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Documents Library
Documents, Booklets and Reports
from Yorkshire's Waterways
This Society is building a digital collection of documentary material, some printed, some handwritten, holding interesting content regarding the people, places and vessels once found on the waterways of Yorkshire. These documents have been loaned by enthusiasts who want to preserve and publish material about the heritage of an industry which once underpinned the industrial success of the county but today has all but disappeared. We have had them digitised and then returned the originals to their owners.
Our collection of documents relating to Yorkshire’s waterways may be accessed by choosing a topic below and clicking the button:
Aire and Calder Navigation Company
This collection holds two “corporate brochures” originally published by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company in the 1930s.
Their content and style suggests they were produced to impress potential customers and nearly a hundred years later, they have certainly impressed us.
Goole Centenary Celebrations 1926
The Knottingley to Goole Canal, the port and the embryonic town of “New Goole” was opened for business on 20 July 1826. One hundred years later Goole’s people celebrated that very important birthday in a grand manner.
Read about the Pageant and the Exhibition in the programmes published at that time.
People’s Stories
First hand accounts of what life was like on and around the waterways are a valuable record for students of history. We hope to place out of print material back into the public domain so that it can be enjoyed by a new generation.
Boat and Ship Building
Alongside Yorkshire’s waterways there were a surprising number of boat and ship builders. The depth of water available for launch constrained the size of the craft built but keels were being built as far inland as Apperley Bridge. Sea going vessels were built at Beverley, Hull, Hessle, Knottingley, Goole, Selby and Thorne. Shipbuilding has disappeared from the waterways leaving little trace but these documents remind us of the days when Yorkshire did have an important shipbuilding industry.
Curious and Unique Documents
Some very unusual historic documents have been loaned to the Society and they are included in this section. These are little pieces of our history which could so easily have been overlooked or forgotten, or worse, destroyed and lost forever.
Enthusiastic collectors have saved them for posterity and kindly loaned them to YWHS. We have scanned them and published them here for all to enjoy.
Special Collections
The results of years of research by well known waterways historians have been donated to YWHS. Have a look at their reports and you may find something to help in your search for your own ancestors.
Maps, Plans and Drawings
Occasionally, large documents come to our attention that are well worth sharing with waterways enthusiasts. Their size makes them challenging to present in a sensible manner but we think we may have succeeded. Please have a look at our first maps, plans and engineering drawings and let us know how you have found the experience.
Publication permission for copyright images
We acknowledge that copyright images are being shown for which no explicit permission to publish has been given to this Society. Many of the digital images shown had originally been produced with the knowledge and permission of the now defunct Yorkshire Waterways Museum from original photographs deposited there for public display. Following the closure of that organisation in 2019 and the break up of their collection those original photographs have disappeared and have effectively been lost to the public.
Through an incredible stroke of good fortune digital copies of those images were donated to this Society in 2022 allowing our volunteers to finally achieve the wishes of those photographers and collectors who had made the original donations.
If you are the copyright holder and would like to contact the Society please use the form below.
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