This spiral bound book was loaned to this Society in 2024 by Helen and Alan Clarke of Goole. It had belonged to Helen’s late father who had used the few blank pages at the front and rear to record notes of his experiences as an anti aircraft  gunner ashore and on merchantmen during the second world war. That makes this booklet a treasured family heirloom and we are indebted to the Clarkes for entrusting  it to us for scanning. and publishing.

Beyond the notes made by Helen’s dad, the content written by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company gives us a wonderful snapshot of the waterways under their management in the mid 1930s. We can accurately date the booklet as it contains a message from the Chairman of Aire and Calder Navigation, G E Cooke-Yarborough, Esquire, JP, dated May, 1937.

As long ago as 1698, 18 Yorkshire gentlemen obtained powers to improve the two rivers Aire and Calder from Leeds and Wakefield to the River Ouse below Selby, thus providing a navigable waterway for conveying the produce of the clothing districts to the sea and distributing Yorkshire coal in its native county and the Midlands.

Since those remote days, the Aire and Calder Navigation has never looked back. With the years, improvements and extensions have proceeded apace.

To give examples: there was the construction of the large Canal, began in 1820, from Knottingley to Goole on the Ouse; then the conservancy of the Lower Ouse begun in 1881; the water approach for sea going vessels to the Port of Goole; also a unique system of carrying coal from the collieries for shipment, a new entrance lock to accommodate larger sea-going vessels, now approaching completion and the transformation of a fishing village into the prosperous town of Goole.

The port of Goole stands 13th among the ports of the United Kingdom in value of imports and exports and with its efficient and up-to-date methods, as shown in this book, for handling goods by water, rail and road, will continue to advance in offering facilities for all classes of traffic to and from the industrial cities and towns of the West Riding.