If you are interested in history, here’s your opportunity to stimulate those “grey cells” over the summer months and perhaps even meet some like minded folk over a cuppa and a biscuit. Thanks to the award of a Hull Maritime Community Grant, Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society is running a series of twenty heritage workshops at Goole Museum during the summer of 2024.

Every Tuesday, a session runs from about 10.15am to about 12.30pm, offering an opportunity to learn new stuff regarding the waterways and the folk who worked on them. 

No appointment is needed although each workshop will have a 1 hour presentation starting at 11am which you won’t want to miss. Each presentation will feature a topic of interest and explore how our volunteers have researched, captured and published what has been discovered.

This week’s presentation

In the mid 19th century the Aire and Calder Navigation Company invested heavily in a revolutionary new system for the bulk transportation of  coal from collieries in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Steam tugs manoeuvred compartment boats full of coal along the waterways to the port of Goole where they were loaded directly into the holds of colliers for shipment around the coast of Britain. Learn more about these “Tom Puddings” and the men who operated them and why this solution lasted for well over a century. 

Our computers will have access to the main family history websites. Light refreshments will be available.