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Blitz-era ruins.


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Courtesy this mornings "Yorkshire Post". National conservation bodies are calling on councillors to reject moves to turn the only Blitzed building left standing in the north of England into flats. The National picture Theatre on Beverly Road in Hull, has lain virtually untouched since being bombed in 1941. You may think this has nothing to do with Sheffield, but in a way it has. My old friend Ernest Nixon a Sheffield fireman for many years used to tell stories of the time he and his colleagues drove their fire appliances to Hull to help out when that city was badly blitzed. If our blitzed buildings have all gone, [though I think we must have something tucked away somewhere], what would have been the last ones to have been developed ?

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Courtesy this mornings "Yorkshire Post". National conservation bodies are calling on councillors to reject moves to turn the only Blitzed building left standing in the north of England into flats. The National picture Theatre on Beverly Road in Hull, has lain virtually untouched since being bombed in 1941. You may think this has nothing to do with Sheffield, but in a way it has. My old friend Ernest Nixon a Sheffield fireman for many years used to tell stories of the time he and his colleagues drove their fire appliances to Hull to help out when that city was badly blitzed. If our blitzed buildings have all gone, [though I think we must have something tucked away somewhere], what would have been the last ones to have been developed ?

I hear they are going to start on Brammall Lane soon! he he

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s01012

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As a school-boy in the early 1960's I used to attend the Central Tech school. The school was based in various different buildings around the city centre and we had to tramp from one to the next carrying a small suitcase with our text-books/exercise books etc.

During these perambulations we noticed that many of the city-centre granite kerb-stones still in service in that era were marked with little crosses. I've seen "EL" inscribed in pavement edges and I know that these date from the early days of electrical services being laid to buildings. The "EL" marking where the cable was laid. When I enquired of the teachers what the little crosses meant I was told that they marked the spots where blitz victims were found.

If this was the case then some of the older streets may still have their granite kerbs and there may be still evidence of these crosses. As I remember there were at lot of them around the Vicar Lane/Campo Lane areas.

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Courtesy this mornings "Yorkshire Post". National conservation bodies are calling on councillors to reject moves to turn the only Blitzed building left standing in the north of England into flats. The National picture Theatre on Beverly Road in Hull, has lain virtually untouched since being bombed in 1941. You may think this has nothing to do with Sheffield, but in a way it has. My old friend Ernest Nixon a Sheffield fireman for many years used to tell stories of the time he and his colleagues drove their fire appliances to Hull to help out when that city was badly blitzed. If our blitzed buildings have all gone, [though I think we must have something tucked away somewhere], what would have been the last ones to have been developed ?

I'm now quite sure that these were damaged by a bomb which fell nearby and so were partly demolished.

1/2 HOUSES

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As a school-boy in the early 1960's I used to attend the Central Tech school. The school was based in various different buildings around the city centre and we had to tramp from one to the next carrying a small suitcase with our text-books/exercise books etc.

During these perambulations we noticed that many of the city-centre granite kerb-stones still in service in that era were marked with little crosses. I've seen "EL" inscribed in pavement edges and I know that these date from the early days of electrical services being laid to buildings. The "EL" marking where the cable was laid. When I enquired of the teachers what the little crosses meant I was told that they marked the spots where blitz victims were found.

If this was the case then some of the older streets may still have their granite kerbs and there may be still evidence of these crosses. As I remember there were at lot of them around the Vicar Lane/Campo Lane areas.

Just reading through a few of these threads and this one sounds like a challenge! I will look out for anything that might be a cross marking a blitz victim.

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Courtesy this mornings "Yorkshire Post". National conservation bodies are calling on councillors to reject moves to turn the only Blitzed building left standing in the north of England into flats. The National picture Theatre on Beverly Road in Hull, has lain virtually untouched since being bombed in 1941. You may think this has nothing to do with Sheffield, but in a way it has. My old friend Ernest Nixon a Sheffield fireman for many years used to tell stories of the time he and his colleagues drove their fire appliances to Hull to help out when that city was badly blitzed. If our blitzed buildings have all gone, [though I think we must have something tucked away somewhere], what would have been the last ones to have been developed ?

Looking at the amount of damage always makes me think what size of bomb dropped between Wallace Road and Vale Road.

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Looking at the amount of damage always makes me think what size of bomb dropped between Wallace Road and Vale Road.

The last house on the right of Wallace Road, just before the bomb site lived a family by the name of Simpson. I was told a war time story by Ron and Evelyn, two of the Simpson children, When the air raid sirens sounded there was no time to get to the shelters so their dad told them to get under the kitchen table.. It was just as well, the bombing was so bad the shelter got a direct hit and their house was one of only a few left standing. I don't remember any more but many houses were hit and I remember the site being cleared in 1948/49 for the Hallamshire steel works. I think Ron and Evelyn's house and the few below were pulled down in the late 50s.

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As a school-boy in the early 1960's I used to attend the Central Tech school. The school was based in various different buildings around the city centre and we had to tramp from one to the next carrying a small suitcase with our text-books/exercise books etc.

During these perambulations we noticed that many of the city-centre granite kerb-stones still in service in that era were marked with little crosses. I've seen "EL" inscribed in pavement edges and I know that these date from the early days of electrical services being laid to buildings. The "EL" marking where the cable was laid. When I enquired of the teachers what the little crosses meant I was told that they marked the spots where blitz victims were found.

If this was the case then some of the older streets may still have their granite kerbs and there may be still evidence of these crosses. As I remember there were at lot of them around the Vicar Lane/Campo Lane areas.

A trip around the Cathedral area today produced a handful of 'EL' carvings and one or two possible crosses - what i want to know is what size were the crosses from WW2 that you refer to? And are these survivors from that time?

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A trip around the Cathedral area today produced a handful of 'EL' carvings and one or two possible crosses - what i want to know is what size were the crosses from WW2 that you refer to? And are these survivors from that time?

They sure are !

Back in the early sixties there were quite a few of them, all that size.

HD

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Just to play devil's advocate, if these crosses appear around the cathedral/Campo Lane area, could they actually be some kind of discrete boundary marker associated with the cathedral? The association with blitz casualties seems a very strange thing to do.

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I do remember 3 crosses within a few feet of each other somewhere down Vicar Lane, one was on the kerb and two others on a random pattern on a flagstone near the ruin behind Silverstones. I don't think they could have been marking a boundary as they didn't form a straight line.

I remember seeing an article on the Sheffield Fire Brigade History website that stated that more than a hundred souls lost their lives in the city centre.

Some of them would have been on the streets seeking shelter or escaping from threatened shelter.

Perhaps someone on the above website might have the answer.

When you think about it it's only like the little shrines that people place nowadays at traffic accident sites.

HD

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Hello there Bayleaf and Hilldweller! - myself and andy1702 had the same conversation whilst looking about yesterday. We were wondering who by and why the crosses were left until we agreed they were more likely left by people as unofficial memorials rather than by officialdom of some kind. It is fair enough that they are easily interpreted as being something else, or indeed nothing in particular, just scratches or marks. It was HD's memories of both the 'EL' marks AND the crosses in the same area and the same period that led me to believe if we would found one then we would find the other - and i think we have!

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I still find it difficult to accept the blitz explanation. Would casualties have been recorded in such detail as where they fell? Who would undertake to mark the places and why without publicizing the meaning? I can understand marking such events as the Marples, but individual victims? Given the association with EL markings, do they simply show where utilities cross?

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Fascinating remnant of WW2 social history .. or urban myth?

I was intrigued by HD's original reference and more so now. I am not sure it is possible to settle it either way but are crosses used commonly as markers on roadsides for any other reason and are they surviving in areas we know to have been fatally bombed? If the latter is true it would help the case for them being memorials.

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I've emailed the people at the Emergency Services Museum at West Bar to see if they have any information.

If anyone has any information they should be the people to know.

I've seen a Google reference for similar crosses found in another city marked on kerbs and pavements, but the exclamation given was that when stone from former church premises was reused then the masons used to mark them with a cross.

This doesn't sound very plausible to me, most of the crosses I remember were marked on granite kerb stones and grit-stone flags. There weren't many granite churches in Sheffield. Anyway when the pavements were put down, we were still building churches, not knocking them down.

Don't forget that when I was told the same story by several teachers, the blitz was only 20 years before and all of our teachers probably lived through it.

HD

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I am somewhat older than you, hildweiler, and can well remember the blitz damaged city. I have done considerable research on Sheffield's Blitz and must say I have never come across the reason for the crosses but, honestly, can't imagine the Corporation who ,after the raids, had a City with over 700 dead or missing,1,817 injured, 77,624 homes destroyed or damaged, electricity supply reduced from167,750 kw to 65,000 kw, 8 gasholders destroyed or badly damaged, many roads blocked or unsafe as well as 550 trunk gas mains destroyed or badly damaged... not forgetting the partial failure of the water supply... having the manpower to mark and then employ stonemasons to cut the stone.

The biggest single loss of life was at the Marple's Hotel where at least 70 were killed but others, including my cousin, were never identified and are presumed to still be there...covered with slaked lime...I wonder if someone marked the kerb with 70 crosses?

A quick look on the web reveals that similar markings are all over the kerbstones of parts of London. The most common opinion is that they are mason's marks but even that has been disputed......Intriguing!.

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Looking at the amount of damage always makes me think what size of bomb dropped between Wallace Road and Vale Road.

Don't know what year this map was printed neddy but the bomb that was dropped on Wallace Road was not included. My dad marked that one in. The one on Firshill Avenue with the cross at the side of it was a land mine but it never exploded. W/E.

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Contemporary accounts suggest quite a few people were in the city centre on an evening out or working, and a surprising number appear to have tried to get home during the raids rather than take shelter in the centre, though most accounts are the problems people had getting home after the raids, with unexploded bombs, cratered roads, fallen buildings etc.

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I can definitely confirm that Bayleaf. My Granddad always used to tell the story of how he was out in town the night of one of the raids. When the siren went off they took shelter but eventually got bored of waiting around so just left the shelter and walked home to Walkley! It simply beggars belief that people would do this but they did.

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Contemporary accounts suggest quite a few people were in the city centre on an evening out or working, and a surprising number appear to have tried to get home during the raids rather than take shelter in the centre, though most accounts are the problems people had getting home after the raids, with unexploded bombs, cratered roads, fallen buildings etc.

My 95 y/o Nan is still pottering around now, she went from Attercliffe to her Sister's in Netheredge during the blitz because the trams and buses were not running, she said there were hundreds if not thousands of people out on the streets trying to get home.

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