equality & diversity – Hull & East Yorkshire History Calendar

Coming this week – 4th to 10th June

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A week of regular events and the unexpected, and the foundation in 1369 of a much-loved Hull institution, Hull Trinity House, and its physical embodiment in a much-loved building (see 4th June).

Zeppelin attacks in WW1 aroused much fear and also anti-German feeling. A violent murder at a village now lost to the sea, and another in a series of extreme weather events at Langtoft make rather depressing reading.

Radicalism took different forms in different times. In the 17th century, John Shaw and George Fox were compelling speakers who proclaimed equality as religious doctrines, making enemies of those with power and influence; by the time of the Napoleonic wars, people’s concerns were more focussed on obtaining food at reasonable prices (Hull anti-mill was a response to the very real threat of starvation).

Other events included a reference to wife-selling, to the cultured life at Londesborough House, and unusual auditory effects at Withernsea.

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April 10th

On 10th April 1694, John Roxby & Thomas Spicer (Ferriby) and Peter Acy and Samuel Newton (Swanland) were chosen as parish Overseers for the Highways, (Ferriby and Swanland being in the same parish, but choosing separate officers). On the same date, Overseers of the Poor chosen were Paull Wollas and Wm Jefferson (Ferriby) and Robt Parker and Christopher Boynton (Swanland).

On 10th April 1733, Thomas Pelling, the “Flying Man’, set up a tightrope between Pocklington church steeple and the Star Inn, and fell to his death; he is buried in the churchyard.

On 10th April 1956, Paul Robeson, singer, actor and political activist, performed at Hull City Hall to an audience of 2,000. Publicity described him as ‘the world’s greatest negro actor, singer and film star’.

Paul Robeson

April 9th

On 9th April 1484, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, became Heir Presumptive to the English throne, when the Prince of Wales (son of Richard III, his maternal uncle) died. The Earl died 3 years later, aged 25 at the Battle of Stoke, in a rebellion against Henry Tudor.

On 9th April 1610, the household accounts show that the number of servants in residence in the various houses of Francis Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, (incl Londesborough House and Skipton Castle) rose from 49 to 83 after he inherited the Earldom. They included 4 musicians, and a huntsman.

On 9th April 1646, Matthew Topham, merchant of Hull, was fined £90 as a member of the Royalist army (delinquent) in order to recover his goods which had been sequestered by Parliament.

On 9th April 1814, Hull gunsmith Owen Probin, 38, was murdered by John Lever, a saddler, who had had a violent quarrel with Probin the previous day in Silver Street.

On 9th April 1858, Sir Thomas Aston Clifford Constable and Rosina, Lady Constable, with a number of other ‘distinguished amateurs’ performed a programme of music at a charity concert in The Music Hall, Jarratt Street, in aid of education for poor children in Hull.

On 9th April 1869, the Attorney General moved that a Royal Commission be set up to enquire into corrupt practices at the general election in Beverley the previous year. At least 800 people had been bribed, and corruption at Beverley was said to be ‘worse than at Norwich and Bridgewater put together’. The enquiry is said to have led directly to the 1872 Ballot Act.

On 9th April 1933, Canon Edward Arthur Berry, vicar of Drypool (grandfather of Mary Berry) was one of the speakers at a mass meeting in the Balmoral Room, Metropole Hall, West Street, Hull, called by the Jewish community to protest against Nazi actions against Jews in Germany.

April 6th

On 6th April 1486, John Heryson, husbandman of Middleton on the Wolds, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for killing Thomas Metcalfe of Melmerby with a staff earlier that day.

On 6th April 1713, Brigadier General Luke Lillingstone died aged 60 in North Ferriby. He had served in Ireland and Martinique. He is chiefly known for advertising Ferriby Grange for sale due to military debts. His monument is in Ferriby church. see picture

On 6th April 1816, George Hudson, aged 15 or 16, was fined 12s6d for bastardy. It appears he then left his affluent home in Howsham under a cloud and moved to York. He eventually became known as the ‘Railway King’.

On 6th April 1911, Hull Corporation Transport introduced free passes for blind people.

Luke_Lillingston

April 1st

On 1st April 1299, Edward I gave Hull the charter that created the new town of Kingston upon Hull. On the same day, he gave a charter to its rival port Ravenser Odd.

On 1st April 1577, Hull alderman John Thornton acquired a licence from the town to buy grain (wheat, malt, barley, beans and peas) in the counties of York, Lincoln, Norfolk and Kingston upon Hull, and to sell and transport the same abroad for 20 years.

On 1st April 1899, Hull Corporation opened a 6-day exhibition to celebrate the 6^thcentenary of the first charter from King Edward I. It included Hull seals and deeds, silver items, coins, medal and tokens made in Hull, paintings and documents.

On 1st April 1998, Christopher Ibikunle Alder died aged 37, in Queens Gardens Police Station, Hull, whilst in police custody . The coroner’s jury returned a verdict in 2000 that Alder was unlawfully killed. In 2011 the British Government formally apologised to Alder’s family for the way he was treated and for failing to carry out an effective independent enquiry. Trainee computer programmer and former Army paratrooper, Alder was born in Hull 26.6.1960

Christopher alder

March 25th

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On 25th March 1725, Sir John Warton died at 77 in Beverley. He was reputed to be the richest man in England, even though his father’s estates had been depleted by fines to Parliament for Royalism. He was elected MP for Hull, and twice MP for Beverley, but took little active interest in Parliament. In his will, he left £4,000 for the repair of Beverley Minster, £1,000 to Warton’s Hospital, £500 to the charity school, £100 to the poor and £100 to each parish in Beverley. photo shows Warton’s Hospital

On 25th March 1780, Peter Horsfield, a negro servant to Mr Knowsley, curate of Boynton, married Elizabeth Lawson, daughter of the vicar of Weaverthorpe. It was fashionable at the time for rich families to employ black servants.

On 25th March 1868, Rev John Healey Bromby died at 97 at Hull Charterhouse; he was up to then the oldest working minister of the Church of England.

On 25th March 1904, a ‘Smoking Café and Lounge’ was opened in the basement of the Prudential Building, Victoria Square, a landmark Hull building. In 1941, the whole building was demolished by a German bomb.

On 25th March 1927, the Ministry of Agriculture closed the Crown Colony at Sunk Island, a failed experimental farm settlement for ex-servicemen set up during WW1. This is referred to in Winifred Holtby’s ‘South Riding’ as Cold Harbour colony.

Sunk

March 22nd

On 22nd March 1503, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, died and the Hull Mayor acquired the Charterhouse and the lands it owned in Cottingham, Hessle, Westella, Myton, Willerby, and Tranby.

On 22nd March 1581, Hull surgeon John Kydd was made a burgess of the town in consideration of his service on local ships setting out to apprehend pirates.

On 22nd March 1834, labourer Robert Billany of Thorngumbald was found guilty at York Castle Assizes of setting fire to a stack of straw belonging to Peter Ingleby, and was sentenced to execution, although he was reprieved as there was doubt as to the soundness of his mind.

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March 19th

Rose Ellen Carr

On 19th March 1293, only 5 days after his valuation of Myton, King Edward I had new records of tenants drawn up, and ordered the improvement of roads to his new town of Kingston on Hull. The roads to Hessle, Beverley and York already existed.

On 19th March 1913, Rose Ellen Carr died at Hornsea aged 70. Although illiterate, and facially disfigured, probably as the result of a kick from a horse when she was a child, she was ran a success business as a carrier and taxi owner, and was reputed to be able to carry a 16-stone sack of grain under each arm. She was also a passionate Primitive Methodist preacher.

On 19th March 1941, 92 Hull residents died in an air raid; 70 people were seriously injured. This was the 12^thraid since the beginning of the year. The National Picture Theatre on Beverley Road was hit; they were screening Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ at the time. photo below shows ruin of the cinema

On the same day, Mr & Mrs Severs and their 2 children were killed by a land mine at Highfield Farm, Hutton Cranswick. Other damage nearby probably intended for Hull included 70 high explosive bombs and incendiaries at Watton Abbey Farm, mostly in the fields, the destruction of Mrs Arnell’s grocer’s shop, and a fire in Hutton church. Arthur Swift of Wawne Common Farm recorded a land mine, incendiaries and high explosives, which blew out all the windows and tiles off every building in the farm. The ghost of a Watton Abbey monk was said to have been seen that night.

nationalpicturetheatre

March 17th

Kiplingcotes

On 17th March 1646, Henry Hildyard of Winestead was fined £4,660 as a Royalist (a ‘delinquent’) in order to recover his goods which had been sequestered by Parliament. (He had been a Colonel of the trained bands which formed King Charles’ bodyguard for about 2 weeks in 1642, then retired to Surrey for the rest of the war). The fine was later reduced by half in payment for Hull Manor House which had belonged to him and which Parliament had given to the town of Hull.

On 17th March 1930, Judith Patricia (Pat) Albeck was born in Hull to Polish migrant parents. She was an award-winning designer of textiles and ceramics, known for her work for the National Trust. She is commemorated in Hull with a cream plaque. (d 2.9.2017)

On 17th March 1945, a cinema queue outside the Savoy Cinema, Holderness Road, Hull (the site is now Boyes store) was bombed and strafed; 12 people were killed, 22 wounded.

On 17th March 1966, Barbara Foster fFailed to win the Kiplingcotes Derby when her horse collapsed and died.

Pat Albeck

March 15th

On 15th March 1471, King Edward IV’s army regrouped at Kilnsea, but met resistance in Holderness, with 6,000 men led by Sir John Westerdale, vicar of Keyingham, and/or Martin de la See, Lord of Barmston; Westerdale was later imprisoned in the Marshalsea. Edward was allowed to pass to Hull, where Mayor John Tutbury shut the gates and refused to let him in. From there Edward proceeded to York via Beverley.

On 15th March 1618, the 1^strecorded Kiplingcotes Derby was run; it is said to date back to 1519. The winner receives £50, but the 2^ndreceives the sum of the entry fees, which may be much more. Even in wartime, severe weather or foot and mouth outbreaks, at least 1 horse has completed the course to ensure the continuity of the event. In 2018, due to flooding, one rider walked the course. Race rules state that if the race is not run one year, it must never be run again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJu7HI3SXIc

On 15th March 1783, Thomas Perronet Thompson was born in Hull. He was an anti-slavery activist, MP, businessman, soldier, author and first governor of Sierra Leone (d 6.9.1869)

On 15th March 1979, Helen Grocock, 13 years, failed to win the Kiplingcotes Derby when her pony collapsed and died a few yards from the finishing post.

On 15th March 2001, Farmer Stephen Crawford was the only participant in the Kiplingcotes Derby, due to foot and mouth disease. Course clerk Sue Hillaby appealed to people to stay away.