About the Project

The proposal for the project was submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Summer 2003, with support from Sheffield Archives, local historians, history groups, MPs and Sheffield Hallam University. £49,300 was awarded under the ‘Your Heritage’ scheme towards the cost of making the Sheffield Flood Claims Archive accessible via the Web, and the project itself was underway by February 2004.

The first task was to design the database into which the claims would be transcribed, and which would be the basis for the website. The structure of the database had to accomodate the sometimes unstructured entries in the ledgers, serve to represent the claims as web pages, and support analysis of the overall set of claims.

Then came the enormous job of inputting the claims – sitting in the Sheffield Archives transcribing the 11 volumes of sometimes crabbily-handwritten legers into a database. Next was the task of mapping the claims in order to be able to show their locations on the maps.

The final phase was to design the final structure and presentation of the website. We had to design the overall navigation between the different elements of information about each claims, then create the template web pages for displaying the claims. We chose Zoomify for its flexibility in interactively navigating around the large-scale maps, and implemented tools for locating the claims on the maps. We finally implemented the search mechanisms, and added finishing details such as the glossary entries and indexes of claimants, deceased, and occupations. The project went live in April 2006.

Thanks to all involved.

For more information please contact
Dr. Steven Earnshaw
English Department, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield S10 2BP.
Tel: 0114 225 2241
E-mail: s.l.earnshaw@shu.ac.uk

Sheffield Archives: For information about the records held by Sheffield Archives, contact the Duty Archivist: 0114 203 9395.

Bradfield Parish Archives: For information about records held in the Bradfield Parish Archives, contact Malcom Nunn (Parish Archivist): 0114 285 1375; fax 0114 285 1008; e-mail: parisharchives@aol.com; Bradfield Parish Council website: www.bradfieldparishcouncil.org.uk