Oral history audio recordings

Originally deposited as an audio cassette Contributors Mr Billy Harrison of Millington and Mr Eric Scaife of Pocklington. Mr Billy Harrison (00:11) Mr Harrison made a one-string violin from a cigar box over 60 years ago. (00:36) He got the instructions for making the violin from a book in the school library and made his own improvements on the design. (01:37) Mr Harrison plays 'Amazing grace' on his one string violin. (02:25) He plays 'Just a Song at Twilight.' (03:30) Part of his violin is made from a broom handle. (04:22) Mr Harrison was living at Nunburnholme and working in the gardens at Warter when he made the violin. (04:27) He worked in Pocklington 43 years ago for Mr English, at Lyndhurst. (05:02) Mr Harrison recalls some of the shops in Pocklington when he was a lad. (06:23) He got married in 1959. The house they lived in was in Union Street, [Pocklington], and belonged to Ernest Witt, a lawyer, who lived next door. (08:09) The rent was 5s 6d a week and his wife had to clean a nearby guardroom used by soldiers. Mr Harrison earned £2 a week as a gardener at the time. (08:58) Mr Harrison recalls [Will Proud], a lad who worked with him. Unfortunately Will was killed in Italy during the Second World War. (09:25) He also mentions Eric Grey, who is also dead. (09:47) Mr Harrison played in a brass band in Pocklington at one time. First he played the three valve trombone. The bandmaster at the time was Jim [Willison]. Then he went onto the tenor horn. After this he played the euphonium and then the E flat tuba. (11:37) They played in Pocklington at Christmas time. (11:47) The [local jeweller] and his son played slide trombones. (12:09) Mr Harrison remembers the Vessel Cuppers coming to Pocklington. They dressed like Morris dancers, but with black faces, and came at Martinmas and at hiring time. (14:09) Mr Harrison has created tunes for 6 hymns. (14:40) He plays a tune he composed on the cello. (16:07) Mr Harrison plays 'Abide with Me' and another, unidentified tune. (21:11) He lists some of the churches and chapels he has played in. (21:48) Mr Harrison and his friend played lead violin. This was when Mr Smith was the vicar, before Canon Christie. (22:26) It is over 40 years since Mr Harrison played in the Pocklington Church Orchestra. He was also in the special choir at the church. (22:34) [Arthur Dean] discovered that Mr Harrison could sing, and asked him to join the Methodists. (23:26) There was a pub at Warter called 'Creeping Kate'. (23:49) Mr Harrison connects this pub to a story his father told him about a farm at Methill Hall where a servant girl was practising witchcraft. She used to go to the plantation at night dressed in a white sheet, to practise chanting. Many folk thought she was a ghost. Mr Harrison's father and his friend, who had been drinking in Warter, 'Found her out.' (25:11) Mr Harrison has been told that there was a lot of witchcraft in Pocklington. (26:15) He tells the story of a shepherd who came to their house. He had the D.Ts, and had hallucinations about rats. (27:32) Mr Harrison tells an amusing story about a farmer called Albert Richardson and a miller. (29:14) Mr Harrison talks of the rumour of an underground passage between Nunburnholme Nunnery and Warter Priory, and of one from Manor Farm at Numburnholme, to Warter Priory. (29:56) He was once playing music at Stillington, [North of York], and a farmer showed them a priest's hole in his farmhouse. (32:50) Mr Harrison tells of how he once visited someone who had an old photograph of Mr Harrison's grandfather with his traction engine. (35:44) He remembers the Maypole in their paddock in Nunburnholme. (37:45) Mr Harrison plays what he describes as a 'Christmas tune' on the cello. (38:22) He plays 'Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush.' (38:52) Mr Harrison plays some unidentified tunes which they danced around the maypole to. (40:15) He plays a tune called 'Drinking'. (42:41) He plays the hymn 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'. Mr Eric Scaife of Pocklington (00:41) Mr Scaife says one of his family, Edward Scaife, has compiled a family tree. (02:20) His earliest recollections were from 1914. His father built Ebor House in Chapmangate. His father married in 1905 and moved into the house. Mr Scaife was born in 1907. There was a serviceman's club next to their house in 1914. (04:02) Mr Scaife went to the Pocklington Grammar School in 1918, and left in 1926. He had been the Head of School for 2 years and had joined the Old Boys Committee after he left. At the time of this recording he was the Chair of the Governors. (05:08) Mr Scaife tells us that he gave a talk at Lyndhurst School about the Pocklington Canal. It was built by some rich landowners in 1818 for the transportation of farm goods. (06:00) In 1847 the railway company purchased it, and the last boat came through in 1932. It was left to decay until 1969 when the Canal Amenities Society was formed. (07:27) Mr Scaife describes the annual Martinmas hirings. (09:01) He describes how before his time, there was cock fighting at the Black Bull yard. (09:25) Mr Scaife tells us that in 1657 Pocklington School had only 7 pupils. St John's lodge was a private school at one time. Mr Scaife had two aunts who were pupils there. Dewsbury House on Union Street was also private school. (10:25) Sherbutt House at the corner of Yapham was a private school. (10:55) In 1847, before Mr Scaife's time, the railway was built by George Hudson. It was always hoped that a branch from Pocklington to Driffield would be built, but the landowners would never give permission. (11:42) In recent time the old railway station has been opened as a sports hall. (12:42) Mr Scaife worked for the local authority for 43 years. He was a member of Pocklington Rural District Council from 1934 to 1974 and Chairman for the last 18 years. (13:24) He recalls conducting the negotiations for the purchase of Burnby Hall from Major Stewart. (14:06) Mr Scaife remembers when Major Stewart was a schoolmaster at Pocklington School. (15:22) At one time the RDC had their council chamber in what became Major Stewart's museum. (16:37) The Masonic Hall in Pocklington was built in 1928. The Freemasons began in Pocklington in 1922. (18:04) Mr Scaife was always involved in the Freemasons and was the founder member of two other lodges. He describes his other roles in the Freemasons. (24:23) He remembers a murder at Brass Castle Hill in Pocklington. (25:05) He recalls changes to shops and other business in Pocklington, including the smithy located between Chapmangate and Market Street. (29:16) Mr Scaife remembers when Tom English of the auctioneering family lived at Lyndhurst, before it became a school. (29:28) He discusses the development of the new housing estates around Pocklington. (31:22) Mr Scaife mentions Peter Harrison, the one-legged town crier and Albert Edward [Steele] a local grocer who was considered a 'character'. (32:31) He recalls how Listers had a horse and wagonette, and used to drive around the town scattering coins for the children. (33:31) Mr Scaife recalls horse fairs in Market Street. (34:22) He lived at Warter for 40 years. He can remember when Mr Vesty died and they sold his estate. The Priory was pulled down when it was in the hands of the Guiness Trust. (36:56) Mr Scaife recalls being in the office at Warter Priory when Mr Vesty came in to view it before he bought it. He owned it between 1927 and 1969. (38:09) The house contents and garden ornaments were sold off at the end of the Vesty's ownership of the Priory. (39:11) Mr Scaife says that Nunburnholme was the name taken by Charles Wilson when he was made a baron in the early 1900s. (40:22) Mr Scaife describes how that he organised the transportation of the Wilson family coffins from the garden of the Priory to the church at Warter. (42:17) He remembers when Lord Hotham's estate at Dalton Holme was divided up. Some farms near Warter were previously part of this estate. (43:18) Mr Scaife's life had been devoted to Masonry and public service from 1931 to 1974. (43:54) He says that the population of Pocklington in 1743 was 943. In his lifetime it has doubled to between five and six thousand. (44:25) Mr Scaife comments on the activities of some local housing estate builders. Public access copy available in Audio-Visual room

Originally deposited as an audio cassette Contributors Mr and Mrs Wilkinson of Nunburnholme Public access copy available in Audio-Visual room

Originally deposited as an audio cassette Contributor Councillor Jack Buttle (00:10) Introduction to Councillor Jack Buttle. (00:30) Jack says that St Helens Gate gets its name because 'gates' were places in which smallholders could hold sheep. St Helen is the name of one of the springs in the area. (01:40) There was a St Helen's well on Chapel Hill. (03:04) Archbishop Ullathorne was related to Jack. The bishop was born in Pocklington, and was bishop of Birmingham before taking Catholicism to Australia. (04:46) Jack tells us that his family came from Holme-on-Spalding Moor Hall to Pocklington in 1430. (05:01) He remembers Chapel Hill being called Primrose Hill. At one time church services were held there in a temporary building, which is why it is now called Chapel Hill. (05:58) Jack says that the oldest street in Pocklington is Chapmangate. It is named after the chapmen who carried their goods on pack horses and would lay them out for sale on the ground there. (06:49) Waterloo Buildings is named after the battle of 1815. It was a public house that subsequently closed. (11:12) There were hump-backed bridges over the beck at one time. Jack describes the course of the beck before it was covered over. (11:57) Jack remembers living at Brass Castle Hill. (12:45) Smithy Hill had no 'smithy' there in Jack's time. The blacksmith was in Church Lane. (14:38) Jack recalls that West Green ran past where the railway used to be. (16:55) He explains that feast days are registered in the town charter. (17:19) Jack says that he had been a councillor for thirty-one years. (17:59 Vessel Cuppers, a type of mummer, used to come around before Christmas. They were very good male singers. (19:04) Jack's parents and grandparents ran a butchers stall opposite the Feathers Hotel. They gave meat to poor people at the end of the day. (20:39) Jack's father was born in Union Street. He and Jack's uncles were members of the first rugby union club in Pocklington. (21:46) Jack remembers the Star Inn, which is now [Colbeck's] shop. (23:43) Policeman Moody once told Jack that he had seen a female ghost in one of the lanes in Everingham. (24:19) The Feathers Hotel is the third such hotel with that name on the site. (25:09) The old building that is now the cinema was once Hawk House. It had a cockfighting chamber. There was a serving bar at the Black Bull for serving drinks to people in Hawk House. (25:53) Jack is asked about old stone crosses in the churchyard. The only one he can remember was found in the churchyard underneath the church tower. (26:37) Three of his grandfather Bentley's family are buried in front of the pulpit in the Church. (27:15) His grandfather Bentley ran a public house, the Old Red Lion. He also had a butcher's business, and a fellmongers (dealer in hides or skins) business. (28:08) Market Street used to be called Swinegate. (28:39) There was an old pub on that street with 'crooks' in the walls so that working people could hang pens on it as a way of displaying pigs for sale. (29:09) There was a public house in George Street called the Royal Oak. But the oldest pub was in Chapmangate. It was called the Tiger Inn, and was later a fish and chip shop. There was also a pub called the Buck Hotel, which no longer exists. (30:24) Jack says that the Cross keys is a very old pub, but the Feathers Hotel is the oldest pub in Pocklington. (30:40) They discuss church buildings near the Methodist cemeteries. (31:44) Jack says that John Wesley came to Pocklington, riding his horse down George Street. (31:55) He remembers the Masonic Hall being built for the freemasons. Manor Court was a farmyard at the time, and the Hall was built in a field. Jack's uncle Percy [Jewlson] and his brother-in-law Noel [Moore's] father were founding members. (33:33) The [Moores] were one of the farmers on the land where the airfield was built. (34:46) York View was in Barmby Parish until they changed the boundaries. (35:18) Jack lists the people who have owned [Kilnwick] Mansion. (36:41) [Millington] Springs is the water which runs past the church in a beck. The wood nearby is called Ginny [Furkin], named after someone who was cooling butter in the beck and drowned. (37:45) Jack discusses the supplies of spring water in Pocklington. (38:52) He says that Garrowby Hill is a Roman road and the next oldest road is 'the Hodsons' [Hodson Lane], another Roman road. (40:16) Bishop Wilton is named after a bishop. Jack says that gravediggers often found parts of an old building when they dug graves. There was an archbishop's palace there at one time. (41:58) He says that Givendale has a Norman church. The area has been excavated and an old village was discovered north of the church. (43:31) Jack believes that the last witch to be burned at the stake in England was burned in Pocklington Market. (44:09) He says that the Star Inn had a thatched roof at one time and then it had another storey added. At the same time they added a tiled roof and faced the walls with new bricks. (45:12) The shop where Jack worked as a grocer had very thick walls, which were especially noticeable in the cellar. Public access copy available in Audio-Visual room