Life in 'forgotten' Yorkshire town desperate to shake its harsh 90s nickname

Locals in a ‘forgotten’ Yorkshire town have spoken about their hometown’s damning nickname ‘Sleepy Hollow’. The term is accepted with a sense of apathy, not dissimilar to the townsfolk in the famous gothic tale.

Goole, a port town, beside the River Ouse, on the cusp of the North and East Yorkshire border, has long been described as ‘forgotten’ due to the high levels of deprivation. Residents have described it as 'trapped' in the early 1990s, a quiet town that is 'not the most attractive [of] places'.

It is home to the UK’s most inland port which once harboured a thriving shipping industry. Despite this, the grey and run-down urban area has long been the butt of jokes, with its name widely believed to have been derived from the phrase 'open sewer'.

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This derisive rumour stems from the fact the actual origin of the name comes from the Middle English word ‘goule,’ meaning ‘channel made by a stream’. This was dispelled by experts in 2022, since there were no sewers in the area at the time. The first known printed use of the ‘open sewer’ description of the town was used in the Daily Mirror in 1999.

The far more eerie, sinister title ‘Sleepy Hollow’ clings to the town like a spectral force, however. Locals have said they’ve been aware of this odd nickname for their whole lives. It becoming a joke that Goole residents have come to accept and even use themselves.

The term is a reference to the popular gothic short story ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, written by Washington Irving in 1820, about a secluded American village haunted by the Headless Horseman. Sleepy Hollow has since become a metaphor for a place that is eerily quiet, secluded, or disconnected from reality, carrying connotations of mystery or spookiness.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), recorded in 2019, lists Goole as one of the most deprived areas in the country. The town had been knocked by the closure of Timm’s Mill, in 2001, and Burton Menswear Factory, in 2012. These sites provided industries which generations of locals had grown dependent on. There was also an uneasy sense that Goole had been 'forgotten' about by local council funding, after boundary changes moved it from the West Riding of Yorkshire into the East Riding, in 1996, since it was a border town.

Today, those passing through may witness a hint of this dereliction, as worn-down bordered up empty shop fronts pervade the town centre’s high street Boothferry Road.

'Sleepy Hollow, it’s called'

Brick layer and dad-of-one Lee Clarkson, 38, was born and bred in Goole. While he enjoys the peaceful life the town has to offer, he’s quick to acknowledge it may not be for everyone.

Lee said: “Sleepy Hollow, it’s called. People have called it that. That’s the term for Goole.

“There’s not a lot to do, basically. Nothing ever goes on. No drama or…well over the last couple of years, there actually has been. Did you know, two months ago, going down a passage, a lady got really badly injured? That’s about it, really. It’s just a quiet town. It’s always been quiet.”

Lee was referring to an incident where a woman was assaulted with an axe in the town centre in April. The woman narrowly escaped with life-changing injuries and the offender Anthony McDonald pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted murder.

'Goole is sort of trapped'

In Irving’s gothic horror story, the narrator comments Sleepy Hollow got its name from ‘the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants’. Attempting to pick apart why Goole has also been dealt with such a severe nickname, 43-year-old dock worker Stephen Nicholls spoke about the psychology of the town.

Stephen said: “When you come to Goole, if people don’t know you then they tend to go out of their way to talk to you. It’s very close-knit. They tend to keep themselves to themselves. If you come in as an outsider, I suppose it would look quite sleepy.

“On the flipside of that, if there’s any bother, it always goes the opposite way where they tend to stick together. I always say, Goole is sort of trapped in the 90s or late 80s, it’s still the same as it was then. It's just never changed.”

'A little bit saddening'

Harry Scutt, 21, looked at the aspects of the town from his perspective as a young-up-and-coming music production student, who lived nearby, in a bid to answer why Goole had grown its ‘forgettable’ reputation. He was ultimately ‘saddened’ by his conclusions.

Harry, who studies at Berklee College of Music, said: “It could often be brushed off as not the most attractive places to come to. Somewhere like York, there’s beautiful stuff to visit, and maybe in Goole there might be less of that. It has its areas, as well, down by the docks, I guess.

"Just the fact there wouldn’t be too many desirable places to attract tourists and that kind of business. There are the standard shops, that are less affluent, I guess. I definitely think of this as a lower income area. It’s a little bit saddening, to be honest.”

There still remains a shipping industry in Goole, however, with goods ferried in shipping containers and then transported across the UK along the M62 – a network connection the locals are proud of.

On the up?

Siemens Mobility built a £200 million train building factory in the town, with recruitment currently underway. And in 2021, as part of the Goole Town Deal, the Government awarded the town a £25 million grant in a bid to regenerate the area. East Riding of Yorkshire Council was asked for further comment.

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