Howdenshire History

We have been thinking for some time that my Howdenshire History website needed an overhaul. One of the main problems was that it did not have a proper address and so this weekend after many hours labour we have moved. The new address is:

www.howdenshirehistory.co.uk

Further updates are planned and I am hoping to add some new content including more photos and a page on Saltmarshe history.

I have just watched the Wheldale going past on its way home to Goole after taking part in the Jubilee Pageant on the Thames. I expect the crew are exhausted - last week's weather held up their return and it is still very cold and grey - but congratulations to them in bringing  Goole and its history to the forefront of the national and international consciousness.

I have recently been reading my copy of the bound files of the Goole and Marshland Gazette (covering Goole and Howden area history from 1854 until the late 1860s). It appeared monthly and is  is a fantastic resource for the history of this part of Yorkshire. The whole volume is very fragile but I have experimented by copying an extract  using a hand-held scanner. Here is an extract from the edition of January 1862 (please click to view a larger version).

Will it ever be summer?

I have just listened to news of flooding in Wales and have listened to yet another weather forecast of below average temperatures and heavy showers. It does not feel yet like summer and the garden is sodden.

I was pleased to see the Wheldale from the Waterways Museum at Goole on the TV coverage of the Jubilee pageant but was disappointed not to learn more of the other vessels from the BBC commentary. I was not the only one.

I have not mentioned Molly for a while and have been asked how she is. She is now 11 months old and is doing well.  She is being trained not to jump up at visitors as, although she means no harm, a lively black Labrador can knock you off your feet. She still enjoys fruit and vegetables but a piece of orange peel that she insisted on carrying round was perhaps a step too far even for her.

The fig tree which was almost killed by the hard frosts over a year ago is now in leaf but will, I think, take a couple more years to recover completely. One of my apple trees looks sickly - the ends of the branches, with the blossom on, have died back - I have looked it up and think it could be something called fireblight.

The potatoes, which went in so late, are up and need 'banking'. Perhaps a job for later today?

Family history day

I spent yesterday at the family history day at Goole Waterways Museum. Sadly we did not have many visitors. Some people, who had come for a boat ride round the docks, wandered around the stalls but, along with the Boothferry History group, the Isle of Axholme family history group and the Marshland history group, I was in a room down a short corridor and so few general visitors  found us.

This, we all felt, was a pity as there was a lot of information on display and we were all there keen to help family historians but there had not been much publicity for the event and I do not think local people knew it was taking place.

Those of us manning the stalls in the main already knew each other and so we had some pleasant conversation but looking out at the sunshine I felt I might have been more profitably been doing some gardening!!

I had my new DVDs on display - 5 compilations of Goole pictures [ about 30 on each disc] covering the shipyard and launches, ships visiting Goole, the docks, the railways and the town. I shall be putting more information about them on my website.

Below is  one of the more 'modern' pictures from the ship disc showing the paddle steamer Lincoln Castle visiting Goole in, I think, 1976. I remember going on the trip and looking at the engines as they thudded their way along the Ouse.

Lincoln Castle visiting Goole

Country notes

I have just been looking in my greenhouse where my seed potatoes are looking very wizened and sickly.  It just never seems to stop raining at the moment. The plot where the potatoes are going is rotovated and ready for them but we never seem to get a dry spell which coincides with my having a bit of spare time.

At least we now have plenty of logs to keep us warm in this miserable weather. Robert came last weekend and sawed down  two dead elms and some elder bushes. Locally they are always referred to as 'bottery' bushes or 'blummin ole bottery' and grow like weeds. They take their dialect name from the phrase 'bore tree' as when they are dried out the centre becomes hollow and in country areas the smaller trunks were sometimes used as simple water pipes.

As I was outside looking at the trees I heard the cuckoo - once so common but now quite rare. My mother always quoted the rhyme,

 'The cuckoo comes in April and sings its song in May.
 In the middle of June it changes its tune and in July it flies away'.

This is a very old rhyme but possibly less popular today as fewer people hear this evocative sound and thus have no opportunity to quote the verse.

In the meantime I am working on making DVDs of some of my old photographs so that even those without computers can look at old pictures of Goole, Howden and the surrounding areas. They will be for sale at £5 each, initially at the family history day at the Goole Waterways museum on Sunday [13th May].

Trip on the Sobriety

Last Friday I went on a trip on the Sobriety with 12 members of my Goole WEA class from the Waterways museum at Goole. Sobriety is a Humber keel, built in 1910 and now fitted out for day and residential trips either along the canal system or on the river.

The trip was organised by Eileen Sherburn who, with her husband Goff, is  a member of   the class. Goff has spent his working life on such vessels and, as their son Chris, along with Waterways manager Rachel Walker, were our crew, we were in safe hands.

Although it was cold and sometimes wet it was fascinating to see Goole and the local villages  of Swinefleet, Saltmarshe, Blacktoft and Whitgift from the river. We journeyed past Hull up to Paull as we were travelling with the tide which was flowing quickly. The trip took us all day and we returned to Goole around half past six in the evening, passing through Ocean Lock on our way back to the museum.

Below are some pictures of our trip taken by Gilbert Tawn, our resident photographer!

Sobriety at the Waterways museum

Leaving Goole

Passing Saltmarshe

Whitgift church

Yokefleet windmill

Gilbert

Passing under the Humber Bridge

Hull

Almost home

St John's church, Goole

Family history day at Goole

I had a long day at the Waterways Museum yesterday at the family history event. I took copies of my local history books to sell (history of Eastrington, history of Gilberdyke and histories of Goole) as well as prints of many of my old photographs. I also had a display on screen of many of the local pictures.

The museum is down Dutch Riverside and not everyone knows it's there but it is well worth a visit. There is a small cafe and you can go on boat rides around the docks.

Unfortunately not too may people found the museum yesterday and although those of us manning the stalls, most of whom are all friends, had time for a chat, we did not see many new faces. I was able to help some visitors who wanted advice on how to trace their family tree but it was much quieter than last year.

This morning I had hoped to do some gardening but it is very windy and cool. I was pleased however to hear a cuckoo in the tall trees at the back of the garden. I do not think I heard one as close last year.

Family history day at Yorkshire Waterways Museum, Goole

I am looking forward to the family history day at the Yorkshire Waterways Museum on Dutch Riverside in Goole. This is taking place next Saturday 21st May from 10am to 4pm. It is always very friendly and I am having a stall/ display there alongside my friends from the Boothferry Family and Local History Group and the Marshland History group.

I have a very large collection of old historical photographs of the area and am going to take some of my albums as well as a lot of digital images to display on a screen attached to my laptop. It is an ongoing task cataloguing these old pictures and of course I keep adding more as people lend me their interesting old postcards and family snaps.

However today I have also been outside gardening and creating a fence to keep the chickens off my vegetable plot. In any case the plants are not growing very well as it is so dry and the chickens are enjoying dust baths amongst the young potatoes.