Treasured memories of a little girl’s Scandinavian heritage will be rekindled once again this month when she pays her annual visit to the Christmas market where she is believed to be the oldest customer.
Now 94, Olga Moore and her family have been attending Danish church services in Hull since before the current building opened in 1954.
She remembers going to the makeshift church and seamen’s mission in Posterngate which was used after the original church was bombed in 1941 and before a wooden replacement was erected in 1948.
On her latest visit Olga sat with Charlotte Theill, manager of the church, and read the entry in the church records of her father’s funeral. But the vast majority of memories are happy ones and she’ll be back at the church to make some more when it welcomes supporters from far and wide to this year’s Scandinavian Christmas Market on Saturday 28 November.
Olga, who lives in Willerby, said: “We’re not particularly religious but we never miss the Christmas market. They’ve kept the Scandinavian traditions and that’s what makes it so special. I remember queueing outside to get in.”
Olga’s Danish heritage comes from her grandfather, who worked as a cook on the “butter boats”, which brought butter, bacon and other food from Denmark to Hull. But she remembers very little about her grandparents other than they both died when she was very young – her grandmother when she was about 18 months old, and her grandfather three years later, shortly after the family had moved from Ampleforth Grove to Bean Street.
Olga’s father, Lars Andrew Larsen, died when he was 65, about 18 months after retiring from a career working for Ellerman’s and then United Towing. His funeral took place at the Danish Church and the records show he had worked as an admin clerk and died on Sunday 22nd July 1966 at Sutton Royal Infirmary. His funeral took place five days later.
Olga worked in various clerical roles for firms including Reckitt and the Burnett & Co import and export business, which was on the corner of Castle Steet and Market Place, not far from the seamen’s mission in Posterngate.
The mission served the church for seven years until the arrival of a wooden, flat-pack building manufactured in Finland and shipped from Denmark. That made way for the current building and was subsequently relocated to Preston, six miles away, where it is still used as the community hall.
The new church on the corner of Ferensway and Osborne Street was used by Olga and her family even before the introduction of the Scandinavian Christmas market, which can be traced to the mid-1960s and may date back further.
Olga said: “There was always a service at the church on Christmas Eve and a party for children on Boxing Day morning. I can’t remember when the market started but it used to be on a Friday evening and then all day Saturday and it was always absolutely buzzing.
“Upstairs the first stall was always Christmas decorations. We used to buy cheeses, bacon and tins of meat. There was also a cabinet with crockery and other expensive items and lovely candles. Over the years we bought a lot of Danish Christmas decorations, a couple every year. They were very classy.”
Olga attends with her son Chris, who lives in Beverley. Every year they enjoy drinking Gløgg – a hot and sweet Scandinavian mulled wine – on arrival at the Christmas market and leaving with packs of brunkager festive gingerbread cookies and pebernodder “pepper nut” cookies.
Olga said: “They used to serve tea and coffee and now you can have a nice lunch with open sandwiches and home-made fishcakes.”
The tinned meats supplied when Plumrose had a link with the church are long gone and Brexit restricted the import of some products. Covid put an end to the Friday evening opening, but the market still attracts about 800 people.
Charlotte said: “The first stall on the top floor is full of Scandinavian Christmas decorations, just as Olga remembers from the early years, and we have all sorts of cheeses, fish and meat products, sweets, chocolate and other food that people can’t find anywhere else.
“We also still have a lot of people who go back a long time, including visitors and one of our volunteers has been here since the 1960s. A lot of people have moved away over the years and they travel long distances to come to the market but to meet Olga, someone who is still in the area and has been visiting for all these years and has all these memories, is fantastic.”
The Scandinavian Christmas Market will take place from 10am until 4pm on Saturday 28th November with admission £2 per person. A mini market with free admission will take place on Saturday 5th December from 10am until 2pm.
To find out more visit https://nordichousehull.co.uk/