Richard Coomber Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 I have created a website www.shipleyww1.org.uk to research the effects of WWI on the West Yorkshire town of Shipley and its immediate neighbours with a series of aims: 1 To act as a collection point for privately held photographs, letters, diaries and other documents to ensure they are copied and preserved for future researchers 2 To publish as much as the research as possible for those looking into family links etc 3 From next June to produce a weekly digest of news from The Shipley Times and Express, published exactly 100 years after it initially appeared. I'm hoping this will provide a useful resource for local schools. Anyone who has relevant information, documents or photographs, please get in touch. Thanks Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 That's looking very nice! Have you registered with the IWM's Centenary Partnership? I can suggest another Yorkshire based contact that is worth contacting. You'd better email me about more information for the pages as well, as I have a number of photos taken from the Keighley News of the time, of Shipley and Saltaire men. My email address is on the Men of Worth website: www.menofworth.org.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4jonboy Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 That's looking like a great site Richard! I originally come from Idle but I don't know if any of my family served, so have nothing to contribute unfortunately. I will be checking your site though in the future. Best of luck with your project. Lesley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Coomber Posted 3 July , 2013 Author Share Posted 3 July , 2013 Thanks, Lesley. I've only just started to go through the papers and already there is quite a lot of stuff from Idle. Have to be careful with my headlines - can't have Idle soldiers in battle :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 Lesley My focus is primarily on Greengates, but my research has covered many men with Idle connections. If you send me a PM with some names I can have a look. There is also a roll of honour for Bradford with over 30,000 names recorded - at the moment it is not easy to access because of a library closure, but I might be doing so in a couple of weeks. Edit Richard I'll visit your site later this evening, one of my men is buried in shipley, but there are many from Idle. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 Back in the late 1960s there was at least one ex Polish soldier with WW1 service living in Shipley. The family ran some sort of delicatessen business with a number of stalls in local markets. I was doing post grad at Bradford and living in Baildon and used to buy the occasional Polish sausage from them. However I think they may have arrived in Shipley in WW2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Coomber Posted 3 July , 2013 Author Share Posted 3 July , 2013 Old Sweats, that's interesting. I was doing a trawl round Nab Wood cemetery the other day - as you do! - and was struck by the number of Polish graves. None connected to WWI yet but I'll keep an eye out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 3 July , 2013 Share Posted 3 July , 2013 My point is that given the large number of Polish people who settled in and around the Bradford Area during and just after WW2 there must inevitably have been some WW1 veterans amongst them. Centurion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4jonboy Posted 4 July , 2013 Share Posted 4 July , 2013 Lesley My focus is primarily on Greengates, but my research has covered many men with Idle connections. If you send me a PM with some names I can have a look. There is also a roll of honour for Bradford with over 30,000 names recorded - at the moment it is not easy to access because of a library closure, but I might be doing so in a couple of weeks. Edit Richard I'll visit your site later this evening, one of my men is buried in shipley, but there are many from Idle. Keith Thank you Keith.PM sent I was brought up and worked in Greengates. Small world Lesley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnumbellum Posted 4 July , 2013 Share Posted 4 July , 2013 May I suggest that you contact the Peace Pledge Union archivist - archives@ppu.org.uk - regarding WW1 conscientious objectors from Shipley who may be in their conscientious objectors' database. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Coomber Posted 5 July , 2013 Author Share Posted 5 July , 2013 Thanks for the tip about the Peace Pledge Union - I'll get in touch with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 3 August , 2013 Share Posted 3 August , 2013 Could I just thank Richard here for his generosity in sharing the result of many hours of work at Keighley Library with the wonderful new digital scanner. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 3 August , 2013 Share Posted 3 August , 2013 Keith, don't forget I have 2200 original Keighley News pictures that I've digitally photographed from a scrapbook of the time, all cropped and named. They're very much Keighley oriented and run from 1914 to mid 1917. There are a few from other areas with a tenuous Keighley area link though... The pictures done on the digital scanner are not usually much cop to be honest. Text is generally fine though, although the way the original papers were photographed for the microfilm means that the curve of the paper. I have scanned from August 1914 to the end of 1914 done, and the whole of 1918 done. All the .pdf files from 1918 come to 2.2 Gb in total! If anyone needs any pictures from the dates above, just contact me with the man's name for a copy and I'll see if I have it on file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 3 August , 2013 Share Posted 3 August , 2013 Andy I was very grateful for the courtesy shown by one of your colleagues on the "Men of Worth" project, when I arrived at the library to find that my reservation on ther scanner had been messed up by an internal error among library staff. My interest is primarily related to Greengates, which often overlapped with Idle, as was generally covered by the Shipley Times and Express which Richard and a colleague had been working on. Are you aware of Eddie, who has scanned the Keighley paper, and is working on tidying up the images. I met him on my last day. I should also confess to having received a digital copy of the entire Bradford Roll of Honour, all 30 MB of it, and am happy to provide look ups as required. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 3 August , 2013 Share Posted 3 August , 2013 Ah, that would be my good friend Ian Walkden. He's a very nice man indeed! He mentioned that he'd been down to the library and had met someone who knew about the project. He lives very local so it wouldn't be an issue for him to pop in to the library another time. Ian's working on the conservation of the Keighley Old Contemptibles Association Standard which he's just secured some funding for (excellent news). A textile conservator (who does some work for Cliffe Castle museum) has just declared it as being in excellent condition and perfectly capable of being paraded in 2014 (I think as long as it's not raining). After the parade on Remembrance Day it will be properly hung by the conservator into its wood and glass case and given a permanent home in a public building. Eddie Kelly is another very nice and very knowledgeable man and a respected local historian although he keeps it under his hat a bit. He really should be on staff at the library (he's in just about every day) and what he doesn't know about local history isn't worth knowing. He gave me a few pointers on using the scanner, which he'd reached mostly by trial and error, like the best resolution (200 dpi) to set for full page scans, etc. He's doing the job of scanning the whole Keighley News microfilm archive for the library and as such it would mean we'd have to wait a bit to get access to the results and we really only need the Great War period for the moment anyway. Are you just researching the Great War or are you covering WW2 as well? I ask because I have photographed the whole of the WW2 Keighley War Scrapbook and have it on disc here. The library now has it on their computer as well, as I gave them a copy, but I'd be happy to send any copies out by email. It's a series of .jpegs covering each page in the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 4 August , 2013 Share Posted 4 August , 2013 Hi Andy I pretty much stick to WW1 and to the men, and women, who had Greengates connections. Even then, progress is slow, with well over 500 individuals to trace, many without rank, servive numbers, or even service and unit details. Some were no more than a name at the bottom of newspaper articles. I admire those who have successfully researched much larger geographic areas, I still have many days at Kew to fit in, and a few more at the West Yorkshire Archives when their Bradford location is available directly again. Then of course, there will be the new Pension Index Cards, which when they are available in a more affordable way, will hopefully resolve quite a few identity conflicts. That's not a criticism of the WFA, just a reflection of the numbers that I might need to check when all else is done. I just hope that I will be close to completion before my centenary, which I'm pleased to say is still in the far distance. Thanks for the offers though, I know where to go if there are some strays. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradfordWW1 Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 HI, Great to see so much local interest in WW1 - My projects site is www.BradfordWW1.co.uk and I have spent the last 3 years researching mainly home front issues in Bradford during WW1. Sue Caton at Local Studies Library got me into it its now a labour of love!! I am currently writing a book about Bradford home front for the History Press. I have also been at Keighley using the digital scanner and have scanned Bradford Weekly Telegraph 1915-18 (not been able to access 1914 yet) i think the plan is to make these digital copies available via the library or online if possible but in the meantime I'm happy to be contacted. I am also a committee member for FOBALS (Friends of Bradford Archives and Local Studies) the work on the library is progressing well and thoughts are now turning to opening events and launch - roll on December Maybe we can have a local meet up of people who are interested in sharing information on WW1? kathryn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 That scanner is brilliant. Richard Coomber has also worked wonders with the Shipley Times and Express, and of course the Roll of Honour has now be re-photographed. A meet up sounds good, but I am unlikely to be in Bradford before January, and of course work interferes for some of our younger colleagues. I'm interested, but a 500 mile round trip has to fit with some real time probably in the re-opened Archives reading room where I have a list of tasks to start. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 Just a little tip for those using the scanned images and find that the curve of the bound newspapers has made it almost impossible to read the right hand column of the left page and the left hand column of the right page. Try looking on the next page on the opposite side and you'll find that the edges of the columns are usually visible enough to read, or at least enough to be able to make out what it says by combining two images to make up a full column.Just read through that and it's as clear as mud. Hope you can understand what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 I'll try again. Look at this picture of the right hand side of a page, because the newspaper was curved when the photo was taken (they are bound into books) you can't read half of the text because it's either distorted or over exposed or out of focus: But if you look at the next page on the corresponding side you can just see the edge of the distorted column and in most cases it can be read: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 ...and if you are a bit sneaky you can put them side by side on your computer screen to read it: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 Good thinking Andy. But sneaky, surely not. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 And if you are even sneakier than that (with a lot of time on your hands) you can copy and paste the two bits together and get this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Wade Posted 4 October , 2013 Share Posted 4 October , 2013 I have to say that it wasn't my idea. Someone else spotted it when they were looking for something else (isn't it usually the case?), so they put me on to it, which was great because I've been able to transcribe the articles about the 1914 riots in Keighley where four German Pork Butcher shops were wrecked. Without the tip I would have struggled to do it at all. I have also noticed that an awful lot of the WW1 'Local' Casualties' columns are right on the edge of the pages, so this is invaluable for anyone struggling to read them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradfordWW1 Posted 7 October , 2013 Share Posted 7 October , 2013 Wow Andy surely you haven't got time to do that on all pages :0) When I was at the nation archives last month I looked at the government info on the riots and am happy to share if you want I'm in baildon and can pop over moor to keighlry anytime for meet up :0) Keith it would be great to see you when you are next up appreciate its a long trek - just let us know when you are visiting - I'll keep yoy posted on news of the library shouldn't be too long now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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