Meet the Parents!

For any story about a famous person, it makes sense to first talk about their parents. It was the coming together of Mr John Gooch, and Miss Anna Longridge both born on 17th March 1783, which lead to the famous Gooch family (for there was more than just Gooch who achieved some notable feats during their lifetime).

John and Anna were to be married on the 23rd December 1805, Anna was daughter of Thomas Longridge, the Longridge family having an intimate association with Bedlington Ironworks, as well as the Stephenson family of locomotive and railway fame. 

At the ages of 29, in the thundery early hours of the 24th August 1816, John and Anna brought into the world the young Daniel Gooch, who would later work with such famous people as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, lay a cable which connected the Old World and the New, as well as steer the GWR back into prosperity. A remarkable man born in Bedlington, possibly then still part of Durham, but now Northumberland! 

If you’d like to know more about Brunel, who was a mere 10 years older than Daniel Gooch, please see his own ‘Brunel200‘ which is available by clicking the link in blue.

Thanks, RH.

More Social Media and a Website Improvement

Hello all,

Please note that Daniel Gooch is now present on Instagram (@danielgooch1816), so if you are on Instagram please follow us! 

In other news, the website should soon see more more information about Sir Daniel, but for now the button to link to this blog has been improved as well as a button to ABTRA, a group working to preserve rail heritage in the Bedlington, Blyth, Ashington and Tyneside area, hopefully Sir Daniel may come under its wing once discussed at their Committee Meeting in February. 

Hope to see you visit again soon! 

Yours, RH. 

Who really built the Great Western Railway, Brunel or Gooch? Listen to the argument and decide for yourself…

As a taster to my previous blog post, a little snippet from YouTube where a historian debates which engineer REALLY built the Great Western Railway (GWR). 

YouTube link here!
Thanks, R.

2017, the second half of Sir Daniels 200th Year.

Well, here we are in 2017 already! Apologies for the slow pace of trying to raise interest in Sir Gooch, time has been filled with many other tasks which have had to take a back-seat. 

However, one new years’ resolution is to try and make more use of the website, blog and the associated Social Media for Sir Daniel, so hopefully he’s a bit better known by his 201st birthday than his 200th

If you haven’t already, please visit the website at www.gooch200.com and have yourself a little read about him, and hopefully on here I’ll try to put small snippets about his life and achievements on a more regular basis than in the past.

That’s it for now as a cup of tea is in order and time to perhaps peruse the bookcase while I’m sipping away…

Ta ta for now, R.