bombed out buildings in<br />

the centre of Sheffield well into the fifties. I had not realised the full extent of the damage though until I saw the book. Were there any factories<br />

that were hit as well? I suppose the censor would not have allowed those to be shown?<br />

<br />

At the back of the book there is a poem that I would like to share with you.<br />

Mr Abrahams states:-<br />

<br />

&quot;I have written on a general theme as I saw it. Much has been missed out,but this souvenir facet may help recall something of the two most momentous<br />

night in Sheffield's long and glorious history.</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>

<p style="text-align: center;">In conclusion, I cannot do better than quote the poem written by a journalist colleague, L. Edwin Fairest, which was published before the war.<br />

It is still true of Sheffield today.&quot;<br />

<br />

<strong>In Peace or War.</strong><br />

<br />

THWART horizons time scarred buildings loom,<br />

And thro' great chimneys blood-red fires disgorge,<br />

The pall that writ our Sheffield's lasting doom,<br />

To skies for ever grey or hill and forge.<br />

***********<br />

And thro' those gates of unrest workers creep,<br />

To daily face recurrent heavy toil,<br />

Till on their brows Industry's sweat shall seep.<br />

Amid the heat, the muck and racking moil.<br />

***********<br />

For there in crackling furnaces that glow,<br />

They shovel disembowelled earth - the coal,<br />

To melt the steel that which shall molten flow,<br />

To end in some machine that lacks a soul.<br />

***********<br />

The steel that's used in peace or ghastly strife,<br />

To make a pin - or in some great gun that roars -<br />

But that is Sheffield's task, its very life,<br />

And keeps the march of hunger from our doors.<br />

***********<br />

'Tis not for us to question rights or wrongs,<br />

Our hope's to hold the world to Sheffield steel,<br />

And in our works shall clang exultant songs,<br />

To those who love her - and her glory feel.<br />

***********<br />

<br />

&quot;The last line says it all&quot;............E.<br />

<br />

Kindest regards.<br />

Elaine Pickard. Ottawa. Canada.<br />

<a class="bbc_url" href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Eengsheffield/" rel="nofollow external" title="External link">http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~engsheffield/</a></p>

<br />

<br />

<br />

<p>Elaine from SheffieldIndexers got there well before me, my copy arrived today.</p>

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Sheffield Blitz book - 1940 ? 1941 ? 1943 ? 72 B.C. ?

This sounds like a copy of a blitz book my mum had during the war but lost.

Would be interesting to see some of the pictures from it, copyright permitting, - 1940 is a long time ago now.

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We need to decide about copyright, I have a copy of the original.

This sounds like a copy of a blitz book my mum had during the war but lost.

Would be interesting to see some of the pictures from it, copyright permitting, - 1940 is a long time ago now.

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We need to decide about copyright, I have a copy of the original.

I don't know if this helps, but I made enquiries about copying/publishing/posting/postcards in my collection. Some have been reproduced by others since original publication (around 1900). I was told that if I had an original copy that was out of copyright then I could reproduce it, for sale if I wished. If what I had was a later reproduction that was still within copyright then I couldn't.

On that basis if you have a copy of the 1940's edition you should be OK. If it's a later edition/facsimile, then probably not.

Anyone know otherwise?

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