The method of presenting a text covering lots of different subjects and topics, very much like a collection of short stories in fiction, appeals to me having been identified as a child as a ‘slow reader’, which I was and, to a degree, still am. A favourite book of mine dealing with various aspects of south bank history is/was ‘Land, People and Landscapes’, a series of 32 illustrated essays jointly edited by Dinah Tyszka, Keith Miller and Geoffrey Bryant. This book, published in 1991, commemorated the life and work of Rex Russell, a prolific writer, researcher and teacher who for many years was outreach tutor for Hull University in South Humberside and north Lincolnshire.
A book recently published and along similar lines is ‘Hessle in the 19th Century’, a study by three authors – Ian Wilkinson, Michael Free and Eve Johansson on behalf of Hessle Local History Society. With 11 standard chapters across 152 pages of very thorough research referencing is made easier by the deployment of side headings in each chapter, for example 12 in the chapter on Hessle Foreshore. Being a slow reader! I am still working my way through but can state from my reading so far that this is a quality publication and I happen to know that the authors are already planning a follow-up covering Stuart and Georgian Hessle (maybe Tudor as well). For a couple of decades and more it was writers in Barton that were setting the pace for quality publications on aspects of Humberside history, mainly by the structure of the Barton Book Series edited by Geoff. Bryant. Now it seems that the baton has passed to/been grabbed by Hessle authors. A lot of good books come out of Hull but sometimes these prove to be a rehash of what has gone before.
One section of Tindall Wildridge’s ‘Gleanings’ (s.p.b.) is entitled ‘Some Ancient Crosses of Holderness'(see above) which I will come onto next time.