Pocklington event to celebrate major William Wilberforce landmark
Pocklington School and Pocklington Church Friends will come together on Friday, November 20 to mark William Wilberforce’s formative years in Pocklington with a unique evening of music, poetry and history.
The celebration also marks the 250th anniversary of William Wilberforce leaving Pocklington to travel to Cambridge and change the world.
There will be contributions by Pocklington School staff and pupils, including the head, Becky Lovelock, and the school’s Chamber Choir providing choral numbers, plus the vicar of Pocklington, Jake Belder, also taking part.
The evening will close with the long-standing MP for Goole and Pocklington, Sir David Davis, reading extracts from Wilberforce’s 1789 abolition address to the house, dubbed ‘The Greatest Speech in the History of Parliament’.
William Wilberforce arrived at Pocklington School in 1771 as a delicate, impressionable 12-year-old boy; he left five years later as a confident, popular young man, who also loved music and singing. And it is clear from his teenage essays plus the reminiscences of his schoolmates that his views on the horrors of slavery were already forming.
Leaving the East Riding for Cambridge University, he became a Member of Parliament while still a student at age 21; serving as an MP for another 45 years and overcoming major odds and health problems to lead the anti-slavery campaign to its fruition.
He supported many other humanitarian and Christian causes and campaigns, home and abroad, including being a founder member of the RSPCA.
Sir David Davis said: “I was very pleased to be asked to read extracts of Wilberforce’s 1789 address to Parliament setting out the case for the abolition of the slave trade, known by many as ‘The Greatest Speech in the History of Parliament.”’
A spokesperson said: “The event will explore the Wilberforce’s local family history, Pocklington life of the 1770s through Wilberforce’s own eyes; and local historian, Phil Gilbank, will relate some new material about his teenage years that has laid hidden in the archives for two centuries. The evening will also reflect his amazing achievements after he left East Yorkshire and went on to change the world.
“There will be a small exhibition on display with an opportunity to view and discuss his life and time. The event is in All Saints Church, where Wilberforce attended regularly during his Pocklington years; tickets are £5, available from the Pocklington church office or via eventbrite.”