Old photograph album reveals 'remarkable era' in Goole's history

Photographs showing life in and around Goole in the 19th Century have gone on display at the town's museum.

The museum said the images were from an album containing a unique collection of Victorian and Edwardian photographs.

The collection includes Victorian dock workers bagging grain, local theatre productions and people shopping.

Museum curator Dr Alex Ombler said the photographs captured "a remarkable era" of life in the country's most inland port town.

The town and port of Goole was established in 1826 by the Aire & Calder Navigation Company, an enterprise which connected the industrial and coal mining regions of the West Riding to the Humber Estuary.

Dr Ombler described the photographs, which were donated by a former resident, as "breath-taking", and said they charted Goole's development during the latter part of the 19th Century.

One shot shows a group of dock workers unloading a cargo of grain by hand.

"It looks quite bleak - it looks hard work - these guys would have been employed on a casual basis and paid off when the ship left port," Dr Ombler said.

The collection also includes rare aerial shots of the town, which Dr Ombler said would have been taken from the town's water towers, known locally as the Salt & Pepper Pots.

Other shots feature local rugby and hockey teams.

"They also show the town's population going about their everyday lives - working and shopping and taking part in leisure activities," he added.

Dr Ombler said due to the original album being "too old and delicate" to handle, the museum had created a copy, with visitors invited to leave notes identifying locations and people.

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.