Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 1987 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| IBBERSON FAMILY AND VE DAY | 1944-1945 | 1944-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White / Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 16 mins 40 secs Subject: Wartime Travel Seaside Family Life |
| Summary Part of the Ibberson collection, this is an amateur film that captures the filmmaker's family, the area where they lived in Sheffield, holidays at the seaside, and V.E. Day celebrations. |
|
Description
Part of the Ibberson collection, this is an amateur film that captures the filmmaker's family, the area where they lived in Sheffield, holidays at the seaside, and V.E. Day celebrations.
The film opens at Stanton Woodhouse, Prestatyn in Wales, two children play at a stream before the family go for a walk in the countryside. A man using a horse drawn plough can be seen tending to the fields in the background. At a farmyard a little boy rides a three-wheeler bike in a yard, and the three...
Part of the Ibberson collection, this is an amateur film that captures the filmmaker's family, the area where they lived in Sheffield, holidays at the seaside, and V.E. Day celebrations.
The film opens at Stanton Woodhouse, Prestatyn in Wales, two children play at a stream before the family go for a walk in the countryside. A man using a horse drawn plough can be seen tending to the fields in the background. At a farmyard a little boy rides a three-wheeler bike in a yard, and the three Ibberson boys feed lambs from a bottle. Back at the farmhouse, people ride their bicycles down a lane near the house, and the boys play outside.
The action then moves to the sea where family shots paddling at the seaside. Members of the Ibberson family play in the water playing ring-around-the-rosie and splashing about. The children go onto ride donkeys and stop to pose for the camera. Later the boys play in the sand on the beach.
Next, Mrs. Ibberson pushes her sons on the swing set, and a steam train can be seen passing in the background. This is followed by more footage of the family at the beach, playing in the sand, running towards the camera, and the boys playing in the water with their father.
The next sequence is of various family scenes in a garden, outside a church, and a building with bunting. The Ibberson's building is decorated in Sheffield city centre, and there is a brief shot of a double-decker bus going down a Sheffield street. This is followed by shots of people in a wood having a picnic.
At night there illuminations that are slightly underexposed. In the filmmaker's garden, children play. They first sit together on a bench, posing for the camera before forming a line and dancing around the garden. Next, Mr. Ibberson and his wife come out into the garden. He is formally dressed, and she is wearing an evening gown. As they approach the camera, they give the victory sign as they get ready for the Victory Ball. The film closes in the town and shows a static water tank (A.R.P.) being emptied in Broad Lane and children are playing in the water gushing over the road.
Context
This is one of a large collection of films by Sheffield steel maker “Billy” Ibberson, many very accomplished, made over a period of sixty years. The Ibberson company was the first to manufacture stainless steel cutlery. Billy Ibberson was active in the Chamber of Commerce and the Company of Cutler’s, and became Master Cutler in 1954. His three sons featured in the film are Robert, the eldest, John, the middle one, and Charles. For more on Ibberson see the Context for Yorkshire Beaches,...
This is one of a large collection of films by Sheffield steel maker “Billy” Ibberson, many very accomplished, made over a period of sixty years. The Ibberson company was the first to manufacture stainless steel cutlery. Billy Ibberson was active in the Chamber of Commerce and the Company of Cutler’s, and became Master Cutler in 1954. His three sons featured in the film are Robert, the eldest, John, the middle one, and Charles. For more on Ibberson see the Context for Yorkshire Beaches, made shortly after this film in the summer of 1945, where the family enjoy a holiday in Filey.
In this film they are presumably enjoying a family holiday in 1944, this time in Wales, well away from any possible bombs. The last bomb to fall on Sheffield was on April 25th, 1944. After this time the main bombing threat came from the German V1 flying bomb – aka Doodlebug or "Buzz Bomb" – campaign against Britain which began on the night of the 12th-13th June 1944, one week after the Normandy landings. Although virtually all of these fell on the South East, one V1 landed on Cow Lane near Beighton, 6 miles south-east of Sheffield, on Christmas eve 1944. The main bombing of Sheffield had taken place during the blitz, on the nights of 12/13th and 15/16th December 1940. On the first night over 330 German aircraft are believed to have attacked the city. Thanks to a covering of fog, the main industrial part of the city escaped the worst. The city centre was heavily hit as well as many residential areas, including Norton Lees, Gleadless, Abbeydale, Brincliffe Edge, Moorhead, Glossop Road, Park Hill, Millhouses, Sharrow, Broomhill, Crookesmoore, Walkley, Owlerton, Burngreave, Meersbrook, Wybourn and Neepsend. There is a claim that the German pilots mistook trams lines for the River Don, leading the bombers away from the industrial areas located on the Don. However, on the second raid factories like Brown Bayleys and Hadfield’s Hecla Works, in the industrial areas of Attercliffe, Grimesthorpe and Burngreave, were hit. At any rate, it looks as if the area at the end of the film that has possibly been hit by a bomb is on Broad Lane. A map published in 1948 showing where the bombs fell indicates that a bomb may have fell on the corner of Broad Street and Rockingham Street. The latter is where George Ibberson & Co. had their Cutlery & Plate Works is located, at 108/116 Rockingham Street, named ‘Violin Works’, after adopting the Stradivarius violin as a trademark in the 1880s. One of the two city fire depots was at the other end of Rockingham Street – the other was on Division Street. For more detailed information on the bombing of Sheffield see the Context for Sheffield at War (1940-1941) Ibberson would have taken a special interest in the damage caused by the bombing as he was a chairman of the Council for the Conservation of Sheffield Antiquities and responsible for helping to Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet: a restoration process which he also filmed. References Clyde Binfield et al (eds), The History of the City of Sheffield, Vols. 2&3, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993. Sheffield Archives & Local Studies Sources for the Study of the Sheffield Blitz of 1940, 940.5442SQ 1948 map of where the bombs fell in Sheffield Chris Hobbs, The Beighton Doodlebug - Xmas Eve 1944 |
