Sheffield Blitz: A view from a Tideswell sideboard

The Sheffield Blitz affected people beyond the city’s bounds, and was seen from many of the nearby Peak District villages. Here is one Tideswell woman’s recollection of hiding in the sideboard as girl during the Sheffield Blitz.

My first memory of Queen Street is living in a cottage next to the Methodist Chapel which had been Mrs Sidney Goodwin’s general store, and when we lived there the bins were still in the shop where she kept flour and all sorts of things.

Fountains Square and Queen St, Tideswell. The Methodist Chapel is in the background

The people who lived in the shoe shop at that time were the Bramwell family, and I used to play with the great grandson of the Bramwell family. I would be about 6 and he would be about 4 years old, and it was the height of the bombing in Sheffield. My father worked on the railway so was at work during the night and was also on the Home Guard. If there were a lot of planes coming across and it was night time old Mrs Bramwell, Malcolm’s great grandmother used to come and get my mother and I, come into our house and she had a great big sideboard with a knee hole and they used to put Malcolm and I in the hole in the sideboard because they thought we’d be safe.”

A longer version of this interview was originally published at https://wordpress.com/post/tideswelltales.wordpress.com/1013