When Scarborough became an Italian story …………

The story of the German bombardment of Scarborough in 1914 is usually just a footnote in history books.

That said it will still be marked every year in the town, as well as on the blog,  and has become of special interest to David Harrop who has been collecting memorabilia on the event.*

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. 

The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it”.**

And that brings me to this small newspaper clipping which is undated and is really just a photograph.

But what singles it out as a little different from the news coverage of the attack is that it comes from an Italian newspaper.

The caption, “Case di Scarborough danneggiate dal bombardaento” which translates as “Scarborough houses damaged by bombing” is the give away and begs some questions.

These include, was there an accompanying story and just when was it published?

At this stage Italy was still neutral and did not enter the war on the side of the Allies until the May of 1915.

So it would be interesting to explore what the Italian media and the general public made of the bombardment, particularly because at the time Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and might have been expected to have joined them in the August of 1914 in the war against Britain, France and Russia.

I will in the fullness of time go looking at contemporary Italian newspapers, and follow up on what the historians have to say, leaving Mr. Harrop who acquired the picture the job of finding out the date and the source of the image.

Meanwhile I will finish by looking at the photograph in detail.

As ever the photographer managed to hoover up a few passers by who look back with a mix of curiosity and amusement at being captured on film, while the net curtains billow out of the window.

Location; Scarborough and Italy

Picture; “Case di Scarborough danneggiate dal bombardaento”, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*The bombardment of Scarborough, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Scarborough%20Bombardment

**Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlepool_and_Whitby

Stories from Accrington ......

 This is one of the images which for me sums up the 1920s.

It comes from a French postcard and was sent to Ethel and John Fisher who were on holiday in Scarbororough.

They were staying at the quaintly named Sea Dogs Guest House, 159 Columbus Ravine.

The property is still there and looks still to be in the business of offering bed and breakfast to holiday makers.

I like the idea that even though you were away by the sea you could still get a picture postcard, which in this case came from the mother of Ethel.

I don’t yet know her name but she lived in Benjamin Row which was at the bottom of Rams Clough Lane outside Accrington.  

Today the row is still there and to get to it you will have to traverse a narrow twisty lane which drops down from Broadfield.

And there for now the search for Ethel’s mum runs into the buffers, but it is early days.

I may have had a bit more luck with Ethel and John, who I think were living at 162 Willow Lane Accrington in 1930.

I say this because despite not finding them on the census records, there is a John Fisher who died on September 9th 1930.  According to the Probate records he lived at Willow Lane and left £455, to a “Harold Fisher, clogger”.

There is no mention of Ethel but the connection with Accrington is convincing enough to suppose a link.

And there is a John Fisher listed on the 1921 census, described as a widower and living with his son and daughter.  

They were Rose Ellen and Harold both in the early thirties, and Harold was a clogger working for the Co-op while Mr. Fisher was employed by Lupton Brothers of Accrington as a “iron pattern maker”.

Lupton’s appear to be a small firm employing five others.

All which offers up plenty of further research, but this all might fall down on the date the postcard was sent. For while we have the day, time and month, the year is obscured.

I read it as 1929 or at a pinch the following year, but none of that is possible if Edith died before 1921, so back to the drawing board and historical records.

Leaving me just to ponder on a date using the image of the fashionable young women.

Location; Accrington & Scarborough

Picture; picture postcard, circa 1920s, from the collection of David Harrop

Amongst the Scarborough destruction ..... a human story

The popular press has always looked for the human story amidst the more horrible things that can happen.

And back in December 1914 the bombardment of Scarborough was just such an opportunity.

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. 

The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it”.*

At the time the newspapers were full of the destruction, and images of the funerals of those who were killed.  

And later still plaques and memorials were erected to commemorate the attacks.

Now my old friend David Harrop has long been interested in the raids, not least because they have faded somewhat from popular memory for most of the country.  

And having received a picture postcard of the attack, he decided to mark the bombardment with a special exhibition at his permanent exhibition in Southern Cemetery.**

Added to which he has set up a special Facebook site which he calls David Harrop Manchester Postal Museum Presents Scarborough In WW1.***

As he said to me  “I just wanted to do something on the bombardment prior to Remembrance Day. So much emphasis on W.W1 and WW2 that the poor soul's of the East Coast of Yorkshire are forgotten”.***

So along with photographs of some of the memorials, and newspaper clippings are these two which reflect the media’s approach to reporting both the awfulness of the events, matched with that “human story”.

And a cat story will always appeal to a significant section of the populaton.

So that is it.

The clippings come fromThe Scarborough Pictorial and were printed days after the attack in 1914.

Location; Scarborough, 1914, Southern Cemetery, 2021

Pictures; courtesy of David Harrop, 2021 

*Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlepool_and_Whitby

***Postal and History Museum, Remembrance Lodge, Southern Cemetery, Barlow Moor Road

***David Harrop Manchester Postal Museum Presents Scarborough In WW1, https://www.facebook.com/David-Harrop-Manchester-Postal-Museum-Presents-Scarborough-In-WW1-164901897577982/

A postcard ...... the bombardent of Scarborough ..... and a mystery on Fennel Street

 Now this is Fennel Street.

Fennel Street close to number 45 on the left, 2021

And I think it is the closest we will get to Albert Halliwell, who worked at Snowden & Bridge. 

The firm were listed as butter merchants located at 45 Fennell Street and were one of three such enterprises on the same street.

If I have got this correct Albert was just 14 when he received a picture postcard from his friend Phillis who admonished him for not sending a letter, while also expressing concern about his health.

The rest of the correspondence focused on news of their mutual friends.

What is missing is any reference to the picture on the other side of the card, which shows the ruins of a house destroyed by German naval bombardment at the start of the Great War in 1914.

Wykeham Street Scarborough, 1914

According to the caption, the house was on “Wykeham Street and was where Mrs. Bennet and two children were killed”.

Dear Bert, 1916

But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Phillis made no mention of the deaths or the bombardment which had shocked the public at the time, because the card was sent in the June of 1916, by which time the casualties from the fighting were a grim intrusion which  reached into every community.

Since the outbreak of the war there had  been fifteen major battles on the Western Front, with two horrific gas attacks on British soldiers in the April of 1916, while the Battle of Verdun had already been raging for five months and would only end in the December of 1916 with the loss of 714,231 French and German soldiers.

And not long after Albert received his postcard the armies of the British Empire and France would launch the Somme offensive which lasted from July to November, involved three million on both sides, of which perhaps one million were wounded or killed.

A.C. Halliwell, c/o Snowden Bridge, 1916

All of which brings me back to the card, which was sent over by David Harrop, who thought I might find it an interesting insight into the Bombardment of Scarborough, which I did.

But history has an odd way of taking you down twisty turnings, and so as awful as the German attack was, I was drawn to Albert and his workplace on Fennel Street.

At first, I was intrigued by the address on the card which was Snowden Bridge, Fennel Street which took me off on a search for a bridge close to the street.  

This wasn’t so daft, given the presence of Hanging Ditch close by, but Snowden Bridge was Snowden & Bridge, butter merchants at 45 Fennel Street in the Corn Exchange.*

Fennel Street with Corporation Stret in the distance, 2021

Leaving me to assume that A.C. Halliwell was Bert who was employed by the firm in 1916.

Just why the card was addressed to Fennel Street is unclear.  

In 1911 he was living with his parents and a lodger at 29 Rocester Street off Rochdale Road in a four roomed house.**

But if you are in  speculative mood, and you assume that "our Albert" still lived at Rocester Street, he may well have taken the tram down from Harpurhey into the heart of the city and walked along Withy Grove, across Corporation Street and into Fennel Street, but that would be unhistorical speculation, but fun.

So I shall wander off looking for more on "our Albert".

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Fennel Street, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Bombardment of Scarborough, 1914, courtesy of David Harrop

*Slater's Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1911

**1911 Census, Enu 34 28, St Georges, Manchester

Sending the message of Scarborough to Belgium ……… holiday greetings in 1910

I can see why Uncle Jim choose this postcard to send to his niece in Belgium.

Of course, we will never actually know what he thought about the place, and his message on the back offers no clues.

But if you wanted to send a positive comment about the town, the bear, and his conversation, “What! Come Home? Not likely, when I’m at Scarborough”, does the business.

The card belongs to David Harrop, and knowing his preference for all things Scarborough, I guess it is just the card he would have sent.

That said, it was posted in 1910, and despite my often-gentle ribbing of posty David, I would never suggest he is old enough to have posted it on his 21st birthday.

Still I am reliably informed that the painting in the attic is ageing with a vengeance, which must in part explain his youthful good looks.

Sadly, Uncle Jim’s message concentrates on his niece’s “little dog” is about all there is.

Leaving me just to report that according to David, "In those days it cost 1d to send a picture post cared to Europe and a "Halfpenny in Great Britain".

All of which meant that Uncle Jim had plenty of change to splash out on a bloater paste sandwich, two goes on “what the Butler saw”, and enough left over for a couple of pints of stout flowed by a chip supper.

Location Scarborough

Picture; Picture postcard, 1910, from the collection of David Harrop

The day Scarborough was shelled from the sea ....

Now there will not be too many people who know  that the German Imperial navy bombarded Scarborough in the December of 1914.

I have to confess I only vaguely knew of the incident, but last year on the back of some research and a conversation with David Harrop it became a blog story.*

Recently David followed up our conversation with a series of pictures of a porcelain lighthouse complete wuth the name and coat of arms of Scarborough.

During the Great War the china companies switched from making crested porcelain models of tourist attractions and substituted grimmer ones connected with the conflict.

And some time shortly after the attack one company rushed out this one, which for good measure even had a shell hole.

The attack was carried out by the German High Seas Fleet and resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died.

It caused public outrage given that it was an attack on civilians, and led to a series of patriotic posters calling for men to enlist and avenge the bombardment.

Also attacked were Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby, of which Hartlepool was a more significant target because it had extensive civilian docks and factories.

In total something like 200 people were killed and 300 houses, seven churches and five hotels were damaged across the four towns and along with the public outcry, the enlistment posters and media coverage, the picture postcard industry was quick to exploit the event.

They rushed out a series of cards featuring the devastation and one in the possession of David has a detailed account of the attack.

Location; Scarborough

Picture; crested china, 2018, from the collection of David Harrop

*On this day .... 103 years ago on the north Yorkshire coast, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/on-this-day-103-years-ago-on-north.html

On this day .... 103 years ago on the north Yorkshire coast

Now I like the way the blog occasionally gets requests to do a story.

Picture postcard pf the attack, 1914

And this week David Harrop asked me to run the account of the attack on Scarborough on December 16, 1914.

We are all familiar with the devastation caused by German bombers during the Second World War and the Zeppelin attacks during the Great War, but the bombardment of a British coastal town maybe less well known.

So given that today is the anniversary of the event David asked if it could be commemorated on the blog.

The extent of the damage, 1914

The attack was carried out by the German High Seas Fleet and resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died.

It caused public outrage given that it was an attack on civilians, and led to a series of patriotic posters calling for men to enlist and avenge the bombardment.

Also attacked were Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby, of which Hartlepool was a more significant target because it had extensive civilian docks and factories.

St Nicholas Parade near the Grand Hotel, 1914

In total something like 200 people were killed and 300 houses, seven churches and five hotels were damaged across the four towns and along with the public outcry, the enlistment posters and media coverage, the picture postcard industry was quick to exploit the event.

They rushed out a series of cards featuring the devastation and one in the possession of David has a detailed account of the attack.

So there you have it .......... a little bit of Scarborough’s history a century ago.

Location; the Yorkshire coast,






Picture; Scarborough after the raid, picture postcards, 1914, from the collection of David Harrop