Laxton blacksmiths

Here is another blog post from what is now the 'new normal' of lockdown. Like everyone I am missing seeing my friends in the flesh so to speak but we talk a lot, e mail each other and last week I joined a Zoom conference with around 75 other WEA tutors from all over the UK. It was interesting hearing from  tutors who taught local history in London and Hove  as well as sympathising with those who taught painting, pilates and even soup making. I know we can all go onto the internet but it is not the same as seeing our students round the table all chipping in with their comments.

But enough of that as when not working on the computer I, like millions of others,  have been gardening. The onions are flourishing as are courgettes and sweetcorn [in the greenhouse]  and we have been eating soups made from wild garlic and lovage.

I have also been keeping a close eye on old pictures which have been coming up on e bay. And one which I bought has led me into some interesting if quite sad research. It was a wedding picture and written in pencil on one corner was Laxton 1915. The groom and best man were in uniform but I wasn't certain about where the picture was taken.

Using Find my Past I was able to narrow down the number of weddings in Laxton in 1915 to four. And one in particular seemed to be likely. It was the wedding of cousins Lilian and John Edward Dickinson.

John Edward was 24 and was from Thorne Moorends. He worked in the peat works and lived with his parents and brothers and sisters. His father, Fred was foreman at the works and was originally from Bilbrough.

Lillian, who was the same age,  was the daughter of Laxton blacksmith Wallace Dickinson who was Fred's younger brother. Wallace came to Laxton in the 1880s and in 1889 married Annie Mary Fox of Howden. They had two daughters Lilian and Eva.

Sadly Annie died in 1907 aged 46 and her sister Sarah moved in as housekeeper.  Sarah's son Lawrence, then aged  four also became part of the family. His school admission is online.

I then had a look in the back copies of the Goole Times and was able to find a report of the wedding, described as a 'khaki wedding'.  The reception was held in the Laxton schoolroom and I am fairly certain that the picture is therefore taken outside the former blacksmith's house on Front Street in Laxton. But I may be wrong.

John and Lilian had a daughter Annie who was born in 1916.

But on August 29th 1918, only a few weeks before the end of the war, John Edward was killed and is buried at the Wancourt British cemetery. He is also commemorated in Laxton churchyard.

And then in 1925 Annie died aged only 9.

Laurie Fox grew up in Laxton and then went to work as a blacksmith in Scarr's shipyard at Howdendyke.

Wallace Dickinson died in 1940 and Laurie Fox became the Laxton blacksmith.  His apprentice Herbert Martin eventually followed him in the role and was in fact the last Laxton blacksmith. His smithy has now been rebuilt as a house.

Below are the pictures which tell the story.

Messrs Claude Brignall, Herbert Martin and Clarrie Dowson righting the world outside the smithy

Laurie Fox in Front Street opposite the blackmith's shop with Major Empson's polo pony

A page from Laxton school admission register for 1907.

The wedding of John Dickinson and Lilian Dickinson in 1915

The report of the wedding from the Goole Times

A 1970s view of the house where Wallace Dickinson lived and the smithy

Good news for family historians

As this crisis continues I am forever grateful that I have a garden to walk round every morning. It must be so difficult for those who do not. Here I walk Molly  around every morning and as there is no hurry to go anywhere else I think I am noticing more.

But I am keeping busy too with  history and received a call this morning from the Goole librarian who asked me to pass on the news that anyone who is a member of East Riding libraries can log on and have access to the family tree sites Ancestry and Find my Past. Normally you can only use them in the actual library but now anyone can access them from home.

I have been looking at the history of Kilpin recently and found a surprising amount of information for such a small place. But as yet I have found no old pictures - anyone out there have any?

The picture below is the site of the Garden King Factory where as a student I worked on the frozen pea processing line. My job was to stand over a conveyor belt and pick off bits of pod and other unwanted objects. I can still remember the smell of warm peas today.

The other pictures I have taken today in the garden.

An aerial view of Kilpin, now the site of several new houses

Fritillaries

Hens having a chat

Molly

The bees are being busy in the sunshine

History in isolation

I am writing after we have been in 'lockdown' for a week and I suppose we are adjusting to the new normal. It seems odd not to just visit friends or go to the shops when we feel like it. I never would have believed, when I wrote my last blog post that people would be fighting in the shops for bread, milk and toilet rolls!

But on a more positive note we are lucky enough to have a big garden and before lockdown I had just acquired six new hens from the Fresh Start for Hens organisation and I  am very pleased with them. They are apparently from a large egg producing farm near Harrogate and are in good condition - a bit scraggy as they are in moult but are  enjoying scratching around for food and are presently laying well.

It seems too that I am not the only one to  think that growing our own vegetables is a good idea - I just wish I had bought some seed potatoes and other seeds a couple of weeks ago. But I shall plant some of the sprouting potatoes we have in a bag under the sink and although they might not be as good as my usual Arran Pilots I am sure they will grow.

And of course I have lots of time now for local history. I have written an article about a terrible accident at the chemical  works at Howdendyke when the chimney collapsed and the original 'steeple Jack' came to Howden to give evidence. Read about it in the latest edition of the Howdenshire Magazine.

I follow the local facebook page about Howden in the good old days which recently featured memories of shops and so I thought I would include here some relevant pictures .

A view of Annie's fruit bowl, presently supplying Howden with fresh produce

Goole Boothferry Road showing Marks and Spencers

Messrs George Brown and David Bullement fitting the new window in what is now That Teashop

Inside Glews' workshop on Bishopgate showing I believe Messrs David Greenwood and Alan Glew

I hope all readers stay well - and thank goodness for modern technology which helps us keep in touch with each other.

Goole butchers

The snowdrops are out and putting on a good display this year despite all the wind and rain of recent days.
But all the dykes and ponds are full and the fields are standing in water. Roll on summer!!!!

However the weather has given me time to spend some time on the computer answering local and family history queries. One of the most interesting has been from a gentleman in Bavaria who has been looking at German immigrant pork butchers in the 19th century.

He sent me a lot of information about the Hohenlohe area, a farming area from where several families emigrated. These were often second sons of farmers and were already skilled butchers but who  could not make a living in their home area. 

One family from the village of Hessenau were called Strecker and they ended up in Goole. Initially the business was run by sister and brother Barbara and John George but later by John George and his family.

Their shop was on Boothferry Road, near the station. The premises, number 78, is still there. It is almost opposite the Pasture Road junction and next to the present Post office, which is built on the former yard of builders Platt and Featherstone.

The Streckers had been in Goole 29 years when the war broke out in 1914. Mr Strecker was naturalised but the family was still subject to anti - German feeling and moved out of Goole to Wakefield. Their shop was later run by the well- known Goole butchering family of Willie Crapper.

The Strecker family still have descendants in Yorkshire but it is only very recently that they have been able to make contact with their German relatives as they had lost touch as a result of the war.

A pre-war view of Boothferry Road showing the Strecker name on the end of their shop. Much more recently the Morrill decorators had their name there.

The Crapper family were 'English pork butchers'

 This was the shop in 2004 when it was a barber's

In complete contrast I have also been looking at the nineteenth century restoration of Howden church - it was not then known as Minster as it is today - but I think that will have to come in a separate post.

New term and new decade

Well - it's all over for another year and I hope all readers of my blog have had a good Christmas and New Year. I am taking decorations down and preparing for a new term with my local history classes in Howden and Goole.

The first Howden class is on Monday 13th January at 1.30 pm in the town council offices on Bridgegate and we would welcome new members at this first class - you can enrol after you've tried it out!!

The first Goole class at Ilkeston Ave Community centre is at 10am on  Thursday January 16th. Both classes are very friendly and a good way to meet new people.

One of the topics I shall be looking at is the story of Nancy Nicholson who lived at Drax and later at Asselby. After her death there in 1854 pamphlets were published about her colourful life. She was apparently a 'termagant'.

I have been looking particularly at her ancestry and connection with Asselby Hall. This was the home of the Smith/Smyth family from at least the seventeenth century when John Smith's house had 5 hearths, the biggest in the Village.

The family were still living in Asselby when in 1769 Nathaniel Smith died. But then later the same year his only son John  also died. He left all his property in Asselby to his sister Mary, to pass eventually to her young daughters Ann and Sarah.

Mary Smyth had married Rev Joseph Fisher, vicar of Drax in 1765. Joseph was  originally from Cockermouth.  When he died in 1820 after 50 years as vicar aged 82 he was described as   "a man of most eccentric character, but of wonderful and superior abilities being not only well versed the art of physic, but also law and divinity. "

He studied medicine for 2 years at Edinburgh university,  wrote a thesis on dropsy and was subsequently awarded a medical degree from the university of Leyden.

He was also master of the school at Drax.  But as he was away from Drax for long periods he had a hard working curate. This was Rev John Jackson. In 1787 John Jackson married Joseph's daughter Ann and the following year their daughter Nancy was born. She was apparently very spoiled by her parents and seemingly not a nice person.

Joseph's daughter Sarah married Thomas Harrison of Harrington in 1810 and they had a daughter Dorothy.

Time passed and in 1810 a  newly ordained curate, Rev John Nicholson, came to help John Jackson. Rev Jackson died in December that year and was buried in the chancel of Drax church.

The chancel of Drax church

The following year 22 year old Nancy married the curate. It was not to be a happy marriage nor was it a happy time for the pupils of Drax school.

Read School Drax chapel showing alms houses

Apparently Nancy's mother could not bear living with her daughter and moved to Cliffe where she died in 1842 aged 73. The newspaper report described her as

Ann. relict of the Rev. John Jackson, curate of Drax, and lecturer of Barmby-on-the-Marsh, the last surviving daughter of the Rev. Joseph Fisher, M.D., late vlcar of Drax, and granddaughter of the late Nathaniel Smith, of Asselby Hall, near Howden.

If the story is correct Nancy starved the 12 pupils, taught them how to steal eggs and apples, dressed oddly and was very miserly. Her husband took to drink and both were violent. They parted and Nancy moved to her Asselby property, inherited from her mother. She ejected her tenant farmer who was a relative and the villagers were so angry they bought his goods back for him at the farm sale and burned her in effigy.

Rev Nicholson was suspended from preaching in 1828 and died  in 1850 at Newland, near Drax, described in the newspaper as much respected.

Meanwhile Nancy's cousin Dorothy had married a ship's captain. Sadly he was killed in an accidnet and in 1845 she married again at Howden.

 Mrs. Dorothy Wilson, of Asselby Hall, widow of Captain John Jorden Wilson, of Harrington Harbour, Cumberland, and granddaughter of the late Mr. Nathaniel Smith, of Asselby Hall, this county; and also of the late Rev. Joseph Fisher, M.D., Vicar of Drax, and Perpetual Curate of Carlton, in the same county.

 After the death of this second huband she and her children moved in with her cousin and was living in Asselby in 1851.

Nancy died in 1854.   She left nothing to her cousin Dorothy who had cared for her. Dorothy kept an ironmonger's shop in Howden Market Place on the corner of Highbridge but she was in partnership with her son Joseph and they went bankrupt in 1875. The premises were sold, described as

 DWELLING-HOUSE AND SHOP, Situate on the East side of the Market-place, and lately occupied as an Ironmonger’s Shop, by Mrs. Dorothy Taylor. This Estate is situate in the best part of the important town of Howden, and will be found on inspection to be well-built, conveniently arranged, and well worthy of the attention of purchasers whether for investment or occupation.

Asselby hall was demolished sometime after Nancy's death and apparently replaced by Eel Hall
It was said that an oak beam with eels carved on it was built into the gable of the  old hall and that this was incorporated into the attic of the new house.

Life was certainly exciting in Asselby when Nancy was there.

I have not a picture of Eel Hall farm - can anyone help?

Barnhill near Howden - and mud

Today is the second day of December and it is fine and frosty. Molly and I have just been for a walk and at last the standing water is retreating and the ground is less soggy.  Road edges have suffered in this weather.
There has been work going on at Skelton to  improve the clough entry into the  River Ouse but this has meant that with the road intermittently closed more traffic has been using the narrow track known as the Hazel croft or more usually Asselcroft or Aizle croft.   I don't normally meet any other traffic on this single track road but passing is difficult and as the road sides have become incredibly muddy I am avoiding it.

Historically I am turning my attention away from chapels and looking at the interesting history of Barnhill near Howden. By coincidence I have been asked twice recently about it and so have looked
out my notes and done a bit more research. Here is a summary.

A brief history of Barnhill

In a charter of 959 AD it was mentioned as ‘Beornhyll’. There have always been stories about the 'hill' visible south west of Barnhill hall.  Was it a burial place? Who was‘Beorn’  - the word could could mean warrior or could be  simply a personal name.

In the Domesday Book of 1086 ‘Bernehelt’ was listed as a bailiwick of the manor of Howden and was approx one carucate - the area which could be ploughed by one plough team in a year and could be anywhere  between 60 and 100acres.

There was a house and moat and a family called Barnhill or Bernhill lived there. The moat has been much altered but was on the  edge  of Howden Park.

Bernhill family

There are mentions of a Richard de Bernhill  in 1334 and a Nicholas de Bernhill in 1398 and 1415. The Bernhill family seem to have been connected by marriage to the Saltmarshe family.

In 1481 Edward Saltmarshe wrote in his will that William Bernyll should inherit the 'capital messuage' of Bernyll and all the lands... according to the entail created by the ancestors of the said William.
However the will also said that if William or  his heirs wanted to sell Barnhill then the Saltmarshe family should have first refusal.
Possibly William's mother was a Saltmarshe as the will also said that William  should pay 3s 4d annually to his father Thomas's widow.

The will also stipulated that the present tenant of Barnhill should stay on for at least 12 years, implying that William himself lived elsewhere.

 The Metham family at Barnhill

In 1495  William and wife Emma sold Barnhill to Sir Thomas Metham and  his wife Isabel.  Sir Thomas lived at Metham near Laxton. Isabel was his second wife and they had a son William. Sir Thomas gave Barnhill to William.

There was an interesting court case in the early 1530s  describing how Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough sent a gang of thirty men to 'Barnhill Grange' who forcibly broke in and took several animals. Sir Robert  said he believed that Barnhill was part of manor of Howden and took 8 small oxen,  6 draught oxen, 4 milk cows,  2 mares with foals and 8 young colts  in lieu of his steward’s fees for the manor.

There were accusations that there was a fight, servants were hurt, oats were destroyed and other animals driven away.

This Metham family were still there in 1590  when Howden registers show the baptism of Isabel, daughter of Thomas Metham of 'Barnell'. The Metham name disappears from the registers soon afterwards but there was obviously a small community there as there are several incidences of 'Barnell' in the Howden registers throughout the seventeenth century.

The Elands

From the 1720s  descendants of Thomas Eland lived at Barnhill. In the parish records Barnhill is written variously as Barnal House, Barnellhall etc.

One interesting record is of the marriage in 1755  of Abraham Eland  of Barnhill Hall to Mary Clark of Brind which took place in Wressle Castle Chapel

There is a stone stone outside Howden church to George Eland late of Barnhill Hall who died in 1795 aged 50.

Nineteenth century

By 1834 Thomas Waterhouse was renting the farm at Barnhill Hall and living there with six children and two servants.

In 1861 Robert Askham and his family were living at Barnhill Hall which was a farm of 138 acres.
But in Feb 1870 there was an auction at Barnhill Hall, the premises then of Mrs Askham.

For sale were  7 Draught Horses, 10 Beasts, a Milch Cow, Cows in Calf, a Fat Bullock, a Fat Heifer, Waggons, Carts, a Dog Cart a Riding Saddle and Bridle, Gig Harness, Horse Gearing, Drills, Ploughs, Harrows, Agricultural Machines as well as a quantity of household furniture and dairy utensils and 20 tubs of Regent seed potatoes

John and Alice Kershaw were farming there in  1871 but Alice died in 1873 and John in 1880. There is a stone to their memory in the churchyard.

In 1878  there was another sale at Barnhill when all the  farm stock of a Mr Ibbetson was auctioned.
By 1881 John and Anne Everatt and one year old Richard and 2 farm servants were at the farm. The couple went on to have seven children.

Twentieth century

After the Everatts Barnhill had other occupiers until the Lapish family moved in. The last members of the family to live there were, I believe Don Lapish, his wife Rene and their son Richard.

Barnhill Hall as it was when the Lapish family lived there.

Rene came to Howden as a land girl and lived in the Thorpe Road hostel. Below are some pictures of her as a land girl. She married in 1956.

Rene with farm workers. Does anyone recognise them?

Rene at Hawcrofts' Lock Farm.

Rene with lorry

Woodcock hall

After writing the piece above I was asked if I knew anything about Woodcock hall which was a little way behind Barnhill.

It was on the lane which runs from  Barnhill and towards Howden station.  The map here shows where it was in 1854 but by 1881 the house was uninhabited.

I found that a Jane Watson, wife of Carrick Watson had died there in 1863 although they could not have been there long as in 1861 they were living in the Manor house in Howden and Carrick was a cordwainer [ worker with leather.]

Does anyone know any more?

Goole library family history day

It's that time of year again when Goole library hold their annual family history day - the 9th November. I have been going for years now and taking my computer and old photos to help anyone who wants help with their family history.

I shall be alongside my friends and colleagues from  the Boothferry Family and Local history Group,  the Goole First World War Research group, the Marshland history group and  others. We will be there from 10am to 4pm and will have access to Ancestry and Find my Past as well as indexes of local cemeteries and other records.

Come along and see us - and have a chat about local history.

I have been researching local chapels with my Goole and Howden  history classes. Who knew there were so many? We have looked at those in the Howdenshire area and found so many that you could not go more than a mile before finding one.

Of course chapels provided not only a religious service on a Sunday [and still do ] but a busy social life with classes, sports groups, anniversaries and support for members.

I am already into double figures in Goole and  just beginning to look at the Snaith and Marshland areas. But sadly many of these buildings are now empty, converted into houses or just plain gone. There were some magnificent  chapels - many in Goole for example built before there was a Church in the town.  It has been an interesting study and one cannot help but be impressed by the enthusiasm and devotion of chapelgoers in those early days.

Here are a few pictures.

Snaith

Old Goole, Beulah

Goole Carlisle Terrace, now the site of Goole library and museum 

Goole United Methodist, Boothferry Road

Hook

Holme on Spalding Moor

Newport Primitive Methodist

Howden Bridgegate

I have been sorting kitchen cupboards and decided I was more interested in sorting old pictures.

So here are some views from 2002 when the PA building in Bridgegate was under construction. Although to me these pictures seem relatively recent I think that a lot of newer Howden residents  might not know what used to be there. I have included an old photo to help

Conkers and classical music

I have just come in from walking Molly and have picked up a few conkers from the road through Saltmarshe Park. I cannot resist them when they are so shiny but after a few days they become dull. There is a saying that spiders don't like conkers and that if you put them under your furniture it will keep them away. I have not noticed that it works - we have plenty of spiders!

It's been a busy few weeks. Both my Goole and Howden local history classes have started and we have been looking at local nonconformists - Puritans, Independents and Quakers. Topics have ranged from Ezekiel Rogers who took his congregation in the 1630s from Rowley near South Cave to America and founded Rowley in Massachusetts to Sebastian Ellithorp of Sandholme who was a Quaker and who died a prisoner in York castle for his faith.

Interesting too has been the story of  Cornelius Empson of Goole, another Quaker, who emigrated and called his house in Delaware 'Goole Grange'.

Congregational chapel  - the Milton rooms were behind

 And not forgetting the minister of the Congregational church in Howden who slept in a different bed for 14 years until his church  and manse were built. This was the chapel which stood in St Helen's Square in Howden.

 Also this summer I have been attending the series of free lunchtime concerts in Howden Minster. These were community events,  some sponsored by local businesses. I have been 'on the door' giving out programmes and have been pleasantly surprised as I chatted to people as they came in.

Some were local people who came to enjoy an hour of classical music followed by a cup of tea within walking or easy driving  distance of their homes.

But several had travelled from further afield - from Sheffield, Hornsea, Doncaster and as far as Derby to name but a few. They had made a day of it, exploring Howden and having lunch in the town. Many became regulars and  commented on  the friendliness of the people, the beauty of the church and the high quality of the music. We have heard professional performances on piano, oboe, violin, flute as well as by two singers.

I am  already looking forward to next year's concert series. We are very lucky to live in the Howdenshire area which has such an interesting past but has so much going on today.

Chris Hill, a talented young flautist

This season's final concert was last week. An audience of around 100 heard Steven Goulden, tenor accompanied by Amy Butler piano perform Schumann's song cycle  Dichterliebe.

Below are links to the performance on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GtiNLHG1sc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddihpwymP3U

Saltmarshe heritage events

It's almost September and  it feels autumnal. The apples are doing well and we have had a few figs and greengages. I am hoping to pick some brambles too [ blackberries to non Yorkshire folk] and make an apple and bramble pie or maybe some jam. It's one of my favourites.

But with my local history hat on I would like to publicise a couple of things. For many years now I have been teaching local history classes in both Howden and Goole. Both classes restart after the summer break in a little over a  fortnight.

The Howden class meets on a Monday afternoon at 1.30 in the town council offices on Bridgegate and the Goole one on a Thursday morning at 10am in the Ilkeston Ave community centre. Both classes last 2 hours with a coffee break and run for 11 weeks.

Over the years I have run these classes not only have I made some good friends but the students have too. Some have been coming for  30 years and some have joined in January this year. Classes are  formalish in that I talk or show slides and students listen  but everyone soon joins in and has their two-penn'orth!!

This term we are going to look at the history of local chapels in both Howden, Goole and the villages.
The classes are run by the WEA and students are asked to enrol online or by telephone. But you can come along to the first class, see if you enjoy it and then enrol. Or contact me through my Howdenshirehistory  website if you have any queries.

The Howden class begins on Monday 16th September and the Goole one on  Thursday 19th September.

https://www.wea.org.uk/yorkshire-and-humber

This summer we have visited various churches. Here we are at Eastrington

But in between these two classes  on Wednesday  18th September  I shall be giving two talks at Saltmarshe hall. It is heritage open week when interesting places all over England, many not normally open to the public,  are open to visit.

Saltmarshe Hall wil be open from 10am to 4pm. My illustrated talks will be at 11am and 2pm and will last about half an hour. Cream teas will be available at £6.95 pp.

Inside the library at Saltmarshe hall  around 100 years ago

I also have a small private museum in an 18th century cottage  in Saltmarshe. It houses a collection of bygones and is normally open only by appointment. But it will also be open that day,  within walking distance along the riverbank from the hall.

Inside the old cottage museum at Saltmarshe

So it will be a busy week but, I hope, an enjoyable one.