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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.

Home movie 1945 17 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Yorkshire Film Archive

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.