Old photos of Goole people

I have in my collection of old photos many of Goole people who have in the past served as local councillors, town officials, ministers etc. I am publishing some of them here in the hope that I can find out a little more about them and their contributions to Goole's history. Do please add your comments.

I already have information about some of them and would like to acknowledge the contributions of Gilbert Tawn, a keen local historian, who has provided reports from the old files of the Goole Times newspaper.

Mr A Kirby

Cllr Edith Maud Burniston

Marriage of Mrs Burniston in 1934

The vicar of Snaith (the Rev C.H. Moxley) was married in his own church on Tuesday to Mrs Edith Maud Burniston of The Lodge, Snaith. The wedding took place at 8am and was very quiet. The Rev R.N. D----e (vicar of Pollington) officiated.

Few people of Snaith knew that the wedding was to take place on Tuesday. When the engagement was announced on February 22^nd last it was said that the wedding would take place during the summer.

Mrs Burniston has been a well-known public figure in the Snaith and Goole districts for a number of years. Her first husband Mr James Burniston died three years ago after practising as a solicitor for many years in Goole, Snaith and Thorne.

Mrs Burniston is perhaps best known locally for her work as an entertainer and in politics she is an elocutionist of considerable ability and in this direction has helped many local charitable organisations. Politically Mrs Burniston is a Conservative. In 1930 she was adopted as prospective candidate for the Pontefract division, but withdrew before the last general election. Her political activities are still however extensive, and she has been in great demand in various parts of the country, as one of the speakers attached to the Conservative Central Office.

The bridegroom has been vicar of Snaith since 1924 before which he held appointments in Doncaster, Leeds, and Sheffield Mr Mosley’s first wife, who died two years ago, was an invalid for many years     

Fred Kitwood

F H Ellicott

Goole Times weddings - Albert and Emma Taylor

Here is another Goole golden wedding.

Albert Frederick Taylor married Emma Senior on August 4th 1909 at Goole. The Goole Times newspaper report of their golden wedding in 1959 follows:

GOOLE COUPLE HAD 18 CHILDREN

GOLDEN WEDDING OF MR AND MRS TAYLOR

Celebrating their golden wedding next Tuesday, and looking back on a life together which brought them 18 children will be a well known old Goole couple Mr and Mrs Albert Frederick Taylor of 69 Don Street.

They were married at Goole Parish Church on August 4^th 1909 by the late Rev Canon Carr. Mr Taylor holds the unenviable distinction of having been shipwrecked in both world wars during a sea going career which extended for almost 50 years.

Aged 73 he was born at Trimley, Ipswich - one of a family of nine all of whom are still alive. At the age of 11 he left school and served as a cabin boy aboard a sea going barge plying between east coast and continental ports. He eventually became a mate on several barges before moving to Goole on 1907 to begin a career in steam. He served with several local shipping companies aboard such vessels as the Colwith Force and the original Dearne.

During the First World War Mr Taylor was a member og the crew of the Bennett Steam Ship Company's Burma when she hit a mine and sank off Harwich with the loss of seven lives. Despite a severe arm injury, which later necessitated a month's hospital treatment he helped to pull several other survivors aboard one of the ship's boats.

After the war he continued to sail from Humber ports as second engineer, chief engineer and second mate on several vessels including the Kalua, in which he served for fifteen years.

Mr Taylor`s second ship wreck was experienced in the last war when he was serving as second engineer in the Igthan. About 20 miles out from Spurn Point (I was having breakfast at the time recalls Mr Taylor) she struck a mine and sank but no lives were lost.

After giving up the sea about ten years ago Mr Taylor worked for the Goole Shipbuilding and Repairing Company Ltd, for the River Ouse Catchment Board and at Scunthorpe before retiring completely two years ago.

At the age of 73 Mrs Taylor is a native of Goole. Formerly Miss Emma Senior she was the daughter of the late George Senior, a barge captain sailing mainly on the Goole Leeds canal,  and as a girl she attended St John's Church school.

Mr and Mrs Taylor both of whom enjoy good health lived for many years in Wesley Square before moving to their present address about 15 years ago. They had 18 children,  six of whom (two sons and four daughters) are still living.

The couple intend to celebrate the occasion with a family gathering at their home on the day of the anniversary.

Goole Times weddings - Robert and Elizabeth Harland

Another in the wedding series - this time a diamond wedding.

Robert John Harland married  Elizabeth Broadbent on October 8th 1889 at Old Goole Wesleyan Chapel.

DIAMOND WEDDING CELEBRATION

MEMORABLE EVENT FOR GOOLE COUPLE

To-morrow is an important day for Mr and Mrs Robert John Harland of 16 Weatherill Street Goole - the day when they celebrate the 60^th anniversary of their wedding which took place on October 8^th 1889 at the Old Goole Wesleyan chapel  in Couper Street. They will spend their day quietly at home.

Both are well known over a wide area. Mr Harland was born at Staddlethorpe and worked as a youth in the Marshland area while Mrs Harland was born at Whitgift and later lived at Swinefleet.

Mr and Mrs Harland are both octogenarians (Mr Harland is 82 and his wife 80) but they look many years younger. In the words of Mr Harland “we are only young yet”. They have lived in the town since they were married, moving to their present house in Weatherill Street 40 years ago; previously they had resided in Humber Street and Beverley Street.

During their married life Mr and Mrs Harland have watched the growth of Goole, both as a port and a town. They can recall the days when Aire Street and Ouse Street formed the main shopping centre of the town, while the present shopping centre consisted of residential houses; when Pasture Road was a country lane and the town west of the level crossing did not exist.

They both enjoy good health and are still very active. Mr Harland goes for a daily walk while Mrs Harland continues to do most of her own housework and cooking.

Early days

The son of the late Mr and Mrs Robert Harland, Mr Harland spent his early days at Staddlethorpe, where his father was farm foreman for a Mr Jacques. Later he moved with his family to Swinefleet Common and worked for about eight years as a farm labourer on farms in the Marshland area.

In 1889, the year he was married he came to Goole, working on the docks and at the old malt kiln, before joining the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway company later the same year. He worked as a shunter and guard and retired from the company's service in 1931 having spent the last ten or eleven years as goods foreman.

Mrs Harland formerly Miss Elizabeth Broadbent, third daughter of the late Mr and Mrs John Broadbent, spent her early life at Swinefleet, where her parents were licensees of the Ship Inn. Later she moved to Goole.

Mr and Mrs Harland have a family of one daughter, two grand children, and one great grandchild. Their other daughter died some years ago leaving two children.

Mr and Mrs Harland have been regular readers of the “Goole Times” ever since their marriage. In the words of Mr Harland, "I don’t think we have missed a single issue during the whole 60 years".

Goole Times weddings - Plowes and Ounsley weddings

Here is an account of two golden weddings of Old Goole couples to add to the series of wedding reports which appeared in the Goole Times.

James William Plowes married Helen Wood on January 18th 1881 at Goole.
William Ounsley married Hannah Jane Armitage on January 17th 1881 at Snaith.

Both celebrated their golden weddings in  January 1931, as reported in the Goole Times:

GOLDEN WEDDING

TWO CELEBRATIONS AT OLD

GOOLE

Two Old Goole couples will celebrate their golden weddings during the week end. They are Mr and Mrs James William Plowes of 72 Swinefleet Road, and Mr and Mrs William Ounsley of 48 Moorland Road.

Mr and Mrs Plowes were married by the Rev Dr Bell at Goole Parish Church on January 18th 1881. Both are natives of Goole, and Mr Plowes who is 75 claims to be the oldest man in the South Ward.

Mrs Plowes is 72 and is the daughter of the late Captain Wood of Goole. They have had nine children three sons and six daughters (eight of whom are living) and six grandchildren. A tailor by trade Mr Plowes retired five years ago. He is a keen sportsman and takes a keen interest in cricket and football.

Above are  Mr James William Plowes and Mrs Helen Plowes, nee Wood

Mr and Mrs Ounsley were married at Snaith Parish Church on January 17^th 1881 and at the time they lived at Swinefleet. Mr Ounsley was born at Weeton Lock [Weighton Lock], and has been employed as a docker by Messers France Fenwick for nearly 45 years. They have five daughters and two sons living, 28 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. They have lived in Old Goole for 45 years Mr Ounsley is 70 years of age and his wife, who was formerly Miss Anna Jane Armitage is 69.

Mr Ounsley recalls that the day before his wedding he walked across the Ouse which was frozen and the next day the ice broke after many weeks of frost.

William and Hannah Beal of Howden

Although most of the Goole Times weddings I am including refer to Goole people, here is a very interesting report about a Howden couple, Mr and Mrs William Beal. The report dates from 1930.

Mr Beal's premises were number 32 Market Place, Howden.

There is more information about this on my website, Howdenshire History.

HOWDEN GOLDEN WEDDING

One of Howden’s most esteemed couples Mr and Mrs William Beal celebrated their golden wedding on Tuesday and were recipients of over 50 letters and telegrams of congratulation, and many handsome presents including a purse of gold. Their association with Howden extends over half a century, whilst Mr Beal is a native of the town, where he has lived for 71 years.

Mr Beal is the eldest son of the late Mr and Mrs John Beal of Howden, and his father was a brewery owner in the town. Mrs Beal is the youngest daughter of the late Mr and Mrs William Hayton of Melbourne, and they were married on March 11th 1880 at the Howden Primitive Methodist Church by the late Rev George Shaw.

Mr Beal was educated at an old infant school which existed over the present Church Mission Room and was under the supervision of a Miss Empson, and later at Mrs Meyrick's school in Hailgate opposite the Wheatsheaf Inn, then at  the Wesleyan day school, and finally at the old National school in Pinfold Street.

At the age of 13 years he began his business career as apprentice to the late Mr Charles  Sutton, printer and stationer at the premises in the Market Place of which he subsequently became the proprietor, and which two years ago were taken over as the “Howdenshire Gazette” office. Mr Beal’s career was a striking example of how by dint of hard work and perseverance one may rise from the lowest position in a business to that of proprietor.

For two years he worked without a wage, and during his third year for half a crown a week. His day began at 5-30 am when his first duty was to despatch newspapers by post then to deliver throughout the town, and open the shop at 7 o’clock, at which time he was allowed a short break for breakfast. A fourteen and a half hour day ended at 8 pm. The journeyman printer in those days worked from 7 am to 7 pm for 24s a week. There were no holidays, not even a weekly half day. At the end of six years apprenticeship, during which he never received more than a few shillings a week, Mr Beal continued for 15 years in the service of the late Mr W L Rowntree, who had purchased the business from Mr Sutton.

The business then passed into the hands of Mr William Stockill for whom Mr Beal worked for many years and in 1903 he reaped the reward of his long labours by acquiring the business himself. For 25 years Mr Beal was one of the town’s most popular tradesmen, and it was in a large measure due to the devoted efforts of his wife that he built up a prosperous business from which he and Mrs Beal entered into well earned retirement two years ago.

With the exception of four years spent in Mr Stockill's employ when the latter's business was at a shop in Bridgegate,  Mr Beal spent 56 years at the business premises in the Market Place where he first started as apprentice.

His long connection with Howden naturally carries with it many interesting reminiscences of bygone days in the old town. He well remembers the annual steeplechases at Howden which were last run in 1872; the wonderful horse fair, when the extensive stabling accommodation of the town was inadequate to house the hundreds of horses which every year were sold to notabilities from this and other countries.

From boyhood Mr Beal was a chorister at the Parish Church, for which he and Mrs Beal have been loyal and energetic workers, and where they have regularly worshipped Mr Beal having been a sidesman for many years. He has been a member of the Kingston unity of Oddfellows for forty years and of the St Cuthbert’s lodge of Freemasons for about ten years.

Mr and Mrs Beal had three sons and one daughter, but only the latter survives, and there is one grandchild. On Tuesday they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their wedding day by a social evening in the Co-operative Hall to which relatives and a few intimate friends were invited and hospitality entertained.

We join in congratulating Mr and Mrs Beal on the celebration of such an auspicious day, and in the wish that they will live to spend many more years in their pretty little bungalow on the fringe of the town.

Goole Times weddings - George and Annie Walsh

Here is another diamond wedding from the Goole Times of 1953:

George Henry Walsh and his wife, the former Annie Marie Pridmore

MARRIED SIXTY YEARS

GOOLE PAIR'S BIG DAY

Two Goole octogenarians Mr and Mrs George Henry Walsh of 15 Third Avenue, today (Friday) celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

Mr and Mrs Walsh were married at St Jude's church in Spring Bank Hull on October 23^rd 1893 and have spent all their married life in Goole . Both enjoy good health and Mrs Walsh still does most of her own shopping.

EAST RIDING MAN

Mr Walsh, at 83 a year older than his wife, is a native of Scalby near Newport  He started work on Goole Docks after his marriage when wages were 6d an hour with no basic minimum.  For three years during the First World War he worked at Barlow Airship Station, later returning to Goole as an L.M.S.R. worker.  He retired in 1935 but then he considered 65 too early for retiring age and worked for a further 5 years at South Park.

Mrs Walsh who came from Grimston near York and was Miss Annie Marie Pridmore before her marriage, worked at Malton, Hull and Goole in her younger days. In those days work was hard and pay poor, she said this week, young folk nowadays have little to grumble at.

ZEPP MEMORIES

When they first came to Goole Mr and Mrs Walsh lived in Montague Street, later moving to Carter Street and then to Weatherill Street before going to their present home some 37 years ago.  Both have vivid recollections of the Zeppelin raids on Goole during the First World War, Mr Walsh also remembers especially the Market Hall fire.

This year for the first time for seven or eight years Mr and Mrs Walsh missed their Blackpool holiday but are both looking eagerly forward to resuming their visits to the resort next summer.

Mr and Mrs Walsh have 6 daughters. There are 11 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.

The anniversary is to be  celebrated with a family party.

If you would like to know whether your relatives may be amongst those whose photographs have been identified please contact me through my website Howdenshire History . Most of them so far are from the 1950s and 1960s.

Goole Times weddings - John William and Mary Hutton

This will, I hope, become one of a series sharing with a wider audience the interesting golden and diamond wedding reports which have  appeared over the years in the Goole Times. I have many pictures of these celebrating  couples in my photograph collection but until recently I did not know who most of them were.

I handed them over to Gilbert Tawn who has spent many hours in Goole library identifying the couples and finding the reports which went with each picture. So far he has seventy of them completed!

These reports give a fascinating picture of the lives that these local people led, mostly in the first part of the twentieth century. They were, for the most part, ordinary people who worked  in Goole in the shipyard, on the docks and  the canal or on the railway. Others were tradesmen and farm workers from Goole, Howden and the surrounding villages.

I shall add them here onto my blog as and when I can. The report below is as it appeared in the Goole Times newspaper in 1955

John William Hutton and his wife, the former Mary Alice Coleman

MARRIED SIXTY YEARS

POPULAR LOCAL PAIR

A couple who have both been readers of the “Goole Times” for over 50 years, Mr and Mrs John William Hutton of Sanders View, Skelton are today (Friday) celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.

They were married at St David's Church Airmyn by the curate the Rev W Waters on August 19th 1895.

Mr Hutton, who will be 82 in October was born at the Jolly Sailor, Skelton, and began work at the age of 15 with the late Mr Joseph Glew,  the Goole furniture dealer as an upholsterer and polisher. He then became a journeyman, working at Scarborough and Nottingham before returning to Goole to continue his trade with Messrs Millard and Eastham.

During the First World War Mr Hutton saw active service in France with the Royal Engineers. On returning to England he set up his own upholstery and polishing business, a business which he kept up until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.  He then went to work at Goole shipyard where an accident caused his retirement some 10 years ago.

VETERAN FREEMASON

Mr Hutton is the oldest freemason in the district, having been a member of St Cuthbert's lodge for 52 years. His fellow freemasons recently presented him with a gift to mark his diamond wedding anniversary.

Mrs Hutton who is 78 is a native of Manchester. She came to this district 65 years ago and worked as a dress maker for Miss Precious in Jefferson Street Goole.

Immediately after their marriage Mr and Mrs Hutton lived in Parliament Street Goole before moving to Skelton and then returning to Goole - a move which they carried out a number of times. For many years they lived in Jackson Street.

While living in Goole both Mr and Mrs Hutton were regular attenders at St Paul's Church and the Parish Church, Mr Hutton recalls that for several weeks in 1891 he walked from Skelton to Hook across the frozen river Ouse. He also recalls helping the wounded in North Street after the bombing raid on Goole in the First World War.

Mr and Mrs Hutton who both enjoy good health have four sons, three daughters, 14 grandchildren, and fifteen great grandchildren.

To mark the anniversary a reception will be held at St Paul's school room, Goole tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.

If you would like to know whether your relatives may be amongst those whose photographs have been identified please contact me in comments below or through my website Howdenshire History . Most of them so far are from the 1950s and 1960s.