Selby mum's shock over Ouse family boating tragedy

Angie's Great Aunt Gladys, who lived in Beverly, had recently passed away, and Angie was going through her things.

She came across an old family tree going back to the 1830s a York family called Rigg. Then something caught her eye. Someone had scribbled 'Children killed in boating tragedy'.

She Googled the Riggs - and discovered that six Rigg children had indeed been killed in a boating accident on the River Ouse on a sunny August day in 1830.

She realised, too, that she was the direct descendant of Clara Rigg - the little girl who had been too young to join her brothers and sisters on the boat that day, and so survived.

Angie, 53, who lives in Brayton near Selby, says her 'emotions were all over the place'.

"For two weeks, I couldn't stop thinking about it," she said. "That poor woman! I cannot imagine losing one child, let alone six!"

The boating tragedy caused shockwaves in York in 1830.

Nine people had set out in the boat that summer's afternoon for a jaunt up the Ouse.

Seven were members of the Rigg family: 19-year-old Ann Rigg, her sisters Eliza, 17, and Jesse, eight, and her brothers Thomas, 18, John, 16, James, seven, and Charles, six. With them were a friend, 18-year-old Grace Robinson, and a Mr Seller, son of the landlord of the Falcon Inn.

Close by Acomb Landing, a sailing boat approaching from the other direction collided with the Riggs’ boat, stoving in the side and sending it to the bottom of the river. There were just two survivors - eight-year-old Jesse Rigg and Mr Seller. The other six Rigg children and Grace Robinson drowned.

The children's father, Walmgate seed merchant John Rigg, was well-known. Thousands lined the streets at the funeral procession. Reports of the tragedy were published in newspapers across the country, and money was collected to build a monument to the Rigg children in St Lawrence’s churchyard off Lawrence Street.

When Angie, a mum of two herself, Googled the story, she discovered, from an article in The Press, that that monument had been restored in 2016.

She made contact with Nick Beilby, who had overseen the restoration, and met him at the monument.

"It's hard to describe how I felt," she admitted. "Heartbroken, but also proud that the people of York had done something for the family."

Clara, the little Rigg sister who didn't go on the boat that day, was Angie's Great Great Great Grandmother. She lived to 79, married Richard Metcalfe, and had a daughter called Charlotte, Angie's ancestor.

At some point, the family moved to Hull, and then Beverley, where Angie was born.

Now that she knows the story, she hopes to help maintain the monument in future. And she'd also like to see something to commemorate Grace Robinson.

"She was somebody's daughter. She deserves to be remembered," Angie said.