by Rebecca Hannant
Thorngumbald Primary School has launched a partnership with East Riding Council and the wider community to gather information on the village’s rich history.
So far, the project has seen the school team up with East Riding Archives to find old documents detailing the lives of people, businesses and notable events. Initial work has seen them find more than 1,000 documents covering more than 1,000 years.
Head teacher Sarah Norton said: “What we are trying to look at as a school is to add to our history curriculum and trying to give the children a sense of place. We are also teaching them what Thorngumbald was like in the past.
“We were really struggling as a school to try to find information. I got in touch with Hannah from the archives, and she has come up with so much information.
“We can now start to weave this into our curriculum. Our year six students do crime and punishment as a topic, now Hannah has found some actual documentation of police records and constables. We can bring this into the curriculum and get some voices from the past.
“Hopefully it will get them excited about history and the village. We have over 1,000 years of stories which we are hoping to share with the villagers and the wider community.”
Hannah Stamp from the East Riding Archives said: “What I have done is delve deep into the archives for stories and original documents. I was very surprised to see that there was so much more than I initially expected. Thorngumbald has such a rich and fascinating history that I don’t think is very well known.
“The documents start from the Viking period, going through the medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian eras all the way through to the present day. So, ranging from the Domesday Book to now. There are lots and lots of different stories. There is so much to uncover.
“I love how the name of the village has changed over times. It’s all the way from Thorn and Torn back in the Viking period. It has been named as Thornaguband, and it acquired the Gumbald name from the lord of the manor.”
On Wednesday, June 26, Thorngumbald Primary School held an exhibition to showcase the documents to the wider community, which attracted lots of visitors over the course of the evening. The information gathered will be weaved into the school’s curriculum later in the year.