Archive Catwalk: Sheffield's Fashionable Past

The design of clothes has historically been influenced by global trends, economic prosperity, changing social attitudes, and by the types of materials they’re made from.

At the turn of the century it was fashionable for women to wear long skirts, corsets and yards of fabric if they could afford it.  The 1920s and 1930s saw hemlines rise and a set of couture fashion houses emerged which designed clothes that reflected the growing desire for clothes that helped people to enjoy themselves. Rationing during the Second World War and economic downturns had a radical effect on fashion during the 20th century.  Many fashion houses closed during the war as most women could not afford to buy clothes that weren’t necessities and many materials became unavailable.  The 'Make do and Mend' campaign was introduced by the government to encourage people to get as much wear as possible out of the clothes they already had. 

After the austerity of the war years, innovations in textile technology resulted in the manufacture of new synthetic fibres (such as nylon, polyester and acrylic) which created a consumer market for affordable, easy care clothing.  Teenagers became a force in the market as a result of music and film influences.  Fashion traditions were broken in the 1960s with the arrival of Mary Quant’s daring miniskirt.  The 1970s were characterised by flared jeans and platform boots (for both men and women) while the later years of the decade gave rise to the anti-fashion, anarchistic punk look.  Eighties fashions reflected the economic boom and were typified by power dressing, gaudy colours and conspicuous consumption while, in contrast, 1990s style became minimalist, influenced by the dress-down culture of grunge.  Meanwhile, present day styles are evidence that fashion is cyclical with the rise in popularity of real vintage and vintage-inspired clothes.

Fashion trends quickly filter down to a local level, and the sources at Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library are full of pictures and references to Sheffield’s colourful and fashionable history.  One of the earliest references is an inventory of jewellery belonging to Bess of Hardwick in 1583 listing her ‘crose of dyamons [and] a ringe with a greate rubye’ (Sheffield Archives: MD6311/6).  Eighteenth century fashions are discussed by the Wilson family ladies of Broomhead Hall (1794) (Sheffield Archives: MD7899/5/7), while socialist campaigner Edward Carpenter set about making his own sandals, following an enlightening trip to India, during the late 19^th century (Sheffield Archives: Carpenter/W/1-3).

Twentieth century fashions are comprehensively documented at Sheffield Local Studies Library, with the local newspapers offering a weekly analysis of changing fashions, the latest hairstyles and the influences of the day.  History’s shocking styles are also documented, from the ‘outrageous’ New Look of the 1940s and 1950s which used copious of amounts of fabric (seen as unpatriotic after rationing), to the ‘harmful craze’ for ear piercing which swept Sheffield in the 1970s and 1980s!

Pictured above (from top): ‘Sexy Rexy’ suit house, Charles Street, 1972;  watercolour of the latest summer fashions for 1912 by Ida Stringfellow; coat made by Painted Fabrics Ltd, 1920s; façade of Cockayne's as it would have looked in 1829; 1950s advertisements from J.G.Graves catalogue; wartime 'make do and mend' booklet; advertisement for C&A, Sheffield; Sheffield Star article on the new 'ear piercing craze', 1970s; 'City on the Move', 1970s; Peace Gardens, 1986.  

All images © Sheffield Archives/Local Studies Library/Picture Sheffield. 

Spotlight 26. Friendship

Friendship as a source of emotional support, understanding, and personal transformation. Unlikely relationships that endure against all odds. How childhood bonds fare through life’s changes and challenges. Writers have returned to these themes time and time again.

In today’s Library Spotlight we’re sharing a few friendly reading recommendations and looking to writing as a way of reflecting on existing friendships and making new connections.

Friends, in Fiction and Beyond

In this Waterstones podcast, authors Angie Thomas, Tash Aw, Yomi Adegoke, and Elizabeth Uviebinené talk about what friendship means to them and what it's like to write a book with your best friend.

Listen to the podcast here.

Several of the books recommended in this show are available in our eLibrary, including Expectation, The Hate U Give, We, The Survivors, and Slay in Your Lane.

Sheffield Libraries members can borrow all these titles for free, along with a range of books about boon companions, fraught friendships, and unlikely allies.

#BookQuizFriday

What does the group of childhood friends terrorised by Stephen King’s IT call themselves? 

With which fellow poet did William Wordsworth write Lyrical Ballads?

This week we've set you a quiz about friends both fictional and factual.

Check out the full quiz on our Twitter page. Feel free to share it too - after all, there's nothing like a bit of friendly competition!

"Doing nothing with friends is never doing nothing"

Part-picture book, part-graphic novel, Charlie Mackesy's current bestseller The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse has struck a chord with readers of all ages, and has even been compared to Winnie the Pooh.

The book's messages about companionship, compassion, and being kind to yourself are especially timely right now.

In this video, you can watch Charlie Mackesy draw one of the book's beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations.

As part of Chicago Public Library's Live from the Library story-time series, Oprah Winfrey has recorded a full-length reading of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, available to watch here.

Creativity During Corona

Throughout the week Claire from Central Library is sharing some fantastic poems and creative activities on our Facebook page.

Today's post features a selection of interesting, sometimes bittersweet writing prompts on the theme of friendship.

Do you miss a friend? Write a poem or letter to them telling them how you feel.

Write about what would happen if you introduced two of your friends who've never met and who might not get along...

Check out the full post and accompanying poems on our Facebook page.

Claire is now running free creative writing workshops on Zoom, including a session at 11am today (Friday 19 June) about Friendship. Tickets for all forthcoming workshops will be available on our Eventbrite page.

One Less Lonely Voice

We're currently coming to the end of Loneliness Awareness Week.

Loneliness can affect all of us at any point in our lives. But when we or someone we know is feeling lonely, it can be difficult to open up about it.

Loneliness Awareness Week challenges the stigma around talking about loneliness by promoting a better, more positive understanding of this common emotion. The campaign also offers advice both on how to start conversations about feeling isolated and how to find support and make new social connections and friendships.

The charity behind Loneliness Awareness Week, the Marmalade Trust, has lots of information on their website about how you can help yourself and others feel less lonely at a time of social distancing.

Take a look at the Marmalade Trust's Loneliness Guide here, which features advice on managing loneliness at home, school, and work. 

This page of tips from the "Let's Talk Loneliness" campaign is also well worth a read.

For many of us, connecting with friends and family online may have been the main way we've stayed in touch lately. Especially at times like these, a handwritten letter is an extra-special treat!

The Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care has recently put out a call for people to send them postcards and letters, which can then be delivered to older Sheffield residents who have been isolated from family, friends, and face-to-face befriending services.

Over 200 letters, drawings, and handmade cards have been posted so far, and the SCCCC is keen to send out even more through their lockdown Pen Pal Scheme.

If you've been exploring a new crafty hobby over the past few months, this is the perfect opportunity to use your talents to connect with your community and brighten someone's day!

Find out all about becoming a SCCCC Pen Pal here.

Meet Some Brand New Animal Pals in the Summer Reading Challenge

Illustrations © Laura Ellen Anderson 2020

Have you met the Silly Squad yet? This team of funny animal friends are the stars of 2020's Summer Reading Challenge!

A great way to keep children reading over the holidays, the Summer Reading Challenge is a fun free activity that takes place nationwide. This year we've started the celebrations a little earlier than usual with an online challenge.

Children can earn digital rewards for reading six books of their choice over the summer (and there'll be more treats in store once libraries reopen).

Sign up for Silly Squad, Summer Reading Challenge 2020 here.

Need some help deciding what to read next for the Challenge? Our eLibrary has some great books about best buddies and finding friendship where you least expect it.

Our selection includes some wonderful picture book recordings in the audiobooks collection and a whole herd of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic eComics.

Hidden Histories: Uncovering 200 Years of LGBTQ History in Sheffield

Like many other highlights on the social calendar, Sheffield Pride has been postponed this year owing to Covid-19.  To mark Pride Month 2020 we’re taking a trip through the archives to uncover the history of LGBTQ experience in Sheffield over the last two centuries.

Extract from Parish Register in the archives, 1817

We start by going back just over 200 years.  In 1817 it appears that two women were married at Sheffield Parish Church. It is recorded in the marriage register that ‘Henry / Henrietta’ Stoake married Ann Hants on 14th Jan 1817. As was usual practice the man signed his name first.  In this case the first name recorded is Harriet which was crossed out and replaced by Henry.  At the entry for the bride’s name the vicar wrote Harriet but crossed it out and replaced it with Ann.  The case only came to light many years later.  Reports in The Times and The Guardian in April 1838 refer to a case of a married couple at Manchester falling out over housekeeping money with the case going before a solicitor.  At this point the woman accused her husband of being a woman.  A medical examination at the police office confirmed ‘in the most distinct and unqualified manner’ that the husband was indeed a ‘woman’.  She had been in the habit of wearing men’s clothes and had a successful business as a master bricklayer.  During examination by the solicitor and magistrate the woman confirmed she has been married ‘many years earlier’ in Sheffield.  The story is expanded here: https://wearewarpandweft.wordpress.com/harry-stokes-a-female-husband-in-manchester/harry-stokes-timeline/

Sheffield Mercury, 5 Apr 1834

Many references in the archives to homosexuality reflect the establishment view that such lifestyles were not acceptable.  With legislation outlawing gay sex, records from the police and the courts record prosecutions, which together with newspaper reports, build up a picture of individuals’ lives and society’s reaction.  An early case is that of Thomas Rodgers, a 32-year old Sheffield labourer who was executed in 1834 for committing an ‘unnatural act’ with a work colleague.  Apparently Rodgers admitted what he had done to his employer and it was this admission that led to his trial at York Assizes. He was found guilty and condemned to death.  He was hanged outside York Gaol, along with two other prisoners, in front a crowd of about 6,000 onlookers.

Left: Edward Carpenter and George Merrill;
Right: sandals made as part of artistic project by
Yuen Fong Ling using Carpenter archive.

Ten short years later, Edward Carpenter was born and his story marks a positive shift in attitude.  Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was an early advocate of equality for a variety of groups in society. He campaigned throughout his life on many issues of social concern, ranging from women's suffrage to the protection of the environment, from sexual emancipation to the formation of trade unions. For over forty years he formed a strong bond with the people of Sheffield, living openly as a gay man in Millthorpe, Derbyshire only a few miles away. His writings and example laid the foundation for the gay liberation movement of the twentieth century. Through his many friendships, Edward Carpenter cut across the divisions of class, gender, sexuality, race and creed.  Men and women from across the world and from all walks of life came into connection with each other through him and his connections with Sheffield and home at Millthorpe.  Carpenter left a comprehensive archive and library. Thousands of his letters to friends and colleagues are preserved at Sheffield Archives, as well as copies of many of his published works and his own library.  His extensive correspondence includes letters from E. M. Forster, Siegfried Sassoon, Ramsay MacDonald and many others.

Sheffield Telegraph, 22 July 1967 

In 1967 the Government passed the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Bill which permitted same sex relationships between men aged 21 and over.  Newspapers of the period include letters and reports on the passage of the Bill.  The Sheffield Telegraph wrote that the passing of the Bill marked the ‘end of a monstrous road’.

Gay's The Word bookshop in London which
received support from Sheffield Libraries
following 'Operation Tiger' in the 1980s

In April 1984, Customs and Excise officers raided the London bookshop, Gay’s The Word, and seized all their imported books. This was the start of ‘Operation Tiger’ which sought to seize ‘obscene’ material. Support for Gay’s The Word came from a wide range of individuals and organisations who saw this as an attack on civil rights and freedom of expression.  In Sheffield, the minutes of the Council’s Libraries Committee show that Sheffield Libraries came out in support of the bookshop.  At a meeting held on 9 Jul 1986 reference was made to the proposed legal proceedings by H.M. Customs and Excise against London bookshop Gay's The Word relating to the possession of allegedly 'indecent' and 'obscene' publications.  It was reported that the Director of Libraries and Information Services, Patricia Coleman, had submitted a letter on behalf of Senior Librarians expressing concern at the possibility of increasing censorship.  The charges were eventually dropped.

Council minutes and newspapers provide an
interesting window on debate during the 1980s,
particularly in light of Section 28

In 1988 the Local Government Act contained a clause (known as Section 28) which stated that a local authority ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. There was great hostility to the clause and some local authorities (including Sheffield) opposed it.  A search of Sheffield Council committee minutes, notably the Policy Committee for 1988, reveals reports and deliberations on how the Council felt Section 28 could affect all manner of services.  Of particular interest is a report from the Head of the Administration and Legal Department to the Policy Committee meeting in September 1988, outlining the effects Section 28 would have on Council service provision and 'reaffirming its opposition to the clause'. Section 28 was repealed in 2003.

The collections at Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library come right up to the present day and include policy documents, flyers, posters, leaflets and photographs from individuals and organisations.  If you have any material you’d like to add to the city collections, get in touch: archives@sheffield.gov.uk

For more information on the sources at Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library see our Research Guide: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/libraries-archives/access-archives-local-studies-library/research-guides/lesbian-gay-sources

Spotlight 25. On the Water

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

So begins one of literature’s best-known river journeys: Ratty and Mole’s opening boat trip in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. Spanning canals, lakes, and lost rivers, today’s Library Spotlight looks at the waters that flow through poetry, fiction, and our city.

Rhythmic Rivers and Babbling Brooks

 A Sheffield keel beside the castle-like Lock House that once stood at Tinsley Locks.

Undated image from early 1900s, taken from Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library's Picture Sheffield site (ref. y02044).

In this episode of BBC Radio 3's The Verb, poet Ian McMillan delves into the language of rivers. Speaking with guests including Alan Hollinghurst and Jude Rogers, the Bard of Barnsley explores how the river "turns and eddies in our imagination" throughout fiction, verse, and music.

Listen to the podcast here.

Sheffield's Hidden Rivers

In the last year, the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust has started to host guided urban caving tours exploring the vast network of Victorian storm drains below Sheffield city centre. The tours form part of the Trust’s projects to preserve and reclaim the city’s underground rivers.

 

If you’re curious to see more, check out this brilliant video and article by The Sheffield Guide’s James Hargreaves.

James’s video looks at the history of these "lost rivers" and captures his journey along the waterways beneath our feet. The tour moves from the river Sheaf as it flows underneath Sheffield Train Station, to the massive Megatron culvert in Castlegate.

Creativity during Corona

Every day on our Facebook page, Claire from Central Library is sharing poems and writing exercises to stir up your creativity.

 

In today’s post, Claire encourages us to think about the metaphorical resonance of rivers, and features a reading of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Brook.

 

“When I hear this poem read out, I feel like Frodo Baggins in Rivendell. Babble on the pebbles. I like the repetition and the wildlife, the rhythm as if I’m on the river itself, and the journey it takes.”

 

Check out Claire’s latest creative prompts on Facebook.

Get Your Imagination Flowing with these Filmpoems

If Claire's creative writing activities have sparked an interest in exploring more river poetry, why not take a look at Waterlines’ “filmpoems”.

A collaboration between The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust, the Waterlines website brings together a host of new poems inspired by Britain’s waterways.

Written by previous Canal Laureate Jo Bell, “Lifted” is a lovely filmpoem capturing the ritual of passing through a lock.

You can watch more of Waterlines' atmospheric filmpoems here.

Fishy Goings-On in This is Not My Hat!

The Little Angel Theatre has put together an ingenious series of performances that perfectly capture the look and dark humour of Jon Klassen's award-winning picture books on the theme of hat theft!

Here's the underwater tale This is Not My Hat.

Children can also learn how to create their very own swimming fish puppets, as featured in the show, here.

If you enjoyed this play, check out the productions of Jon Klassen's other two books on the Little Angel Theatre's YouTube channel (the bear puppets in I Want My Hat Back are particularly fabulous!)

All three shows will be available to watch for free until 30 June.

Drift Away with a Great Book

Whether you’re in the mood for a “waterbiography”, a relaxing riverside read, or aquatic tales of monsters, myth, and magic, our eLibrary has lots to choose from.

 

Track down all these eBooks and audiobooks, and more, here.