From bombs to blackouts – chamber’s active wartime role
AT the start of the war, the Chamber formed an AdvisoryCommittee to deal with matters of outstanding urgency. Its first job was to collect and disseminate a vast amount of material about legislation which had become immediately effective and had an important bearing on traders’ activities, such as import and export controls and black-out regulations.
Before the war started, members of the Chamber’s committee flew over the city during blackout tests to help identify instances of light escaping.The Chamber’s peacetime activities receded completely into the background and an ARP (Air Raid Precautions)Emergency Committee came into being to look at all matters of civil defence as it affected industry.It wasn’t long before the Chamber’s work was winning high commendation in official circles.
An Industrial Fuel Efficiency Committee was formed to help manufacturers get the most out of their fuel and it was responsible for as many as 500 visits a year to concerns consuming between them more than two million tons of coal annually. From the point of view of many of its members, the Chamber’s chief activity lay in assisting the interpretation of the vast outpouring of emergency legislation, some of which had a profound effect on the city’s manufacturers and traders.
Most of it was new to members who had no experience of the Limitation of Supplies Orders, Purchase Tax, the Location of Retail Business Orders or the Location of Industry Orders. And as these orders changed with increasing frequency, many traders found themselves confused and bewildered.
They poured into the Chamber offices in their hundreds, members and non-members alike, and received free, up-to date information to help them cope. Queues waiting patiently for advice were by no means uncommon and the work gave Chamber staff a lot of satisfaction because it brought them into contact with the day to- day affairs of members. Many non-members were so appreciative of the service received that they joined the Chamber.
In 1939, by the time war was declared few people in Sheffield were on the dole. Winston Churchill spoke at Sheffield City Hall urging that Britain’s rearmament programme should be speeded up as munitions were again in demand. This brought full employment and again women were drafted into the steel industry.All firms worked flat out for the war effort: buildings, plant and machinery ran at full capacity. Hitler’s bombers, the Luftwaffe, made two attempts to destroy Sheffield’s factories but it was the city centre which took the brunt of the Blitz of December 1940. More than 600 Sheffield citizens died.Houses and shops were damaged more than industry, but with some exceptions such as Brown Bayley steelworks in Attercliffe and Hadfields East Hecla Works, while the razor department of James Neill was gutted by incendiary bombs.
The Chamber’s offices in the Cutlers’ Hall were even busier after the nights of December 12- 13 and 15-16 1940 when the enemy bombers brought the city to a standstill. Anxious traders and shopkeepers were badly in need of help and they came to the Chamber seeking a way out of their predicament.