Gutch, Eliza – alias St Swithin

Eliza Gutch (1840-1931)

BORN Eliza Hutchinson on St Swithin’s Day, at Manthorpe Lodge, Little Gonerby-cum-Manthorpe, she was an English author and contributor to Notes and Queries using the pseudonym St Swithin.

She was a founder member of the Folklore Society.

Her knowledge of folklore was utilised by Joseph Wright in his English Dialect Dictionary, to which she contributed her findings on the folklore of both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Her father, Simon Hutchinson, was a land agent for the Brownlow estate.

In 1868 she married solicitor John James Gutch.  She was widowed in 1881.

Eliza Gutch was the last private owner of Holgate Windmill, and her children sold the Mill on her death to the City of York Council for preservation as a historic site.

Eliza owned all the surrounding triangle of land, between these two roads, plus the present day one called Grantham Drive.