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Can anyone help? I’m looking into my mother’s early history. She remembered being taken to live in a “slummy dwelling” with her mother after living with her aunt. She was born in 1914. I’ve found her on the 1921 census living at 19 Roman Ridge Road which according to the enumerator’s notes was a wooden house as were all the houses in the neighbouring streets - sounds to me like a shanty town. I wonder if anyone has any knowledge about these streets? Thank you very much.
Hi Margaret,
From my 1968/69 Street Guide.
It states.
Roman Ridge Road, Tyler St Brightside. Sheffield 9.
Hope that helps.
Elaine in Ottawa.
Added.
Having trouble pin pointing on the Alan Godfrey early 1900's Maps.
Can someone help more with that please.
Elaine.
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Hi Margaret,
Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 30 Apr 1920.
Not following School attendance orders.
Eva Packard of 19 Roman Ridge Road, fined 10s.
Moira.
Hi Margaret,
Looking at Picture Sheffield.
https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s22643&prevUrl
I wonder if they were the munitions huts????
Elaine in Ottawa.
Instant Messenger: Skype
Thanks so much for this. I had an inkling that Eva was in court over the children. My mum told me that she’d been taken into care because of her mother’s neglect - it sounds as if this could have been the beginning of that! Date also coincides with the death on the NW frontier of Dolly’s father, Tom Packard.
Thanks for the link to the picture Elaine, that looks as if it could be right - munitions huts repurposed as dwelling houses after WW1
Margaret,
Could Eva Packard have been in Leeds in 1915? There’s two articles from Tuesday 24 August 1915, one in the Leeds Mercury and one in the Yorkshire Post about “two smart young women hailing from London”, Annie O’Callaghan and Eva Packard, whose husbands were away in the Army. The coppers said that “Packard’s 17-month-old baby” (Dolly?) was alone when they went round to deliver the summons.
The judges and the journalists had some pretty harsh things to say about Annie and Eva, who each got a month in the slammer for neglecting their children (5 children between them, who had to go in the workhouse while their Mums were in gaol). My apologies if it’s the wrong Eva Packard.
Cheers,
Andrew P.
Margaret
There is another newspaper article about Eva Packard in the Leeds Mercury for 24 August 1915.She and Annie O'Callaghan,"both smart young women from London whose husbands were with the Expeditionary Force", were charged with child cruelty. They were apparently gaoled.
Dave
Thank you very much Andrew. I have absolutely no doubt that this is “my” Eva. There’s no other Eva Packard in any of the databases I’ve found: she originated in Sheffield from an Irish family and married Tom Packard with whom she had three children, the last one was Dolly, born in London in March 1914 when the couple were in service. Tom went to war and was in France in April 1915. I assume Eva returned to Yorkshire. Dolly’s age fits the newspaper article, and she always told me that her mother had been in prison for child neglect - I had thought this would have been later, but clearly not! Dolly was a wonderful mother - she told me she was determined that I would have a better childhood than she had.
Can I ask where you access the Yorkshire Post please? I would love to read the article and perhaps find an admission record to the workhouse- would that have been in Leeds do you think?
Best wishes
Margaret
Thanks very much Dave. I’m sure this is my Eva. I’ve posted a fuller reply on Andrew’s post which you may be interested in.
Best wishes
Margaret
You can access newspapers on Find My Past or here
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Dave
Margaret,
I just re-read the articles and realised it says very clearly at the start "in Pontefract". Sorry about that. I imagine that the children would have been in the Pontefract workhouse unless there was a "scattered homes" system like we had in Sheffield, but I don't know much about the workhouse system.
I've sent you some more information about the articles by email.
Cheers,
Andrew P.
My Mum's family lived in Tyler St Huts late 1920s I think - said they were far better than the back to back house they lived in on Newhall road. Even had a bathroom which was real luxury.
Thanks very much Lyn, interesting to hear from someone with almost first hand experience. My mum never talked about her early childhood - it was too painful I think - so I had no idea about living conditions in the huts.
Best wishes
Margaret
There was a book written by a Betty Dickinson if I recall it correctly called Shanty Town that describes them and life there. Should be a copy in Local Studies Library in Sheffield I would think.
Just checked Library website and yes they have copies
Shanty town : childhood memories of poverty and happiness in Tyler Street Munition Huts
Shanty town : childhood memories of poverty and happiness in Tyler Street Munition Huts
Author: Dickinson, Betty
Physical Description: 57p. : ill. ports
Local Subject: Tyler
Street
Munition
Huts
Wincobank
Brightside
Working-Class
Autobiography
Subject Term: Sheffield : History
Publication Date: 1985
Thanks again Lyn, I’m in Northampton so might struggle to get up to Sheffield to have a look, but even the title is interesting, confirming that the houses were the old munitions huts. I guess Eva might not have kept hers very well if other things on this thread are a guide to her housekeeping! This might explain why Dolly remembered it as a slummy dwelling. Interesting too looking at the aerial photo.
I don't know if you've done anything on Tom Packard, but there is a possibility he was 6581 Sgt T Packard, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, he died of broncho pneumonia in India in 1920.
Thanks for this - it’s more than a possibility, it’s definitely him! It’s relatively easy to research the Packard family, in marked contrast to Eva’s family, the Donleys, who drifted in an out of the shadows as regards official records. Most of the Packard men were grinders of one sort or another but Tom bucked the trend. He went to the Blue Coat School after his father died, and from his service number he must have enlisted in the KOYLI in 1900. I think he was probably in South Africa in 1901 - not on the census. He married Eva in 1906 - was in civvy street by then but was back in KOYLI by 1909, and in Cork with the army in 1911. He always seems to have been working in the Officers’ Mess, so perhaps avoided being on the front line in the Great War. Anyway by 1914, when Dolly was born, he was a butler in London to the Dimsdale family the head of which had been Lord Mayor of London. Perhaps Tom’s term came to an end in 1912. He obviously re-enlisted in 1914, and got through the war only to die of disease on the NW Frontier. He’s commemorated on the Delhi Gate. Hope I haven’t bored you, but thought you might find the story interesting!
Best wishes
Margaret