Story by Mark Lankshear
Last month Verdon Street Rec hosted a wealth pictures, stories and displays about the area’s history to celebrate the launch of Burngreave Voices: Our Stories Celebrated, a project aiming to gather together some of the untold stories of residents’ lives and histories. As this familiar venue filled with people of all ages and the Lord Mayor joined the reminiscing, Rose Ardron, from the project’s sponsor New Deal, stressed that regeneration was all about people.
As people mingled and leafed through the photographs of Burngreave and its people through the ages they shared memories and stories of their childhoods. Nikky Wilson, the project worker for Burngreave Voices, explained she wanted to make history personal, helping build pride in our diversity and redress the balance left by the lack of written accounts of life in Burngreave.
Over the next three years, Nikky hopes to get in touch with anyone who has stories, ‘artifacts’ (objects with meaning to their lives) or photographs they want to share. She wants to involve residents in getting these stories told in a wide range of ways across the city and in publications, including the Messenger.
Jack Morley told us how, as an Air Raid Precautions messenger boy at Lopham St Chapel, he remembered everyone listening to the Prime Minister announce the start of World War II on the wireless, and rushing to Pye Bank School First Aid Post an hour later as the sirens sounded for the first time.
Sheffield Lord Mayor Mike Pye said Burngreave should celebrate its history and diversity. The Messenger has told many inspiring stories from our area’s history that you can read at www.burngreavemessenger.org.uk/history. We hope this project will help even more people get their stories into the Messenger.
Books telling the stories of the lives and journeys of some of Sheffield’s older residents, from the white, Jamaican, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, were on display and can be found in Burngreave Library. Nikky hopes Burngreave Voices will bring together existing work like this and add to it, helping to fill the gaps in the story of our multicultural history.
Next event
The next Burngreave Voices event will be a Family History Fun Day at Burngreave Library on Saturday 4th December 2004, 1–4pm. It’s free and open to younger children and their parents. As well as a treasure hunt and exploring families histories using the library's computers you get a chance to design your own family crest.
