There are various stories about the fate of the Marples Hotel in the Sheffield Blitz in December 1940.

Is it true that a number of people were killed when a bomb hit the seven storey building on Fitzalan Square that and it collapsed into the hotel basement that was being used as an air raid shelter at the time?

Is it true that it was too difficult to find the remains of the casualties and that the bodies of 70 or 117 people were left buried in the ruins and are still there?

Is it true that lime was spread on the site shortly after the event as a disinfection measure?

Does anyone know the full story or a reliable source of information on the Sheffield Blitz?

I think you might find this site helpful mate:
Chris Hobbs (http://www.chrishobbs.com/)
Article about the Marples bombing at number 6 in the list.

My dad has talked about this a little, Apparently quick lime was used frequently in the second world war as it simply dissolves the bodies. somtimes builders come accross the remains when exavating for foundations ect, but all thats left looks like a funny coloured deposit in the soil.
I often walk past the marples and give a thought to those who lost thier lives, it allways seems so cold around there or is it just me?

i followed that link and found it VERY interesting............also enjoyed reading about the coassack being bombed and thats why it has always been a smaller building than the others round it.
and i never knew hallam uni used to be a brewery :)

loads of pubs / brewery seemed to have got bombed during the war.........makes me wonder if the germans wanted their beer to rule the world as well as their mad leaders

Hi wotwosit,

Welcome to the forum;

If you use the facility to search the site, you will come up with this link:- (using the words "marples", and "blitz")

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16153&highlight=marples+blitz

which will take you to an extensive thread which covered the war, and the bombing of the Marples.

All you have to do, is click the button on your screen to the left which says "search site" and put in your keywords.

PT

Thanks to all of you who posted a reply.

Chris Hobbs site's information shows where some of the numbers came from that have been quoted in the various stories I've been told (erroneously it seems). It just shows how fallible "verbal memories" can be at times when researching even the relatively recent past

All we can say in response is that some remains may have been left at the Marples site after the raid but who, and how many will never now be known. The lime incident would have been a normal public health precaution not necessarily something very special or even out of the ordinary at the time.

Thanks again.

Wotwasit

Originally posted by Michael_W
I think you might find this site helpful mate:
Chris Hobbs (http://www.chrishobbs.com/)
Article about the Marples bombing at number 6 in the list.

I really enjoyed taking a look through this site, thanks for the heads up :thumbsup:

The night of the blitz 12/13 december1940 on hearing the sirens warning of an attack most of the customers went down into the cellar of the Marples thinking they were safe but unfortunately an high explosive bomb hit the building and fell through the floors above before exploding and totally devestating the building. The death toll was put at 70 but no one knows how many people were in the cellar at the time In the days after the air raid quick lime was pumped into the remains of the building. Ther used to be a plaque in the upstairs bar of the Marples, I would imagine that it is still there does any one have any info?

I used to go upstairs at the Marples in the early 60s,but I do not remember a plaque.
The organist was Tommy?.Looked a bit like Arther English.
I did hear that when they started construction of the new Marples there were bodies in the remains of the old Marples

I believe most of the bodies were removed to a mass grave in City road cemetry,where there is or was a memorial with all the names engraved into the bricks around the outside of it.Some of my relatives were killed in the bombing of Marples my Mum was lucky she had the night off.

Originally posted by Michael_W
I think you might find this site helpful mate:
Chris Hobbs (http://www.chrishobbs.com/)
Article about the Marples bombing at number 6 in the list.

Thank you so much for that link!

My Great Aunt and her husband were both musicians in the band at Marples. Unfortunately they were both killed on that night.

Through Chris Hobbs' website and also the CWGC link provided, I've tracked them both down and obtained their CWGC certificates.

So, once again, Thank You :bigsmile:

my great uncle who was in the canadian airforce was killed in the marples hotel on the night of the blitz bomb, they could only identify him by his cigarette lighter with the maple leaf on it. he is buried in the "blitz garden of rememberance" in city road cemetery.

Hey there,
Just wondering if anyone has any information on the Marples bombing in the second World War

I am particularly interested in what they did with all the rubble, as there has been a rumour that it was used in the foundations of some houses near where I live. Was just wondering if this was true

Thanks,

Lucy x

Try this article on Chris Hobbs site:

http://www.chrishobbs.com/marples1940.htm

Mod Note: Threads merged. Please remember to search before posting a new thread.

I often wonder just how The Marples (all seven stories of it) collapsed, but the White Building next door was left standing. This also applied to C&A Modes - nearly all of it collapsed, but the Burton building next door remained standing, but became a burnt out shell, the fire having spread to it from C&A. Did the weight of the bombs cause more damage than the actual explosion itself - can anyone advise? The Marples hit was one of the worst things about the Sheffield Blitz. Those poor people, simply trying to enjoy themselves at a time when morale certainly needed a strong uplift. God rest their souls.

My grandma was not that long married when the Marples was "blitzed". she and my grandpa lived just beside the Royal Hospital Off West Street, with my poppa, who would have been little more than a babe in arms.

The 12th Dec was a thursday. the raids during the blitz had pretty much razed a lot of the city centre to the ground.

There was much loss of life, in the hit that the marples took, and (urban?) legend certainly has it that many of the bodies were not recovered from the flattened building, but just "limed". (I have to admit to feeling more than a little shudder when i went under the underpass beside the rebuilt marples building, as a teenager.)

My gran told the tale of passing the bombed out Marples, the next morning, as the recovery operation was under way. (such as they could do, considering the extensive battering Sheffield had taken in the raids, and the way the services were stretched as a result.)

She told me, that, as she passed the Marples' ruins, they brought a body out, on a stretcher; a young man, probably not that different in age than my gran (20 or 30 at most, she seemed to think.)

She described this young man as being so very handsome:- Blonde, with a beautiful physique, like an Adonis, she said. There was not one mark on him, that she could see; she surmised that he must have suffered internal trauma, causing his death, as was most often the case in an explosion.

She was harrrowed by this sight, and was still distressed by the memory, forty- odd years after, in relating the story to me, when she was an elderly woman. The poor chap... so young, so handsome, his life snuffed out in the bombing (like so many others) A horribly sad story.

my grandad was chief comissonaire at the electra cinema across the square from marples he was working the door the night marples was bombed. he actually saw the bomb drop on it .ther was a snooker hall below the electra and all the audience was evacuated into it the people were sheltering under the snooker tables.he walked home that night through the smouldering rubble to make sure my gran was alright'sadly i never knew my grandad as he died three years before i was born but they said he wasnt the same man ever again after witnessing what he saw.

My Father Ernest Fairfax was a fireman in Sheffield during the Second World war. He was on duty on the night of the raid that demolished Marples. The destruction he said was terrible and identifying victims was very difficult but as far as he was able to say all the dead were taken out, although no one could be sure because the pub was so popular and always full. He himself suffered what is now called post-traumatic stress dis-order as a result of his experiences during the whole of the blitz. Then it was called 'nerves'. In the 1990's I made what was something of a tribute to his sacrifice and those of many other 'Sheffielders' of that period in a TV/Video Documentary with the title 'Sheffield Blitz.'