Italian miners in Sheffield 1952

Hi I am trying to help a friend who's granpa, an Italian gentleman... lived in Sheffield in and around 1952 for 2-3 years. He believes he worked as a miner. I wondered if anyone had any further information which may help us find where he lived, if there was an Italian community of miners at this time and where they worked etc. My friend has a picture of his grandpa in Sheffield and I'd like to try take him there if we can find out where it was.

Any help would be much appreciated

Thank you Kimberley

Would it be possible to post the name of the gentleman in question? Any other details might help too. There were several Italian communities in Sheffield after WW2, usually near to existing catholic communities. There was a strong community around Shalesmoor/West Bar another around Abbeydale Road and a few around the lower end of Parkwood Springs that I know of. Other people may be able to expand on that.

There is a brief nod to Italian communities in Sheffield in a 60's fictional film called "La Ragazza con la Pistola". The entire film used to be available on YouTube and certainly on Amazon.

Would it be possible to post the name of the gentleman in question? Any other details might help too. There were several Italian communities in Sheffield after WW2, usually near to existing catholic communities. There was a strong community around Shalesmoor/West Bar another around Abbeydale Road and a few around the lower end of Parkwood Springs that I know of. Other people may be able to expand on that.

 

There is a brief nod to Italian communities in Sheffield in a 60's fictional film called "La Ragazza con la Pistola". The entire film used to be available on YouTube and certainly on Amazon.

There weren't many mines in Sheffield around 1952, Nunnery and Handsworth perhaps and the film you refer to was mostly filmed in the Grimesthorpe area of Sheffield.

There weren't many mines in Sheffield around 1952, Nunnery and Handsworth perhaps and the film you refer to was mostly filmed in the Grimesthorpe area of Sheffield.

Nonetheless there were miners. My next door neighbour on the Manor Estate in the late fifties worked in a mine at Mosborough Moor, later at Orgreave and mines in North East Derbyshire. I don't remember him working with Italian miners but I do remember him working with Polish miners.

The locations in the film are on Granville Street, the area around Coleridge Road, Parkwood Springs, Neepsend, the Steel Peech and Tozer works and there's a brief shot of the Nunnery spoil heap at the end of Cricket Inn Road. The point was that it related to the Italian community in Sheffield in the sixties and I thought that may be of interest.

One place I can think of is potter hill camp where they were prisoners of war that is at highgreen they were still there in the early 50s they would give us sweets on the way home from school they got them from little corner shop opposite the Acorn pub.

There was a bit of a problem when the Italians arrived to work in the mines. The union did not want to compromise safety and those who could not speak any English were initially prevented from working in the mines. Some of them went into other types of jobs. I worked with two such men at Skelton's in Heeley I remember their names : Camelo Bagnoli and Angelo Giannacovo. Not sure if this helps but it is a start. These two men are probably dead by now. They would be in their late eighties.