~ Past Events ~ 2024
The Exploits of Admiral Frank Sotheron
For the first event of our Winter Season, held on 10th October 2024, we were treated to an excellent talk - complete with a little song and dance! - about local hero, Admiral Frank Sotheron.
Rona Dickinson, from the Marshland Local History Group, explained that, during the Napoleonic wars, Frank Sotheron was the owner of the land upon which Goole was subsequently built. The Admiral sailed as part of Nelson's Fleet and, as a member of the Nelson Society, Rona was interested to find many letters from Nelson to Sotheron that had not been published. These finds encouraged her to write this fascinating book.
Frank Sotheron also had links with Hook and we were very pleased to welcome many visitors from the village to the talk.
Heritage Weekend at Shire Hall, Howden
On Saturday, 14th September, we held an Open Day at the Shire Hall, Howden. This was a great success and very well-attended.
We enjoyed excellent talks by Gary and Stephen, one on the history of our Society and the other on moated sites in the East Riding.
Thank you to everyone who came along and to all our members who helped on the day.
Introducing our Spaldington Project
Many thanks to everyone who came along to our meeting on 22nd March 2024, at Fir Trees Spiritualist Church in Spaldington, for our introductory talk on our plans for Spaldington 2024!
Gary gave us a brilliant presentation on the history of Spaldington and on our exciting future plans to try to find out more about the history of the village. Also many thanks to Phil, for bringing along a great selection of his local metal detecting finds!
Grateful thanks to the Church for kindly providing the venue for our talk.
Iron Age & Romano-British Activity at Darrington
On Thursday, 14th March 2024 we were treated to an excellent talk by Phil Jones on excavations which have been carried out to investigate the Iron Age and Romano-British activity at Darrington. It was also great to be able to view and handle some of the amazing finds which have been found at Darrington.
Thank you, Phil. We look forward to hearing about future Darrington digs and finds!
Update on 2023 dig at Hook Moated Site
Our February talk was held at the wonderful St Mary's Church in Hook. Our archaeologist, Dr. Jon Kenny, gave us excellent update on our dig on the Hook moated site.
The exploration of the site began in 2022 when, under Jon's instruction, we carried out surveys of the site in preparation for our dig in 2023. The dig was focussed on two main areas, in which we believe the medieval manor house and service buildings may have been located. Excavation revealed exciting evidence of stone foundations, together with demolition remains such as parts of bricks, stone, plaster and roof tiles. Evidence of habitation was revealed in shards of medieval (and possibly earlier) pottery and animal bones.
The meeting was very well-attended and we were thrilled to see so many members of the local community who had come along - especially in view of the rather inclement weather that night!
Many thanks to Jon for a fascinating and very informative talk and to St Mary's Church for making us so welcome.
Moated, but all in ruin: the medieval moated sites of eastern Yorkshire and Humber
Many thanks to Stephen Lonsdale for presenting our first talk of 2024 on 11th January. Stephen gave us a fascinating outline of the topic of his PhD thesis on moated sites in East Yorkshire. This very informative talk led us from the early history of such sites, through their peak during the mid-13th to 14th centuries, to their general demise in the 1500's. Very little research has been carried out on Yorkshire moated sites in recent years, making Stephen's wealth of knowledge on the subject extremely important.
Stephen's talk was followed by our Annual General Meeting. We received very positive reports on the success of our Society over the past year, during which we have gained many new members and carried out very exciting excavations resulting in lots of fascinating finds.
Grateful thanks were made to Stephen for his three years in office as Chair of the Society and to Gary Tavender as Vice-Chair. According to our Constitution, elections for executive roles must take place every three years. As a result, Gary was elected as Chair for 2024 - 2027, with Stephen taking on the role of Vice-Chair. Marian Thomas will continue as Treasurer and Anthony Scott-Warren will remain as Secretary.
Thank you to everyone for your support. We look forward to an equally successful year in 2024!