Tinkerbell65 Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 I am learning about my family history and was wondering if anyone remembers my dad Eric Thurtle he was born in about 1922 and lost is mum in about 1925. They lived in Attercliff and then Pitsmoor Fox street i think .I also think they lived at Hillbourgh . There are tales of a house in Hillsbough falling into the river. His mum was Grace Downing and his dad John Henry Thurtle he got killed in the Blitzs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillsbro Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I don't have any personal knowledge of your dad but I have free access to some pay-to-view websites. I can confirm that Eric Thurtle was born in the Sheffield registration district in Oct-Dec 1921. Grace Thurtle died, aged 38, in Sheffield in Apr-Jun 1925. Eric's father John Henry Thurtle was evidently born in the village of Atcham near Shrewsbury in 1880. By the time of the 1901 census he was a "warehouseman" living at 214 Alexandra Road, Heeley with his sister Zelinda C. Thurtle. He married Grace Downing in Apr-Jun 1906. Grace was evidently born in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. - at least, a Grace Downing is shown thus in the 1901 census living at 29 Gertrude Street; her parents had evidently spent some time in Pittsburgh in 1886-8. Maybe you already know all this, but as neither Thurtle nor Downing is a common name it might not be difficult to trace the family history back further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkerbell65 Posted May 30, 2008 Author Share Posted May 30, 2008 I don't have any personal knowledge of your dad but I have free access to some pay-to-view websites. I can confirm that Eric Thurtle was born in the Sheffield registration district in Oct-Dec 1921. Grace Thurtle died, aged 38, in Sheffield in Apr-Jun 1925. Eric's father John Henry Thurtle was evidently born in the village of Atcham near Shrewsbury in 1880. By the time of the 1901 census he was a "warehouseman" living at 214 Alexandra Road, Heeley with his sister Zelinda C. Thurtle. He married Grace Downing in Apr-Jun 1906. Grace was evidently born in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. - at least, a Grace Downing is shown thus in the 1901 census living at 29 Gertrude Street; her parents had evidently spent some time in Pittsburgh in 1886-8. Maybe you already know all this, but as neither Thurtle nor Downing is a common name it might not be difficult to trace the family history back further. Hi Thank you for that i do know most of it but the dates are important .Yes Grace was born in America but i dont know where she was buried here in Sheffield. I know about the Thurtle side it was easy to trace because i had some help from some one like your self who was very kind and shared their info with me, buts its more about his Downing side i'd like to know and if anyone really knew my dad .He told me some funny stories of when he was young and i'd love to find out more and if i have any Downing realatives here in Sheffield.Thank you again for your kind help any more would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smf333 Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hi Tinkerbelle, I don't know if you were aware, but I think your great granddad (?) Henry lived in our house during the war! My family over the last two years has been conducting some investigations into the history of our home on Rock St, and found out that a number of people from our house died in the back garden during the Sheffield blitz of 12-13th Dec 1940. As far as I'm aware Henry, your aunt, (Linda) her four sons, along with a young couple called Neale and their 16 month old son all passed away that night I've been trying to get ariel photographs of the area to see exactly where the bombs fell, as I've been trying to get the location of the Fox St shelter as well as finding out exactly where the bomb fell in our garden. So far the only photograph I've been able to get starts down near where the river is and up to Neepsend, it stops however 100 yards short of 119 Rock St! When our mother moved to the house in 1959, she was told by a Mr Bellinger (who was a fire warden at the time in 1940) that the bomb fell next door at 117. We think he said this as not to upset our mum as I'm sure people at the time would have known that all the people killed lived in our home. The reason we looked into the history of the house was because we experienced many strange things happening in the house when we lived there. It always felt cold and sad for some reason right up until we left in 1983. Anyway, I made a half hearted search last year to see if I could find any living ancestors of the the Thurtle's, Neales, or Coopers but didn't find anything. So you can imagine how surprised I was to find your post in here! Do you have any information at all or photographs from the period that could possibly help us in answering so many questions? All the best, smf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkerbell65 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hi Thank you so very very much for getting in touch i am really intreasted in every thing you told me. Yes I am sure it is his old house . He has told me the story of what happened that night on the 12th December . His sister Linda gave him some money to go to the pictures While he was there his dad and sister and her boys were in the house. Her little girl was in hospital due to being scalded . The bombs started to drop and my aunty Linda was writting a letter on a page from an excersize book to her husband i think who was called Billy Cooper who was in the army . As the bombs started getting nearer she decided to take her dad and boys ( who dad said had very blonde curls and he used to get cross when people said they looked like angels as he said angles are dead )to the shelter .She put in the letter that she would finish it in the morning as she had risked it the night before but was feeling very scared now( we know this as my cousin found the letter when clearing out my Aunties Edna things when she passed away) . So they all went to the shelter. It was a direct hit and all were killed except my grandpa John Henry Thurtle ( my great grandpa was March Thurtle). Dad came home from the pictures to find the devastation which he never got over. His dad lived until the next day but sadly died on the 13th December 1940 or it could have been 39 . My dad and his brother Mac were then brought up by there two sisters Grace and Edna . Linda's husband Billy Cooper went AWOL when he heard of the news and his hair went white over night with the shock of the sad news. I dont know what happend to his daughter but i do know that he did move away and meet and married someone . Years after he visited my Aunty and cousins and my cousin said she got a right shock when she saw his new sons with their beautiful blonde curls just like his first sons. Sadly my dad passed away in 1990 on the 13th December yes on the aniversery of his dads death . There had a big article in the Star and after his death i found it he had circled all his family who passed away on that horrible night. They were buried in city road Cemetry in a garden of rememberance and we had dads ashes scatterd there as where his brother Macs. I would really like to help you in any way i can so please feel free to contact me as i am very intreasted . Its so weird about the house i would like to talk to the people who live there now do you know them? Thank you again and if private message me with your phone number we could have a chat to compear notes. Regards Tinkerbell65 I have just re-read some thing written by Chris Hobbs i now i remember that my family did not die in Rock Street but they died in the Fox street shelter and Grandpa did however die at home . Chris has sent a link underneath this ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retep Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Here you go, http://www.chrishobbs.com/sheffield/pitsmoorwardead.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkerbell65 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hi Chris Thank you again i had forgotten all about your fantastic site .Just wish my old dad was hear to read it all he would have loved it . Regards Tinkerbell65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkerbell65 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hiya Would anyone know how i can find out where my grandma Grace Thurtle nee Downing was buried please . Regards Tinkerbell65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smf333 Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 That was fascinating! For the last two years we’ve not been able to find anything about our house other than the names of the people that once lived there. It’s good to finally meet someone who is a link to the past! This is the thing we have not been able to get our heads round though. From what we thought happened, Henry died at 119 Rock Street (where we’re pretty sure there was a shelter) but your aunt Linda and kids died at the fox Street shelter. Now the raid lasted from Dec 12th around 6pm, to 4am the following morning. So that may explain why there are two different dates for your relatives passing, as the two shelters may have been hit at different times before and after midnight. But, we couldn’t work out why Henry was listed as passing with the Neale’s at 119 and not with his daughter at the Fox Street shelter? Let me explain why we thought this. From people I’ve talked to, there was a Main shelter on Fox Street, where? Don’t ask. I’ve been trying to find its exact location for two years and come up with nothing. The other shelter we suspected was in our garden. Anyway, someone on another site came up with this remarkable photo taken by a Spitfire a few days after the bombing and it showed a very distinctive bomb crater outside Piebank School & what may have been one at the Junction of Gray Street & Fox Street. So we assumed that for some reason Henry went with the Neal’s into the garden shelter at 119 and Linda & the kids who may have been out at the time headed for the Fox Street shelter down the road. From what you’re saying it now sounds like there may have been only one shelter (Mr Bellinger said it was at the top of 117’s garden) the illusive Fox Street shelter, and then maybe the Neale’s and Henry were moved to 119 where they later died? But surely if the shelter took a direct hit everyone would have passed away at The Fox Street shelter and it would have been listed as such??!! I’m more confused now then ever! We need to talk to get our facts right I’m sure your family history has got to be better than our presumptions! I’ve been passed 119 on several occasions since we started our investigations, and driven down Fox Street trying to get a hold of what went on that night but it’s all just out of reach. We’ve commented on several occasions how it seems unfair that all these people passed away on one night (people dying at no’ 95 & 159 also) in such tragic circumstances and no one seems to care or remember Alas I don’t know who lives there now as we moved to the other side of the city in 1983. But my sister has often said we should give them a knock and ask if anything strange has happened to them as it did to us on many occasions. All the best, smf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smf333 Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 I've pm you Tinkerbelle but it keeps saying I have'nt let me know if you got it. smf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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