Hallowe'en notes

I am writing this entry on Hallowe'en although where I live we do not have trick or treaters as it is quite remote. When I was a child we did not celebrate Hallowe'en at all. The big night was Bonfire Night but the night before was Mischief Night when children did just that. They swapped people's gates round and rang doorbells. Nothing too serious and most people took it in good part as they had done the same in their childhood.

I was very upset on Saturday morning when I went to feed my pair of little bantams and found that the fox had torn his way in through the wooden back of their ark and they were gone, leaving just a few feathers. I had had them about three years and had thought they were safe as they were in an enclosed pen and wooden hut.

I have been working on my website and have added a page about my new book, Goole, a Pictorial History Vol. 4.

I have also added some new pictures onto my old photo pages.

Molly is still growing and learning! She comes back most of the time when I whistle but is sometimes distracted by all the lovely smells. Also she does not seem to have grasped the idea that the clocks have gone back an hour. No lie in on Sunday for me.

Goole, a Pictorial History, volume 4

Today I have sent my last correction to the printer and now all I have to do is wait for my book to become a reality. I have been working on it for several months and so am suffering withdrawal symptoms as I have now nothing more to do.

It is the fourth book that I have written about the history of Goole, telling the story of the town through pictures. This volume roughly covers the 1940s and includes some 80 old photographs  as well as a lot of contemporary reminiscences about life in Goole.

The book should be ready for sale by the first week in November. It will be available from Chappelows newsagents in Goole and I also hope to sell signed copies at Goole library on 12th November when there is a family history day.

It will cost £7.95 and will also be available to order by post through my website - although until I have a copy to weigh I am not sure how much P&P will be.

This is the front cover - on the front is a Richard Cooper Street party celebrating the coronation in 1953. Sadly the street has recently been demolished.

Whitgift ferry, Molly and RIP Norman

This has been a busy week. My book about Goole is now in proof and should be, when I have made the corrections,  printed by the end of October.  I hope I have noticed all the mistakes but there are always some that slip through the net.

On Wednesday night the fox got the chickens. I was a bit late going out to drop the hatch on their hut and when I looked inside the hut was strangely empty. Then by the light of the torch I saw what was left of poor Norman the cockerel lying nearby. The hens I have never seen again. But on Thursday I met a friend in the supermarket and her daughter had a cockerel and two light Sussex hens which she kindly gave me. I am looking after them very carefully.

Today has been sunny and we have been out with the camera taking pictures for a presentation I am giving at the Beverley Treasure house on Thursday 20th October at 6pm. It is about the changing face of Howdenshire and so I needed some pictures of the area as it is today to compare with my old pictures.

This is the Ouse riverbank at Metham where the Whitgift Ferry landed such passengers as John Wesley and Charles I. Molly is being taught to walk on a lead

Molly is queen of the castle

Lep in Goole

I am writing a book at the moment about Goole, using lots of old pictures, dating from the 1930s and 40s. One of the pictures is of the Lep depot down Fifth Avenue and this has led to all sorts of interesting information emerging about what Lep in Goole did during the war.

With the help of local people I have been finding out about the hundreds of Canadian vehicles assembled in the town down South Street and possibly Dutch Riverside. Also about Lep using the old Adelphi warehouse - not quite sure what for yet and about Lep vehicles towing giant recovery trailers called Queen Marys  and going out to pick up crashed planes. These were then put into wooden crates made in a Lep shed off Rawcliffe Road

It is an aspect of Goole's wartime role which has not been much talked about but I hope to find out more