Thursday 30 May 2013

Shops of Goole

It is sometime since I wrote a post and so there are several local matters I would like to mention.

The first is the death, at the age of 99, of Ken Powls. He was a native of Howden and a keen student of the town's history. He and I wrote a history of Howden - Howden an East Riding market town - in the 1990s and I treasure the memory of sitting with him in the Powls family shop and signing copies of the book.

He went on to write three more smaller books about Howden - including his autobiography Many Lives. He will be sadly missed in Howden  and the wider area.

Last weekend I attended the Family history day at Goole's Waterways Museum and thoroughly enjoyed it. More people came than in previous years and I met visitors from many areas of Yorkshire whose families had roots in Goole and had come to see if we could help them with their family history. One of the commonest queries is about whereabouts in Goole their ancestors lived. In earlier times much of present day Goole was in the parishes of Hook and Airmyn and this causes considerable confusion.

I have also been busy preparing and giving two talks. The first was to Goole Civic Society at their meeting in The Lowther.  The society was having a re-launch but unfortunately due to a mix up with the publicity no one knew! So I talked to a small but enthusiastic audience about the early days of Goole in the very appropriate setting of The Lowther hotel, the first building of New Goole.

The second talk was to members of the Marshland History group who meet at Swinefleet. This was a talk about memories of Goole shops and was, I think, well received. Goole had several locally owned shops and in the audience were workers and relatives from some of them.

Do you remember Foster and Tetlley's outfitters, Anthony White's ice-cream, Hackforth's cafe and Branson Bowles outfitters and toy displays? I would be delighted to receive any memories and pictures as I hope to write a series of articles in the Goole Times.

Below is a picture of Boothferry Road as I remember it, before it was pedestrianised - and when Goole had both Woolworth's and Marks and Spencer.


Tuesday 7 May 2013

Family history at the Waterways Museum 2013

It has been a lovely sunny day for the May bank holiday and we went to Helmsley for the afternoon. The rest of the world was there too and it was difficult to park. But we managed, ate an icecream and I bought a secondhand book about the Maister family of Hull.

The garden is very dry and various seeds have yet to appear but the courgettes and tomatoes in the greenhouse are growing. Molly loves being outside but disgraced herself this morning by rolling in something indescribably smelly. She had to be shampooed and hosed down but at least we could wash her outside.

On Sunday we are going to have a stall at the family history day at the Waterways Museum in Goole. Last year was very quiet but we are hoping to see more people this year. We are taking lots of old photos to display and some CDs we have made of old pictures of Goole and area.

Thursday 2 May 2013

A mystery picture

I have a friend who, like me, collects old pictures and postcards of the local area. She is also very skilled at adding colour to old photographs which brings them to life - you really do feel that you have stepped back in time.

But sometimes you  buy a postcard which is said to be somewhere in the local area around Goole or Howden and then have a problem identifying exactly where it is. It looks familiar - but where is it?

Below is one such picture. It should be so easy. The name over the shop is Lockwood and the style of the house is certainly popular in this area of Yorkshire.  It may even be a post office too but the sign is not clear.

We have searched for the name in the 1901 and 1911 census but no one called Lockwood comes up as a shopkeeper.  We wondered about a house in Bubwith main street which was once a shop but it is maybe not quite right.

So does anyone recognise this house? Is it your family standing outside?

Postscript  June 16th - we have identified where the picture was taken. It was in Belton in the Isle of Axholme.


 A lovely picture of a Yorkshire house and shop - but where is it?