Sheffield nursing home residents relive frightening memories of Sheffield Blitz
and live on Freeview channel 276
Local author Neil Anderson is collecting stories for an 80th-anniversary edition of his book Sheffield’s Date With Hitler.
Residents of Broomgrove Nursing Home on Broomgrove Road, Broomhall didn’t even let lockdown get in the way of retelling their stories – they used Skype.
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Hide AdResident Ernest Barron, a former director of Sheffield Wednesday, was living in Wadsley Bridge at the time and vividly remembers the devastation following the first night of the Blitz.
He said: “I still remember walking up Snig Hill and Angel Street and seeing the devastation. The Marples building had been flattened in Fitzalan Square, killing scores of people.
“Walsh’s department store had been destroyed - only cast iron girders remained erect.
“The Empire Theatre had a bomb crater on fire outside and it was nothing but devastation on The Moor.
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Hide Ad“I will never forget memory of seeing the body of a man laid on Ecclesall Road.”
The Sheffield Blitz killed and wounded more than 2,000 people and made a tenth of the city homeless. It took the city years to recover.
Fellow Broomgrove resident Hugh Bradbury recalls hearing the anti-aircraft fire springing into life. He knew the attack was no false alarm. He was 10 years old at the time.
He watched the stricken city burning from his bedroom in Ecclesfield and knew of two people that lost their lives.
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Hide AdHome manager Donna Pierpoint said: “Our residents have lived such long and amazing lives and it’s great when their incredible knowledge can be used in this way. They were only too pleased to get involved.”
The new edition of Sheffield’s Date With Hitler will be out to mark the 80th anniversary of the attacks and be published in the autumn.
Sheffield PR consultant Neil,who led a campaign to remember the sacrifices made by the city, is set to re-release the book that inspired the move which was first published a decade ago.
His Sheffield Blitz campaign – which was done in conjunction with The Star - culminated in the launch of a heritage trail and the opening of a permanent exhibition that is now housed inside Shalesmoor’s National Emergency Services Museum.
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Hide AdNeil Anderson attributes much of the success of the initial campaign down to his ability to rally support for the cause through his PR skills.
He said: “The one thing that really struck me when I wrote the original book was how little there was to mark the devastating attacks of 1940.
“In fact, when the BBC turned my book into a documentary, they called it Sheffield – The Forgotten Blitz. I was on a mission to do something after that!”
Neil worked with two colleagues – Richard Godley and Bill Bevan – on an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
They backed their plans to the tune of over £80,000.
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Hide AdThe Sheffield Blitz exhibition has doubled the numbers of visitors attending the National Emergency Services Museum since it opened, with visitors travelling from as far as Australia to see it.
The Luftwaffe attacks killed and wounded more than 2,000 people and made nearly a tenth of the city’s population homeless in December 1940.
The devastation changed the face of the city forever and flattened much of the city centre.
*The free Sheffield Blitz walking app can be downloaded on Playstore or the App Store.
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