Goole local history exhibition and bee news

Here we are at the end of July and over half the year has gone. We have picked our rasps and blackcurrants and the next fruit will be apples. Although the figs may ripen if we have a sunny August and our tomatoes are cropping well.

Some of the bees are soon moving to their second home where they have access to the Himalayan Balsam [ aka Impatiens glandulifera or Policeman's helmet] flowers on the banks of the Ouse. Bees love gathering nectar from the flowers and as the plant flowers on until the first frosts it is  also loved by beekeepers.

We are particularly keen to give our bees access to it as we have split our colonies and now have four hives of bees which need to build up their numbers before winter. Over the last few weeks we have been selling some of our set honey by putting it out on a table in the front porch. It seems popular and is good for anyone local with allergies as local honey can help them build up an immunity apparently.

I have been buying a few postcards recently - mostly of local places such as Airmyn, East Cowick and Bubwith but one I could not resist was of a hamlet called Brigham not far from Driffield. My father's family are from the area and it is a lovely picture of the canal with a little bridge over it.

Nest week I hope to see some of you who read my blog. Our annual local history exhibition will be at Junction in Goole from next Tuesday 9th August. There will be displays of old pictures connected with local hospitals, framed local prints which have been restored and coloured for sale and material connected to the Somme and the First World War.

We are there for almost two weeks so come and have a look and say hello.

One of our bees visiting a perpetual sweet pea flower in the garden

Checking the bees, with smoker at the ready

Rawcliffe Hall,  once home of the Creyke family and later a hospital  was demolished in 1994

Robert Wright of Goole and Boston Massachusetts

I was contacted this week by an American lady whose ancestors had left Goole to make a new life in USA in the 1850s.

George Wright was a river pilot, originally from Selby but working in Goole from the 1830s. He and his wife Martha, nee Shipstone had a large family who as young adults in the 1850s  left Goole to  make new lives in Boston Massachusetts. Finally George and Martha themselves went to join them.
The first of the family to emigrate  was William "Edwin" Wright [born 1825] who along with his wife, Maria, and son, George William, arrived in Boston on the Rio Grande in April 1851.

Later the same year Edwin's brothers George [b 1823] and Henry [b 1829] with their families joined them. They left from Liverpool and arrived in Boston in October 1851 travelling aboard the ship Old England.

Two years later sister Martha Ann  and brother Samuel  and Samuel's wife Frances arrived in Boston aboard the Levi Woodbury in September 1853.

Finally the parents, George and Martha and their two youngest children, Robert and Rosanna arrived in Boston on  9th September 1854 aboard the  Guiding Star.

George snr died of a stroke in 1860 and Martha died in 1879.

However sons Robert and Samuel returned to England. Samuel and Frances lived in Leeds while Robert came back to Goole. There in 1863 he married Mary Jane Brown - although he had not been back for long as in the Goole and Marshland Gazette announcement he was described as being of Boston Massachusetts.

By 1871 Robert and Mary were living with a young family in Aire Street and Robert was dealing in china. They were still there in 1881 and 1891  but by now Robert was dealing in shoes.Robert died in October 1899.  His obituary refers to his part in the American Civil War.

'The death took place on  Sunday of one of the eldest inhabitants of Goole,  Mr Robert Wright, Asbury House. Mr Wright, who had occupied a premier position in public Iife, was 65 years of age, but during tho last few years had suffered from illnesses, which caused him to give up many of his public positions. For six years he  was vice chairman of the School Board, and also chairman. The deceased resided for some time in Boston US.A. and was among those who responded to Abraham Lincoln's famous call for 300.000 volunteers st the time of the American Civil War.  He leaves a widow and six children'. 

By 1901 Mary was still running the business  and by 1911 the family were living at number 159, Boothferry Road, which was then called Asbury House, not far from Goole's new secondary school. Members of the family continued to live there for several years. The family gravestone is in Goole cemetery.

It is an interesting story. Why did the family feel the need to emigrate? Did they keep in touch?
And it is a lesson not to rely on censuses as they simply showed Robert as being born and dying in Goole. Nothing about his sojourn in USA and his involvement in the Civil War there.

Howden show

I am writing this morning in the hope that later today the weather may improve from an annoying drizzle to bright sunshine so that I can cut the grass. That's what the weather man said - but he is not always right!

On Sunday we went to Howden show. I must admit I remember when the show was held on a Saturday in early August and ended with fireworks spelling out the motto 'Success to Howden show', after cycle races held in the gloaming. The commentator used a match to help him see the programme and the cyclists were invisible on the far side of the ring.

But Sunday's event was just as enjoyable, held in The Ashes on a fine day and with lots of people visiting and participating. Below was the scene in the 'community tent' where several  local groups were invited to entertain the show crowds.

Local professional musicians Steven Goulden and Amy Butler aka The Saltmarshe Duo [ www.saltmarsheduo.co.uk] in action. Looking on is Howden poet and performer Mike Smith who organised the community tent events.

I have recently too been to an interesting talk given by local historian Gilbert Tawn to the Marshland Local History group. He spoke about the history of the Empson family who lived in Goole Hall. Ousefleet Hall and Yokefleet Hall. They are a complicated family to untangle as on at least two occasions the male line died out and descendants of the female line changed their names in order to inherit.

One of the highlights of the evening was when the large audience was invited to join in with a song written for a First World War Land Girls party in Ousefleet Hall.  The house was used to billet girls who worked harvesting flax and potatoes and the words reflected this. As Gilbert said it must have been over 100 years since the song was last sung.

The impressive Ousefleet Hall built in late Victorian times and demolished possibly in the 1950s.

My raised bed is doing well and we are eating new potatoes and curly kale - although next year I  will maybe devote another bed just to potatoes as the straggly tops have fallen onto some of the other crops. The bees too are doing well - but we have given them some extra food as the weather has not been very good for them and now the rape has finished they have less to feed on.