The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is part of Free
Ibberson Family and VE Day
Whether it’s the height of the war or its aftermath makes no difference to these children enjoying themselves: at the seaside, on V E Day and around the bomb sites of Sheffield.
From the collection of:
Overview
Three young sons of a Sheffield industrialist enjoy a walk in an idyllic country setting, with horse drawn plough in the distance, and have fun on a tricycle and feeding lambs in wartime Britain. Later they have family frolics on the beach, before they are joined by young friends for more fun to celebrate the end of the war at home; while other children play around bombed out terraces in Sheffield.
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, seen in the film, 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. Sheffield was extensively bombed, aiming for the steel and engineering works to the east; although “the leafy district of Broomhill on the western heights of Sheffield” (John Betjeman), where the Ibbotson’s lived, suffered some bombing.
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