Each year the document collection at Sheffield City
Archives grows in size. Last year we
received around 900 boxes of archival material dating from the 16th
century to the present day including legal documents, photographs,
architectural plans, glass negatives, ancient deeds, watercolour paintings and
digital files. Each item reveals a bit
more to us about Sheffield’s history.
What follows is a brief look at some of the collection highlights from
2016...
Two volumes were donated by a private individual relating
to Hadfields Limited (National Projectile Factory), Sheffield detailing
orders for high explosive shells during World War One. The orders came from the Ministry of
Munitions, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the Secretary of State for
War, the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, War Department, Washington DC, USA
and the United States Government, Navy Department. Almost all of the orders recorded in the two ledgers
were made at the Hecla Works, the smaller of Hadfields’ two sites. To give an idea of the volume of goods
produced, the monthly peak in March 1916 (three months before the Battle of the
Somme) was around £437,000 worth of orders - quite an extraordinary sum. (Sheffield
City Archives: X752/1).
Sheffield City Council has historically owned various
plots of land and buildings across the city, the deeds to which have been
stored in The Deeds Registry in the
basement of Sheffield Town Hall, Pinstone Street. In 2015, the Council began the process of
voluntarily registering its ownership of land and property with the Land
Registry. Packages of unregistered deeds
and documents were sent to the Land Registry for them to check the chain of
ownership and prepare for a first registration.
Upon their return, the old prior deeds were no longer required as legal
documents and were passed to Sheffield City Archives. In 2016, we received over 100 boxes of these old
title deeds, many dating back to the 1600s.
They cover ancient highways and byways, pubs and beerhouses, steam
grinding wheels, cutlery works, music halls, dwellinghouses and more. The oldest deed received so far dates from
1571 and describes ‘tenements on Snigg
Hill leading from the Irish Cross to the West Barr’. We expect hundreds more boxes to be
transferred over the next few years. (Sheffield
City Archives: CA778).
A curious illuminated manuscript was donated to the
Archives in November 2016. It was an
address, dated 1896, presented to James
Melling of Throstle Grove, Pitsmoor
by the Committee of the Sheffield Social Questions League, thanking Melling for
the action he took against the landlord of the Black Swan Hotel, Snig Hill and his 'brave stand...taken against the
glaring public evils of our time - the forces of drink, gambling and
impurity...' It transpired that James
Wallace, the landlord of the Black Swan, had published two letters in the
Sheffield Independent falsely accusing Melling of trying to entrap him into
selling alcohol after hours in breach of the licensing laws. The case went to court and the judge ruled in
favour of Melling. The illuminated
address praises Melling’s commitment to the promotion of temperance and social
morality. (Sheffield
City Archives: X748/1).
Upon their move from Meersbrook House last year, the Parks Department transferred a large quantity of records to the archives for permanent preservation including minutes,
early staff wage books, allotment plans and photographs. The records add much to our knowledge of the
development of Sheffield’s parks and green spaces. Of particular interest is a volume of
coloured linen plans of parks, recreation grounds and open spaces drawn up by
Mr E. Partington, Estates Surveyor in the 1920s.
The volume was obviously a working document for the Parks Department
during the Second World War and many of the plans are annotated to denote ARP
shelters, ARP posts, rest centres/shelters, barrage balloon sites, wartime
allotments, ARP trenches, water tanks and fire tanks, open
cast coal and huts for the Home Guard. (Sheffield
City Archives: CA981).
We also received a donation of First World War letters
written by Able Seaman Joe Rhodes
of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves to his sweetheart in Sheffield, Nellie
Drabble. Joe was born in Sheffield in
1900. He became a crucible furnaceman,
later serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves during the First World War,
enlisting towards the end of December 1917 and starting his naval training in
January 1918 at the Royal Navy training depot in Crystal Palace, London. Throughout his naval service, Rhodes kept up
regular correspondence with his sweetheart back home in Sheffield, Nellie
Drabble (1898 - 1968). His letters
discuss his training at the Royal Navy depot: ‘…the palace is a magnificent place and I am very sorry to say that our
superiors are rotters...', thoughts of Sheffield: '...by the papers I see that the Zepps were knocking about Yorkshire
last and I hope they did not make it uncomfortable for you just the same as
when they pay us a visit...' and his enduring relationship with Nellie: '...We managed to get out last night for the
first time and I had not been out 10 minutes before a girl came up to me and
asked me take her a stroll, this I flatly refused by saying that the girl I
left in Sheffield has all the love I can give and that I had none to spare for
her...’ Joe Rhodes married Nellie
Drabble on 25 February 1922 at St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield. (Sheffield
City Archives: X747).
We also took in public records from Sheffield Magistrates’
Court, HM Coroner, the Northern General Hospital, Jessop Hospital for Women and
Trent Regional Health Authority. Records were also deposited by Sheffield City
Council, the Diocese of Sheffield, the GMB and NALGO trade unions, local
businesses, societies and organisations and private individuals.
A full list of archives received by Sheffield City
Archives (and other archives around the country) is published by The National Archives
each year:
You can also search Sheffield City Archives' online catalogue here: http://www.calmview.eu/SheffieldArchives/CalmView/Default.aspx?
