Howden in the Middle Ages

Tomorrow my WEA history of Howden class restarts after the Christmas break and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. We are beginning by looking at the history of Howden church.
So it seems appropriate to put here a link to a new website created by a member of the group.

 https://sites.google.com/site/howdenmiddleages/

The history of Howden in the Middle ages is both fascinating and upto now not as easy to read about as it might be. This new website, which is a work in progress, seeks to remedy this.

New members who are interested in the history of Howden are welcome to join the group. Send me a message through my website for details.


howdenshirehistory.co.uk

New Year's Day meet at Howden

So it's 2017 and almost time to take down the tree.  We enjoyed our turkey and watched fireworks over the river on New Year's Eve. The chickens are still not roosting properly and not laying particularly well but seem happy and are eating all the scraps as we clear the fridge after the holiday.

It's back to local history too as I research the whereabouts and history of Thorntoft[s] near Yokefleet. It was a medieval settlement with possibly its own chapel. Also I am researching the history of The Ashes Playing Field in Howden in preparation for a talk I am giving in February.

But I took time out on Monday to watch the  NewYear's Day meet in Howden Market  Place - not actually on New Year's Day as it was a Sunday. Large crowds gathered and we saw several friends.

[ after several queries I am clarifying that although the York and Ainsty South often did meet at Howden earlier in the twentieth century I believe that  the  New Year's Day meet  that took place on Monday is a more recent tradition - maybe of around 10 years!]

I found this picture from Edwardian times.

Compare the view above with the video I took  of yesterday's event. Some buildings have been demolished and rebuilt - but otherwise the event was very similar.

Christmas preparations

I am writing this post on the day before Christmas Eve - i.e. Friday 23rd December. It is a quiet moment with mince pies in the tin,  turkey bought, Christmas lights up - and working- and just a few presents to wrap. It is unseasonably mild although this afternoon strong winds are forecast and so I shall find the candles just in case.

Not surprisingly history has briefly taken a back seat but I  do continue to buy postcards of the local area. Here are my most recent purchases. One day, eventually, I shall get more of my old pictures onto my website but in the meantime I shall keep putting some on my blog. They are all available to buy.

Hemingbrough in Edwardian times

Newbald - Coronation clock

Snaith - thatched cottages.

And finally I would like to wish all readers of my blog a happy Christmas and a good New Year.

Merry Christmas too from Molly who has featured on the blog since she was a puppy

Howden heritage

Last night I went to the Howden late night shopping event. It was a very pleasant occasion - it did not rain or snow and it was not cold. I remember previous occasions when we had to dodge piles of snow  piled up around the Market Place and the awful evening where the river overtopped its banks and although Howden itself was not flooded many surrounding villages were.

Market Place in the snow -photo by Arthur Henrickson

But last night the fairground organ played, we had a good WI cup of tea in the Shire Hall and ate roasted chestnuts out of a paper bag. We bought a wreath for outside the door from a local stall but above all we stopped and talked to so many friends that we realised how good it was to be part of the local community.

One of the stalls was that of Howden Civic society. The society, under the enthusiastic chairmanship of Philip Mepham, was gathering signatures to gauge interest in setting up a Howden Heritage centre. I think this is a wonderful project and am supporting it wholeheartedly.

Howden has a fascinating history ranging from its medieval importance as part of the property of the Bishop of Durham to its nationally known horse fair and its connections with the airship R100. Lots of people were signing so I am hopeful that the society will be successful.

Here our new chickens have settled in well and are laying a surfeit of eggs which we are selling at the roadside and giving away to friends. They are reluctantly learning to perch after being plonked several times onto the perches while half asleep.

The chicken and the egg

November has in many ways lived unto its reputation as a gloomy month. It has rained; the dykes are full and we have had frosts and fog. But last week we fetched some new chickens from a local farm where 12, 000 birds were offered for re-homing at £1 each.

They are settling in nicely although as yet they have not learned to perch and are a few feathers short. And they are laying well - so much so that I have been able to resume putting surplus eggs out for sale in the front porch.

Below are two pictures I have taken this morning

Which came first?

A bit featherless but happy eating outside

I have now finished my WEA local history classes for this year and we all went for a very pleasant meal after the last one. We may be tutor and students but we are also all good friends.

Now we are looking forward to Christmas events. The first is a concert in Saltmarshe Hall on 9th December. The hall, built in 1825, must have seen many a Christmas concert and party in its time. The hall has been decorated in a traditional style and guests will be able to relax with mulled wine and mince pies while listening to seasonal music.

Tickets are available from 07743448123 or e mail info@saltmarsheduo.co.uk

Simon Hamer, pioneer of Goole

I was recently contacted by an Australian descendant of Simon Hamer who lived in Goole in the early days of the town.
She knew something of her ancestor but was interested in knowing more about his Yorkshire roots. So I  thought I would put together what I  already knew with what more I could find and have been surprised at what I have been able to discover.


 Simon  Hamer, who died aged 69 in 1844 in Goole was one of the men who shaped the town as we now know it.
I am not certain of his origins but he had a brother Thomas. Thomas Hamer appears on the 1851 census at Great Grimsby and is described as the uncle of Ann Maria, Simon's daughter.
 
Thomas [born in 1773]  says in 1851 he was born at Harfit  in Yorkshire. I cannot find such a place but there is a record of a baptism in 1773 at Harthill near the Chesterfield Canal of a Thomas Amour whose father was called Simon.


 
I am beginning to think that Thomas and Simon’s father was also called Simon.  There is a record of  a Simon Hamer [quite an unusual name] working on the Cotswold canal  in 1784
There is a lock on the canal called the Griffin Mill Lock which has a wharf above it to unload coal for the mill.   It  was being worked on in 1784 and it is recorded in the records that labourer Simon Hamer received £39 17s 7 ½ d for ‘day work and walling at Mr Griffin’. 
 
I have also found a tantalising reference in an academic paper to a  ‘Simon Hamer, who absconded from the Leeds & Liverpool Canal owing money but  returned to work on other canals ...’ but as yet have not been able to follow this up. 

The Leeds Liverpool canal was built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
 
However by 1800 both Thomas and Simon were in Yorkshire. Thomas married Elizabeth Wilkinson of Barmston in 1800. Simon married Dinah Robinson in 1802 at Hutton Buscel near Scarborough.
There had been a lot of drainage work taking place on Barmston Drain and Thomas continued his career in this area in the Holderness and Driffield areas connected with the River Hull.
 
Simon meanwhile may have been working on the Derwent improvements near Scarborough.
 


Simon and Dinah had four children. Their son Michael was born in 1803 but not baptised until 1808 at Hutton Buscel. Their son Thomas was baptised at Hackness in 1804 and their daughter Mary Ann in 1806.  Youngest son Simon was born in 1807 but not baptised until 1811. It is Simon jnr who may have eventually settled in Australia. I will write of him in a later post.
 


Then in 1810 Dinah Hamer aged 27 of Seamer died and was buried at Hutton Buscel  on  June 28th.
 
Simon remarried, to Margaret Metcalf, early in 1811. Their son,  Metcalf Hamer was baptised at Seamer on the same day as four year old Simon.
 
Simon and Margaret had a further 10 children although not all survived. Their eldest children were baptised at Seamer - John was the last to be baptised there in 1820.  On the baptism records Simon is shown as a labourer, sometimes at Ayton Forge.
 


Both Simon and his brother Thomas appear to have been involved not only with drainage and canal projects but also with brickmaking.
 
In 1819  Thomas Hamer, brick maker of Brompton,  late of Driffield was in a debtor’s prison in  far away Essex while Baines’ trade directory of 1822  shows Simon Hamer  as a brick tile and pot maker in Brompton.  Brompton is near Scarborough.
 


The Goole connection
 


In 1821 the contracts were signed for the construction of a new canal from Knottingley to Goole for the Aire and Calder Navigation Company. The main contractor was Mark Faviell who had already built several bridges in North Yorkshire.
His associates were Abraham Pratt who would do the masonry work and Simon Hamer who would be responsible for the earthworks.
 
Simon and his family moved to the Goole area.

 In 1823 Simon appears in the land tax records for Cowick, occupying a property owned by Widow Fletcher.  He was probably living there as his son Francis who was born - and died - in 1823  was baptised at  nearby Snaith. He is last listed there in 1827 when he presumably moved to the new town of Goole.
 
In 1826 Whites directory [directories are normally a year behind events] entry for Snaith lists Simon Hamer as contractor and brickmaker.
 


The new canal was opened in July 1826 and by then 30 houses were built in the new town and 70 were under construction.
 
Simon was an entrepreneur. In 1827 there is an advertisement for a stagecoach route running from Leeds to Hull. He was one of the proprietors.
 

Coach route from Leeds to Goole in 1827

Simon was probably a Methodist.  His younger children were baptised in chapel rather than church. He was the first subscriber to Goole's Methodist chapel built in 1829 on North Street, the site of the present chapel. He subscribed the magnificent sum of £50 and also built the chapel.

Goole North Street Methodist chapel

In 1829 Pigot’s trade directory shows him living in  Adam Street next to the Lowther Hotel [then the Banks Arms].

Also in 1829  we find that he was the owner  of a schooner which he named Hamer. The Goole shipping register lists it as being built in Goole in 1826 by George Thwaites who was also the master.

There is evidence that Simon Hamer continued to work with Abraham Pratt.  In 1830 they were joint  contractors for the erection of a bridge over the Trent at Dunham. Tbe bridge was to be of four iron arches, with the abutments.

Then they won a major contract for 18 miles of the Leeds Selby railway which was opened 1834.  Railways were then very new and this was probably their first venture into railway contracting. The contract was worth £83,000.

Next in 1834  they won a contract to build part of The Whitby and Pickering line. The  newspaper report  refers to ‘Hamer and Pratt’, who had just finished work on the Leeds and Selby railway’.

Times were changing and railways were taking over from steam boats. In 1836 the  partnership was dissolved between  Simon Hamer, Abraham Pratt, James Bromley and Robert Pearson. They had been partners in a steam boat called Eclipse, trading between Goole and Hull and two other vessels called Liberal and George the Fourth trading between Goole and Leeds.

Simon’s partner in contracting, Abraham Pratt died in 1838.

I think Simon then spent more time in Goole. There is a suggestion that he built George and Ouse Streets and the Sydney Hotel in the late 1830s and early 1840s. He and his family were living in George Street in 1841.

Simon died in 1844 and was buried at Hook on 22nd March aged 69.  His business was wound up by his wife and daughter.

Few people in Goole today have heard of Simon Hamer. But I hope to spread the word that he was a man who seems to have risen from quite lowly beginnings to become a pioneer canal and rail contractor who also contributed a lot to the early town of Goole.

Howden civic society

In 1979 historian Dr David Neave wrote a book entitled Howden Explored.  In it he wrote about the town as it was with its many Georgian buildings and suggested a town trail. On the back inside cover he suggested that Howden was ready for a civic society and interested people should get in touch. A society was formed and is still flourishing.

A couple of weeks ago they held their annual awards evening and I was touched and honoured to be presented with a silver salver [ I can only keep it for a year!!] and a certificate. I am fascinated by local history even though at university my tutors laughed at my interest and when I was a teacher the subject was only deemed suitable for pupils who did not have the ability to sit exams. But today local history is an accepted and popular topic of study, as is family history and I believe  they complement each other.

Howden has a long  and very interesting history ranging from its connections with the Bishop of Durham to its horse fair and the twentieth century construction of the R100 airship. I have written two books about the town [one with Ken Powls] and have been teaching a local history class for adults for over 30 years. But I have never run out of material and still find new aspects of the town to study and new photos keep appearing.

Here is my certificate

I am proud to join the other names inscribed on the salver of  those people who have worked to promote the town of Howden. It is a lovely place.

St Michael's church, Eastrington

The village of Eastrington in East Yorkshire was where I was brought up and went to school. My mother's family, the Nurses, have lived there since the seventeenth century.

So I am enjoying teaching in my local history classes about the village. I have written a book about the village history [copies still available via my website or  from Eastrington shop!!] and although I have not lived there for many years I still feel a connection when I visit.

One of the places I  particularly feel connected with is the church. The Nurse family graves, dating back to George Wise Nurse, my four times great grandfather are on the right of the main path leading to the church porch and inside is a plaque to my great grandfather, Robert Thomas Nurse who was churchwarden for many years and his wife Hannah.

Some of the chairs  near the altar were made by my ancestors and given to the church and my mother, Joan Watson often played the organ. I always feel a sense of peace as I sit in a pew and remember when I went to Sunday school or to harvest and carol services as a child.

Eastrington is a fascinating church to decipher architecturally. Parts of the church date back to Norman times and the strange faces looking down into the Portington chapel were once outside when  the chancel was the original Norman chapel.

As a child I was fascinated by the tomb of 'Judge Portington' whose feet rest on a dog which we all stroked. Other notable features are the oak pillars holding up the interior walls, brought from nearby Spalding Moor as newly hewn trees, the Ousethorpe or Athorp chapel and the interesting font cover.

A few days ago I took my new camera into the church and  tried to shoot some video of the interior. I need a lot more practice but I hope that at least you might get some impression of what a lovely old building and place of worship Eastrington church is.

Puffballs, classes and a concert

I suppose the weather today, Monday, is what we might expect for mid September- cool and drizzly. But with temperatures last week up in the early 30s  and high humidity I think everyone forgot that it was autumn.

It was lovely to be outside in the garden and while walking Molly one morning I found a puffball in the grass. We had often seen and eaten them some years ago but had not had any for quite a time. We ate it in slices, fried in butter, for tea. Not everyone around the table was enthusiastic but I am hoping to find another one and try a recipe I found where you fry slices dipped in egg and cheese.

September too sees the beginning of the new term for my WEA local history classes in Howden and Goole. Lovely to meet old friends and get to know new students.

Last week was very busy as we hosted a small concert here. The building which became a temporary concert  hall was built as a barn in the eighteenth century, became the estate joiner's shop in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is now home to the original files of the Goole Times and Howdenshire Gazette. But on Friday before 25 invited guests we were treated to  Songs of Travel by Vaughan Williams and An die Ferne Geliebte by Beethoven sung by professional tenor Steven Goulden  http://www.stevengoulden.co.uk as well as bee related poems and piano solos. Everyone enjoyed it and we hope to do more concerts here.

But back to history now - I am teaching about Eastrington and Snaith so need to do some research.

Eastrington village green

Sunflowers, family history and Rufus Sewell

Although the weather is pleasantly warm it still feels autumnal. Our apple trees have varied as to how much fruit has set. The Bramley, Russet and James Grieve are looking good but the Cox and Lord Lambourne are not as good. I think some of the trees around them need cutting back.

Which brings me to our tree expert. He is returning in a few days to cut down some ash saplings which are mis-shapen and also to remove a dead branch from the oak tree. This we hope will open up the canopy a bit and will provide a new home for our bees. They are away at the moment enjoying the balsam crop but will be returning soon.

One of our successes this year has been our sunflowers. Grown to provide  food for the bees they have reached great heights.

Above, with Molly for scale is one of our groups of sunflowers.

This is a close up of one of the flowers above, showing that bees [not ours this time] like  it

I have been looking at a varied range of topics historically. One query which I answered may be of interest to others researching their ancestors in the 1841 census. The query was about someone who was a sailor who lived at Stone Bridge in Snaith. What did it look like? A quick search of the census showed that the sailor was living on the dock side in Goole - part of the  vast parish of Snaith.

Another query was about the family of a William Whitaker who seems to have had Eastrington, Yokefleet and Whitgift connections. Although not yet fully sorted out this family should not be too difficult to untangle as  William's father was called Watson Whitaker and this unusual Christian name, originating apparently in Whitgift carries through succeeding generations.

 I have also been looking at a little of my own Nurse family history. Nurse is quite an unusual surname in this area and I have often been asked if our Eastrington Nurses were connected to those locally at Rawcliffe Bridge. And the answer is yes - Henry Nurse, the ancestor of the West Riding branch, was born at Eastrington in 1857 and was the brother of my great grandfather Robert Thomas Nurse. My  gt grandfather never left the village but Henry had lived in Hull and Ulverston before settling in  Rawcliffe Bridge, probably working in the paper mill there.

And finally did you know that Rufus Sewell, presently starring in Victoria as Lord Melbourne is a direct descendant of George Sewell of Beverley who was transported to Australia in 1813 after taking part with the step children of local criminal Snowden Dunhill of Spaldington in a robbery at Booth near Howden?