Daughters discover lifetime of Yorkshire memories from father who wrote a diary entry every day for 62 years

There are 62 diaries in total, and Caroline and her three sisters are now deciding what to do with them after an emotional interview with former BBC Radio York presenter Jonathan Cowap on his new station, YO1 Radio.

Listeners were touched by her account of reading her father’s uncensored thoughts on family life and his opinions on world events such as the election of Margaret Thatcher and its impact on his East Riding farming community.

Michael was born in Goole in 1941, and had an identical twin, Anthony, who survived him by only a year. Their parents farmed at Swanland, near Hull, and at the age of 15 the boys were pulled out of St Peter’s School in York, where they had boarded since the age of nine, to work.

Michael ended up with an arable farm of 100 acres, and after forays into pick-your-own strawberries and a gravel business, eventually went into property development and settled in Ferriby.

He first began his diary simply to record how many eggs his chickens were laying, before tentatively starting to write about the girlfiends he was taking out and, after marrying, the births of his daughters Caroline, Ruth, Anna and Charlotte and their cousins, his twin brother’s five sons.

Although the girls were aware he was a diarist and he received a new volume each Christmas from their mother, he never allowed his family to read them during his lifetime.

"We didn’t know he could write like he did. His last entry was in May 2020, when he was suffering from dementia. The script was wobbly, but he was still trying to keep writing.

"As he got older, his writing became more confident. He started off very formal, then ended up with a more relaxed style. There is so much detail – even the weather on the days his grandchildren were born. I’ve been totally absorbed by them. There are revelations about girlfriends before my mum who I didn’t know exisited, and even who he didn’t like.

"He wrote that he had reservations about the husband of one of my sisters, but they’ve had a very happy marriage!”

St Peter’s School has been given a copy of an account Michael wrote of his time there, but the sisters are now hoping a museum, library or archive service may be interested in helping them to catalogue and eventually display the diaries, which give a fascinating insight into social change in rural Yorkshire from the late 1950s until the Covid pandemic.

"We can’t think what to do with them. They’re a legacy of him, but a historical record too. People who listened to the radio show said it was one of the best interviews Jonathan Cowap had ever done. My father never missed a day of writing.”

Anyone who wishes to assist Caroline can contact her on [email protected]