My friend John Goodchild, who has died aged 81, was a leading figure in the field of West Yorkshire and industrial history. He gave many thousands of lectures and published prolifically, his books including The Coal Kings of Yorkshire (1977), Aspects of Medieval Wakefield (1991) and News from Newland (1999).
Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the son of Ernest Goodchild, deputy registrar at the West Riding Registry of Deeds, and his wife, Muriel (nee Lee), John attended the city’s Queen Elizabeth grammar school. On leaving full-time education, he went to work in the West Riding Record Office – even then, he ran a private museum, at first housed in a local chapel, open to all-comers.
In 1966 he became founding curator of Cusworth Hall Museum, near Doncaster, which is devoted to the social history of South Yorkshire. Subsequently it won a Museum of the Year award for educational work. Some nine years later, he returned to Wakefield as first district archivist and principal local studies officer.
However, it is his collection of manuscript material and books, the boyhood interest that became his lifelong passion, that will be his lasting legacy. Put together from private purchases as well as donations from individuals, institutions and companies, it was the most substantial collection on Yorkshire and industrial history in private hands.
It includes manuscripts, books, maps, portraits and illustrations from the 12th century onwards, and is especially rich in material from the 18th and 19th centuries. John always made the collection accessible, interpreting and using it for the benefit of researchers, and it will be maintained in the care of the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
John was a member of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society (and a co-founder of its industrial history section) and of the Wakefield Historical Society, which he served as vice-president. In 1984 he was awarded an honorary master’s degree by the Open University for “academic and scholarly distinction, and for public services”.
John was a familiar figure in Wakefield, often accompanied by one of a succession of rescue dogs. He is survived by Alan, his partner of 60 years.
