Hook
Hook, Hooke usually "(place at) the hook of land, or bend in a river or hill", Old English hoc. Hook East Riding of Yorkshire. Huck 12th Century Old English huc "river-bend"
A Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford University Press
Two miles from Goole and as far from Howden, its long road is like a ribbon in a big loop of the River Ouse, whose banks are at times so high that we can see only the masts of the ships sailing up to Boothferry Bridge. Many old houses with red pantile roofs are among the fields and orchards, and the lowly bellcot church looks north to Hook Hall peeping from the trees. In a field by the church is a moat round hummocky mounds where a monastery is said to have stood; the water is still in the moat.
It is an old church restored last century, with black and white roofs looking down on cream walls and arches. The arcades are medieval, and the narrow 13th Century doorway to the vestry has an old studded door and hinges. There are two old carved chairs. The glass showing four choristers is in memory of two of them. A window in a corner of the chancel has a scene which may be unique in a church - Queen Victoria near the close of her long life, visiting the wounded of the South African War. She sits in her wheel chair, giving to one of the soldiers a bunch of the daffodils which one of her ladies (wearing a lovely mantle with a fur collar) holds in her arm. Conducting the royal party is an officer in the brilliant blue uniform of the Guards. It is like a vivid page from a picture book.
The King's England, edited by Arthur Mee
Hook arose when Viking raiders settled here while heading for York and from the 13th Century it had a ferry service to Howdendyke. It is now a commuter town for Goole. The new houses of Goole are gradually approaching the village and in a few decades time they will probably merge. Despite all this, it is a tranquil village where very little happens except for hundreds of rabbits bouncing along the riverbanks each morning and dozens of drunks wandering back along Hook Road on a Saturday night.
The best way to approach the village is from Boothferry Bridge along Wezzie Banks. Here you will see the M62 Ouse Bridge towering over the flat fields and encounter the chicane in the road which has caught out many a motorist. As you approach the village, you pass St. Mary's church. From the back of the graveyard, you can see a moat which all that remains of the medieval manor house of John de Houke, whose forebears had come over with William the Conqueror. This is supposedly the oldest part of Goole.
You reach a crossroads when you get to Hook itself, by the Memorial Hall. Go straight on to see the riverbank or go right to head to Goole. If you stray left, then you end up on a no-through road with a small pub, Hook Hall, and the old Cleveland storage tanks. The riverbank runs along the back of all the houses and is a nice place to catch passing ships sailing to Howdendyke and to view people's back gardens. Each year, the River Bank Challenge contestants run their ten miles along this route. You can also get a good view of the island in the middle of the river, although this is best viewed from the M62 Ouse Bridge.
The most impressive building in Hook is Hook Hall, built in 1743 by Admiral Frank Sotheron who was said to have sailed with Nelson.
The most popular pub in Hook, the Blacksmiths Arms, is famous for its good food, weekly pub quiz and a children's playground at the back which is great fun when drunk. This pub (as the name suggests) was previously a smithy for the farm horses. The other village pub is the Sotheron Arms, formerly a stabling inn for riders taking the ferry over the Ouse to Howdendyke. Heading back to Goole along Hook Road, you pass under the Goole to Hull railway where it crosses the river with a huge triple-span bridge. The river can be quite wild here and the bridge has been struck several times by passing ships.
Hook and Selby Abbey
Hook's name means just that - A Hook. It is the same sort of Hook as in the Hook of Holland and the name comes from the sharp corner which the Ouse takes here leaving a hook of land on which stands Hook.
Not entirely inappropriately its first resident seems to have been a Hermit: of him (or them - there may have been a succession) we know nothing, but the Hermitage became an accepted landmark: a deed speaks of "and on the moore of Huck near the Hermitage as far as the River Use".
By 1214 Hook House (or thereabouts) was lived in by "Baron John de Howke". He was grand enough to get a licence from the Abbot of Selby to build a Chapel for his Manor House, "saving the rights of the Mother Church at Snaith, the Chaplain thereof to swear fidelity to the Abbot of Selby". The site can be seen in the field across the road from the Church.
Hook seems to have been firmly in the "sphere of influence" of Selby Abbey. It is true that there was, in 1344, a great row between St. Mary's, York and Drax Abbey over the ownership of a Hook cow. But apart from that almost all we know about Hook comes from the records and accounts of Selby. They had a tithe barn there and also regularly collected tithes from a mill and a fishery. But in 1379 the Poll Tax showed it to be the smallest of the Townships in the neighbourhood.
The Church at Hook
Hook's importance seems to have been largely ecclesiastical. St. Mary's Church was consecrated in 1225 and like Whitgift came to be, in effect, the Parish Church of the neighbourhood. In 1499 the "Chapel Yard" at Hook was consecrated to be a burial ground for the use of "Hooke, Armin and Goole". Churches in the "age of faith" were expected to make a profit. "The Proctorship of Hooke" had to make its contribution to Selby Abbey funds. Thus in 1401 "William de Croft, Chaplain at Hook was given the right to collect from Airmyn, Hook, Marham and Loune, all offerings and dues, except mortuaries, lesser tithes and tithe hay from the first three places for ten years. In return he was to serve the chapel, provide bread and wine for Masses, candles and incense for the church and pay £10 through the Kitchener to the Abbey yearly. As the Monk's Proctor there he also had a residence in Hook and the right to obtain fuel from the monastic turbary".
An arrangement something like this persisted to - and indeed beyond - the Reformation. For the King's Inspectors were keen to make it clear that Hook was not a Chantry Chapel: "Memorandum: There is a chapell in the said paroche of Snaithe called Hoke Chapell, wherein is one Chaplane, having cure, and doth mynystre sacraments and sacramentalles to the towneships of Armyn, Hoke and Gowle. And the incumbente ther hath none other levinge but the tithes of the said townes, by a lease and offerings by the late Abbot of Selby and the overplus of the same is now paid to the King's Majestre".
This "memorandum" was effective and it was decreed that "Roger Leavins, incumbent, should serve the chapel of Hook as had heretofore been accustomed".
In the time of the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell a major attempt was made to tidy up many of the anomalies that had grown up in the parishes of England and these Parliamentary Commissioners recommended that Hook "be a parish with Armin and Goole annexed thereto". The return of the King in 1660 ensured the survival of the ancient ways, and it is not clear exactly when Hook did become in law a parish entirely independent of Snaith. But the change had come about before the new town of Goole was founded in 1826. In 1848 the new parish of Goole came into existence and this was almost entirely taken out of Hook parish with the approval of the then Vicar and Patron.
Hook Church feels as though it has changed very little since 1225! But it was restored and partially rebuilt at a cost of £900 in 1844. Today its most surprising feature is the window in which we see Queen Victoria, in a wheelchair, visiting the soldiers in the Boer War! Not to be missed.
Hook through the Centuries
Hook doesn"t seem to have a great deal of history! In 1743 Admiral Frank Sotheron built Hook Hall and the Sotherons (who in the 19th Century became Sotheron-Estcourts) remained the "big family" of the neighbourhood until this century. They built the school in 1844 and were Patrons of the living. But I doubt if, after the Admiral, they lived much in Hook. The Hall was sold in the 1920s (and its fine pine panelling removed and sold) and the Patronage given to the Bishop. The "Sotheron Arms" records the ancient link.
That Hook was in a corner, ferryless until modern times and not on the road to anywhere, must have made it feel very isolated before the coming Goole. But though Hook Churchyard is full of Goole gravestones (and the communal burial pits of the 1832 Cholera epidemic) yet it remains very much not Goole!
The Wesleyans built a chapel in 1816 and its 1874 successor remains in use. A 1901 health report reminds us that the ancient ways lingered into this century. There are "141 Houses" and "Each house has its garden and the privies are placed well away from the dwellings". But there doesn"t seem to have been a proper supply of running water.
Today Hook feels something of a threatened oasis. The traffic of the M62 speeds across the great Ouse Bridge; across the river Howdendyke grows secretly into a big port and Goole keeps getting nearer. Yet Hook survives and a modern Hermit could still find a quiet solitary niche for his Hermitage
Hook with Airmyn is now a united benefice of which the patronage is held jointly by the Bishop of Sheffield and the Church Society Trust. In ancient times the Abbot of Selby would appoint the Chaplain or Curate at Hook. In the 18th Century Hook became more clearly a separate parish and the right to appoint having come to Admiral Sotheron, the patronage remained with the Sotheron-Estcourt family until it was transferred to the Bishop of Sheffield in 1926.
Rivers, Rectors and Abbots, David Lunn - Bishop of Sheffield, 1990
Postcards
Visitor Comments
Posted by George on 25/03/2006
You don't mention that Hook once had its own shipyard, the Ouse Ship Building Company, built as an emergency measure during WWI. It completed ships between 1918 and 1922. I have a full list of the ships if anyone is interested. There is a reference to corrugated buildings (a mission church, labour exchange and skating rink!) being moved from Maryport in Cumberland in 1916 to help to set up the yard. Have often wondered if any of these have survived. The yard was opposite Howdendyke, I guess where the oil depot was in later years.
Posted by Pedro on 31/03/2006
As a kid we used to play on the site of the shipyard at Hook, The old slipways were still there in the 1940s. Looking from the river, the Cleveland yard was over to the other side (when entering the shipyard to the right, Cleveland was on the left).
Posted by Trev on 03/08/2010
I am an ex-Goolie who loves looking on Goole-on-the-Web. I am trying to place where the shipyard at Hook was. My mum was telling us (she's 103 years old) that when she was fourteen she used to take dinner every day for a lad that worked there. She walked from Fourth Avenue Goole to Hook and got two pence for it.
Posted by John on 13/08/2010
Hook shipyard was somewhere around where 174 High Street is now, near the river, of course.
Posted by David on 03/03/2007
I remember an island called, I think Wessex. This was just opposite the old fever hospital near Hook. As a young boy I used to go camping with a couple of friends, their names were Colin Butler and Derek Sprakes. I make mention of the island because the last time I was in Goole, at least six years ago, the island seemed to have gone.
Posted by Shuffleton Streets on 04/03/2007
Not Wessex but Wessucs - Westfield Banks, the island being that part around which the river has snaked in its changing course being the reason, I believe. That would account for your not seeing it the last visit.
Posted by Pedro on 04/03/2007
Wessex (or Yorks pronunciation Wessux). This play area has sadly over the years has eroded away. In my youthful days it was a virtual jungle and one could actually get lost in it. We killed many (imaginary) Japanese soldiers during the 1940s here with our air rifles. More happy days.
Posted by David on 05/03/2007
As a young man I spent time in the Far East, Malaya, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and that island, where as boys we fought many a battle, bore an uncanny resemblance to some of the areas I was in. The only thing missing would have been the wildlife and the humidity which in itself was a killer. Not so happy days but we are still here.
Posted by Trev on 07/09/2010
I told mum that Hook Island was up for sale and she told me that when she was young they used to go there with a bottle of water and a jam sandwich and spend all day there. She said there was only a dyke to jump so a lot of ground has washed away since?
Posted by Marie on 10/09/2013
I am doing some research on the history of Hook Island and I came across some maps where it appears to show the island as a peninsula joined to the northern bank and called "Howdendyke Wood'" Can anyone help? Thanks.
Posted by Corby on 10/09/2013
I don't know how far back your maps are but I have one dated 1910 on which it is an island clear of any connection to the mainland. Then called North Field. My memories of it goes back to the early years of the war when we would follow the big lads for a day out, living out our fantasies. In those days it was totally different to that map, for it was a wood. The dense willows were well established with trunks maybe two feet across. When older we would climb from tree to tree. On occasion the roots would be eroded away. The tree would fall and later become seen floating away.
There was a small stream which started not far from the Fever Hospital continuing north. The field once had cattle and there was a gate to keep them there. Much later, after the war, I would guess two railway sleepers had been placed across the stream at the southern end. I did not go there much after my schooldays and left Goole in 1958. Many years later I was surprised to see no more big trees and an island out in midstream named Hook Island.
Posted by Trev on 12/09/2013
Yes, everything Corby remembers is as I remember it but my mum often mentions going there when she was young - so I asked her today about it and she says they used to call the ditch that separated it from the bank "Taggies" ditch. She remembers the person who she thinks owned the ground was called Taggy Newton who lived in Second Avenue. Mum is 106 years but has great memory still.
Posted by Paul on 12/09/2013
On the OS First Series 1805-1869 it is called Howdendyke Island. The channel between it and the south bank was called Silverpit Bilt.
Posted by Paul on 12/09/2013
From Wikepedia:
Howdendyke Island is a 19-acre island in the River Ouse, Yorkshire. More accurately a shoal between seasonally varying flows, the area regularly above water (and covered in trees and vegetation) is roughly 420 metres by 270 metres. A larger example of this same feature is visible where the Ouse widens into the Humber Estuary, twelve miles downstream at Faxfleet.
The island has also been known as "Hook Island" or "Silverpit Island", and was formerly used for agriculture, and connected to the riverbank. However, this land use combined with the digging of a fishing pond in the 1920s, eroded a channel to make an island in the 1950s, subsequently washing away soil until the island was inaccessible and, at high water, less than half its current size. Today, vegetation on the island and the riverbank opposite help to protect against erosion. The land has been used for wild-fowling, and is home to a wide range of birds and other wildlife. It forms unit 65 of the Humber Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, and a 2010 report described its condition as "Unfavourable, declining" due to "Inappropriate scrub control, Inappropriate weed control".
In 2009, the Island was marketed as land available for private development, at a price of £100,000. At the time the island was only accessible by boat, and a tidal range of up to six metres would inhibit habitation, other than on a special stilted construction.
Posted by Corby on 14/09/2013
Very interesting. I believe it is all part of the changing face of our shoreline. Sunk Island for instance, on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, was a huge lump of land, once Crown property because it was seldom seen at high water. The channel was blocked at one end until it silted up and then became as we know it now.
Whatever Hook Island was called in its variants, what kids to the east of Goole liked about the place was that it gave them independence at an early age to act out their fantasies. When parents down our street said that we were going to West Park for the day, many kids would dig their heels in "Not all that way" was said.
Posted by Paul on 14/09/2013
Your trips to the island sound like a "Swallows and Amazon" adventure. I don't recall knowing about the "island" as my walks included up Boothferry Road to the bridge and a short way along the bank or taking a short cut to Airmyn or more likely a walk around the docks.
Posted by Keith on 15/09/2013
I think most kids in the 1940/50s used the Wessaks as a playground for most of the school holidays. Finding the perfect willow branches for our bow and arrows, climbing trees, playing hide and seek and sometimes a swim in the chocolate coloured river. Certainly brings back memories.
Posted by Corby on 10/04/2014
I have fond memories of Hook Island or Wezzaks as I knew it as a boy. Where most of the kids I knew preferred the place to West Park. We lived out our fantasies. Lit fires, made bows and arrows and when the water was still, bathed in the muddy water. The unique smell of that water comes back when I visit (no longer as often as I should like).
Posted by Paul on 10/04/2014
I noticed some time ago it was up for sale at £100,000 but was sold for just over £47,000. I assume when you went on the island it wasn't as heavily wooded as now. As it's now an SSI, Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area I assume the "damage" you did wasn't irreparable!
Posted by Corby on 11/04/2014
When it came up for sale I wrote an article which was published in the Goole Times. The gist of which was my attachment to the place, the fun we had. As it is on my shortlist of where I would like my ashes scattered. That is now out of the question but further to that I questioned the right of anyone owning it in its present position. For it is widely known that land between low and high watermark is Crown Property. As no doubt it floods, how can anyone claim it?
I recall on my first visits there was cattle further along between the bank top and the stream. I also remember a five-bar gate. Whether this was to keep the cattle on the island or to keep them away. As to the size of the trees, they were BIG, possibly as high as the poplars at West Park, and very dense for it was easy to travel from tree to tree. When the tide eroded the roots away the tree would fall and remain half in and half out of the water. It was then we were able to use the branches as bathing platforms.
I think the people who owned the land lost all rights when the stream became enlarged, causing the island to move away to where it is now.
Posted by Diane on 14/11/2009
My dad, Colin Robinson, was born in 1938 and grew up in Hook. His siblings were, or still are, Ronnie, Eva, Lily, Enid and Connie. He grew up at 8 South View and the Moffats lived next door at No. 6.
The Blacksmiths Arms in Hook was my great-grandparents' family home. Their surname was Moore (great-grandmother possibly Rebecca as she was called "Becca"). My grandmother Lilian Moore was born at the pub in 1900 and she had a sister Eva and a brother Jim (James). I don't know if there are any more siblings until I speak to my aunt.
I only came across this site as I was looking for some books on the history of Hook/Goole to give to my dad as a present. My dad often talks about his escapades growing up in Hook.
Posted by Hilary on 07/03/2010
Very interested in all the comments and info about Hook. My husband's family are known to have been born, raised and died in Hook and immediate surroundings as early as 1700. But seems by 1860 his line had gone west to the West Riding, though we believe many of the "South family" remained in the area.
Posted by Brian on 21/09/2010
I remember Hook very well, being evacuated there during the war years. I stayed with Herbert and Violet Wakefield who had a small pig farm. It was situated on the riverbank at the bottom of No. 1 Water Lane. I attended the local village school opposite the old Village Hall. There used to be a butchers shop down Water Lane run by Bill Wakefield. I remember going to the coal yard with a half crown for a bag of coal, also calling at the pub for 1oz of punch tobacco, plus 1p for a chocolate cartwheel. I also remember the plane crash near Boothferry Bridge, the green fields, the boats moored on the riverbank, the sunken barge, boiling potatoes for pig food. Fond memories flood back.
Posted by Gwen on 03/01/2011
My grandfather was Harold Wakefield. He was from Hook, however he was off fighting in Africa when you was evacuated. Herbert Wakefield was his brother and Violet was his sister-in-law. Bill was his nephew (Bill was Herbert and Violet's son). Bill went off to join the war, I'm not sure when. Herbert and Violet moved to Swinefleet after the war and then to Snaith. It was in Snaith that, in 1975, Herbert died. Violet was then moved into a nursing home in Howden and she died sometime in the 1980s, I think.
Posted by Lynn on 13/09/2011
My grandmother was Lily Wakefield, daughter of Anthony and Mary Hannah. Donald was her brother. Lily married and lived in Sowerby Bridge for the rest of her life. My mother and aunt fondly recall visiting the family in Hook when they were children and I would love to have more information about the Wakefields, their family, their friends and Hook.
Posted by Carol on 17/11/2011
Lynn, I was surprised to hear of your stay in Hook with the Wakefield family. My father is Harold Wakefield. As very young children my sisters Diane, Janet and Hilary spent wonderful times with our granny and Aunt Minnie in that little cottage.
My earliest memories go back to 1954, I would have been around five years old then, ouch! Uncles Don and Bill lived in Goole by then, Uncle Herbert and Aunt Violet had a farm in Swinefleet where I stayed with them for a short while. I remember the cow shed well where the cats would jump on top of the milk churns to lap the cream (yuk!) before being collected from the farm gate by the Milk Marketing Board lorry. The lovely Benny Bus (as we kids named it) would stop at the farm to pick me up for school in Old Goole, the same bus that would drop Diane and myself right at the door of gran's house and collect us later from the door! We all looked forward to the annual Hook Feast which was (in those days) the highlight of our social calendar!
Posted by Lynn on 07/12/2011
Harold Wakefield was my great-grand-uncle and I have tried on various occasions to find out more information about the Wakefield family from Hook. I also remember visiting my grandmother and Aunt Minnie in the little cottage and was really fascinated with the toilet out in the back garden. My mother, Enid, was Lily Wakefield's, daughter and remembers her uncles Donald and Herbert well. I would really like to make contact with someone for more information.
Posted by Enid on 09/12/2011
Carol, I am Lynn's mother and your grandfather is my uncle. I knew the whole family and loved my grandma very much. We went to Goole two years ago to try and catch up on any information and called at the cemetery where we met a young man who used to work with Donald (who also worked there). He said he was related to Donald's wife Eileen.
Posted by Enid on 10/12/2011
Carol, I see by your message that you are Harold Wakefield's daughter, well I guess that makes you my cousin, because my mother was Harold's sister. She was one of the older ones, Harold was the youngest. I knew all of them Herbert, Lily (my mother), Edith, Ivy, Walter, Mary, Donald and last of all Harold. There were three others but they had already died. The last time I saw your father was in the 1990s. My brother and I went to Goole for the day. Harold was already living in Goole so we paid him a visit.
Posted by Gwen on 19/08/2013
I'm so surprised to read this conversation! Harold Wakefield was my grandfather through marriage to my nana Ellen-Edith Wakefield. They were already married for many years when I was born so Harold has always been my grandad to me. He was the best grandad anyone could ask for. I'm sorry to say Enid but my grandad passed away 1 January 2000. He made it into the millennium so I was always glad for that. If you ever want to visit his grave, he is buried in Hook cemetery. My nana has always told me stories of my grandad and his family, especially of Aunt Mary who both my nan and mother (Brenda) were very fond of. It is always amazing to read such stories and find people like this online.
Posted by Lynn on 06/03/2015
I am the daughter of Bill and the granddaughter of Violet and Herbert. I was wondering if you would like any info on the family. Sadly dad passed away aged 80 in 2007 and Violet passed away in the 1990s. I remember Uncle Harold and a few years ago met up with Janet and Carole at Auntie Eileen's and, a long time ago when very young, went with Herbert and Harold to see Aunt Lily at Sowerby Bridge and her daughter Enid visited Violet when she lived in Snaith.
My grandad was Lily's brother, Herbert. The other brothers and sisters were, Edie, Mary, Harold, Walter, Ivy, Donald and William Edward, as was my dad William Edward named after him. Donald's wife is still alive and in her late eighties and lives in Goole. Aunt Lily was the eldest and Harold the youngest, he died in 2000. Walter was the butcher in Hook and had two sons John and Alan who had shops in Moorends near Thorne.
Harold's daughters and sons live in London. Edie has a daughter Margaret (nee Ounsley) and a son Keith. Donald's wife is Eileen and also a daughter Eileen. I have a photo of Ivy and great-granma Wakefield. Her sister Minnie lived with Eileen and Don for a number of years going from Hook to Goole. I can remember great-grandma Wakefield and Aunt Minnie. My grandad, Herbert was a farmer and lived for a number of years between Swinefleet and Reedness then retired, had a bungalow built on his land but then downsized and lived at Snaith where he died in 1974/75.
Posted by David on 19/05/2011
My Mother, Ivy GREENWOOD was born in Hook in 1902. Her parents were Frank Greenwood married to Eleanor Speight in 1900. There were other children John (died young), Edgar, Eleanor and Mollie. The family moved to Leeds and are listed on the 1911 census excluding Frank. Eleanor is head of the family and is a music teacher. Is anybody aware of this family? Thanks.
Posted by Corinne on 27/06/2011
My aunt Ester Tena SCOTT lived in Hook as a child. She moved into Montague House with her grandparents who had eleven children when her mother died and father went to war. Can anyone remember this family and house? Thanks.
Posted by Julie on 13/03/2012
My great-grandfather Arthur HILEY owned Hook Hall in High Street in the late-1800s through until I think the 1940s. From what I have been told he was a sea merchant. My grandfather was Ronald Hiley and I believe there were two other siblings. My grandfather Ronald immigrated to New Zealand in the 1920s, but spent his school years in at a boarding school in the area. If anyone has any information on this family I would love to have it.
Posted by Elizabeth on 12/12/2012
Your grandfather is the brother of my grandfather. We didn't know we had any family left as we lost contact years ago when my grandfather moved to Peterborough.
Posted by Kay on 16/12/2012
I'm Elizabeth's mum and married to Ronald Arthur Hiley who was named after his uncle.
Posted by Julie on 14/01/2014
Just wanted to add what an amazing site this is. I have managed to get in contact with three families related to Captain Arthur Hiley of Hook Hall. The family lost touch in the mid-1950s and are now reunited though me looking at these comments from New Zealand. So if you are looking at this site don't hesitate to add your comment.
Posted by David on 09/04/2013
I had a relative and family who lived in Hook Hall when he was a farm bailiff in 1866. I know it's a care home now and I know it's supposed to be on Hook High Street but I can't locate it. I can't find out what Hook Hall used to be? It's oddly never mentioned? Was it a stately home?
Posted by Paul on 10/04/2013
The hall is a Grade II listed building (1967). The listing text says: "House. Mid C18 with later alterations. Brick in Flemish bond, pantile roof. Central-hallway entry. three storeys, five bays. Glazed double leaf door beneath overlight in architrave with pediment carried on carved consoles. C20 casements below flat brick arches in original openings throughout, with band to each storey. Parapet with moulded stone coping conceals hipped roof with ridge stacks. Interior: cornices survive to landings and consist of egg-and-tongue and dentilled friezes with modillions and paterae to border of ceilings".
Posted by Julie on 26/05/2013
My great-grandfather Captain Arthur Hiley bought Hook Hall in the 1920s. He originally came from Goole and owned the property until 1954 when he retired from the navy and moved to Leeds. He passed away one year after retirement at the age of 65 years. My grandfather Ronald lived at Hook Hall until he was fourteen then he sailed to New Zealand and never returned.
Posted by Josephine on 12/07/2015
In 1810 my great(x4)-grandfather James Simpson was curate at Hook St. Mary's living at Hook Hall. The next year he advertised for pupils at 50 guineas per year. He later moved to Brantingham but returned to Hook in 1837. He once again advertised for students and in the 1841 Census he had two Todds, three Burlands, three Pearsons, Peacock, and Champney. He also had twelve children of his own. It was common for clergy to also run boarding schools.
Posted by Paul on 10/04/2013
Regarding the quote on the website. In 1743, Sothern wasn't an admiral (not until 1830). Secondly he was born in 1765(?)
Posted by BW on 17/05/2014
Back in 1882, my husband's great-great-grandfather came to Hook and started up business as the local blacksmith, name of George WILSON. He was the one time licensee/blacksmith of the village. There was an article in the Goole Times, Friday 29 May 1936, telling us all about him. I'm now trying to put together the family tree but have been unable to track his wife, etc.
He had a son Frank (my children's great-grandfather). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Posted by Brian on 07/06/2014
Hook came to mind after the D-Day anniversary. I recall the Army practice building pontoon bridges across the river at Hook. Then one night they packed up and were gone. I enjoyed reading about Hook Island, brought back happy memories of rowing across when the tide was up, playing for hours, collecting willow branches for the Italian POWs, to make baskets with. Will never forget my days in the village.
Posted by Pamela on 09/11/2014
Family linked somehow to a house on Hook Road Goole called The Poplars. Would love to know if anyone knows the family name who may have lived there in or around 1940, so I can match the connection.
Posted by Fiona on 25/12/2014
My mother used to tell me that there were two women living together in the house at the end of the 1940s. Presumably a couple, there was some suggestion but I cannot remember the names. They played golf apparently.
When I was growing up in the 1960s the house was owned by a family named Wardle.
Posted by Corby on 07/11/2015
Can anyone remember The Target - a large black box situated between the riverbank and the reed beds? Directly behind the cemetery. What was its function?
Posted by Fiona on 18/11/2015
I used to live near the cemetery in Goole. Prior to tide time a man, who my dad obviously knew, used to cycle through the cemetery and go to that box and fiddle with some mechanics within. My mum said it was to do with the locks and the tides.
When you are an adult you wish you had asked more questions as a child don't you?
Posted by Corby on 18/11/2015
Although I used to spend hours on Wezzaks, and my father never queried this, I was unaware of the dangers there.
However, he always warned against the dangers close to the Target. He warned me against the quicksands between the reeds and the large sand bank at low water. But I recall one day a porpoise was seen on the sandbank, probably chasing the salmon, but it had died there. Four men appeared with Hopley's handcart. I could not believe that they simply walked over picking up the unfortunate creature then loading it onto the cart and took it away. Dispelling my father's warning to me.
Common train of thought about the box. Was that it was the waste outlet from the cemetery buildings? Only to be opened at high water?
Posted by Fiona on 22/11/2015
I remember the man going there to the mid-1970s at least. Wouldn't the utilities have been modernised by then? Someone must know. I do have pictures of my parents posing on that box in the 1950s, possibly before they were married.
I remember my mother telling me that a dead porpoise was displayed in one of the fishmongers in town. It must have been Hopleys and presumably the porpoise you are referring to.
In Clayton (Manchester) the council drained the moat at Clayton Hall in case a "child drowned". Made me just wonder how everyone survived near such a big tidal river like the Ouse in Goole. Of course the danger, the power of it and the quicksands were instilled in young minds. I don't remember a child being killed in it.
Posted by Corby on 23/11/2015
I agree about utilities outlet. Possibly my father's warning was to put me off playing there. I also remember seeing cattle stranded there and some floated away on the next ebb but others in various degrees gradually disappearing beneath the surface. I also remember one of the boys who used to jump or dive into the water off of a fallen willow at Wessacks. He dived in and his head became stuck in the mud. The panic that followed, when every attempt we made could not shift him. Until a cyclist coming along the top of the bank saw what was happening. He did manage to pull him out but too late. The boy's surname was Kenny.
A spectacular site was the aegir, which I only witnessed a few times. Nothing near the Severn Bore - but it was our bore.
Posted by Corby on 26/11/2015
Regarding the area immediately behind the cemetery, every year there would appear thousands of six-spotted burnets. Almost a plague. I never found why that particular area and what was the attraction. There were very few about elsewhere.
Posted by Fiona on 27/11/2015
I don't remember seeing six spot burnets, think I have only seen one once in Goole. When did you see them? Maybe I just missed when they were flying or the caterpillars. When my father was a resident in Goole Hall and I visited Goole I used to walk from my friend's on Hook Road to Goole Fields along the riverbank. This would be around 2004-06. I recall seeing far more butterflies than I ever saw in the 1970s and on one occasion saw a clouded yellow, small coppers and common blues. I never saw a blue one growing up at all.
Posted by Corby on 20/11/2015
My recent reply to Fiona in which she stated that she wished she had asked more questions of her father. Resulted in my constantly asking questions and quite often he would reply "that is for me to know and you to find out". Simple questions like "where do flies go in winter?" Quite simply, he did not know.
However, he did have a gift which I wish now that I had kept hold of. He was an avid doodler. Always the same subject. That of ships leaving port. If I had a drawing book as a present, he would fill it with these vessels - all named. But the main gift to me was seeing the smoke billowing from the funnels. Although black and white, so many shades that you could almost smell the smoke. Also the water. Water with so much fury you would feel that to touch it. You would get your fingers wet.
How I wish that I had kept my books.
Posted by Corby on 15/04/2017
I do not know if anyone knew the gentleman who bred rabbits on a large scale. We knew him as the Dutchman. He lived down the street next to the Blacksmith Arms. It was my first venture into rabbit husbandry, when I bought two impregnated does to produce rabbits for the table for a few bob.
The downturn was people who had grown fed up with their pets (all named) would give them to me to dispose of. Not easy when you know their name.
In this morning's Mail there are pictured the two identical breeds of which I started, a Belgian hare and a Flemish giant, who are now earning their owners £1,000 a show. How times change!
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