FRED (1877-1944) and FLORENCE SHIRT (1882 - 1946) - SHEFFIELD

The only photograph I've got of Lily's parents (my great-grandparents) was taken outside 55 Manor Oaks Close, Manor, Sheffield circa 1942. My grandmother Lily is third from the left with my mother just in front of her (she was ten at the time) My great grandfather FRED SHIRT is in the centre and my great grandmother FLORENCE is fourth from the right. Fred and Florence were married at *St Georges Church Sheffield (which incidentally is now part of the University of Sheffield) on 9th October 1898. At the time of their marriage Fred was 21 and Florence 2 years younger and were living on St Philips Road in Sheffield. Fred's occupation was given on the marriage certificate as Plate Layer.

The other interesting fact on the certificate is that both Fred Shirt's and Florence Wood's fathers were deceased at the time of the wedding.

• HENRY SHIRT (Fred's father) whose occupation was given as a Printer
• JOSEPH WOOD (Florence's father) whose occupation was given as a Slater

HENRY and JOSEPH were my great great grandfathers

The Shirt Family - Sheffield 1942

The photograph was taken at the wedding of my grandmothers youngest sister FLORENCE IVY SHIRT. (Birth registered in the June quarter of 1920  (GRO reference Sheffield Volume 9C page 1217)The bridegroom was a HAROLD SALT, the son of John Thomas Salt who lived at 27 Spa Lane, Woodhouse, Sheffield. The GRO indexes place the date of the marriage as being in the June quarter of 1942 (GRO reference Sheffield Volume 9C page 1353). The marriage had taken place at St John's Church in the Wybourn district of Sheffield

At the time of the marriage, Harold Salt was employed at the local East Birley Colliery.

On the far left of the photograph is my grandmothers eldest brother HARRY SHIRT. (JOSEPH HARRY SHIRT - he was always known as HARRY - was born in the June quarter of 1899 (Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 520). He married a NORAH RODGERS on 21st August 1920 under the name HARRY WARRINGTON. The woman fifth from the right (just behind my great grandmother) is my grandmothers youngest sister NELLIE BOYES (nee SHIRT) who was married to the tall man at the back ALBERT BOYES. (see below) Next to Harry is my gran LILY SHIRT (my maternal grandmother - was born on 2nd January 1901 (Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 557). And standing before my gran is her only daughter and my mum Jean. The girl at the front of Fred holding the flowers is my mum's cousin JOAN SHIRT the daughter of HARRY. her mothers name may have been LILY SHIRT (nee HODGSON)

There is a area of confusion in as much as my grandmother also had an aunt called Nellie WOOD (Florence's sister). She married a man called Harry Fountain. I went to their Diamond Wedding celebrations and as far as I'm aware Nellie and Harry had been married longer than any other couple in the history of my family.

Sadly IVY SALT died at the relatively young age of 61 on Monday, 8th February 1982. The service and cremation was held a week later at City Road Crematorium in Sheffield. I have no further details of the family.

As for FRED and FLORENCE, they did not live long after the photograph was taken. Fred's death certificate states that he died at 2 Herries Road Sheffield which is the address for Fir Vale Infirmary (now the Northern General Hospital) but at one-time was a workhouse. He died on 27th March 1944 age 67. The cause of death is given as "cancer of the lung" and the informant is his widow FLORENCE who gives the home address as 55 Manor Oaks Close, Sheffield.  His occupation is given as "Brewer's Labourer". The one peculiar aspect of the certificate is that he is registered as "Fred Warrington otherwise Shirt" - Warrington was the name of his stepfather but as far as I know from the marriage certificate and censuses, he was always known as Shirt. Fred was interred at City Road Cemetery on Wednesday May 28th 1944. (March quarter - Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 568).

Fred's wife FLORENCE only outlasted him by by less than two years. She died on 15 the February 1946 at 115 Hastilar Road, Manor, Sheffield. She was 64 years of age at the time of her death and was afflicted by both heart disease and asthma/bronchitis. Her home address is given as 55 Manor Oaks Close and she is described as "the widow of Fred Shirt otherwise Warrington - table blade cutler" As with Fred's death certificate, the one peculiar aspect of the certificate is that she is registered as "Florence Shirt otherwise Warrington" - the opposite way round from Fred's.

In April 2009, I located FRED and FLORENCE's burial record in Sheffield's City Road Cemetery

     SHIRT, Florence (otherwise Warrington) (Widow, age 64).
     Died at 115 Hastilar Rd; Buried on February 20, 1946 in General Portion ground;
     Grave Number 8275, Section J of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
    WARRINGTON, Fred (otherwise Shirt) (Brewers Labourer, age 67).
     Died at 2 Herries Rd; Buried on March 31, 1944 in General Portion ground;
     Grave Number 8275, Section J of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.

My mother told me that the house where Florence died belonged her daughter Nellie and son-in-law Albert Boyes. In the short obituary notice that appeared in the Sheffield Star, the date of death is February 15th but no year is given. Apart from stating that her home address was 55 Manor Oaks Close, the only other information I've got is that the interment would take place the following Wednesday at 12.45p.m. (Sheffield March 1946 - GRO ref Volume 9C Page695)

Notes

The 1901 Census gives the following information - Dwelling: 147 St Philips Road Sheffield (GRO Reference RG13/4366 page1)

Derelict Properties on St. Philip's Road and Jericho Street including No. 144, former premises of Arthur Pigott, friutier. The photo is dated 1930

In the years following the 1901 Census FRED and FLORENCE SHIRT had a further five children

My Great Aunt Ada

1. ADA SHIRT was born in the March quarter of 1903 (Ecclesall Bierlow - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 472). My mum's Aunty ADA married an ALBERT HOLROYD  in the June quarter of 1922 (Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 1033) and for many years ran a General Provisions shop in the Attercliffe district. They had a son, my mum's cousin DENIS who was born in the September quarter of 1924 (Births Holroyd Denis Shirt Sheffield Volume 9c page 1088) They retired to Greenhill (Sheffield) and it was there that ADA had a fatal asthma attack on Sunday 27th November 1966. She was cremated the following Thursday at Sheffield's City Road  Crematorium

2. CHARLES HENRY SHIRT appears in the BMD registers - Births Dec 1904 quarter Sheffield Volume9c page497

3. FRED SHIRT was born in Sheffield in the June quarter of 1908. (Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 461). From the records it looks as though FRED was married twice. His first marriage was to a KATE STRAFFORD in the December quarter of 1930 (GRO REF Sheffield Volume 9c Page 1145) . Kate was the daugher of JOHN WALTER and ALICE STRAFFORD (nee HAZELTINE) They had a son named after his dad (June 1932 quarter Sheffield Volume 9C Page 752)  but he died at just one month of age. I do not know if their were other children but in 1940 KATE died at the young age of 28 on 28th June 1940. She is buried in Sheffield's City Road Cemetery alongside her son FRED

SHIRT, Fred (Son of Fred, age 1month).
Died at Bk 13 Brownell St; Buried on June 29, 1932 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 4082, Section C3 of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
SHIRT, Kate (Wife of Fred, age 28).
Died at City General Hospital; Buried on July 3, 1940 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 4082, Section C3 of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
I believe Fred may have married again in the (September qtr of 1946 - Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 2D Page 613). His wife's maiden name was PAGE.  He died on Tuesday May 20th 1975 at his house 5 Hartopp Avenue which is in the Arbourthorne district of Sheffield. (June qtr - Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 3 Page 1204).

4. NELLIE SHIRT was born in the December quarter of 1911 (Sheffield PRO ref Volume 9C Page 1019). She married a ALBERT BOYES on Boxing Day 1929. (Sheffield - GRO ref Volume 9C Page 1244). They celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1979  - an article and photograph appeared in the local press. Their address at the time was given as Waterslack Walk, Woodhouse, Sheffield. They had a daughter JOAN who was born in the September quarter of 1930 Sheffield volume 9c page 744 and a son JACK BOYES who was born in the September quarter of 1933 - Sheffield Volume 9C Page 739

5.       FLORENCE IVY SHIRT - see above

Two children sadly died at a very young age

Deaths September 1921 Shirt James A 1 Sheffield Volume9c Page495
Deaths March 1914 Shirt John 0 Sheffield Volume 9c Page 723

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 142 Phillimore Road in the Darnall district of Sheffield. The surprising feature of these entries is that no mention is made of their two daughters LILY and ADA who were living with their grandmother SARAH WOOD in Harwood Street Sheffield. By the time of the 1911 Census Florence had five children in the course of her 12 year marriage but the form states that she only had three

 

SURNAME	Age	Rel	Occupation	Place of Birth
Fred SHIRT	34	Head	Table Knife Hafter	Sheffield Yorkshire
Florence SHIRT	30	Wife		Sheffield Yorkshire
Joseph H SHIRT	12	Son		Sheffield Yorkshire
Charles H SHIRT	6	Son		Sheffield Yorkshire
Fred SHIRT	2	Son		Sheffield Yorkshire

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This page was last updated on 19/10/09 10:22

Notes

* St Georges Church - Background Information

Following the Battle of Waterloo 1815 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a movement was launched to build new churches in celebration of the victory. The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of the counties that had become very short of places of worship in the rapidly growing industrial towns. A meeting was called at Freemasons' Hall in London on February 6th 1818, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to form a committee and launch an appeal for funding.

The Church Building Society, as the committee was known, which later appointed Commissioners to run the scheme, lobbied parliament and was successful in that one million pounds was voted through for the building of new churches throughout the United Kingdom. The Church Building Act, in approving the money became known as the "Million Act", hence churches built under the programme became known as "million" churches.

The programme lasted for many years and by 1856 a total of over three million pounds has been raised, resulting in the building of 612 new churches, a tenth of which, 106, were in Yorkshire, mostly in the West Riding. Church building went on under other auspices as well and it's been estimated that between 1831 and 1851 more than 2,000 new churches were built, 

With regard to St Georges  - on 16th July 1817 Archbishop Harcourt consecrated a new burial ground lying between Broad Lane and Portobello, then on the outskirts of Sheffield town. The site, which cost many hundreds of pounds, lay unused until the building of the Church of St George.  St George's was the first church to be built under the "Million Pound" act in Sheffield, at a cost of around £15,000, and was able to accommodate around 2,000 worshipers. The first stone was laid on 19th July 1821 by Thomas Sutton the Vicar of Sheffield on the coronation day of King George IV, hence the name St George. The building work was completed four years later when the church was consecrated. Like many urban churches in Yorkshire the building was declared redundant in 1981, but fortunately the church still stands and is now used by the University of Sheffield as a lecture theatre