Sunday 9 June 2013

Goforth family of Knedlington

At last it is warm and sunny and the garden is growing. Today we ate our first few strawberries from the greenhouse and this week we have several times heard a cuckoo.

On Thursday we met a lovely couple from USA who were following in the footsteps of their seventeenth century Quaker ancestors. I have written before about them -  William Goforth from Knedlington who emigrated with his wife Anne Skipwith  from Hull in 1677.

We were able to show our American visitors Skipwith church and the moated site opposite which was where the Skipwith ancestral home once stood, Quaker farm at Sandholme where local meetings took place and of course Knedlington where the Goforths lived.

Although it is not possible to say exactly where they lived I was able to point out the field which was the Knedlington  Quaker burial ground although it is now cultivated.

We then toured Howden and visited the church. I think those of us who live locally sometimes take the church for granted. Our visitors were surprised at the size and splendour of this magnificent building in such a comparatively small market town.

It is always enjoyable meeting in real life those  people that previously I have only met through the medium of the internet.



1 comment:

  1. Hello Susan,

    I am interested in tracing old Yorkshire Quaker sites, even if they are now built over or cultivated! If you can find time could you give Google Map References for any Quaker sites you know in your area, using the 'What's Here?' feature?

    thanks

    Tony Haynes

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