Coming up this week

It’s hard to find a common thread this week, so varied are the events recorded. The Blitz features again, as does death at sea. There are a couple of Hull firsts – the first Hull whaler to return from the Arctic on the 12th; and the first Hnefatafl tournament to be held in the city on the 17th. The whaling industry of course pre-dated distant fishing in Hull in the Arctic, and made Hull sailors in great demand for their knowledge of the difficult waters off Greenland and Iceland.

A Hull singing hero – Joe Longthorne – has an anniversary, as does an unsung (or at  least, forgotten) local author, Sarah Stickney Ellis. Sydney Smith is remembered in his home city, however.

The last fling of that dangerous family, the de la Poles, on 16th, who came very close, but never made it to the throne.

An incident of child neglect so extreme that it may be considered murder on 14th, even though the mother’s part is described as mere ‘misdemeanour’ – but the record is silent as to the motive. We can only conjecture.

A miracle, an anti-Catholic mob, charitable activities, and a last attempt to save Hedon as a trading port all feature this week.

It’s hard to find a common thread this week, so varied are the events recorded. The Blitz features again, as does death at sea. There are a couple of Hull firsts – the first Hull whaler to return from the Arctic on the 12th; and the first Hnefatafl tournament to be held in the city on the 17th. The whaling industry of course pre-dated distant fishing in Hull in the Arctic, and made Hull sailors in great demand for their knowledge of the difficult waters off Greenland and Iceland.

A Hull singing hero – Joe Longthorne – has an anniversary, as does an unsung (or at  least, forgotten) local author, Sarah Stickney Ellis. Sydney Smith is remembered in his home city, however.

The last fling of that dangerous family, the de la Poles, on 16th, who came very close, but never made it to the throne.

An incident of child neglect so extreme that it may be considered murder on 14th, even though the mother’s part is described as mere ‘misdemeanour’ – but the record is silent as to the motive. We can only conjecture.

A miracle, an anti-Catholic mob, charitable activities, and a last attempt to save Hedon as a trading port all feature this week.

photo shows Beverley racecourse – held in 1763 from 14th to 17th June

Lots of different issues in this week’s events, including 3 items which illustrate changing attitudes to morality:

28^thMay 1554 highlights the problems of priests in that period in the 16^thCentury when England switched from Catholic to Protestant, to Catholic, and back to Protestant. Should a priest stay married and give up his post, or to retain his occupation and give up his wife? The repercussions of the Reformation were massive, and indeed still being felt in 1912 (see 30^thMay 1912 entry) in the need to make separate provision for Catholics.

William Wilberforce (1^stJune 1787) was concerned, well before the era of Victorian morality, to encourage virtue by punishing small transgressions. His aim seems honourable today (to reduce judicial deaths) – but his proposed solution (criminalising swearing) seems overly harsh to modern minds, I think.

On 3^rdJune, we see an instance of charitable giving by a member of the Church enriching himself by corrupt practices. Hero or villain? You decide.

Several regular issues appear this week – lives lost at sea, crime, transport changes, and the impact of war (WW1, WW2, Boer War, Civil War, the Pilgrimage of Grace) on our area. There are mentions of local notables – the Wilsons of Tranby Croft, the Rev Barnes-Lawrence, Ann Watson, the Yorkshire Giant, Snowden Dunhill, the Hildyards. All famous for different reasons, of course,  and remind us that we are all individuals, and the past is full of fascinating characters.

Photo shows – a representation of Rev Barnes-Lawrence with a Bempton climmer.

Heroes, transport, feud, mutiny

The theme for the week is canals: anniversaries this week relate to the creation of Leven, Market Weighton, Driffield and Pocklington Canals. Improvements in the transport of goods enabled the Industrial Revolution. Raw materials could be taken to industrial centres more quickly, and the finished goods taken to market more easily. Improved transport also enabled the growth of cities, with a pool of workers for the new factories, by easing the movement of food from the countryside to the city. It was possible to live in a city area with no garden, but with shops. A double-edged sword – working people moved to the towns to earn more, but living conditions deteriorated, thus creating the need for local heroes such as Henry Cooper, commemorated this week, to stand up for the need for health and housing improvements.

Other heroes marked this week:

• Amy Johnson landed in Darwin after a pioneering flight;
• Sir John Hotham explained his reasons for preventing the King’s entry into Hull the month before;
• Lilian Bilocca’s birthday, one of the Headscarf Revolutionaries working to improve the shocking safety record of the trawler industry;
• Mick Ronson’s birthday, much missed musical hero.

An incident took place this week in the great 175-year feud between the Constable and Angell families over the ownership of  ‘a few scrubby acres and a rabbit warren’ that is Spurn Point. The Constable was Lord Dunbar, the murderer, who appears elsewhere in this Calendar.

A very mundane incident took place when the Navy bought a small ship, the Bethia, made at the Blaydes shipyard. They changed the name to the Bounty, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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