'I came to Sheffield with Windrush generation, wept over hostility, but now love the city I call home'
As Sheffield prepares for Windrush Day celebrations, nurse Maud Anderson tells how she settled in the city from Jamaica in 1955
Maud Anderson blazed a trail in 1955, when she left Jamaica to settle in Sheffield, part of the Windrush generation which helped rebuild the UK after World War Two.
Maud, now aged 88, worked as a nurse at the Northern General Hospital, while husband Calvin worked at engineering firm Laycocks, sometimes experiencing hostility.
Now, as The New Testament Church of God on Nursery Street, near The Wicker, gets ready for a Windrush celebration day on June 23 (10.45-1.30pm), she tells the story of how she made a new life in the city which she loves.
“I am from a village called Brae Head in the parish of Clarendon in Jamaica, the eldest of nine children. I had a happy childhood and after staying on at school left at 17 years of age to work in my grandmother’s shop and help to care for my young siblings after the sudden death of my father Sydney a few years earlier.
“At the age of 20 I migrated to the UK after watching a promotional film at our local cinema. The film was calling members of the commonwealth to come to the UK to help to build the country back up after WW2. My intention was to work for five years and go back home.
“The prospect of the adventure was exciting at the time, but the reality was quite different in those early days. As well as being extremely home sick and crying regularly for nearly two years we faced a lot of hostility, some of it was very blatant.
“After the birth of our eldest child, we decided to make the best of things and settled, raised our four children and enjoyed 45 years of marriage until the death of my husband Calvin in 1999.
“In 1955 I travelled to the UK by plane and arrived at Heathrow airport, a coach was waiting to take us to Victoria station where my fiancé met me, and we travelled to Sheffield together by train.
“Calvin had arranged somewhere for me to live until our marriage a couple of months later. Some of my relatives were already settling into life in Sheffield so having them nearby was a great comfort to us.
“I started to attend a local church but did not feel welcome and the day when I was told maybe I would feel more comfortable attending somewhere else I decided not to return, it was after this that I heard about the New Testament Church of God.
“I soon became an active church member and developed lifelong friendships among the fellowship.
“Apart from missing my family and friends back home the two things I missed the most was the food and the weather. Simple things like eggs and milk just didn’t taste the same to me, but after a while I got used to many of the differences.
“Over the years I learned to appreciate living in Sheffield especially having the Peak District on the doorstep and the convenience of a big city surrounded by landscapes that looked similar to some back home.
“Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if we had returned to Jamaica in those early days and think maybe I would have been better off but at other times I think about the full life I have lived here in Sheffield, the friends and colleagues that have impacted my life and the achievements I have made for myself and my family despite many challenges along the way.
“I am extremely thankful that I have been able to establish myself and achieve several goals including my nursing career and serving the community of Sheffield as a member of a group that helped to set up the mental health association SACHMA.
“I served on Sheffield local authority’s adoption panel for several years and I regularly attended schools to give presentations on Sickle cell. I have also served in various capacities within my local church and community.
“Over the years I have grown to love Sheffield and I am glad that I settled here.”
Windrush Day is a commemoration in the UK held on June 22 every year to honour the contributions of migrants to the post-war economy. The event at the New Testament Church of God on Nursery Street is on Sunday, June 23.