The Railway Children of Goole

The Caukill and Taylor family that grew up in Parliament Street and Fourth Avenue, Goole, East Yorkshire were as close as any family living in the terraced streets of a northern town in Victorian Britain but more than that, both had been driven to the town by the decline in the farming industry in the late 19^th century. Their life’s had changed considerably.   

William Pearson Caukill  and family lived across the street from fellow railway worker George Henry Taylor’s family in 1901. George’s brother Frederick had married William’s daughter . George and Frederick also worked on the town’s railways, along with brother in law’s Frank, George and Tom Caukill. In fact the only adult Caukill of this family not to work on the Railway in some capacity or other was mother and daughter, both named Mary.

Each of the male Caukill’s , as with their other relatives were well known in the small town of Goole and in turn, each would appear in the local newspaper, the Goole Times between 1890 and 1953, as a result of working with the Railway.

The first to hit the headlines was Francis Flint Caukill, born in 1869 , who’s life was tragically taken in an accident at work in 1890. The twenty one year old Pilot Guard’s story would appear in the newspaper on the days following his death. An inquest reported their findings of the accident leading to his departure ahead of time. Before death, Francis had been last seen 10 minutes before and he later was discovered face down on the Railway lines having been run over by a passing train. The newspaper report .concludes with details of Frank’s funeral. Continues