Meeting on 10th March, AGM and two short talks on the diaries of a Wakefield draper, and progress on the John Goodchild Collection.
Our President Pam Judkins chaired the AGM. The officers of the Society provided reports on this difficult year, but it was clear that much has been happening. Research is ongoing on Westgate, our involvement with the John Goodchild collection continues, there was a new publication on Tudor and Stuart Wakefield through our publications arm, and a new website. Both our President and the officers of the Society offered to stand again, and we were pleased to welcome a new member on the Society’s Council.
Lorraine Simpson gave a well-illustrated presentation on the diaries of John Edward Bowman (1868-1953), a Wakefield draper who recorded in detail his life over many years. As a Quaker he attended Ackworth School and continued to support it throughout his life. The family farmed Hope Hall in Flintshire and John returned there for holidays. He was apprenticed to another Quaker who had two draper’s shops in Wakefield. By 1898 John had bought his own shop on Doncaster Road opposite the cemetery, which he then extended. He recorded many events locally, such as the County Hall being built and the installation of tramlines outside his shop. He was an active man, travelling by train, and he enjoyed cycling, in 1903 covering 600 miles to Wales and back. He describes his worst days as being wash days, and the days on which a pig was slaughtered. He was a family man, proud of his four children. Lorraine has transcribed all the diaries and we look forward to their publication.
Phil Judkins described the progress of work on the John Goodchild Collection which was willed to Wakefield Council and is to be housed in the West Yorkshire History Centre on Kirkgate. The sheer magnitude of the task is daunting as there are about 3200 boxes, which put end to end would cover a mile, and which weigh about 20 tons. They include a variety of documents, photographs and other artefacts which all need cataloguing, sorting, and there are also multiple issues of conservation. At the present about half of the boxes have been listed at a high level (not in detail). Many boxes contain a wide range of assorted documents, not just local to Wakefield but from across the country. Important manorial documents would need adding to the main register which is held at the National Archives. Wakefield Council has funded the first stage of ‘box listing’ but finding the funding for full cataloguing and conservation will be very difficult, as there is only one major source of funding through ‘Archives Revealed’, and competition for this would be great due to the Covid crisis. John’s published work would need to be correlated with the Collection, and ways of funding would need to be found in order for the 3 year programme to continue.