March 21st

The spring equinox was the original date for April Fool’s day. Medieval rituals made fun of church figures, until they were outlawed in the 16thcentury. The date changed to April 1st, and the foolery lost its religious focus. Or have I just fooled you?

On 21st March 1863, Sir Tatton Sykes died at Sledmere aged 91. 4thbaronet, landowner, stock breeder and racehorse owner. He rode his own horse Hudibras at Malton in 1805, and won. 3,000 people attended his funeral. He continued to wear 18th Century dress all his life. (b Wheldrake 1772)

On 21st March 1955, Philip Larkin took up the post of Librarian at Hull University. photo shows part of the Larkin Trail.

Larkin trail Spurn

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 1strecorded Kiplingcotes Derby was run; it is said to date back to 1519.  The winner receives £50, but the 2ndreceives 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.

Kiplingcotes
East Yorkshire monuments – the country’s oldest horse race at Kiplingcotes. The winner’s prize is worth less than 2nd prize.

March 10th

Holy Trinity

On 10th March 1425, Hull Holy Trinity Church, was consecrated; building began in 1291 and was interrupted by the Black Death.

On 10th March 1447, Henry VI issued a charter enlarging the county of Hull to include Hessle, North Ferriby, Swanland, West Ella, Kirk Ella, Tranby, Willerby, Wolfreton, Anlaby, the site of Haltemprice Priory and Derringham Dike.

On 10th March 1623, George Tummond, butcher, of Patrington, was found dying at sunrise in Winestead, after starting to walk home from the alehouse in Ottringham. Holderness was notorious for its floods.

On 10th March 1800, George Hudson, the “Railway King’, was born in Howsham.  He  made a great business and political career from sharp practice and bribery (was MP for Sunderland, and Lord Mayor of York). He became hugely rich, but was disgraced, and imprisoned for debt, though released when his debts were paid by public subscription. In 1845, he bought the Londesborough Estate for £470,000. D14.12.1871

On 10th March 1823, John Bacchus Dykes was born in Hull. By the age of 10, was assistant organist at St John’s Church, Myton. Became a vicar, and composed over 300 hymn tunes, including ‘Eternal Father, Strong to Save’ and ‘We plough the fields and scatter’. (d 22.1.1876)

On 10th March 1921, Mr J.H. Tate proposed a motion at Hornsea Golf Club that ’Old Jack be shot’! It is assumed Old Jack was the horse used to pull mowers and rollers on the course.

On 10th March 1954, Alex May, master of the tug Fenman, died in hospital after the tug was overrun by the ship she was towing, the Rudolf, and sank, on the way into Hull’s Alexandra Dock. 2 of the crew were swept away. There was 1 survivor.

March 6th

On 6th March 1851, two days of severe storms, coupled with high tides, caused several breaches in Spurn Point, and made the Low Light insecure. The lifeboat was damaged, and several of the crew’s cottages were flooded. The extraction of gravel was halted, but did not finally end for many years.

On 6th March 1862, Joseph Wildridge, aged 14, apprentice, was attacked by another apprentice, probably named William Webb, on board Hull fishing smack Fairy. He was  so severely injured that he had to be returned home by another vessel, and died on 9thApril. He was unable to report on the events leading up to his attack, and a court case failed to prove a case against his assailant, as the crew would not testify.

On 6th March 1883, a great storm affecting the whole of the East coast resulted in huge losses in the Hull fishing fleet. Accounts vary: up to 230 Hull fishermen and 32 fishing smacks are recorded as lost.

On 6th March 1916, Zeppelin L14, after attacking Hull, dropped bombs on Burstwick and Owstwick, with no further casualties, before passing out to sea.

On 6th March 1919, the RAF Squadron 248 at Hornsea Mere seaplane station disbanded. From August 1918, it flew coastal patrols with Short 184 and Fairey Hamble Baby floatplanes off the Yorkshire coast. photo shows a short 184

 

short-184

January 6th

On 6th January every Plough Monday, in the15th and 16th centuries, Hull Trinity House  Guild presented the Miracle play of Noah in the streets of Hull.

On 6th January 1600, George Wolstenholme, Esq (59), Thomas Wilson, Esq (48), Richard Thomas (60), James Norrison (39), Robert Noke (43), Francis Mitchell (46), and Henry Hutchinson (29), all of Hull, murdered Captain Thomas Fletcher, of the ship Nancy, of Hull, mate Guy Foster, and William Forest and George Fowler, seamen of same ship. All 7 were convicted at York on Monday 2ndApril 1600 of murder and smuggling, and their bodies given to surgeons of York and Hull to be dissected and anatomized.

On 6th January 1764, flooding was so bad that the Holderness turnpike was unusable  between Hull and Bilton until 1stApril. One man and a horse were drowned attempting the route. The building of Holderness Drain was begun that year.

On 6th January 1839, the Nafferton house of Mr Thompson, a miller, was destroyed in ‘the Great Storm’ and his 2 sons, his daughter and a servant girl were all killed. Joseph Robinson Pease reported salt spray from the South-West on windows at Kilnwick Percy (i.e. it had come from the nearest coast in that direction, South Wales). photo shows Kilnwick Percy from the air

On 6th January 1840, William Dunn pleaded guilty at Beverley Sessions Court to a burglary. He was convicted and sentenced to transportation for life.

kilnwick percy.JPG

 

November 26th

On 26th November 1319, Geoffrey Fitz Hugh and John de Wetewang conveyed property in Lyle Street (Mytongate), Hull,  to Hugh and Ellen Le Taverner.

On 26th November 1525, Richard Haton, gentleman, from Hayton, claimed sanctuary in St Mary’s Church, Hertford, and confessed to the coroner  that in October he had broken into a parish church in Essex and stolen a silver chalice; and in January he had burgled a house in Bucks and stolen jewellery and money. He abjured, i.e. renounced his country, and left through the port of Southampton.

On 26th November 1597, Sir Francis Barrington, Lord of the Manor of Cottingham (and uncle by marriage of Oliver Cromwell) wrote objecting to Hull Corporation’s drainage plan to move surplus water through his clough at Cottingham, which he said would risk flooding in the area.

On 26th November 1831, Joseph Robinson Pease, JP, spent his third consecutive day swearing in Special Constables to deal with anticipated riots; various sources say between 800 and 2,000 were sworn. James Acland had formed the Hull Political Union, and held meetings critical of the Hull Corporation, and said the aldermen were of out of touch and did not live in the town.

On 26th November 1847, Pocklington Canal Company agreed, at the Feathers Hotel, Pocklington, to sell the canal to the York & North Midland Railway, which also purchased the Market Weighton and Leven Canals. The canal had never been a financial success, and the railway company subsequently raised canal tolls so as to drive freight traffic onto the trains.

Pocklington canal
Melbourne lock

October 4th

On 4th October 1253, heavy flooding in Holderness resulted from a dry year and heavy rain. The River Hull changed its course.

On 4th October 1541, the Privy Council of England again sat in Hull.

On 4th October 1642, Capt John Hotham, after the Yorkshire Treaty of Neutrality was signed, began to return from Doncaster to Hull. The treaty was rejected by Parliament, and he detoured and captured Cawood Castle for Parliament, the Archbishop having fled.

On 4th October 1643, 400 Parliamentary soldiers went out of the besieged town of Hull and destroyed the Royalist forts in Sculcoates and Derringham Bank.

On 4th October 1785, Thomas Jackson of Blackfriargate, Hull, complained to the Mayor and corporation about nuisance caused by one of the town waites (official musicians) holding dancing lessons in Hales Entry.

On 4th October 1909, Hornsea Urban District Council conducted a poll of ratepayers, who voted to allow the council to enclose the Promenade Gardens and charge for admission.

On 4th October 1952, ship’s cook Cyril Brown, 44, and 19 shipmates were lost when Hull trawler Norman was wrecked. The sole survivor was Norman Spencer, 19. see Pathe news https://www.britishpathe.com/video/one-survivor-aka-trawler-disaster

 

July 29th

On 29th July 1527, John Flower, labourer of Burstwick, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for the death of Roland Stephenson.

On 29th July 1678, Andrew Marvell, MP for Hull, had what turned out to be his last meeting with Hull Corporation. He returned to London shortly after, and died suddenly, aged 58, on 16thAugust, some supposed of poison.

On 29th July 1828, Hull banker Joseph Robinson Pease visited his land in Winestead to discover ‘hundreds of acres nearly a foot under water’ in the wettest July on record, a disaster for crops of hay, corn and potatoes. He said most local landowners had reduced rents, farmers ‘having literally nothing to pay with’.

 

Andrew Marvell

July 24th

On 24th July 1614, Ralph Hansby founded almshouses for 3 poor persons at Bishop Burton.

On 24th July 1622, Lawrence Taylor, rector of Londesborough,  died intestate, and the York Consistory (Ecclesiastical) Court gave custody of his 6 children, and a 7thchild born in October, to his brother William, to be supported until age 21. No information on the fate of his widow.

On 24th July 1894, John William Russell was shot dead on Albert Dock, Hull, by Arthur Kendall. Russell was trying to defend Crossland from Kendall. Kendall was convicted at York Assizes, his sentence commuted to penal servitude.

On 24th July 1912, a heavy cloudburst over Westwood brought flooding to Beverley town centre. Water was a foot deep on Walkergate.

On 24th July 1942, bus inspector Ernest Goddard, aged 50, and 14 others, including 5 children, were killed in an air raid on Withernsea; as well as 2 bombs, in Queen Street and the bowling green, the German Dornier bomber had used small arms fire on local people.

On 24th July 2011, 5 thieves stole the 300kg statue from Nelson Street, Hull; called Voyage, the statue was created by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, as a symbol of the relationship between Hull and Iceland.  A replacement statue was unveiled 11.5.2012.

iceland statue plinth.JPGphoto shows the empty plinth.

July 3rd

On 3rd July 1267, Alice Falketon was given permission by the church authorities to build herself a house in St Nicholas Churchyard, so that she could live as an anchoress. Enquiries had been made as to whether she was a fit person, with enough funds to maintain herself, and if this would be convenient to the parish.

On 3rd July 1524, Peter Gornarr, tanner, of Bridlington, claimed sanctuary at the church of St John, Beverley, for the murder of Robert Skelton of Bridlington, a tailor.

On 3rd July 1642, King Charles I set up his court in Beverley at the house of Lady Gee, North Bar Within, and quartered his forces (about 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry) in and around Anlaby, Cottingham and Newland.

On 3rd July 1797, Hull Trinity House paid £2 10s to William Brand, James Hayes, Samuel Harrison and J. Peterson, whose ship the Argo had been captured.

On 3rd July 1850, Mr T. Firbank, Chairman of Hull Dock Company,  opened Victoria Dock, the first of Hull’s docks east of the River Hull.

On 3rd July 1892, a great flood at Langtoft reached a height of 7 ½ feet.

Beverley Minster