Since starting university in September I’ve become slack with my photography. I wish I hadn’t because I love exploring by myself and discovering hidden gems in different cities. Due to the lovely snowfall that happened a few days ago, my usual Friday morning lesson was cancelled, much to my annoyance.
This annoyance soon faded when I realised I could go to the street I used to live on and visit the memorial in the cemetery. This hidden gem has been down the road from me for 22 years and I never even knew it was there.
I think my problem was that when you live in a city all your life, you don’t explore. You don’t want to look like a tourist in your city. Now that I’m older I realise there is so many beautiful places in Sheffield that my camera and I need to visit.
When I arrived at City Road Cemetery I was ankle-deep in snow. It looked so beautiful it was like being in Narnia. It’s a huge graveyard and I was walking around in circles for what seemed like hours.
The first memorial I came across was to commemorate the soldiers and sailors who lost their lives fighting during World War I. I found this memorial with ease, and I spent so long just looking at the names of the people who fought to keep this country safe.
This wasn’t the memorial that I intended to find when I made the decision to go to this cemetery. In this huge cemetery is a “Blitz Garden”. This memorial is to remember the lives that were lost when Sheffield had a date with Hitler. The bombs fell from 12th December and the 15th of December 1940. It was one of the worst nights in Sheffield history, over 660 people lost their lives (one being my great-great grandmother) and this garden is to remember some of the lives that were lost.
Rest in peace to those who lost their lives during both World Wars.
