Howden Minster visit

Last Saturday  I was at Eastrington show, sitting behind our stall, displaying and selling old photos and honey. It was a good day, hot outside but cool enough in the village hall where our stall was and - as an added bonus - we were able to buy a very good bacon sandwich for £2.

Our eggs won first prize too - but since then we have lost another hen to a visiting fox.  Very upsetting to see the evidence. We think our hens are not frightened of a fox as they are so used to Molly. So until we can be sure the fox is not going to come again the remaining birds are confined to quarters with large heaps of green weeds to compensate.

On Tuesday afternoon we visited Howden Minster. The students from my Howden and Goole WEA history classes joined together along with a few friends and we looked in real life at the building we had studied over the winter months.

There is so much to see and the church members - Hazel, Maynard and Dave could not have been more helpful. Gilbert Tawn, a member of my Goole class has produced a small booklet about the MInster stained glass while another student, Pauline has been looking at the hatchments in the Saltmarshe chapel. We were able to walk outside in the ruined choir

and a few intrepid people climbed the tower. I  made it to the top some years ago but this time decided that I would stop at the ringing chamber. The spiralling stone staircase was obviously designed for longer legs than mine!!

The photo above was taken the morning after the fire in 1929. We were initially puzzled as the window shown is clearly not the one there today. But then we read that a few days later all the glass fell out and a completely new window was put in.

It has been a historical week as on Friday night I went with some friends to Harswell church near Holme on Spalding Moor. The church is very small and down a long track and this was a fundraiser to repair the uneven floor tiles.  We listened to fascinating talk about the history of the church and village given by historian David Neave. And the canapés afterwards were good - although it was a bit chilly.

Now looking forward to more rural pursuits such as dog walking.

Eastrington history

As I write the sun has come out after several days of heavy rain. It is good for the garden but the ground is strewn with leaves and twigs and the begonias which we are experimenting with growing straight into the soil are a bit beaten down.

It is election day and I have been to vote - it will be interesting to see the results tomorrow morning.

We are going next weekend to Eastrington Show where I shall put on a display of old photos and try to sell a few of my books on the history of the village. Sadly the village shop and post office where they were on sale closed a few weeks ago so for the first time for hundreds of years there is no shop in the village.

In my childhood there were two shops - Mr and Mrs Dove's and Mr and Mrs Holland's. Hollands' shop was I think bigger and I seem to remember there was a side room with extra goods on sale. My mother however tended to go to "Joan Dove's "as she had been at school with her and I was often sent to buy cooked meat for tea or paraffin for the heater in our kitchen. Harry Dove delivered newspapers and Mr Holland [Wilf?] delivered milk.

There was also a post office run by Arnold Hoggard, two butchers [ Lilleys and Rewcastles], Dennis Hanson's stamp business, a small library in the [old] village hall, a garage [ George Benson, then Joe Kendrick] and an off licence [Mrs Clara Betts].

The Flint family ran the village stores and also  had a travelling shop

I do not remember but I know that in the 1930s and 40s there were also two fish and chip shops,  the Cross Keys pub [ where the garage is now],  a joiner and undertaker [ my grandfather Robert Nurse and his brother Cliff]  a saddler and shoemaker [ Mr Ellis],  a sweet shop [ Stan Kay in an old tram] a blacksmith and a family in Amethyst House who baked bread.

Most villages the size of Eastrington were self sufficient although with two stations and an hourly bus service to Goole and Hull travel was easy.

But the show, always the third Saturday in June, has survived. This year our stall will be under cover and as well as books on the history of Eastrington, Howden, Goole and Saltmarshe we are selling jars of our Saltmarshe honey.

It takes a lot of bees to produce a pound of honey - around 50.000 in each hive

We hope to be busy but have time too to have a walk round and see old friends.

Show committee in the 1960s.