Dickensian Hull

I was recently looking at Victorian photographs of places that featured in Dickens' novels - ancient inns, poor homes crowded around dark alleyways, scenes of the riverside, tumbledown town houses of another era. Dickens vividly portrayed the other, darker side of a prospering city.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Hull was also a city on the up but these pictures portrays the life of its less fortunate inhabitants and a world that Dickens could easily have set one of this novels in.

Chaffers Alley at the turn of the 19th century

Brown's Entry in the Old Town.

By the mid 19th century the merchants had moved out of their riverside houses in the over-crowded Old Town to smart new houses in newly developed areas like Anlaby Road and Coltman Street. Every narrow street in the Old Town had numerous alleyways and yards leading off it where ancient dwellings were packed so close together that some never received direct sunlight.

 There were a number of 'hospitals' around the old town which were really almshouses for the elderly and infirm, enabling some to avoid the Hull Union workhouse off Anlaby Road. This is Crowle's Hospital on Sewer Lane, founded by merchant George Crowle in 1661. Some, such as Gregg's Hospital, were of much older date - founded in the 1400s.

High Street

Although many mediaeval buildings had been pulled down in the eighteenth century to make way for the fine Georgian town houses which now characterise the Old Town, there were still many with their jettied stories that projected over the narrow streets.

 Several 17th century merchant houses still stood on the High Street, mostly in a dilapidated state, amongst fine buildings of a later date like Maister House which now belongs to the National Trust. Of these, only Wilberforce House survives to the present day - victims of changing tastes and the bombardment of the Old Town in two world wars. This is Crowle House, High Street - built 1664. Most people in the town would depend directly or indirectly on this European trade for their living and the merchants were the most powerful men in the town. They were the councillors,  aldermen and MPs in a town once notorious for political corruption. They were on boards of schools, the hospital and the workhouse and of the tram company, docks company and railway.  They governed the police and if you were up before the beak there was more than a passing chance the magistrate would be a merchant too.

The Town Docks and the Old Harbour were still the hub of the city, crammed full of tall ships, steamers and barges. Sailors from Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Dunkirk, the Baltic and  would go ashore into the many taverns on the riverside along with the local sailors. The taverns of High Street and Trippett were a frequent target of the press gangs.













Meaux Abbey - a forgotten part of Hull's history

Meaux Abbey earthworks in winter

(copyright Paul Glazzard,

used under creative commons license)

If you go to Meaux Abbey, about seven miles north of Hull, don't expect to find impressive remains like those at Fountains or Rievaulx. Even if you managed to find the tiny hamlet of Meaux there is nothing left of the Abbey but a few earthworks. It is hard to believe that those few bumps in a field were once an influential Cistercian house like Rievaulx without which the city of Hull would never have existed.



Kilnsey Old Hall, a grange of Fountains Abbey
(copyright the author, 2009)

The monasteries were a key part of the mediaeval economy and owned large areas of land and property. To provide money for the monks, lay brothers ran farms called granges* which not only provided food and clothing for the brothers but produce for sale. A key product was wool. Around 1200AD the abbey acquired land at Myton and established a grange there. The settlement which grew up around it was called Wyke and would become the town of Hull. Myton was ideally situated, where the river Hull flows out into the Humber, for the export of fleeces from the Abbey's lands to markets in Western Europe. Like many fine churches in East Anglia, Hull's beautiful Holy Trinity Church was built with the proceeds of the wool trade in around 1300


Holy Trinity Church, Hull

(copyright David Wright 2006,

used under creative commons license)

.

At this time, the Abbey was busily draining large areas of land in the Hull Valley and creating more pasture for livestock. In the process it formed many of the inland waterways which still link to the River Hull today. Beverley Beck, for example, is a very ancient watercourse that carried wool the couple of miles from from the town's market to the River Hull and down to the Humber.

'Wyke of Hull' rapidly became one of the most successful wool towns in the country. By 1205, only London, Boston, Southampton and Kings Lynn paid more in wool tax, and Wyke exceeded not only traditional local wool markets like Beverley and Hedon but also the city of York. Most of the wool merchants were from elsewhere, particularly the continental regions of Flanders, Holland, Germany and France. English merchants were from local wool towns like Beverley. Instead, the Abbey and inhabitants of Wyke made their money from port dues and from all the infrastructure that went with the mercantile trade such as inns. The Abbey was the effective civil as well as ecclesiastical authority in the town with its own jail and courts.

By the late 13th century Meaux Abbey had got itself into financial difficulties. It had also come to the attention of the King that Wyke was a much more favourable port than the ports of Ravenser and Hedon which already belonged to the crown. Thus in 1293 Edward I acquired the town and its port. The abbey was very disgruntled at the price, but presumably was not in a position to argue when the buyer was the king and when they were deep in debt. Thus came to an end the influence of the Cistercians in the area. In 1299 Edward I granted a royal charter and Wyke began a new era as 'the King's town on the river Hull'. It has proudly borne three gold crowns on its coat of arms ever since, although ironically has been something of a hot-bed of republicanism from the Civil War, when it refused entry to King Charles I, to the present day when it was the only city in the country not to apply for any licenses to hold a street party to commemorate the Queen's jubilee!

One look at a map shows the wisdom of Edward's choice. The town of Ravenser no longer exists at all, having been long since lost to coastal erosion, and the village of Hedon is now so far from water it is hard to believe it was once a port. Wyke, on the other hand, is now a city of more than 250,000 people and went on to become one of the wealthiest mercantile towns in the north. But more of that in a later post...

* A good example of a grange can be seen at Kilnsey in Wharfedale which belonged to Fountains Abbey. Wool was taken from Kilnsey along Mastiles Lane. This monastic drover's road can still be followed from Kilnsey to Malham and is a very pleasant walk of about 5 miles.

Origins of some East Riding place names

Aike - I haven't been able to find the origin of this name, although the local expression 'Yacker backer Arram' makes me wonder if it derives from the Viking 'yacker' (acre). It is interesting to note that in early times Aike was an island in the River Hull.

Aldborough - old fortress (Viking)

Anlaby - 'Olafr's farm (Viking)

Bilton - Billa's farm (Viking)

Bridlington - settlement of Beortel's people (Anglo-Saxon)

Cawkeld - would appear to be Viking, as kelda is Old Norse for a spring. Cawkeld is an area of low lying pasture with springs where water from the chalk wolds above flows into the feeder streams of the river Hull. Perhaps it meant cow springs or cold springs.

Cottingham- Ket's (Ceridwen, a deity) or Cotta's people's place (Anglo-Saxon or mixed Anglo-Saxon and Celtic)

Dunswell - ?from Douceville in reference to a large number of springs/wells in the area

Eske -  this long depopulated settlement on the east bank of the river Hull has a Viking name meaning ash tree. This is the same root of Norse names in other parts of Yorkshire like Askrigg in Wensleydale (ridge of ash trees)

Flamborough - Flein's fort (Viking)

Fridaythorpe- Fridaeg's farm (Viking)

Goodhamham - settlement of Godmund (Anglo Saxon) - Goodmanham was the site of a major pagan shrine (where the parish church is now located) and the capital of the Anglian kingdom of Deira

Hunmanby - hundsman's farm (Viking)

Hutton - high farm (old English)

Keldmarsh - a compound name. Keld is Viking for a spring. This area is still a marshy area with springs, and is now a nature reserve belonging to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Kilnwick - Cylla's farm (Anglo-Saxon)

Kirk Ella - the origin is disputed. It may mean the place of worship of Ella, or Ella may derive from aelf lea, the Elves clearing, with Kirk distinguishing it from other locations e.g. West Ella

Leven - one of very few Celtic place names in the area, the others being the names of rivers like the Humber, Hull, Ouse and Derwent. The invading Anglians almost obliterated the Celtic heritage of the area. Leven derives from 'llyfn' meaning smooth

Lund - Viking for a grove. There are regions in Sweden and Norway of the same name

Marfleet - marr is Norse for sea, while fleet is both Norse and Old English for a stream or creek

 

Meaux - Originally Melsa/Melse - Scandinavian/Anglo-Scandinavian, meaning a sandbank in a pool. Francophone spelling adopted by the Cistercian monks of Meaux Abbey whose mother house was in the French town of Meaux.  

Pocklington - Anglian settlement of Poca's people

Skerne - an Old English name meaning bright/clear but modified with the 'sk' sound to be pronounceable by the incoming Vikings

Skidby - clearly Viking in view of the 'sk' sound and the -by ending. Probably means either Skitr's farm or the farm in the place for gathering firewood

Storkhill - Stork appears to be an Anglian name referring to an island of Storks. Storkhill is one of the water towns of Beverley, the others being Sicey, Sneerholmes, Thearne, Tickton, Weel and Woodmansey.

Sunderlandwick – deserted village near Driffield. Probably meaning the dairy farm in the 'sundered land' (i.e. set apart - in the case of the NE town of Sunderland, a monastic designation) 

 

Sutton - Anglo-Saxon meaning 'south town' - in this case, the south town to Wawne.

Thearne- Anglian: a thorn tree

Tickton - Tica's farm (Anglian)

Walkington – Anglo-Saxon, meaning either settlement of Wealca's people or settlement of the Welisc. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the British tribes they displaced as Welisc or foreigners. This is where the word Welsh derives from, and these displaced tribes would have spoken an early form of Welsh.

 

Wawne - Anglian meaning a quagmire.

Wetwang - this name appears to be Norse but the exact meaning is unclear. Vangr means field (c.f. Stavanger) and vaettr may mean a summons to a trial for an action.

Weel - Anglian for a whirlpool

Wilfholme – holme can mean a low flat island but more often locally it refers to a water meadow and there are many located along the River Hull (Snakeholmes, Cattleholmes, Fishholme, Featherholme, Hempholme, Standingholme, Hallytreeholme, Heigholme, Sandholme, Sneerholmes and Bransholme, just to name the ones immediately beside the River Hull!)

Woodmansey - Anglian. A woodman's pool

 

Visitors from the arctic

I'm looking forward to seeing what wetland birds the winter blows in to the Hull Valley. Visitors from the arctic frequently include pink-footed, barnacle and white-fronted geese and whooper swans. The resident greylags and canadas at Hornsea Mere are habituated to flock to any human being appearing with a plastic bag. I noticed a solitary barnacle goose among some resident geese last year and was amused to watch it carry on grazing oblivious as all its companions charged furiously towards a visitor who stepped into their midst to feed them. Clearly this wild northerner hadn't learnt what comes out of plastic bags. Actually this behaviour can get quite annoying at the Mere as the birds appear the minute you stop your car and some are very persistent, like this swan who had a good look at us through the car window.

It's good to see that the bitterns are back at both Hornsea Mere and Tophill. Two of my favourite ducks, the red breasted merganser and the goosander, have also been in evidence. The merganser has a delightfully adolescent spiky hairdo. The male goosander is truly beautiful bird with a bottle green head, crimson bill and sleek white body flushed with salmon pink. We saw both at Tophill last year but unfortunately too far away to get good pictures.

This super little family made lovely end to a fantastic week of wildlife in Skye last year, however. It was pouring with rain, getting darker all the time and seeming like it was time to turn in for the night, when along came this adult with seven babies - each with a miniature version of the distinctive sawtoothed bill. I would love to see goosanders with chicks as they have a very endearing habit of letting them ride 'piggy back' - sometimes the whole brood struggling to get on board at once!

Waxwing weather

It's waxwing weather. Temperatures here are below freezing and we've had several falls of snow over the last week. It's this kind of weather that blows in flocks of birds like waxwings, redwings and fieldfares that feast on berries in trees and hedges. I had a most unlikely encounter with waxwings one bitter, icy morning when I arrived at work and spotted a bush full of these beautiful passerines in the hospital car park. They are so named because their wings look as if they have been splashed with scarlet and yellow sealing wax.

The redwing and the fieldfare sit at opposite ends of the size range of British thrushes. The redwing, distinguished by a russet underwing which is most apparent in flight, is the smallest whilst the fieldfare is a large thrush which is distinguishable from song and mistle thrushes by a lot of grey in its colouring - on the head and rump - and v shaped spotting on the breast that gives the appearance of a herringbone tweed waistcoat! Fieldfares are usually seen in flocks and prefer fields and hedges but sometimes drift into gardens in a harsh winter. Last winter a relative told me he had watched a flock of fieldfares strip the rowan in his garden bare whilst on the phone to a friend!

So far I haven't seen either species this winter but both have been reported at nearby places in the Hull valley. I have had to make do with a huge mistle thrush hopping around my neighbours front lawn but I shall be keeping my eyes open and the binoculars handy.