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32 chapters
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes herein to acknowledge his indebtedness:— (1) To the published works of local historians, and to the publications of local learned societies, into all of which he has delved, and from many of which he has ‘lifted’ such local records as it served his purpose to use. (2) To Mr. John Bickersteth , of the East Riding County Council, for valuable help in the chapter on How the East Riding Governs Itself , and in the general planning of the book; to Mr. John Suddaby , for much informa
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I. WHAT THE EAST RIDING IS.
I. WHAT THE EAST RIDING IS.
That an English county which is nearly as large as the ancient kingdom of Wales should become divided into separate portions for the purposes of local government is only what one would expect. But it is not obvious why the number of these portions should be three, and there is even an air of mystery about the name given to them. ‘North Riding,’ ‘West Riding,’ ‘East Riding’—what is this word ‘Riding’? For the answer to this question we must go back many centuries, to the time of the hardy Norseme
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II. HOW THE EAST RIDING WAS MADE.
II. HOW THE EAST RIDING WAS MADE.
Stand on the very highest point of the white limestone cliffs that stretch northwards from Flamborough Head, and realise that you are standing on what was once the bed of the sea. Strange though this be, it is nevertheless true. Countless ages ago what now towers up 450 feet above sea-level had over it the ceaseless rolling of the waters of the ocean, and during countless ages it was slowly formed out of the shells and teeth and bones of the creatures that lived in these waters. Men who know tel
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III. MEN OF THE STONE AGE.
III. MEN OF THE STONE AGE.
What sort of man was it who first inhabited Holderness and how did he live? Artists in his day were few and far between, and the few who did exist in Europe gave pleasure to themselves and to their companions by drawing portraits of reindeer and horses on pieces of bone. To draw portraits of their fellows was probably the last thing they would think of doing. Reindeer and horses are graceful creatures, but the artists’ fellows were anything but graceful. As far as we know, the first inhabitants
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The Ancient Britons.
The Ancient Britons.
With the coming of Julius Caesar to Britain in the middle of the first century before the birth of Christ, we reach the time in the history of our country when definite facts about its people begin to be recorded. Thus we know from Caesar’s own writings that the Britons lived in houses like those of the Gauls, that they had great numbers of cattle, that they used copper coins, that many of the inland tribes did not grow corn but lived on milk and flesh and went clothed in skins, that in war time
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V. MEN OF THE IRON AGE.
V. MEN OF THE IRON AGE.
In the last chapter we saw that the later Britons had some knowledge of iron, as well as of copper and tin. But with the Romans the use of iron was much more extensive, and hence they may be called Men of the Iron Age . The first Roman general to enter the territory of the Brigantes was Ostorius Scapula, who came north in A.D. 50. Twenty-eight years later came Julius Agricola, who penetrated as far north as the rivers Forth and Clyde. By Agricola the ancient British camp Caer Eburac —the camp on
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VI. OUR ANCESTORS.
VI. OUR ANCESTORS.
From the time when Roman soldiers first penetrated into the territory of the Brigantes, the land which we name Holderness was troubled by the piratical attacks of a people from the other side of the North Sea; and in the early years of the second century the low-lying marshes of this district were inhabited by a tribe whom the Romans called Parisii . In our language they would be called Frisians . These early Frisian settlers have left us evidence of the places they chose for settlement in the v
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VII. HOW THE MEN OF THE NORTH BECAME CHRISTIANS.
VII. HOW THE MEN OF THE NORTH BECAME CHRISTIANS.
During later Roman times the worship of God had been introduced into Britain, and the discovery of the Roman bronze brooch figured on page 38 shows that Christianity had reached the shores of the Humber. But the invaders who were to give a new name to the country and to become our ancestors were heathens, and chief among their gods was Woden. We of the twentieth century still preserve, the names of Wōden, Tīw, the god of war, and Frīg, the wife of Wōden, in our ‘Wednesday,’ ‘Tuesday,’ and ‘Frida
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VIII. THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN.
VIII. THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN.
Two hundred years pass onwards from the coming of Saint Aidan to Northumbria, and we are again among scenes of famine, sword, and fire. Let us see what the records of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles have to tell. These records show that the history of the fifth and sixth centuries was being repeated at the close of the eighth century, and during the ninth. They tell us of the inroads of a new race of free-booters, men of Northern Europe—coming from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—men among whom was a pas
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IX. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 892.
IX. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 892.
The year of Our Lord is eight hundred and ninety-two, and the scene lies a couple of miles north of the village of Hessle, on the Yorkshire bank of the Humber. Twenty-five years before this date a heathen army had crossed over the Humber on their march to York, and a good number of broken heads and hewn-off limbs had been the result of their visit to the province of Deira. Then, like sensible people, the invaders and the invaded had come to terms. Villages of the Angles were not too numerous in
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X. TWO FAMOUS BATTLES OF LONG AGO.
X. TWO FAMOUS BATTLES OF LONG AGO.
In 901 died Alfred, King of the West Saxons, and Edward, his son, succeeded him, to be succeeded in turn by his son Aethelstan in the year 925. King Alfred had, it will be remembered, agreed with Guthrum the Dane to divide England into two parts, one of which each of them should rule. But Alfred’s son Edward enlarged his power so greatly that he was in 924 ‘chosen to father and lord by the Scots King and all the Scots people, by all the men of Northumbria—both English and Danes and Northmen—and
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XI. HOW THE NORMANS CAME TO YORKSHIRE.
XI. HOW THE NORMANS CAME TO YORKSHIRE.
The tale of the Northmen’s invasions of England could be matched by the tale of their invasions of the northern coasts of France. Early in the tenth century a Viking known among his people as Rolf the Ganger [20] made a descent upon Rouen and entered into a treaty with Charles the Simple, King of Paris, by which a large tract of land around Rouen was ceded to him and his followers, in return for their aid against Charles’ enemies. Such was the beginning of the province of Northern France known i
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XII. HOW OUR ANCIENT PARISH CHURCHES WERE BUILT.
XII. HOW OUR ANCIENT PARISH CHURCHES WERE BUILT.
In these days of bicycles most of us have experienced the pleasure of seeing, over the tree-tops in the distance, the spire or the square-capped tower of one of our village churches. For us on that occasion, perhaps, it marked the goal of a long journey, and we therefore hailed it gladly. Then probably we thought no more about it. Yet that village church was worth a few minutes of our thoughts. To one who knows how to see it was worth walking round, and worth also looking into. For it had a tale
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XIII. THE BIRTH OF HULL AND THE ROMANCE OF THE DE LA POLES.
XIII. THE BIRTH OF HULL AND THE ROMANCE OF THE DE LA POLES.
Arms of Kingston-upon-Hull. To say exactly the date of birth of the city which to-day the inhabitants proudly call ‘The Third Port’ is one of the things that are beyond man’s power. It used to be thought that Hull was founded by King Edward I., but we know now that this was wrong; for there are in existence old title deeds which show that the city goes back in point of time more than one hundred years before ‘Edward of the Long Shanks’ became King of England. On the other hand, we are certain th
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XIV. MONKS, NUNS, AND FRIARS.
XIV. MONKS, NUNS, AND FRIARS.
Arms of Bridlington Priory. Scattered over some of the pleasantest parts of Yorkshire are to be found the ruined homes of men and women who centuries ago formed a very distinct class among the people of our country. These men and women were the monks, friars, and nuns of mediæval England, and their homes were known as monasteries and friaries. The foundation of monasteries was due to the growth of an idea that men and women could serve God better by withdrawing entirely from worldly affairs, and
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XV. SAINT JOHN OF BEVERLEY AND HIS MINSTER.
XV. SAINT JOHN OF BEVERLEY AND HIS MINSTER.
Arms of Beverley Minster. Each of two East Riding villages, Harpham and Cherry Burton, claims to be the birthplace of Saint John of Beverley. His date of birth is even more uncertain than his place of birth; but we know that he was sent to school at the monastery at Canterbury, and afterwards became an inmate of the famous monastery of St. Hilda at Whitby. Then he was for nineteen years Bishop of Hexham, and finally, in 705 or 706, was ‘translated’ to York, and thus became the fifth in the long
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XVI. SANCTUARIES.
XVI. SANCTUARIES.
The Church in the Middle Ages had a tremendous hold over people’s minds, and this was largely due to the power which it wielded over their bodies. Foremost amongst the rights then possessed by it was the right of ‘Sanctuary,’ by which the poor and injured could gain safety from the attacks of their oppressors, and one who had unwittingly committed a crime might save himself from a criminal’s death. This right belonged, in greater or less degree, to all the churches scattered up and down the coun
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XVII. HOW TWO KINGS OF ENGLAND LANDED AT SPURN.
XVII. HOW TWO KINGS OF ENGLAND LANDED AT SPURN.
In the old Norse account of the life of Harold Hardrada it is stated that after the battle of Stamford Bridge Olaf, the King’s son, ‘led the fleet from England, setting sail from Hrafnseyri .’ This is the earliest mention that we have of the bank of sand and shingle which is known to-day as Spurn Point, and the name of the place—‘Hrafn’s gravel-bank’—is evidence of both its general appearance and its ownership in the year 1066. For two centuries after this we have no mention of it, but in the me
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XVIII. LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL TOWN.
XVIII. LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL TOWN.
Present Seal of the Borough of Hedon. What sort of life did the townsfolk lead five centuries ago? Suppose the townsfolk of to-day could suddenly be transported back five hundred years, what would be the things likely to strike them as most strange? One of these would certainly be the way in which the town was cut off, as it were, from the surrounding district. Thus Hedon was cut off by two Havens, one natural, the other artificial, and by another artificial watercourse called the Town Moat. Bev
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XIX. THE TRADE UNIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
XIX. THE TRADE UNIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
With the Trade Unions of our days almost everyone is to some extent acquainted. Certainly everyone who lives in a town is acquainted with them. For, in the first place, most workmen in a town belong to a trade union; and, in the second place, many who are not ‘workmen’, in the usual meaning of the word, are made uncomfortably aware of the existence of one or other of the Trade Unions when what is called a ‘Strike’ takes place. Many people, if asked their opinion, would say that Trade Unions are
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XX. THE SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES AND THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE.
XX. THE SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES AND THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE.
In a previous chapter were described the various buildings of a monastery and the mode of life of its inmates. And at the end of the chapter reference was made to the gradual loss of those high ideals which had been the origin of the many hundred monasteries that existed in our country at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The results of that loss will now be described. The benefits to the country at large arising from the establishment of these religious houses had been great. They served
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XXI. HOW THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN AT HULL.
XXI. HOW THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN AT HULL.
In four different centuries has England suffered the pangs of that deplorable kind of war which we are accustomed to describe by the adjective ‘Civil.’ And in each case has the cause of the war been the same—a disagreement as to who should be the ruler of the country’s destinies. In the twelfth century it was a struggle between the King and a would-be Queen, in the thirteenth a struggle between the King and his barons, in the fifteenth a struggle between two royal families, and in the seventeent
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XXII. HOW HULL WAS TWICE BESIEGED.
XXII. HOW HULL WAS TWICE BESIEGED.
The events of April 23rd, 1642, were immediately followed by the sending of letters to Parliament. Sir John Hotham forwarded an account of how he had obeyed the orders of Parliament to the best of his ‘understanding and utmost endeavours, though with some hazard of being misconceived by His Majesty’; while the King wrote demanding that ‘his said town and magazine might be immediately delivered up unto him, and that such severe exemplary proceedings should be taken against those persons who had o
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XXIII. SOME ANCIENT EAST RIDING FAMILIES.
XXIII. SOME ANCIENT EAST RIDING FAMILIES.
‘My ancestor came over with William the Conqueror,’ boasts one who is proud of his long line of ancestors. ‘So did mine’—‘and mine’—‘and mine’—might say a good number of us. Perhaps we could not prove our statement, but never mind. If we cannot prove that an ancestor of ours did come over with William the Conqueror, no one can prove that he didn’t. Of course we all of us had ancestors living somewhere or other in the year 1066, but there are very few who can identify those ancestors. How many of
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XXIV. STAGE COACH AND RAILWAY.
XXIV. STAGE COACH AND RAILWAY.
Travelling for pleasure is something that we all understand. But our forefathers a few centuries ago would have thought a person mad if he had said he was going to take a journey for pleasure. Merchants had to travel, and so had messengers; but ordinary folk stayed at home, unless the burden of their sins moved them to undertake a pilgrimage to some far-off shrine. Such journeys were performed on horseback or afoot, but invalid women and infirm old men might use a horse-litter. On the Road in 18
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XXV. ENGLAND’S THIRD PORT.
XXV. ENGLAND’S THIRD PORT.
We have seen in some of the foregoing chapters how the small town of Wyke, or Hull, was born early in the twelfth century, how it received a charter of privileges from King Edward I., and how it was afterwards fortified with walls and ditches that withstood successfully a couple of sieges during the Great Civil War. It remains to see how the small, insignificant ‘King’s Town upon Hull’ has grown into a city so important as to take rank after London and Liverpool as ‘England’s Third Port.’ Six hu
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XXVI. FAMOUS SONS OF THE EAST RIDING.
XXVI. FAMOUS SONS OF THE EAST RIDING.
First in the list of those who may justly be called ‘Famous Sons of the East Riding’ stand the names of Roger of Howden , William of Newburgh , and Peter of Langtoft . All these were men of learning in an age when knowledge was difficult to obtain, and each devoted himself to the work of spreading the knowledge of which he became possessed. The work that each of them bequeathed to us is a history of our country, the histories of the first and second being written in Latin, and that of the third
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XXVII. SHIPS OF THE HUMBER.
XXVII. SHIPS OF THE HUMBER.
Let us ask ourselves what is our idea of a ship. However we express this in words, it will be vastly different from the idea of a ship that possessed the minds of those early inhabitants of Holderness of whom we read in Chapter III. Theirs was that of a tree-trunk hollowed out partly by fire and partly by hand labour with implements of flint, until it would balance itself on the water, and could be pushed along by its occupants with some sort of paddle. Such were the ships that men first used on
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XXVIII. FOLK-SPEECH OF THE EAST RIDING.
XXVIII. FOLK-SPEECH OF THE EAST RIDING.
There is a tale told of a Yorkshireman on a visit to London that he fell into argument with a bus conductor over the correct way of pronouncing the simple word ‘road.’ The cockney bus-conductor had, in his usual way, called out ‘’Toria Rowd; ’Toria Rowd!’ and the Yorkshireman was highly displeased with this obvious murder of the King’s English. ‘Rowd!’ said he in his disgust; ‘whah dooant ya speeak English? R-o-a-d—that’s hoo it’s spelt, beeant it? Whah dooant ya ca’ it Roo-ad?’ The story will s
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XXIX. HOW THE EAST RIDING GOVERNS ITSELF.
XXIX. HOW THE EAST RIDING GOVERNS ITSELF.
Every ten years a census is taken of the people inhabiting the British Isles. The latest counting of the people took place in 1911, when it was found that there were living in the East Riding of Yorkshire 432,804 persons. This large number of people is made up of men, women, and children who live in groups or communities very greatly varying in size. The number of persons living in the great city of Hull was 278,024; the number living in the little village of Wilsthorpe was only one. Ancient Arm
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XXX. EAST RIDING SCHOOLS.
XXX. EAST RIDING SCHOOLS.
To have behind it a history that goes back certainly for eight hundred years, and in all probability for a thousand, is something of which a school may be proud. Such is the rightful boast of the Beverley Grammar School . Arms of Beverley Grammar School. As far back as the year 1100 there is mention of the schoolmaster in the Minster records. But the earliest known mention of the school is contained in a letter written in 1276 by Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York, to his bailiff at Beverley. In
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XXXI. THE EAST RIDING ROLL OF HONOUR.
XXXI. THE EAST RIDING ROLL OF HONOUR.
A brief record of the most famous lives in local history. Each of the persons named was born in the East Riding, and living persons are excluded. Saint John of Beverley. Born at Harpham, and died in A.D. 721. Became Bishop of Hexham and of York. Was canonised by the Church in 1037, and afterwards became one of the most famous saints of the north of England. See pages 135–140 . Alured, or Alfred, of Beverley. Born at Beverley in 1109. Became Treasurer of the Church of St. John of Beverley, and Ab
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