Place:Goole Fields, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Goole Fields is a civil parish since 1996 in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Goole town centre and lies at both sides but mainly south of the A161 road (Swinefleet Road), covering an area of 1,980.59 hectares (4,894.1 acres). It is bordered to the east by the Swinefleet Warping Drain, to the south by the Blackwater Dike, and to the west by the railway line from Goole to Doncaster.

Goole Fields is in the northwestern sector of the marshes of Hatfield Chase drained by the Netherlands civil engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in 1626–28. Before this diversion of the River Don, the area bore the name of Marshland—still occasionally used—or "Merscland" in the Domesday Book.

The civil parish contains no substantial centre of habitation but consists of a number of farms and a former council estate named "The Square". There are no shops nor a church or even a post box. A phone box can however be found in "The Square" and there are a total of five street lamps. The only addresses in Goole Fields other than those referred to by farm name are "The Barracks" (formerly the site of a military barracks) and "The Square". The only mentionable landmarks in Goole Fields are the windmill and the recently heightened riverbank.

end of Wikipedia contribution

The parish was part of the Goole Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974, then in Boothferry District of Humberside until 1996.

The River Ouse, which was the defined border between the West Riding and the East Riding of Yorkshire, takes an easterly curve towards its mouth. Because of this a number of parishes south and west of the Ouse may appear at first glance to have always been in the East Riding, but were in fact part of the West Riding until 1974. These parishes made up the Goole Rural District 1894-1974. When Humberside was abolished in 1996 it was seen fit to move them the new unitary authority of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Humberside 1974-1996

In 1974 most of what had been the East Riding of Yorkshire was joined with the northern part of Lincolnshire to became a new English county named Humberside. The urban and rural districts of the former counties were abolished and Humberside was divided into non-metropolitan districts. The new organization did not meet with the pleasure of the local citizenry and Humberside was wound up in 1996. The area north of the River Humber was separated into two "unitary authorities"—Kingston upon Hull covering the former City of Hull and its closest environs, and the less urban section to the west and to the north which, once again, named itself the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The phrase "Yorkshire and the Humber" serves no purpose in WeRelate. It refers to one of a series of basically economic regions established in 1994 and abolished for most purposes in 2011. See the Wikipedia article entited "Regions of England").

Research tips

• GENUKI on Goole Fields. GENUKI has a Snaith supplementary page to cover a number of smaller places within the parish. It gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• There is article on Goole Fields in the FamilySearch Wiki.
• There is no gazetteer description of Goole Fields in A Vision of Britain through Time.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for the Goole Rural District, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey. These maps expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. This map is not equivalent to maps for other parts of the country at this time period and does not show parish boundaries. However, Goole Rural District is clearly shown. It is at the extreme right of the map and much wider than it is long.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935. This map does show the civil parish boundaries.

Remember that the entire rural district became part of Humberside 1974-1996, but on the abolition of Humberside, some parishes joined Lincolnshire while others joined the East Riding of Yorkshire. This fact is covered on a parish by parish basis.