Sutton & Wawne Museum - our Museum Page

Sutton & Wawne Museum inside the Old School in Sutton village, Sutton in Holderness

the last train to Sutton has long gone ;

MUSEUM EVENTS & NEW ITEMS

plus snippets of This & That and lots of memories further below

NEWS FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS 15 Jan 2025

Do you live abroad, or well away from the county of your family heritage?
Do you have a list of distant family members from the 1700-1800s in several
remote villages and hamlets and no idea where they all are in relation to each other.
You may have many links to, say Devon, Norfolk and Leicestershire, but if you live in Toronto, Adelaide or even Scotland and not familiar with those counties, it can be most frustrating.

Modern maps, Google etc, are okay if those villages are still the same, and still spelt the same, not swallowed up by nearby towns and cities. You could do with an easy to use app that finds your villages quickly, then also gave you a list of all the other villages within 10 miles roundabout. ParLoc ... Parish Locator. Designed and set up by an independant family historian, free to all, and very easy to download and install on Windows. I've been using it for some 10+ years, and frequently pass it on to others via this link, or the main installation file I keep with me on a USB stick. All these links open in a new browser window. Magic!

Use with BingMaps and choose their Ordnance Survey Map option from the side menu. It does work on an Android phone, only in Bing. When the Worldwide map pops up, you have to click the three little dots, top right, and select the Desktop version. Works even better sideways! (Much thanks to Lisa, of Allwaysonthego, a mum of three in Cheshire. Brilliant!). Zoom in close, and you get better contours and even field boundaries! More Magic!

For very old maps going back to 1850s up to the 1920s, use National Library of Scotland's maps. Zoom in to your area to enlarge the squares, click a square to select it, then choose your date from the right hand list. Again, for mobiles, 'Desktop' site is a good choice.
The thing to remember with old O/S maps of 100 years ago, when it shows a tree, or line of trees, in a field .. they were there! Of course, only the biggest trees, assume they are large.

Using these 3 links together, in conjunction, you'll think your whole life has turned a corner!

OLD SUTTON 'SPORTY' PICS

These two excellent photos, and the poster, emerged when rummaging through our unscanned archives recently.

They were donated some time ago by Mrs Cynthia Richardson (neé Simpson), lately of Woodmansey but in her youth of 'Mura' at the former RA army camp on Wawne Rd in Sutton.

Clicking either photo will bring up the reverse, showing the teams. Clicking the named text links in between loads the full-sized image.

The colour photo was marked as 1960?, but I believe it to be the same time, roughly, as the b&w pic on account of the tiny Kodak print stamp showing 1962. I wouldn't have thought they would have taken 2 yrs to get it printed. On the colour pic, one team member, centre back row, is unnamed.

CLICK for full screen image ..... either
BLACK & WHITE or COLOUR

GOOGLE BUSINESS REVIEWS:

We would like it to be known that our Google Business site has been withdrawn by Google. It was good and free while it lasted, but nothing free lasts forever, and they now charge quite a substantial annual subscription to businesses keep it. The entry on Google Maps still appears, but we can't edit it.

Additionally, we get many, many 'offers', emails from so-called web designers, agencies and the like, offering to re-design this website, and remove 'negative content' from our Google Business site ... which we no longer have anyway. I firmly believe that is akin to fraud, or rank dishonesty ... if members of the public post criticism of any business, even a small volunteer-funded museum like ours, paying some tricksters to have them removed is akin to telling lies.

It applies everywhere, we can now assume that all the big firms of this world pay to have critical reviews of their products or services removed. If a museum visitor later posts a comment anywhere about us, say for instance our staff were unhelpful, or our service for tea was slow or expensive, we would address that failing and put it right, not gag the person saying it. To do that would be outright dishonesty.

So folks beware, when you look down the list of online Google reviews for any firm or product and they are all good and glowing and seem too good to be true, you are right, you are almost certainly being deceived and effectively lied to.

The difference between the old English definitions between 'marketing' and 'lying' has effectively been stripped away in today's internet world. Dishonesty, lying, fraud, deception, cheating ... all those now come under the overall heading of marketing and advertising.

Go careful, trust no one, use common sense. And remember, we pay NO-ONE to tell lies or deceive on our behalf. With us, what you see is what you get.

REFURBISHMENT OF OUR HONOURS FRAMES

Friday 6 December 2024
... all are clickable to enlarge


Volunteers Simon (in the chair), Alan, Phil & Gary
after the re-fixing of our refurbished medal frames.

Our latest volunteer, Phil, took our rather worn looking medal frames home
and completely re-ordered them to improve the ones we already had.
Phil also made a new frame (in the centre) to accomodate our
recently aquired photo, medal and history relating to
F/Lt Patterson Clarence Hughes, DFC, buried here in St James' churchyard.

Simon, Gary and Alan between them did the quite tricky refixing to our
dilapidated wall, tricky because they managed it without
removing or damaging any other part of our military displays.

Also allied to our information on F/Lt Pat Hughes are these two latest,
and quite possibly the very last, photos we'll receive of Pat for our pages.
These have been donated by David Moor, son of Pat's widow Kathleen,
along with the medal, other previously unknown photos, and a small
archive of documents and personal family letters.

These show Pat whilst still in Australia, when training and in his
early days with the RAAF, before he came to Britain to join the RAF.
The notes on the back suggest his little dog was called "Flying Officer Butch."
See the full story of this incredible Australian, on our dedicated page here.

UPDATE: as of JAN 2025

Followers of this page and Pat's story may be interested to know of a recent project in Australia, at the Scone Memorial Airport, in NSW a good way north of Canberra. Here is a museum with a project called the "Hunter Fighter Collection" where they restore historic aircraft of special interest to the RAAF and Australian airmen, from bi-planes to modern jet fighters.

One such project is an incredible undertaking to restore Pat's actual wrecked Spitfire X4009, recovered from it's crash site all those years ago in Surrey. This project aims to be able Pat's Spitfire to display for visitors as best as it can be restored.

SEE MORE HERE

The Sutton Cubs & Beavers Evening Visit

Wednesday 20 November 2024
photos by their leaders ... all are clickable to enlarge





A selection of photos from the leaders of the Beavers and Cubs
who came to visit us on a winter's Wednesday evening.

A most enjoyable and rewarding visit, for all the Volunteers too!

For any 8 to 12 year olds that might like a good historical story,
we have one about two likely lads called Wattle and Daub,
a pair of mischevious builders in the 1600s. Not for adults ... beware!

Wattle & Daub

Six images from 2024 Remembrance Sunday on Nov 11th
photos by Gary Higham ... all are clickable to enlarge

1. First is Peter Blyth, a senior volunteer, himself an army veteran and also wearing his own father's decorations for WW2 and Normandy.

2. A table set up by our ladies inside the museum hall, our own commemorative display.

3. Our ladies serving refreshments to visitors in our tea room.

4. Our outside display of knitted poppies and the Sutton station seat.

5. Peter, Simon and Liz, three of our volunteers, before the service.

6. Our main hall inside the museum afterwards, busy with visitors taking refreshments.

OLD SCHOOL RE-UNION
- a 25th Anniversary of the First One

was held on Saturday afternoon, 5th OCTOBER, at 1.pm.
It certainly was a superb day, and the weather stayed fine for us.
... to ...

The pics above are enlargable, by the way.

Two images from our Re-Union Day on Oct 5th

Former pupils gathered in our tearoom on Re-Union Day,
to view a superb selection of 50yr-old ciné film of Sutton children
at this school, along with parents and teachers, in the 1950s-60s.
Edited and presented by Tony Prosser, it features Sports Days,
Harvest Festivals, Fancy Dress Parades, and much more.
Click Here to load the second photo, full screen.

Colin has posted some more excellent memories of the day
over on the Museum's FACEBOOK PAGE
So you don't lose this page, it loads in a new browser window.

THE CINÉ/VIDEO CLIPS

Tony has now edited for us all the videos he displayed on that day,
now available for us to show in the Museum on Fridays.

As an experiment, here is a short clip of one of them.
We can't post all of them, not enough webspace,
so we'll change this link to a fresh one from time to time.
Even then, some at over 100Mb are way to large for here.

Harvest Festival 1964 ... about 45 secs.

It may well be that some of you might recognise yourselves,
siblings and classmates amongst these short clips,
edited to be as bright and clear as they can be.

These images should bring back a few memories for you
younger ones, perhaps whet some appetites.
These Eric Johnson photos are dated roughly late 1960's, and some of these children may well have been amongst those that moved to Dorchester Road when the Old School closed in 1976. We have the registers only up to 1973, as sadly, the last three years were lost in a bad flood they had down Leads Road. These little guys and gals will be somewhere in their 60s now, with grandkids of their own.



Don't know who told us, but there is a rumour about that the faded Four Circles may be restored.
Those who were there will know what we mean. They can be seen on the aerial photo below.

DOMINOES READING BOOKS

How many recall the ‘Dominoes’ series of reading books for early years pupils?
These were published nationwide, but the photos were by Sutton St James’ headmaster, Mr Eric Johnson, under contract from the Department of Education at the time. These were published around 1970-72.

We have quite a little collection of these in the museum, courtesy of former pupil Diane E Sharp, who gave us her whole collection of the blue and pink covered titles. We’re still missing a couple, which we would readily scan on the spot and return to owners if they’d loaned them to us.

The children in these books are surely the parents and grandparents of some local Sutton and Hull children today.

It may interest folks to know that the whole photo collection we hold of former headmaster, Eric Johnson, is now quite considerable. There are some 110 individual photos from these ‘Dominoes’ books, around 46 older b&w studies from the late ‘40s and the ‘50s, of class and team photos. Then there are the original slides we copied some years back, glorious full colour photographic studies, many of which would easily have been prize winners in competitions of their day. We have 62 of those.

So in total, well over 200 photos of Sutton children over the years, albeit most of them of the later years, late ‘60s and into the 1970s.   All saved digitally, and all can be viewed on the museum computer on request on Fridays. By any standards, that is some village collection.

Folks will appreciate that we can’t put the whole collection online, only a few of them occasionally at a time … webspace has to be paid for, and we have a considerable amount up here already.

** NEW **

SUTTON on HULL MUGS

It did all go as planned. Andrew and Judy Suddaby dropped by, and not for the first time, bringing gifts. As was Len, his father, long-time museum supporter Andrew was a keen photographer, taking photos of his Sutton birthplace since his boyhood days in the village.

The gift he brought, a dozen Fine Bone China mugs, featuring one of his own photos of Church Street in 1969, just before the village lost the 'white cottages'. Designed by Andrew himself, and produced by a Staffordshire pottery, these are now on sale in the Museum at £12 each, with all proceeds to our funds.

Click the first to enlarge, the other 'mouseover'.

UPDATE : 9th Oct ... just 8 left .. at £10.

First-come-first-served, these are now available to pick up at the museum on Fridays.
Sorry, we can't supply postal orders, though we did have a second delivery as planned, later in the summer, when this first 12 had ran out.

Postal charges today make p&p now totally uneconomic, plus all the ever-growing issues with an incompetent - and increasingly - dishonest mail delivery system, whether RM or private carriers - let alone issues of breakages.

We'd need to buy in very strong boxes, so do please note, these mugs do not come in their own presentation boxes if you're thinking of sending them by post yourself.
We get them in a large box, six at a time, but simply wrapped in individual plastic bags.

The photo Andrew used is based on this 1969 view he used in his short video on the DVD.

Here, Andrew & Judy partaking of our highly unusual sunshine and rare warmth.
Thank you, both of you, for your valued support.

..

THE HEWSON FAMILY VISIT

A long-planned visit, by David Barrett of the Denver, Colorado branch of the late Melville Hewson's family went very well indeed on Tuesday, 21 May. And for once, we were very lucky the weather stayed fair.

Melville's sister is David's mother, Hazel Hewson Barrett, very elderly now and still living in the USA. Many older Sutton residents will recall the family living just around the corner inside the top of Leeds Road, and even further back in time in Albert Terrace.

Peter King, churchwarden, hosted them for their visit to St James', and some family graves in the churchyard. Then the party of 8 came to us in the museum, for much needed cups of tea, and to view our photo collection and the school registers.

In the end, we had most of the 19 or so albums down off the shelves as Hewson family members appear here and there over the decades in most of them.

Melville's daughter, Jane, who hosted her American relatives, was delighted to find herself and other relatives in our preserved and scanned School Registers. Jane herself attended the school right up to its closure in 1976.

Cousin Gill (neé Feeney) was especially delighted to find her own father, who attended our school from 1909 to 1919. She has previous seen her own entry before, but had never been able to find her own father. Must admit, given the very scrolling handwriting, and very faded too, he wasn't easy to find.

It was a very enjoyable visit, all our volunteers very much enjoyed meeting them. Volunteer Peter Blyth, actually knew and 'knocked around with' Melville and other family members. David is taking one of our new Sutton on Hull china mugs back to Denver for his mother. Just the sort of special occasion for the more distant and oveseas Sutton families to arrange, and we're more than happy to host.

----- * * * -----

THE BUTCHER'S CORNER

The pics above are about 6 years ago, of the first bend on Lowgate. Not so many years back, 1970s, it was the site of Arthur Holmes' butcher's shop. The actual shop is just seen on the far left of the first pic, the 'JKT' office, and the building round the bend was his rear abbatoir where the beast were, let's say, 'being prepared', and could be seen through those 'Carpet Shop' big doors.

..

Mr Holmes, seen here circa 1932 with his van, and dog. The artwork was saved from the business when it closed, and a huge mural of a very similar design was on the curved wall on the bend between the upper and lower windows. Or was this the pic.
We'd love a pic of it if anyone has one.

OUR 'GOOGLE PRESENCE' ... on maps
We used to get totally free advertising on Google, via their maps. We were able to 'post' updates, week-to-week, on events, a sort of mini-replication of what we show on our website.

We were recently 'invited' by Google to fill in a form to get more visitors from their maps. I was suspicious, but went through the motions and forms, filling in keywords and advertising phrases explaining what, who and where we are.

Wonderful, I thought. Until I got to the last bit, after wasting so much time filling in pointless forms, to find that this is all for their new Business Page for our 'business'. To whit their charge would be £4.70 PER DAY! Yee Gods!

So, I now get repeated email adverts from Google, almost pestering, to take up their wonderful offer. £30 a week they want. We haven't quite disappeared from the maps yet, but I expect it.

Naturally, we've declined their generous invite to expand our business and get thousands of more online visitors all around the world. So, can we soon expect our entry in Sutton village, on Google Maps, to disappear? As if we've closed or gone out of business. We sure would at that extortionate rate of charge! Well, it is business, and it is American. The place to have shares in, that's fer' sure.
THE OLD CINÉ FILMS:
Further developments re the old John Riley ciné film of our old school and village events mean we now have more to tell. Progress in organising and identify individual clips and scenes meant that were able to do a ‘Presentation’ to former pupils on the day of our Re-union on 5th October.

There is a short clip of Sutton village ladies below, just one short extract, a tiny bit of a show that took almost an hour in total. Even then, there is more than could possibly show in one go.

Tony Prosser, former pupil and retired teacher himself, has taken individual clips and organised them for us to help better identification of individual pupils and adults.

His presentation was truly a revelation, as we viewed Sports Days, Harvest Festivals, a trip to Cleethorpes and Thornton Abbey with a ride on the Humber Ferry, Fancy Dress parades, and others.

SUTTON SCOUTS, GUIDES & CUBS

A recent contact with Adam, the leader of Sutton Methodist Cubs, highlighted the fact that we (thought) we know very little about the history of Scouts, Cubs and Guides in Sutton village. I was wrong, see right!.
We have a few photos, and a couple of our volunteers and former pupils in the Old School have supplied many photos. When did scouting start in Sutton? Was it soon after Baden-Powell started the movement in 1907, or later perhaps after the Great War?

Who were the first scout and cub leaders? At first, your webmanager unknowingly told a fib here. We do in fact have quite a bit of history of early scouting in Sutton. But we always welcome more info, photos etc. We do now have a "Scouting and Guiding" folder in our collection, to which a large number of new items from the 1950s is about to be added.
A BUILDERS GUARD OF HONOUR
This photo has been awaiting over a year for showing; my apols to folks that had been looking for it. Sent by Rob Kirby, formerly on Sutton now in Liverpool, this is his family's own photo of the St James Church Hall builders, the Beckett brothers, who all worked for Sewells, the main contractor.
Amongst them are George, Arthur, Ted and Jim.
Others are a Hakeney - Frank or Moss, and Cyril Ducker. Exactly which are which, who was who, we've no idea. Over to you folks!

prior to opening of St James Church Hall in 1933

AMAZING WHAT TECH CAN DO

CLASS of 1958
One of several class photos new to us, from former pupil, and later a teacher himself at Ald Cogan, Tony Prosser.
As you can see, the photo was rather well-worn, as we might say, as are many class photos after 50yrs.
This took about an hour or so with a digital pen.
Not perfect, not by any means, but I rather think Mr Johnson, who took this image of his wife's class of boys, would have been rather pleased with the result.

HISTORIC ENGLAND
AERIAL PHOTOS ... for free!

I wonder if this will catch someone's eye.

The link below is to this 1942 aerial RAF recce photo.

We see the village, the gunsite, and just
a tip of RAF Sutton at the bottom.
Sharp eyes will spot inflated balloons,
and even anti-glider landing obstacles.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW
in new window . . .

... this one of Sept 1946 shows aircraft!

and this of Aug 1931 shows Stoneferry
Magic or what!!

if impressed . . . .
you can get me a cup of coffee on Fridays!

(they've had problems with some aerial images at the site recently; seems to be fixed now : worth trying again)

WHAT 3 WORDS

Do you know what your own home's 'What 3 Words' are? The 3 words that could be your lifesaver in a serious emergency? Just three little words, if you already know them, shouted into a phone will bring the emergency services to your front door pronto .. real quick! The Museum's 3 words are 'tune.amount.orchestra.'
Every address in the country has them, more accurate than a postcode.
As us in the museum to help you to find yours ... and teach your kids. Seriously.

There's more details below, with a link on how to find yours.
Or Ask us to Help.

UPDATED CHURCHYARD LISTS
The Churchyard Lists for both churches, at Sutton and at Wawne, have had a 'new' update. No extra graves, the lists are exactly the same, but a new format has been added, in that a new list for both shows all the graves in date order, by year. The link is on the existing lists.

For the past few years, both lists have been first shown by surname alphabetically, and then also in numerical order, according to their numbered listing in the Monumental Inscription booklets, listing every grave and what could be read on the headstone the last time it was readable in the 1970s.
The new lists just show the earliest graves, from the mid-1700s, to modern times, so roughly up to the new millenium, c.2000-2010.

TWO SUTTON VIEWS
Here's another view most of you would not have seen from this angle, but I'd bet many of you former pupils will see many things to recognise in this cracking quality photo. I've scanned it good quality and left it big enough to fill the screen. Click to open in a new browser window, and see it enlarged. It will show full screen if you know how; pressing F11 helps, or sometimes Fn+F11, depends on your keyboard setup. See what you can pick out, what features take you back years and years .... something tells me this was a school day, and this was in the morning before break time.

One feature, almost unnoticeable, is a real joy, being Eric Johnson's greenhouse. Former headmaster Mr Johnson was keen on gardening, and just as keen on introducing children to this valuable hobby. So the pupils had a thriving little garden at the back of the school. This is the only known image we have of it. Many thanks to Pam (neé Suddaby) and Rob for bringing this in for us. A lovely quality pic. Update: though we do have some short clips from John Riley's cine film of the boys helping to build and assemble it. Hope to show some of that soon in a 'presentation.'

Another quality photo from Pam here on the left that may bring back distant memories for Sutton folk. In a way, although a mile or two distant from the village itself, this scene almost epitomises what Sutton felt like back then, rural, a bit out of the way, peaceful and with definite overtones of the old world of England long ago. Castle Hill Road was a very popular venue for a Sunday afternoon walk, and many boys and girls will remember playing amongst those trees on the old mound, just near Castle Hill Farm, now sadly no more.

Several local farms of fond memory have long since ceased to exist. Old Sutton folk that revisit often ask us exactly where it was, as they are confused by the newer Noddle Hill Way cutting right across it, actually not far from where this drain bridge was and behind the camera. If you can find it on your map, and take a straight line across Noddle Hill, the old lane cuts right through where Biggin Hill School is now, and would exit onto Wawne Road roughly opposite Barnstaple Road today.

Another of Pam's precious keepsakes that she has donated to our museum is this Victory Charter, signed by the King, a copy of which was given to every schoolchild in Hull - maybe nationwide too, I don't know. Click the image to enlarge and read. The reverse side has a sort of 'war diary' of notable wartime events, of defeats and victories and is a sort of memory jogger to children who grew up during those times.

The bottom of the other side of the page leaves a space for families to enter details of their own particular family's contribution to the war, intended to be marked to honour those who served on the Home Front as firemen, air raid wardens, Civil Defence volunteers, and of course, any who served in the military, in whatever capacity. Pam didn't fill this in, but we know that her father Len Suddaby served in the RAF as a photo recconnaisance interpreter. He was one of many in the large teams of 'back-room boys' making sense of the valuable intelligence gathered by those brave pilots who flew very high in unarmed Spitfires and Hurricanes over enemy territory to gather those very highly detailed photos. These are what enabled such detailed plans to be made for the eventual invasions in Italy, and later, on the Normandy coast of France on D-Day. Click HERE to read the back and see how much of that history you know .. and spot those events left out.

Some More Vague Sutton Memories

Let's start with a memory of an old Sutton farm, Woldview Farm on Leads Rd. This is the corner Midmere Avenue and was taken around 30 years ago, when it was still very like building that we see here in this 1960s view.
The memory is prompted by recent visits by ex-Sutton residents to the museum and pouring over our huge photo collections, and also some of the scanned pen & ink drawings by the late Ken Cook. There are several featuring scenes on Leads Rd, including the old garage once owned by Ken's parents who lived at Springfield Cottage. Quite a lot of local young folk, now in their late teens and early twenties, will remember this house as being their 'Cherub Nursery' up until quite recently in memory terms, only some five years ago or so, albeit with a huge extension on the side nearest this corner. Time moves on, scenes change, and memories are made to be filed away in the back of our minds, only to be brought back to life by an unexpected image such as this. There are many more on these pages ... explore, enjoy!

_____________________________________________

THE ADVENT OF STEAM ... for those with an interest in steam engines and such ...
Talking of farming, of years ago, brings me to this fascinating discovery. An entry in a massive newspaper sheet for a paper called "The Pilot", dated 12 June, 1837, just eight days before Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. This little extract details a fascinating farming experiment; see what you think. For I think they started something big here. Print quality was quite poor, so tidied up a fair a bit to make it all more readable.
It's saved as a photo, jpg, and loads MUCH bigger if you click it ...

NOTES: Horwich is over on the Lancashire Moors, roughly between Wigan and Bolton. Red Moss is now a noted nature reserve. This agricultural-industrial history is well known to the "LANCASHIRE PAST" website, which details a lot more, includes a drawing sketch of this phenomenal machine.Take a look ....
click to load in a new window. I have a feeling this experiment led to major changes in farming that very quickly even affected our area. The common census entry, "ploughman", would soon become more and more rare.

A fine bit of English journalism for it's time, that explains it very clearly, without undue drama, so it is almost visual in the imagination -- I couldn't have put it better myself. Having said that, do click the link above to view it ... amazing!

__________________________________________________________________

FROM THE TOWER
Another set of memories here, for those who were lucky enough to get up there and see these views. Looks like there may have been a late fall of snow, and it's springtime. These might have been taken on St George's Day. The very observant will note that, in the view of the school, the playground is still fully concreted, and we can just see the tip of Mr Johnson's greenhouse peeping out in from the other side of the dividing fence behind the new vicarage, in front of the white hut, the senior pupil's classroom by that time. Memories!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OUR CHATTY CAFE

On arriving at the Old School to unlock, shortly before 10am, I was struck by the cheerful sunlight streaming through into our 'Chatty-Cafe', seen here in these three snapshots. After some of the weekends we've had, we consider ourselves most fortunate to get several decent ones on the trot for our Heritage Weekends. After the extensive hard work the volunteer team have put in to their displays, they deserve some reward for their efforts. By the way, look at the right-hand pic showing the serving hatch. Directly above, mounted on a strip of varnished wood, is our original Sutton Station sign, relocated from our preserved seat, just outside our main door. The one on the seat is a copy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KEN COOKE'S DRAWINGS

Progress on archiving the late Ken Cooke's pen and ink drawing collection is now complete. We have now scanned and catalogued 107 in total, unless anyone knows of any more. A good 60 or so are of other villages out and about around East Yorkshire.

A lady met me at the gate as I unlocked a week or so ago. Beverley had come all the way from Australia tracing her family history. She had a good list of graves to search for, by the name of 'Ashton', in both Sutton and at Wawne, and several other villages round and about. But, sad to say, we could not find one single record or grave photo. All we could say was that, for graves of the era she was searching for, 1700s-early 1800s, they would be fairly close to the church itself. But, if there had been headstones, they had gone by the time the Monumental Inscription booklet was compiled and published in the early 1970s, so no photo or record of any headstone either as that archive is the Bernard Sharpe Collection, which he started in 2008. So apart from a cup of coffee and our best wishes for the rest of her holiday, it was a fruitless search. Her info was from reliable sources, Ancestry, FindMyPast and FamilySearch, which also gave her baptisms back to the 1700s, so we know her folks are in there. Just no stone left to see, and no record either, other than what is in the old record books now held at The Treasure House in Beverley. A great shame. It's not often that happens, drawing a total blank.

Former pupil John Wall brought us photos of his late parents' shop. Many will remember the former WALL'S store near "The Ship Inn". He also brought us some photos of horses and ponies they used to own, soon to be posted on "The Pinfold" page. John went to Cavendish Rd School, and remembers many of his contemporaries that were friends that came to this school. I'm guessing many pupils here bought their crisps and sweets in his mum and dad's shop.

Just for fun, click the first vase of flowers on the Home Page for a musical puzzle. The puzzle was a charming love message, from a soldier based in Sutton in WW1, Cpl Barlow of the RGA, to his longed-for sweetheart. Men were romantic, and charming, and real gentlemen in those days. Most old pupils will get it, though I doubt many today will. I'm not 'musical', can't play a note, but I got it. Always remember 'the scales'.

Another visitor was former pupil here Alex Watson. Whom we now know was the donor of a small collection of school class photos from the late 1950s to 1963, taken by Eric Johnson. I only posted one of them on this site last night, taken from a part of Merrill's photo collection, but unamed. I had no idea where they had come from; now we know they were Alex's, left to us by him anonymously one day on a CD he had prepared. It's quite a little set. Go to the Home Page, find the graphic of the school, and click one of the white circles on the school wall. Old girls will remember playing ball to those circles, and the boys cricket at the painted white stumps below.