Honours at double as local historians granted freedom

In dozens of books and articles he has captured a now long forgotten world. Now Dr John Markham, along with fellow historian Dr Martin Craven, has been given the honorary freedom of Hedon, a town whose long history he has done much to promote.

Dr Markham, a publisher and author of dozens of local history books and thousands of newspaper articles, who was born and grew up in Hedon, said: “I was very surprised and also extremely honoured by it. I am told we have the right to graze our cows on the Westland but that would be rather inconvenient as there’s a big supermarket there and houses.

“Someone said we had a right to a free burial in Hedon – but I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

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Dr Markham has often drawn from his own experience of Hedon when it was a “country town with cows driven down the street”. “It seemed a long way to Hull through the fields; the modern housing development hadn’t started then. There were small shopkeepers and fewer cars and everyone travelled by bus and train and you got to know more people by sight. I am very grateful to have lived in that particular period.”

The presentation was made to Dr Markham, president of Hedon and District Local History Society, and Dr Craven, an author and one of the founders of Hedon Museum, by Mayor Coun Ann Suggitt “in recognition of their time and work in promoting, safeguarding and sharing the history of Hedon, their work with the Hedon Museum and their time given to Hedon Town Council over many years.”

The ceremony took place at Hedon Town Hall where both give talks on the civic silver, including the country’s oldest civic mace.

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