Friends of Edward Carpenter

On Wednesday 18^th October my partner Claire and I attended the Friends of Edward Carpenter launch event at The Crucible Theatre. The Friends of Edward Carpenter project is being managed by a voluntary committee, aiming to raise enough funds to erect a monument to Edward Carpenter in Sheffield by 2013.

I got to have a chat with the lovely staff from the Sheffield Archives service about my dissertation, and to see some of the Carpenter artefacts on display. Amongst the speakers at the event was BBC Sheffield’s Rony Robinson, discussing his personal connections with Carpenter’s legacy and how he was almost given a memorial in the 1980s. We were also treated to two numbers from local songsmith and folk artist Grace Petrie.

For anyone who doesn’t know about him, Edward Carpenter was an influential writer who pushed for gay rights (as well as other liberal ideas) at a time when it was very dangerous to do so. He lived near Sheffield at Millthorpe from the early 1880s until his death in 1929 with his partner George Merrill. In 1908 he wrote of same sex love in his book The Intermediate Sex.

Carpenter’s achievements in promoting progressive campaigns and ideas such as Socialism, Feminism, Vegetarianism and even clean air prove him to have been a significant part of Sheffield’s history and certainly Sheffield’s LGBT history.

If you would like to learn more about Edward Carpenter have a look at www.edwardcarpenterforum.org or to arrange a trip to see some of the wonderful artefacts held at the Sheffield Archives go to www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries/archives-and-local-studies. To find out more on the Friends of Edward Carpenter group and to support their work on achieving a permanent monument to such an important figure go to www.friendsofedwardcarpenter.co.uk

Update

Well it has been such a long time since my last post, I thought it was about time to get on with it! In my defence I decided to prioritise writing my dissertation over writing about writing my dissertation, and due to this stroke of genius, and having three weeks off work I have finally got it done and even better, I passed! I'm not going to pretend it was done to the best of my abilities, given the timescales and slight 'rabbit in headlights' syndrome which descended upon me during those last weeks, but at least Sheffield's LGBT history has got a place to start.

My intentions now, once I have tidied all of the scattered journal articles and scraps of paper from the spare room, is to pick up from where my dissertation left off and carry on in much the same way. In terms of the blog I will be disseminating much of what I have found during my research (some, in fact most of which never made it to the dissertation) in the form of themed posts and I will hopefully continue to do this as I build upon my research. I also hope that this blog can become a place where people can discuss their stories of Sheffield's LGBT past, and post their own memories.

I have loads to talk about regarding what I have found and other things on the horizon so watch this space as they say!

February updates

As LGBT History month is almost over I thought I would take the opportunity to spread the word about some fantastic events taking place in Sheffield to celebrate.

•  On Monday 28th February Sheffield Out of Office - a group set up by and for LGBT professionals in Sheffield to meet, socialise and network - are holding a fantastic pub quiz at the Crucible Corner Bar in Sheffield from 7pm. £2 per person to enter and loads of prizes. http://www.sheffield-outofoffice.co.uk/events.htm Here is the link and whilst you are there check out their site for othe upcoming get togethers.

• Sheffield Eagles rugby team are holding a special game on March 13th and have been raising awareness of their campaign at events around the country. For more info have a look at the LGBT History Month blog http://lgbthmuk.blogspot.com/2011/02/sheffield-eagles-wear-message.html

• Edward Carpenter, one of Sheffield's most prominent gay residents from the past was featured recently on the BBC show Inside Out. The feature is about 19 minutes in and looks at Edward Carpenter's life and literary works. Thanks to Cheryl from the Sheffield Archives for tipping me off about this one. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071mqm/episodes/player If you enjoy the show and want to learn more about Edward Carpenter the Sheffield Archives is the best place to start. http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries/archives-and-local-studies

Apologies that this post hasn't been as much about my MA but rest assured I will have some more updates on that soon!

welcome to the blog

Welcome to my little blog. As the name suggests I hope to make this blog about and instructive to my forthcoming dissertation on Sheffield's gay history. Let me tell you a bit about me and why I am undertaking this project. I am originally from Beverley, near Hull, and I came to Sheffield in 2000 to study the History of Art, Design and Film at Sheffield Hallam University. In 2007 I joined Out Aloud, Sheffield's only LGBT choir and loved it! It wasn't long before I found myself on the organising committee for the local pride event. There hadn't been a pride event so far in Sheffield, and so working on the event was great, as we had a blank canvas almost to create the event we wanted to see. The first Sheffield Pride was in 2008 (officially called South Yorkshire Pride) and for that I co-ordinated a community tent with workshops and activities, and helped with some fundraising nights along the way. I stayed on the committee for the next event in 2009, again running the community tent and acting as treasurer too. Work on the Pride events was a huge amount of fun, and even more hard work. In September 2009 I started the MA I am currently on now, in History, Local and the Global.

Being involved in the gay community of Sheffield on the Pride Committee way started me thinking about the nature of the gay community here in Sheffield. It has always seemed odd to me that we never have had many gay bars in town, and the ones that we do have are spread out, some of them right out of the city centre. Comparing this to local places such as Leeds and Manchester, where the gay bars are close to one another and seem very close knit, made me wonder about the history of Sheffield's gay community, and how the members of this community interacted with one another in the past. A workshop by the Sheffield Archives staff about Sheffield's gay history made me even more intrigued. There seems to be very little material and evidence of what Sheffield's gay community has been like during the 20th Century. We know of course, of Edward Carpenter who lived near Sheffield with his partner, and are lucky to have so many records of his life and his literary works. However, after Carpenter, came a gap in the records of the local archives. My project aims to fill this gap, and to delve into where people met, who they talked to and had relationships with, how they coped with the prejudice and discrimination of the times and what kept them going.


So if you have memories of living in Sheffield as a gay person, please feel free to share them on the blog, and contact me if you would like to take part in the project.