Saltmarshe history booklet

At last it has rained and the vegetables are beginning to grow in the raised beds. I am looking forward to the first boiling of our new potatoes as I do not think you can beat them cooked with a bit of mint and eaten with lots of butter.

I have spent the last few Friday afternoons in the new Howden Heritage Centre. It is lovely to meet a mixture of visitors  as well as residents keen to learn a bit more about the history of their town.

We are receiving too a steady trickle of  photographs, objects, papers and DVDs to add to our collection. Recent donations include a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings all about Howden in the 1980s as well as two DVDs from Chris Goulden of Golden Media Productions, one of which records the unveiling of the blue plaques around the town. It is amazing how Howden has changed even in the last 20 years - and the people too!!

I have just completed an article for Lucy of the Howdenshire Magazine. For this edition I have written about Snaith and in particular about Joshua Barrett who was a 'quack doctor' selling remedies he made from the roots of the mandrake plant. He moved to Snaith in the 1890s and called his house Mandrake House

I have also been working on  a history of Saltmarshe for some time now and thought it might be a good idea to put some of it into a small booklet.

We see lots of cyclists now, some of whom I have to say are a hazard as they cycle two abreast on our single track road or down the middle of the road, refusing to move over. But most just enjoy the ride through the park and often stop to buy half a dozen eggs from our front porch.

As do visitors to Saltmarshe Hall  and residents of the local holiday cottages.

So now for £2.50 they can read about the history of the hall and the village houses, about the wreck of  the SS Aire in 1958 and about the connection between Saltmarshe and the Rank Hovis McDougall empire.

Here is the front cover of the booklet

Saltmarshe Hall dates from the 1820s