This is a summary taken from our publisher's website
"Sheffield's Shocking Past - Part 2 [2012]
History has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
It was February 1934 and men were screaming for help as the Leppings Lane section of the bulging 72,860 Hillsborough crowd swayed forward and crushed them against iron railings. George Frederick Hill died from multiple fractures and shock.
Tragedy had also struck twenty years earlier when a retaining wall collapsed at the same ground. The match was suspended as scores of injured were rushed to Sheffield Infirmary.
Life-long Sheffielder and historian Chris Hobbs and local author Matthew Bell have once again delved into the archives - this time bringing you some of the most gruesome, grizzly and long-forgotten tragic episodes of 20th century Sheffield.
Sheffield's Shocking Past - Part II leaves no coroner's report unchecked as it uncovers the killer cat of Millhouses; death by chimneystack; one of the city's earliest fatal motor accidents and the story behind the charred remains of a male midget and his mechanical teddy bear female companion.
The events surrounding some incidents are hard to contemplate until you read the full facts: there's death by scalding at Heeley Baths; a Treeton man drowned looking for his chickens; a Low Edges resident who accidentally killed his wife, and the horrific aftermath of an American Air Force jet crashing into Lodge Moor Hospital in 1955.
One of the most tragic cases must be that of 22-year-old nurse Ada Bradley. She thought she was helping rehabilitate a former mental patient by inviting her into her home to live. Instead, "She was found dead with her head battered and her throat cut in the street near the asylum."
Sheffield's Shocking Past - Part II takes you from the time of the horse and carriage to the age of the jet plane, along the way unearthing some of the saddest and most remarkable incidents in the history of the city.
It was February 1934 and men were screaming for help as the Leppings Lane section of the bulging 72,860 Hillsborough crowd swayed forward and crushed them against iron railings. George Frederick Hill died from multiple fractures and shock.
Tragedy had also struck twenty years earlier when a retaining wall collapsed at the same ground. The match was suspended as scores of injured were rushed to Sheffield Infirmary.
Life-long Sheffielder and historian Chris Hobbs and local author Matthew Bell have once again delved into the archives - this time bringing you some of the most gruesome, grizzly and long-forgotten tragic episodes of 20th century Sheffield.
Sheffield's Shocking Past - Part II leaves no coroner's report unchecked as it uncovers the killer cat of Millhouses; death by chimneystack; one of the city's earliest fatal motor accidents and the story behind the charred remains of a male midget and his mechanical teddy bear female companion.
The events surrounding some incidents are hard to contemplate until you read the full facts: there's death by scalding at Heeley Baths; a Treeton man drowned looking for his chickens; a Low Edges resident who accidentally killed his wife, and the horrific aftermath of an American Air Force jet crashing into Lodge Moor Hospital in 1955.
One of the most tragic cases must be that of 22-year-old nurse Ada Bradley. She thought she was helping rehabilitate a former mental patient by inviting her into her home to live. Instead, "She was found dead with her head battered and her throat cut in the street near the asylum."
Sheffield's Shocking Past - Part II takes you from the time of the horse and carriage to the age of the jet plane, along the way unearthing some of the saddest and most remarkable incidents in the history of the city.
I am very pleased with the end result - as with any book of this nature you have to comprimise and at times be ruthless in the editing. But it hangs together pretty well and I hope that its many readers will find it both interesting and stimulating.
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