This is one of a collection of films made by the amateur filmmaker Robert Sharp, a textile retailer from Bradford.   The YFA holds over 30 films either made by, or on behalf of, Bob Sharp, dating from the late 1930s through to the late 1950s. The films cover a variety of subjects: not only the Sharp floor covering business, but also reflecting Bob’s interests and hobbies, his work as a councillor, and his family films.  It was with the films made during the Second World War however,...

This is one of a collection of films made by the amateur filmmaker Robert Sharp, a textile retailer from Bradford.   The YFA holds over 30 films either made by, or on behalf of, Bob Sharp, dating from the late 1930s through to the late 1950s. The films cover a variety of subjects: not only the Sharp floor covering business, but also reflecting Bob’s interests and hobbies, his work as a councillor, and his family films. 

It was with the films made during the Second World War however, especially of 'Holidays at Home' weeks – when it was difficult to holiday by the sea – that his filming really took off. Collectively they give a fascinating portrait of Bradford during the 1940s, and record important civic events and personalities.  In that same year that this film was made, in 1945, Bob Sharp also filmed Ernest Bevin visiting Bradford, when he was still Minister of Labour. The following year he filmed

Street Cleansing, which showed a different aspect of the City Council’s work. He also made a film of his own shop, Sharp's Halifax Shop (1949), and one of the old Kirkstall Market, 700th Anniversary of Bradford Market Charter (1951). Bob was himself a councillor for Bradford Moor from 1931 to 1934 and from 1937 to 1945, and also represented Eccleshill for two years from 1950. At the time that he made this film, 1944 and 1945, he was the Deputy Lord Mayor. This obviously put him in a unique position to make this film of the then Mayor, Cecil Barnett, at his duties. Bob wanted to be Lord Mayor himself, but was pipped to the post by Kathleen Chambers who became the first female Lord Mayor on November 9, 1945. For more on Bob Sharp see the Context for Street Cleansing (1946).


Bradford had had a  Mayor going back to 1847, with the Incorporation of the Borough – later Bradford became a County Borough in 1889, and a City in 1897 – and a Lord Mayor from 1907 The position is not entirely ceremonial, because as chair of the full Council he or she has a casting vote. The gold Civic chain seen around the neck of the Mayor throughout was presented by wealthy, and influential, townsmen in 1854. It was added to in 1937 by a ram and an Angora goat. The chain was stolen later on in 1945 whilst Kathleen Chambers was Lord Mayor, when she was on a visit to Leeds on 4th December. Apparently the chain was in an attaché case inside a secret apartment in the Lord Mayor’s Austin 24 Civic car, giving rise to the suspicion that this was an inside job. It was never recovered, believed to have been broken up – incidentally, the new replacement chain was made by Fattorini and Sons Limited who made the FA Trophy Cup that Bradford City won in 1911 – see Bradford City v Newcastle United (1911). 

The whole of this film, of about one hour, gives a fantastic picture not only of the Lord Mayor on his duties, but of much else in Bradford and beyond just as the war is moving towards an end.   Perhaps the stand-out feature of the film for many will be the visit of Winston Churchill – he had previously visited St Georges Hall in Bradford on 3rd March 1905, and again on 14th March 1914 and on 6th December 1942 he spoke outside the Town Hall (his father also had a strong association with Bradford). At a speech he gave at Bradford Town Hall in November 1910 he was interrupted by suffragette protesters, hiding below the stage, as he actively opposed votes for women.  He visted Yorkshire in March 1944 to observe training for the D Day landings, just three months away.

Churchill has become, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, an historical figure of iconic status, though for rather different reasons. Given the legend that has grown up around him it was perhaps not surprising when, in 2002, he came out top in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.  Most of the legend derives from his leadership during World War Two: the treasury economist Alec Cairncross opined that, “Had he retired at sixty two like Rab [Butler], he would have been thought of as an unsuccessful politician, rather unstable  and reactionary.” (Quoted in Ramsden, p 37) Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 when Neville Chamberlain resigned. During the period of 1944 and 1945, Churchill would of course have had little time to visit the provinces, having a heavy schedule with the allied invasion of Normandy, on June 6th 1944, countering the VI ‘doodle-bug’ and later the VII rocket bombs, and dealing with the complex political issues as the war drew to a close. There were many outstanding settlements involving Poland, Greece, Italy and so on, in which Churchill was centrally involved.

The heroic nationalist stature that Churchill has acquired has also meant that many now try to appropriate him for their own ends. In the context of Bradford’s multi-ethnic communities, it is as well to be mindful of the way Churchill has recently been used by those who see Islam as destroying the British (and Western) way of life. Churchill’s book on the Sudanese campaign The River War, published in 1899, has been copiously quoted to show his warnings about a Muslim threat to take over the west; one example being that of the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, in a speech to the House of Lords in March 2009. It might be thought that this whipping up of fear of a ‘takeover’ is somewhat ironic given that Churchill’s book is sub-titled is ‘A Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan’. 

Whether or not this appropriation of Churchill is justified is a moot point: certainly his record on many issues, such as trade unions and colonialism – he opposed Indian independence – might make him a dubious ally (though his politics were not straightforward, see Chris Wrigley and Tony Benn in Cannadine and Quinault). In The River War Churchill demonstrates that he was capable of being fair-minded (it can be read in Google books), and recognised that Islam, like Christianity, is not a monolithic religion: having a majority of peaceful and compassionate followers, as well as those who are not so – see the review of Churchill’s book on the New Age Islam website (References), which aims to present a balanced mainstream view of Islam.

The Women’s Land Army (usually referred to as ‘Land Girls’) was set up on June 1st 1939 under Lady Gertrude Denman, who promoted the Land Army in the First World War and later the Women’s Institute. Again, this came under fire on the pretext that women couldn’t do the heavy work, and again this was proved wrong. Although the recruiting posters gave it a glorified image, it was in fact hard work for poor pay (much less than the already underpaid male workers), and dangerous, often working at night with improvised blackout proof lamps. There were training courses, but most learned on the job. One of their jobs was exterminating vermin, a particular problem with a shortage of food – in 1939 40% of food was home grown, by 1943 70% was. 

In March 1942 single women and those without children were conscripted, and by July 1943 there were 87,000 Land Girls. They were issued a uniform, of sorts, corduroy breeches, canvas leggings and felt hats – note the yellow leggings in the film – and had to sign a pledge of mobility.   In her very readable book, Bombers and Mash, Raynes Minns states other helpers included, “60,000 schoolchildren, Girl Guides, Cubs and youth squads, GIs, evacuee children and their mothers, soldiers on leave and tired factory workers gasping for a breath of fresh air.” (p 75)

They were also joined on the land by prisoners of war, as seen in this film, although kept apart on pain of punishment. The prisoners of war were vital too for keeping the population fed; so much so that after the war was over they were kept on, against international treaties, to continue working on farms: in 1946 there was still more than 400,000 German POWs here – see the Context for Sheriff Hutton Agricultural Scenes (1946-54).

Linton Camp School, near Grassington, opened in July 1940 to take in Bradford children whose parents were off fighting and working.  After the war it remained open as a Special Residential School taking pupils from Bradford at times when they couldn't be accommodated at home for various reasons. By some accounts at least, the school was a great place to be, out in the country with a swimming pool, and being able to swim in the River Wharfe – see References, especially the excellent website of Peter Hartingdon.  It was closed in the early eighties and is now in a very bad state of disrepair (see the entry on Derelict Places, which has many recent photos, References). Some of the film is not of Bradford, which does not have, and hasn’t ever had, a statute on a column, and had blue trolleybuses. Perhaps an eagled eyed viewer will be able to identify which city or town this is.

(with special thanks to Sarah Powell of Bradford Local Studies and Richard Lee-Van den Daele, Bradford City Council)

References

Juliet Gardner, Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, Headline, London, 2004.

Felicity Goodall, Voices from the Home Front, David and Charles, 2004.

Margaret Higonnet et al (eds), Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, Yale University Press, London, 1987.

Arthur Marwick, The Home Front: British and the second World War, Hudson and Thames, 1976.

Raynes Minns, Bombers and Mash: The Domestic front 1939-45, Virago, London, 1999

Henry Pelling, Churchill, Macmillan, London, 1974

John Ramsden, Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and his legend since 1945, Harper Collins, London, 2003.

Malise Ruthven, Islam: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Chris Wrigley, ‘Churchill and the Trade Unions’, in David Cannadine and Roland Quinault, Winston Churchill in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Bradford Twentieth Century Timeline

List of past mayors of Bradford

The True Story Of The Bombing Of Bradford

The River War

Linton Camp School recalled, Telegraph and Argus

Also, Bradford memories of Linton Camp School

Derelict Places

Linton Camp School, Peter Hartingdon