East Cowick church book

Recently published is a fascinating booklet on the history of Holy Trinity church, East Cowick. Written by local historian Ken Sayner [for the Snaith and District Historical Society] the beautifully produced A4 booklet is entitled A Walk around Holy Trinity Church East Cowick.

The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1853 at the same time as the stones for churches at Hensall and Pollington. All three churches were designed by architect William Butterfield.

While the Cowick church was being built  church services, including baptisms took place in a room in nearby Cowick Hall. There is a list of these baptisms in the book.

There is also a lot of detail about the clergy and other families involved with the church as well as details of those local men who have been lost as a result of war; not only the world wars but also the conflict in Northern Ireland and the war in Iraq.

One of the families who were long associated with the church was the Clark family who were solicitors in Snaith. Sadly the plaque recording the dedication of the lychgate to Miss Frederica Louisa Clark in 1938 was recently stolen, presumably for its scrap value.

The proceeds of the sales from this booklet will be used to replace the plaque.

Copies of the booklet are available from Ken Sayner at 8, Walnut Crescent, Snaith at a cost of £6. [plus £1.50 p and p].

Below is a page from the booklet showing the church interior and some of the stained glass.

Inside East Cowick church

New local books

I spent yesterday at the Local History bookfair at the Treasure House in Beverley. It is a popular annual event and I met many friends from the local history world. We had a stall selling books on Eastrington, Goole and Gilberdyke as well as ephemera and prints and photo discs.

I bought  two new books and am enjoying reading them.

One was a history of the drainage around the Market Weighton and Wallingfen area written by John Waudby. The book has a lot of detail on the history of the  Market Weighton canal and includes detailed information from the board minutes. From a family historian's point of view you can read about the lock keepers at both Sod House lock and the Humber lock. But I am also enjoying reading about the development of the canal and the problems caused by the fact that it was both an industrial canal and a drain.

The book is available from the drainage board offices in Howden.

http://www.ohdb.org.uk/a-history-of-market-weighton-drainage-board.htm

The other book I bought was about  the transport history of Selby [ A History of Transport through Selby]. This is by local historian David Lewis and although I have not had time to read this book yet it certainly has some lovely illustrations of Selby's hidden heritage.

The next event in my local history calendar is a family history day on 3rd November at Goole library. I have no further details as yet.

Below is a picture of the inscription on the Market Weighton or Humber lock commemorating the building of the canal and lock.

Stone at Humber Lock near Faxfleet

Beverley local history book fair

It has been a busy week for local history. On Wednesday I attended the Howden Civic Society awards evening. The room was full as Mike Smith presented Tom Asquith awards to Howden Junior school pupils who had made superb pencil drawings of Howden's heritage.

The head teacher of the school then explained to us how the school was celebrating its  centenary in  2013 - previously I had always believed the date to be 1912, but this was when the school was being built and it did not open until April 7th 2013. She asked for our help to gather photos and memories for an exhibition. Can you help? Please do get in touch if you can.

On Friday I gave a presentation at Newport Wesleyan chapel to celebrate its opening in May 1812. I began by playing the 1812 overture and explaining how Europe was at war whilst in Newport they were peacefully opening their new and impressive chapel. I showed pictures of many of the 48 villages who had had grazing rights on the old Wallingfen Common before it was drained and the settlement which became Newport grew up where the road crossed the new canal.

I always enjoy giving talks at such community events as the atmosphere is so friendly and I often learn a lot from listening to the audience.

Don't forget that October 20th 2012 is the local and family history book fair at Beverley in the Treasure House. I shall be there with the Gilberdyke Local History stall. If you are coming and have any particular photograph requests then please do let me know in advance (you can contact me through my website) and I can have a look for you:

howdenshirehistory.co.uk

I have hundreds of old photos of the East Yorkshire, Howdenshire and Goole areas - most of which haven't made it onto my website so do ask. There will also be our Gilberdyke Remembered book on sale and my books on Eastrington and Goole.

Do come and say hello.

Howden tomatoes and grapes

While researching material for my book on Howden I often become distracted and spend much longer than necessary following up ideas.

One such distraction this week has been market gardening around the town. There was a lot of soft fruit grown which was transported by rail to the fruit markets of Hull, Leeds and sometimes London. Apparently Howden was a good plum growing area.

But most interestingly I have been reading and talking about the grape growing industry. There were grapes grown in hot houses in all the large houses such as Howden Hall, Sandhall and Knedlington Manor but in the later nineteenth century commercial vineries were established.

Mr Henry Holmes Moore is credited with beginning this - his vineries were down Hailgate. But soon afterwards Mr George Henry Shaw built grape greenhouses at the end of St John St. I have seen a lovely picture of a wedding reception held in the greenhouses where the tables are laid out under the vines which are bearing huge bunches of grapes.

An area of new housing in Howden has been named The Vinery but as yet I have not found that grape growing took place on the site [do get in touch if you know differently]. It lies off Kensington Gardens where I know that tomatoes were grown.

Howden Tomatoes were famed throughout Yorkshire and travellers from the West Riding to Bridlington and the coast would often stop and buy them on their way home. I recently sampled a Clibran's Victory tomato - grown from an original Howden tomato seed. Its taste was delicious and I could understand why they were so popular.

WEA local history classes

It seems some time since I wrote a post and quite a lot seems to have been going on.

On Sunday we spent some time in The Lowther hotel in Goole as it was the heritage weekend and members of the public were welcome to visit the murals in the upstairs rooms. There were quite a few visitors and several were local Goole people who had heard of the murals but had not previously seen them.

We are still not sure who painted them but they represent the docks at Goole sometime in the 1830s and are beautifully detailed.

My WEA local history classes begin next week.

Monday afternoon [ September 17th ] 1.30pm in Howden upstairs at the East Riding customer service building  where we will study the history of Howden, the  local villages and Goole.

Tuesday afternoon [ September 18th] 1.30 pm at Eastrington village hall where we shall study the village of Eastrington, the local villages and Snowden Dunhill

Thursday morning [ September 20th] 10am at Ilkeston Avenue Community centre in Goole where we shall study the history of Goole and the Marshland.

All these classes are very friendly and you are welcome to contact me for more details or come along to the first class to see what it is like. No previous enrolment is necessary.

My book on the history of Howden is coming on well and I still hope to have it out for Xmas - but I find it hard not to write too much!!

Molly and the washer and the Howden beadle

This has been a busy week for family history with visits to both the archives at Beverley and the Borthwick Institute at York.

Whilst at Beverley I looked at the Howden vestry minute book  [PE 121/63] which is full of fascinating information about the highways and the poor.

I was interested to read that Howden had a beadle in 1780. Samuel South was chosen in place of Matthew Iveson. He had to provide his own utensils - wheelbarrow, spade, cowl rake, besoms etc and use them to clean the causeys [causeways - which could refer to either streets or footpaths] including St Hellin's Square, Northolmby Causey, Langton's Causey and Pinfold Causey.

A beadle was a parish official with several duties, as mentioned in Oliver Twist, although in Howden one of his major roles seems to have been street cleaning.

Today our quite new Hotpoint washer made a strange whirring noise and came to a halt in the middle of washing a load of clothes. It refused to pump out and we could not open the door. The chances of summoning an engineer to arrive on a Bank Holiday seemed low.

So we read the troubleshooting guide which came with the washer and found there was a filter we could examine at the front of the machine. It said 'a  little water may leak out'. In fact a lot of water poured out all over the floor. Then eventually, after a little more research on the internet, we found that we should check something called the impeller which should rotate freely. It did not.

We could see something caught in it and using a pair of pliers we extracted a small piece of cane. It had been chewed off the log basket near the washer by Molly. How it had got into the washer is a mystery. But the washer returned to life and is now recovered.

We love Molly dearly but since she also recently managed to cut off the power we are waiting, possibly vainly, for her to realise she is no longer a puppy!!

Charles Briggs of Howden

I am researching details for a book I am writing about Howden. It is some years since I wrote a history of Howden with Ken Powls. The book was very popular but is now out of print. So I am now writing a pictorial history  (probably in several short volumes as I have done for Goole) which will include both pictures and text.

Whilst writing about the Ashes Playing Field which, along with the Manor House was given to the people of Howden by Charles Briggs in 1927 I came across an article about Charles Briggs' will which I thought was interesting. It appeared in the Hull Daily Mail in 1950:



"£2,000 FOR 'SUFFERING MIDDLE CLASS': £12,000 LEGACY FOR POOR REVOKED

Charles Briggs, of Howden, who left £75,933 (£75,612 net), said in his will, published today, "In a previous will now revoked I had provided a legacy of £12,000 to establish and endow six rest houses for the poor of Howden. Since then the various trade unions have caused a general unrest among the working class and, in consequence, I have thought it necessary to provide for more deserving persons than the misguided working class.

"I consider that by taxation to meet the unemployment, old-age pensions and assistance from Government in these ways I have already contributed sufficient to a trade union-ridden class, whose extravagant demands for higher wages, shorter hours and restricted output, and unwillingness to work overtime, has resulted in withdrawal of my sympathy from them to the suffering and neglected middle class, who are so deservedly looked after by the said Royal United Kingdom Beneficent Association."

 Mr Briggs. a benefactor to Howden, died at Bournemouth in February, aged 86. Probate of his will has been granted to Gerald R. H. Wright, of Homeland, Greyfriars-crescent. Beverley and Charles A. C. Wilkinson, of Wakefield. He left £400 to Charles A. C. Wilkinson, and the residue upon trust for his wife for life and then:

 Two thousand pounds to the Royal UK Beneficent Association, to found the "Charles Briggs Annuity," to show my sympathy for the suffering middle class as present - day legislation only tends to ease the lot of the worker, and entirely overlooks the condition of the class that is eligible for assistance from this excellent association.

 £8,000 to York Diocesan Board Finance upon trust to pay the income to the curate for the time being of the parish of Howden. or to any existing stipend fund of the said parish.
 £275 upon trust to pay the income between  the bellringers of Howden Parish Church as a Christmas honorarium,
 £165 to the parochial church council on condition various family graves are maintained, and £165 towards the general maintenance of the churchyard.

 He desired that a tablet commemorating all his and his wife's benefactions to the church and town of Howden be erected on the wall of St. Peter's Church, Howden.

 He left £100 to Richard Tiplady, whether or not still employed as groundsman at the Ashes Playing Field, Howden, "to mark my appreciation of the interest he has always shown in my playing field scheme."

Other bequests included: £500 to Hull Guild of Poor Brave Things; £300 each to Dr Barnardo's Homes, and the NSPCC; £250 to the Yorkshire Home for Incurables, Harrogate; £150 to Leeds Children's Holiday Camp Fund; £3,000 if a spinster, £500, if not, each Janet, Evelyne, Ethel and Hilda, daughters of the late Henry Green, solicitor, of Howden; £50 to Mrs Jane Loving, of  Bridport, Dorset; £5.000, if a spinster or widow, otherwise £1,000, to his wife's niece. Neta: £1,000 to Gerald Wright, and £1,000 upon trust for Mrs Edith Wright and then to her son, Gerald Wright: £1,500 upon trust for Laura Wright for life and then for her sons, William and Ruby, and £550 each to them.
 Other legacies, and one fourth the remainder to Ashes Playing Field, Howden, upon trust for the maintenance of the 16 acres of recreation field, which he had given to Howden, and three fourths to the vicar and churchwardens of Howden, to one part for the church fabric fund, providing a memorial tablet  which has been or will be erected to the memory of Rev William Hutchinson. MA (vicar there from 1862- 1902), and two parts for the assistant curate fund."

Goole library

Yesterday I visited the newly re-opened Goole library. I was particularly interested to see how the move of the local studies library downstairs had worked out.

I have been using the local studies library upstairs for some 40 years [writing that it seems an awfully long time!]. I remember writing articles in the Goole Times about local history when I was a student and finding an untold wealth of information in the library.

The librarian then was Miss Isa? Thompson who was very helpful and keen to make the library somewhere that Goole could be proud of.

Anyway I think that this move downstairs may work out well. Not everyone who visited the library knew how many resources were available upstairs and now many of the books seem  more attractively displayed.

There is still a wealth of material behind the scenes which I hope will come out - Howden parish books and the original Saltmarshe book manuscript to name a couple - as well as many lovely old photographs. It is a difficult balance between protecting material and making it accessible.

And we have yet to see how easy it is to work there when the library is very busy.

Goole library - built originally as a furniture store!

On my way home I did some shopping and after unloading it left the rear door of my car open. Sometime later I noticed and shut the door. Much, much later, around midnight I went out to the car and opened the driver's door.

 I was shocked to be attacked by a mad creature hurling itself out of the car in the moonlight. It was Poppy, our cat who had obviously climbed into the car when the door was open and had gone to sleep. When I got over the shock I was pleased that I had inadvertently rescued her from her prison.

Churchyard visits

Today has been a day of churchyard visits. I had been asked to take pictures of gravestones at both Snaith and Howden and travelled from one to the other. In many ways they are similar towns - both market towns with many impressive houses built in the eighteenth century and both with interesting religious connections.

Snaith is historically linked with the Abbey at Selby and was the centre of a parish which reached as far as Whitgift and included Hook, Goole and Airmyn.

Howden is linked to the bishopric of Durham and Howdenshire reaches from North Cave to Barmby on the Marsh. Both towns are surrounded by rich agricultural land.

This is shown by the size of their respective churches which still dominate their towns.

It might be thought to be slightly depressing, peering at gravestones on a dull summer day. But there was a sense of peace and calm and we were not the only visitors. While standing in a light drizzle at Howden I looked down and saw I was being watched by a small hedgehog happily snuffling in the long grass for slugs. It seemed quite unbothered by my presence.

The priory church of St Lawrence at Snaith

The Knights Templar in Yorkshire

On Tuesday members of my WEA local history group went on their travels again. This time we went further afield and visited Foulbridge near Snainton in North Yorkshire.

This was the site of a Knights Templar preceptory and we were particularly interested as Faxfleet, much nearer home, was also a preceptory but nothing remains of it above ground.

Here at Foulbridge is a medieval Templar hall, once hidden within two separate farmhouses but now revealed and restored by the Nutt family who kindly allowed us to visit their home.

The trees from which the hall at Foulbridge were built were felled in 1288, and it is thought that the hall was built between 1288 and 1290.

There are eight timber posts supporting  the roof and by looking at the markings on these posts it is possible to see that there were probably aisles on either side. 

We had a very enjoyable visit and a welcome cup of tea afterwards at Brompton.

Here we are at Foulbridge with Mr and Mrs Nutt

The following day I went to Driffield show, the sun shone and despite the ground underfoot being a bit spongy in places we had a good time.

Yesterday my missing brown hen re-appeared with one small chick in tow. We have put them in a coop,  made by my grandfather probably  60 years ago.  Molly has been ordered to look but not touch.