Category: This week

Coming up this week – 18th to 24th June

Conflict is a theme this week – there are anniversaries of conflict amongst members of Hull Corporation; of the aftermath of the Peasants’ Revolt; of the Act of Supremacy; and of later religious persecution leading to mass emigration. Coming a little closer to living memory, Calendar entries reflect Hull women’s role in the suffrage movement and, in the 1920s, a race riot – this time against black seamen, who fought back.

We celebrate memorable local people: Ian Carmichael, Rev Joseph Coltman, William de la Pole, Winifred Holtby, Colin Verity, and a local saint (who appears never to have been canonised), St Philip Ingleberd. This week also sees the anniversary of what is perhaps this region’s most celebrated landmark: the Humber Bridge.

Read also about the Charterhouse, the Ferriby boats, flood, Hull heroes, plague, trouble with the Hothams, the Spurn lifeboat, the Truelove story, and selling a town’s silver.

As usual, the incidents occurred in a variety of places in the East Riding, including Beverley, Eastrington, Elloughton, Hutton Cranswick, Keyingham, Mappleton, Market Weighton, Orwithfleet, Sunderlandwick, Sunk Island, Sutton, Winestead.

Coming this week – 4th to 10th June

trinity house.JPG

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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Coming up this week – 14th to 21st May

This week is the anniversary of the start of the Gunpowder Plot, highlighting this area’s major role in an attempted Catholic resurgence. The tiny village of Welwick harboured at least 3 would-be killers of kings, and shows the rebellious past of Holderness.  Post-Reformation persecution of Catholics is also reflected in this week’s calendar entries.

Local heroes in war and at sea appear again, as well as the continuing toll of lives lost at sea, and the use of sanctuary at Beverley by murderers and other reprobates.

In May each year, it seems, both in world wars, air raids were particularly heavy.  Those made homeless were fed and cared for by the Municipal Kitchens in Hull, coping extraordinarily well with the worst raids of WW2.

Other events include a duel between a Percy and a Constable (2 of the area’s major gentry families), the problem of civic duties in the 17th century, a royal visit, and the death of Old Mother Riley.

 

 

This week: 7th to 13th May

This week there are anniversaries of critical events and of some major figures in the local community.

7th May is the Feast Day of St John of Beverley, once the focus of pilgrimage, a source of prosperity for Beverley, and one of the great saints of the North.

In the 17th century, this week saw the Restoration of the Monarchy.

In the 18th century, Yorkshire people were emigrating in numbers to escape religious persecution and in hope of a better life.

In 1926, the General Strike continued, with police clashing with strikers in Hull.

In WW2, this week saw massive air raids on Hull and the surrounding area, with great loss of life, of housing, and damage to docks and businesses.

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12th May

On 12th May 1585, Dr Thomas Vavasour died of diseas in Hull Castle after being imprisoned in damp and overcrowded conditions with the whole of his household for many years. A physician and scholar, he was a prominent Catholic, was excommunicated and arrested. He was buried in Drypool churchyard, which stood within the garrison walls of Hull.

On 12th May 1698, Hull grassman Hugh Stringer was given a contract by the town council to cart away rubbish, clean the streets, and ensure that residents kept the street clean in front of their house.

On 12th May 1855, Sir (William) Alfred Gelder, FRS, FRIBA was born in North Cave. As  an architect, was involved in clearing Hull’s Victorian slums and reconstructing the city, in partnership with City Architect Joseph Hirst. Liberal, Mayor of Hull 1899-1903, later MP for Brigg and Hull alderman. Received the freedom of the city 1930. Died 26.8.41.

On 12th May 1859, Paull fisherman Thomas Marritt drowned whilst fishing in Whitebooth Roads, in the Humber. His body was found in the river between Hessle and Hull in June.

On 12th May 1874, Grace (8) and Lucy (7) Cuthbert of Easington died when their clothing became trapped in the machinery of the family mill, where they were playing.

On 12th May 1903, the Prince and Princess of Wales (later George V & Queen Mary) unveiled a statue to Queen Victoria in Hull; their escort was the first task of the newly created East Riding of Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry.

On 12th May 1915, an anonymous person wrote a letter addressed to George, at German Pork Shop, Waterworks Street, Hull, warning him that his shop was to be ‘broken up’ because of anti-German feelings as a result of the sinking of the Lusitania. Hohenrein’s Pork Butchers was attacked by a mob.

On 12th May 1945, retired Hull City Architect Joseph Hirst died aged 81 in Selby. Was responsible, with Mayor Alfred Gelder, for the transformation of Hull in the late 19thC, with the creation of Victoria Square, City Hall, and Alfred Gelder St. His designs include the Market Hall, Beverley Road Baths, Carnegie Library, Pickering Almshouses, Castle Hill Hospital. He was involved in planning new council estates in the 1920s. Wrote “The Blockhouses of Hull’ and ‘Armorial Bearings of KuH’. (b24.5.1863 South Milford) Hirst appears to have no memorial in Hull.

On 12th May 2013, Professor George William Gray, CBE, died aged 86. He moved to Hull in 1946 and worked as a laboratory demonstrator at Hull University. Went on to lead the research which resulted in LCD technology. Received many awards, including Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Kyoto International Gold Medallist. He is commemorated in the George Gray Room in Hull History Centre.

May 6th

On 6th May 1331, King Edward III presented Hull with a charter replacing the post of town Keeper, appointed by the King, with the post of Mayor, elected by the town burgesses.

On 6th May 1636, William Corbett and 12 other Bridlington residents created the Lords Feoffees of the manor of Bridlington to manage the affairs of the town. They still manage numerous properties in the old town.

On 6th May 1748, Hull doctor Malcolm Fleming sold a patent medicine to farmers as a preventive against the rinderpest cattle plague that raged across the East Riding, and had killed 20 cows in Hull. He claimed success for his medicine, as only a further 9 or 10 cows died, although many herds were destroyed in the county.

On 6th May 1915,  Albert Vine, engineer, 42, and crew of Hull-owned trawler Merrie Islington, out of Scarborough, were taken on board a British minesweeper before a  German U-boat put a bomb on board and scuttled her.

1st May

On 1st May 1603, surgeon Simon Crouch was admitted as a burgess of Hull free, on condition that he treat the poor at his own cost. There was an outbreak of plague that summer, and Simon Crouch was known to be still in Hull in 1610.

On 1st May 1676, Leonard Gaskill, 27, and Peter Rook, 25, of Beverley, were hanged for stealing 13 sheep from John Brown of Driffield.

On 1st May 1810, Hull gunsmith William Taylor was indicted for passing counterfeit money to Cecily Rickatson at Sculcoates and given 6 months in the House of Correction. He later set up in business in Beverley, where one of his apprentices in 1821 was Esau Akrill (the Akrill family ran a gunshop in Beverley for many years).

On 1st May 1826, Harriet Pease, wife of the banker Joseph Robinson Pease, of Hesslewood Hall, miscarried after horse riding. Medical help came from Hessle; Joseph’s  diary gave his opinion that she might have died if they had had to wait for a doctor to travel the 5 miles from Hull.

On 1st May 1877, William Pritchard, 21, apprentice of Porter St, Hull, drowned on board Hull trawler Iolanthe in the North Sea whilst boarding fish.

On 1st May 1911, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution took over responsibility for the lifeboat station at Spurn, after 3 years of acrimonious argument.

 

This Week: 1st to 7th May 2018

Coming up this week

A wide range of topics is covered in items this week.

Crime features regularly, showing how severe the past penalties could be for crimes that would definitely not be capital offences today – and how you could get away with murder if you knew the right people, such as the King.

Deaths at sea – another perennial risk, particularly for fishermen. I haven’t checked the stats on this, but you do seem to have been more likely to be ‘lost overboard’ if you were very young. Perhaps it was lack of experience, of course, but there are historical incidents of bullying, where the skipper was king at sea. The risks also included being iced in when in Arctic waters, scurvy and starvation, collisions, and war at sea.

Heroes – the lovely Amy puts in an appearance, as well as a war hero, a sports hero, and a doctor in time of plague, who is pretty heroic in my book. As is anyone who made their living at sea. Especially lifeboatmen.

Saints – John of Beverley was huge in the Middle Ages, and he appears many times in the History Calendar, not least because the church he built was such an important sanctuary.  Why were so many people prepared to travel huge distances to sanctuary, though? Perhaps you would hope for more sympathy from strangers than from your neighbours?

Other topics this week include the Irish in Hull, invasion threats, drainage, charity, pirates, strikes, transport and medicine. And by the way – Feoffee is pronounced Fifi.

Enjoy

roger millward

MAY:

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11th May

 

On 11th May 1481, Stamford shoemaker John Woodcok claimed sanctuary at St John’s church, Beverley, for the death of William de Tee, mercer of Stamford, on 30th March.

On 11th May 1812, HMS Anson, a 74-gun naval ship of the line, was launched at Paull by Steemson of Hull. In 1844 she carried 499 male convicts to Hobart, Tasmania, the largest number of convicts carried by a single ship. Was refitted as a prison for female convicts and broken up in 1851.

On 11th May 1975, Hull-born artist and architect Allanson Hick died aged 76 in Hornsea. From a maritime family, his career as an architect allowed time for artwork; a member Society of Graphic Artists, founder member of Royal Society of Marine Artists, Fellow of Royal Inst British Architects, President of York & EYorks Architectural Society. Many of his architectural commissions no longer survive, but he designed Dundee Chambers, Princes Dock Side. Several of his works were purchased by the Ferens, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He has no Wikipedia entry. (born 19.6.1898 89 Walton St, Hull)

10th May

On 10th May 1346, John de Manby and Eobert de Seton, both of Beverley, were convicted before the king at Nottingham of the death of Adam Coppendale, merchant of Beverley, at Barton on Humber.

On 10th May 1377, King Edward III’s parliament issued a statute pardoning the Mayor and town of Hull. I have not found what the pardon was for, and Edward was very ill at the time, and died in June.

On 10th May 1527, Thomas Richerdson, husbandman of Lockington, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for debt.

On 10th May 1595, the Howden churchwardens ‘paid to the lame soldiers by the Chief Constable warrant 21s8d’.

On 10th May 1707, Hull-born Dr Thomas Watson, Bishop of St David’s made proposals to contribute to the cost of rebuilding almshouses in North Church Side, Hull. Later correspondence indicated that he wished to influence the rules by which they were to be managed.

On 10th May 1854, William Marshall’s flax mill at Patrington was burnt down, throwing 100 people out of work.

On 10th May 1866, asked the town council to cover a foul ditch where sewage collected in pools; the ditch remained open. Hedon had suffered badly from cholera in 1849. The ditch was not covered until 1873.

On 10th May 1910, Robt R. Leonard & Son sold at auction the effects of the Hull Racecourse Company, including luxury furniture and fittings from the grandstand, and grounds equipment. The racecourse was at Twyers land, Preston South.

On 10th May 1946, Maureen Lipman was born in Hull.  TV and film actor, stage performer, and writer, CBE. Awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hull in 1994.