Jessamine Cottage c1913 ⁶

There would be a shop and one or two ale-houses, probably on the same site as the present Ship and Duke of York.⁷ There were a few cottages occupied by the village tradesmen - blacksmith, wheelwright, tailor, weaver, shoemaker, some of whom also owned farm land. In 1639 Robert Langdale, the carpenter, had four beast-gates in Sutton.⁸

Map of Medieval Sutton and surrounding area, after Blashill

Despite improved drainage and embankment, the parish was still flooded from time to time, and sometimes footways were impassable. In 1764, from January to April, the whole of the land between Bilton and Hull were flooded, and travel by boat was the only option. New drains would have to be cut; this work coincided with Enclosure.

Tate's Drainage Plan of 1764

The Enclosure Award of 5 January 1768 shows evidence of great care and judgment in allotting to each owner the land that lay most conveniently regarding his farmsteads and ancient enclosures, though the owner could exchange small pieces of land if he chose.

The Award also dealt with public and private highways, and footways, and with the drains. The public roads were staked out practically on the lines of the old highways, straightening the irregularities that had been produced by the traffic of centuries. The Map shows the familiar roads we know today - Tween Dikes, Ings Road, Waghen Road, Castle Hill Road, Lowgate, High Street. By the side of every highway a footway ran over the lands of the owners, so that the person on foot was separated by hedge and ditch from the roads used by vehicles and cattle. Every allotment had to be enclosed with hedge and ditch. The landowner had to provide gates, stiles and planked bridges where the paths crossed the boundaries between their fields. Many labourers were employed to build farmsteads on the new areas of land. The ancient water-courses, now called public drains, were also adopted by the commissioners, and the new drains cut.

Enclosure Map of Sutton, and Allotments - 1768

The tenant farmer could now live and work on his land, and manage it as he liked. He could enrich his ground for cattle. Root crops and green crops could be introduced. The improved  tillage could be used for wheat, in view of rising costs. Enclosure made farming much more convenient and economical, and land more valuable, and not many folk in Sutton lost the right to graze an animal or two, as happened elsewhere.

In a few years, the view from the church tower would be very different. Directly below stood the poorhouse, erected in 1757, and reliant on the church for its beneficence. Inside, a man and his wife, known for their 'sobriety and industry', taught the poor to spin wool. Some would take up employment in the cotton and flax mills on the river bank at Stoneferry, or in the oil mills, bleaching houses and timber yards, and so would escape to 'normality', though before the '10-Hour Day' Act, life was hard. Others were not so lucky, for the poorhouse had an extension built in 1814. In 1826 Mrs Dunderdale was 'governess' of the Sutton house. The curriculum is not recorded, but by virtue of the Poor Law Commission of 1835, children of the workhouses were taught reading, writing, religion and other 'fitting' instruction, for three hours a day.⁹

The early post-Enclosure farms include Castle Hill, allotted to Thomas Broadley; Low Bransholme occupied by Benjamin Blaydes, Junior; Soffham, left to Charles Pool; and High Bransholme, Lamwath, and Salts House.

A little way down Wawne Road¹⁰ the corn mill on Windmill Hill dominated the landscape. This was built in 1715 by William Munby, to replace the Munbys' original mill in the village. The area being largely agricultural, the mill served the farmers well, cleaning, preparing, grinding and dressing corn and flour. Originally of four sails, the mill appears to have five by 1803,¹¹ and was raised to seven floors, with a gallery above the third floor.

Sutton Mill

Steam machinery was added, and the land included three cottages and stabling for four horses. Evidently tracks ran round the side and round to the landing bays (these were later converted into cottages, now known as Woodbine Cottages). Mrs Guy, who lived in one in the 1960s, recalls the cellar at the back, where people had to stoop to enter the doorway. It would seem that the rulleys bringing the corn would offshoot the load into the landing bay. The Guys unearthed large pieces of mill stone and iron. Three mill cottages (now Ivy Cottages) stand on the other side of Wawne Road, which is unexpected, but originally the footway to Wawne ran behind the mill,¹² so the cottages were close to the mill. These cottages were built in 1853, number 1 being larger than the others, so was occupied by the foreman; it has two bedrooms. Number 2 is smaller, and number 3 smaller still. The coalhouse and toilets were in the backyard, and, as was often the custom, the gardens still lie across the frontage of the cottages, number 3 being nearest the dwellings.¹³ A path ran round the back, which could suggest a lane where perhaps a few mill workers lived. The mid 18th century Census records list people living in 'Mill Lane'.

The Robinson family of Ivy Cottages, c1914

Disastrously, on the afternoon of Monday, 21 April, 1884, smoke filled the skies for miles around - a fire had broken out in the neck of the mill. The men working there tried to put out the fire with hand buckets, but by the time a horse-drawn fire engine from Hull arrived, it was too late and the mill was completely destroyed.

One of these men who fought so bravely was William Goodin, aged 34, whose back was terribly scarred with burns. He never had a regular job again, but worked occasionally, as in the photograph, on one of the Bransholme farms. According to his granddaughter,¹⁴ who lived next door in Rutland Terrace: 'my grandfather was a lovely man, always cheerful, good-tempered. I can remember he walked very painfully with the aid of two sticks. Despite this, he walked to Wesleyan Chapel every Sunday morning, hail, rain or snow. When he could no longer work, his son built him a little place in the back garden, the 'shop' as we called it, and he set up as a cobbler, repairing boots and shoes. He sat at his bench all day, and had a chair where old friends would come and talk to him . . . '

William Goodin

The miller at the time of the fire was George Brownbridge Barker (1831-1910). He lived in Chesney House next to the mill (now Barton House). His grandson, George Ronald Barker, attended Sutton School.

George - 2nd row, 2nd rt. Mr Topham headmaster, c.1898

G B Barker had a daughter, Emily Annie, who lived at Chesney House until her father died, and later moved to 'Highgate', the house opposite (now a Dentist's surgery). She owned the house and the three mill cottages until 1918. Miss Barker is remembered as being small and stout, with strong features and short, white hair. She was organist of the Wesleyan chapel, and gave music lessons; Robert Beckett paid 6d per lesson in the 1920s, travelling from Skirlaugh by train.¹⁵ Emily Barker died in 1939.¹⁶

F.C. Scott                                    

There were other mills in Sutton in the late 18th century. The Deeds of The Olives, later The Hollies, and now Greenacre, in Saltshouse Road, show that before this listed house was built in around 1810, a brick windmill occupied the site. This was probably the mill which somehow killed Jenny Farthing, spinster, in 1783.¹⁷

The Hollies was the home of Frederick Arthur Scott, of solicitors  Scott & Cooper, from 1879 until 1925. His father was the architect Sir G. G. Scott, who was responsible for restoring St Mary's Church, Lowgate, between 1861 and 1863. Frederick Scott was President of the Reading Room and a churchwarden.

Further down Saltshouse Road stood another mill. This belonged to Charles Pool, who had his house at East Mount, on the site of the Princess Royal hospital. In 1778 he built himself a Drainage Mill worked by sails to drain his land. He was by then a very influential man, a merchant, and Mayor and Sheriff of Hull for several years. His grandfather was Hugh Mason, the owner of the rectory and tithes, who settled some of his land and tithes on Charles in 1736. (The poet William Mason, was Charles' cousin.) As noted on his monument in Sutton Church, Charles Pool worked tirelessly against 'the prejudices of ages' towards enclosing the land. By the award of 1768 he was 'owner of all the tithes', together with the tithe farmstead (Enclosure, allotment, 138).

Memorial Tablet to Charles Pool
(he never spelt his name with an 'e')

As impropriators of the church, he and Mary Mason had, in 1763, organised a full-scale repair of the chancel roof, selling the lead and re-roofing with slate. Later, Pool gave the pinnacles for the tower, which, together with the south wall, was covered with pebble-dash. The churchyard was extended.

Charles Pool held several properties in the parish, including a brick house, with barn, stable and garth, on the site of Highfield, next to Godolphin Hall, left to him in 1769 by Jane Wilkinson (Enclosure, allotment 100), and a further 76 acres of tillage. He also owned the farm of Soffham, which he called 'Weston Farm', but the original name prevailed. It was advertised for sale in 1787 when the proximity of Sutton drain was said to be advantageous, and, indeed, Blashill writes that there were times 'when the best teams could not draw a load of corn through the mire from the farmstead to the road.' Charles Pool died in 1798, and R.C. Broadley bought Soffham, adding to his already substantial lands.

During the 18th century the incumbent could be responsible for several livings, and thus might not visit for months - 'for a quarter of a century the village never saw its vicar, except on one occasion . . . '¹⁸   In 1740 the incumbent of Wawne, Steven Metcalf, was rejected for 'ignorance in divinity'. From that year until 1789 Arthur Robinson, Vicar of Holy Trinity, served as incumbent of our parish, employing a curate for Wawne, Sutton and Marfleet. Robinson paid his curate, Joseph Dawson, £45 a year, which even Archbishop Drummond thought sparse. He upset Dawson still further by endeavouring to persuade him to live in Wawne, but the curate protested that the dwelling was 'a wretched abode', let to two labourers who could offer him 'neither diet nor lodging', and as for Wawne itself - there was 'no entertainment in the town.'¹⁹ Dawson suspected that Robinson really wanted him out, for as the Archbishop sharply remarked, 'Dawson is a dissenter.'

Wawne's history as monastic land probably led to early enclosure, as the land would have been used as farms worked by the lay-brothers and later, hired workers. The open fields around the village were enclosed by private agreement by Sir Joseph Ashe in the late 17th century. The hearth tax returns of 1667 record Thomas Grantham's house as having 16 hearths - a messuage, then, of considerable size with perhaps 10 or 12 rooms. Later, the Beharell family are seen as well-to-do.²⁰ Archbishop Herring's Visitation of 1743 show just 43 families in Wawne at that time, with about 30 children attending school.

The Overseers' Book began in 1760, so it is possible that the Poor House was built about that time.²¹ The building was thatched, and must have been fairly large, for it took a certain George Hall nine days to thatch it. An entry for 1770 is detailed: William Heart agrees to take on as servant an 11 year old orphan girl, Elizabeth Pharoh, and she is allocated these items of clothing; shoes, stays, aprons, pettycoats, pattons, stocking, 2 coats, 2 shifts, cloak, 6 caps, hat, and handkerchiefs.²²   Sadly, Elizabeth died after only a few months.

Payments were made for the upkeep of the poor and for the poorhouse by wealthier villagers, especially in times of need; for a midwife; for the doctor; 'for taking Hanna to Cherreburton'; for a chair for the workhouse; and for burying. 'Old William' was certainly looked after well; he was given a handkerchief; tobacco, a quart of black beer; a quart of gin; mutton and beef; a pound of brimston; and, finally, 6d for washing himself!

The arm of the law made its presence felt; as in most villages, Wawne had its stocks in the 18th century, and the constable would frequently use them for miscreants.

Entries in the accounts of Richard Consitt of Waghen and Robert Wise of Meaux, churchwardens, in the latter half of the 18th century, include 7s 4d. to Bricklayer and Laurence for Laying School Floor; 4s 0d for Dog Whipping;²³ 2d for Oil for Clock; 1s to Wm Biby for Cutting Weeds; 1s. to School-master for Cleaning Steple; 9d. for a Base for the Pulpit.

The new incumbent of St Peter's, George Thompson, BA., arriving in 1789, was quick to introduce the latest ideas in church music; there are references to 'Fidelstrings'; to rosin and bows needing re-hairing; to Sutton Singers; and the grand sum of £1.13s 6d for the Singing Master, probably an itinerant man eager to teach the new hymns. Possibly this fresh approach to worship staved off the Methodists for a while longer! Two Methodist meeting houses had already been established in Sutton by this time, but Wawne was to wait more than another three decades before farmers Christopher Nicholson of Wawne, and William Smith of Meaux, registered their barns for worship - in 1822 and 1823 respectively.

St Peter's Church, Wawne

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CHAPTERS

Chapter 1 ~ Chapter 2 ~ Chapter 3 ~ Chapter 4

Chapter 5 ~ Chapter 6 ~ Chapter 7 ~ Chapter 8

Chapter 9 ~ Chapter 10 ~ Chapter 11 ~ Chapter 12

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Notes

1      Blashill, p.131

2     Documents in Hull City Archives reproduced by permission of Hull City Council:
BRF6/800; BRF6/709; BRF6/797

3     Ibid, p.223

4      Allison: VCH

5      Hull City Archives

6      Thanks to Mr/s Fairbank

7      Both pubs feature old brickwork, and a splendid well lies beneath the snooker table in The Ship - formerly the back yard.

8     Hull City Archives

9      Peter Railton: Hull Schools in Victorian Times

10     Now the corner of Noddle Hill Way

11     Skidby Mill Archives

12     Blashill

13     Thanks to Mr/s Alexander

14     Beryl McGough (née Rowntree), now 87 but still working as a journalist in Adelaide, Australia, to whom I am indebted for much information and many anecdotes.

15     Doris Kirby (née Beckett)

16     Thanks to great-great-grandson of G B Barker, Peter Cook of Leeds, for details of the family.

17     Register of Burials

18     Balleine, p.186

19     Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York

20    Mary Carrick, of Wawne, records several people of means living in the village in the 17th and early 18th centuries; and suggests that the population in 1671 may be as many as 410.

21     On the 1853 OS map, the Poorhouse is about 100 metres past Meaux Bridge on the right-hand side.

22     Churchwardens' accounts, E.R. Archives and Records Service.

23     Dogs in church were seen to be a nuisance. As well as this duty, the Dog Whipper also had the job of waking up the parishioners who fell asleep during the sermon. Occasionally, people would leave money in their wills to the Dog Whipper, so that he would be even more diligent in keeping the congregation awake!

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