The Hessle lands

Through its long history the Charterhouse has derived a large part of its income from the endowment of lands by the de la Pole family.  Michael, the 1st Earl of Suffolk, gave land in Hull and Cottingham.  His son increased the gift.  On 6 June 1408 King Henry IV gave a licence to Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, to give "four tofts, one garden, three oxgangs and eighteen acres of land, seven acres of meadow, six acres of pasture, six acres of wood and thirty-five shillings of rent with the appurtenances in Hesill" to the Maison Dieu or hospital which his father, the 1st Earl, had built.  Michael followed this on 1 September that year with a deed granting those lands to the "Master and poor persons" of the hospital.  The grant differed slightly from the original licence and specified that the lands were in "Hesill, Westelvele, Miton, Willardeby, Feriby and Traneby" (Hessle, West Ella, Myton, Willerby, Ferriby and Tranby).  Both these gifts were conferred by "license in mortmain", which meant that they were a permanent transfer of property.  They could not be confiscated by the crown if the other de la Pole lands were seized.  This was to be vital in our history.
There are no early maps to show the exact boundaries of these lands.  The first we have is a sketch of the enclosure map of Hesslewood made in 1793.  The name "Charterhouse Wood" had stuck.

In 1822 a set of accounts, published by James Acland, shows the use of the land.  

A large acreage was rented by Mark Green as farmland.  Green was also a publican.  The other large lease-holder was Joseph Pease, whose land included the stone-pit i.e. the chalk quarry.

Chalk appears to have been quarried from early medieval times, and through the centuries the operation was developed into a thriving industry.  A windmill was built to grind the chalk into powder known as whiting, which was used in processes such as paint-making.  According to the Humber Bridge Country Park's records, over 5,000 tons of our chalk was shipped to San Francisco, California every year in the early 1900s for processing into paint and putty.  No doubt a great deal was also shipped to other parts of the world.  The quarrying went on until around 1964.  The area was sold for the building of the Humber Bridge. 

 The workforce in 1905.

The chalk mill.

In the early days the collection of rents and other property transactions were left to the Master, presumably overseen by the agents of the de la Pole family.  When they were no longer in the picture, and certainly after the dissolution of the Priory, it was all down to him.  He had to handle all the income and expenses of the hospital, and it proved too much to expect of either his honesty or competence.  By 1571 the Aldermen of the Bench decided to take an interest; the Mayor, after all, was supposed to be the ultimate authority, according to the founding document.  An enquiry determined that the Master, Thomas Turner, had been guilty of all kinds of neglect and of what amounted to embezzlement, and he was made to agree to a long list of regulations.  These included having to get the agreement of the Bench to any property transactions and an annual audit.  All the rents and leases of the lands which supplied the hospital's income were re-negotiated.  

A scattering of houses on the lands throughout the centuries became the start of real development in the mid 19th century.  The grandest was West Hill House, which was the home of businessman (and owner of the Hull Daily Mail) Frederick Grotrian.  He moved in in the 1860s, and although he moved away, by 1901 he still rented or leased three large properties in the Hessle lands from the Charterhouse.  

In 1840 a slice of the Hessle land was sold to the Hull and Selby Railway Company for over £506.  

The Charterhouse lands in Willerby saw little development until the 20th century, mainly bringing in rents from farmland.

In 1850 a "farmstead" was built "the Charter-House Estate at Willerby".  The architects were the firm of the famous Cuthbert Brodrick.  The first tenant or lease-holder was John Dixon.  Some early records refer to this farm as De La Pole Farm, but it later became known as Low Farm.  Like other Charterhouse property the building carried the badge of the charity.  It's scruffy now but it's the same coat of arms as appears in mosaic in our portico.

The Charterhouse's first major venture into property development came in 1867, with a plan to build 8 villas for lease on the Hessle lands.  These were on West Hill off Woodfield Lane, and the leases were signed before the houses had even been built.  They went to:

• James Reckitt (apparently two leases)
• John Lumsden
• Francis Reckitt
• Martin Samuelson
• Richard Wilbe
• William Maxwell Johnson
• Anthony Bannister

All of these were substantial businessmen, and for some the villa was an investment rather than a place to live.  James Reckitt, founder of Hull's most famous company but then on the census as a biscuit and starch manufacturer, did live at what was known as Mentone House.  This still stands, but most of the others are gone.

A schedule of Charterhouse properties in 1901 shows that the most lucrative one in Hessle was the farm of 58 acres held by Thomas Henry Richardson, which brought in £140 p.a.  Frederick Grotrian's three holdings were worth, together, more than £76 p.a., and there was also a cricket club paying £18.14.10 a year.

1890s map

While the nature of the Hessle lands has changed vastly in over 600 years, they remain a source of income for the Charterhouse, thanks to the foresight of the de la Pole family.

1948 map

(Thanks to Michael Free and the excellent Hessle Local History Society for a great deal of this information.)

Women of the Charterhouse

 Our 19th century register hides the stories of an unknown number of women.

When a married man was given a room and brought his wife with him, his name was recorded, but hers often was not; it seems to have depended on the attitude of the Master of the time.  We only knew of the existence of some of these women when we looked at the census records, and those records are just 10-year snapshots.  Occasionally a missing wife is brought to our attention by a descendant.  One such is Mary Jane Abey.  She entered the Charterhouse with her husband George in 1900.  Two years later she died, and very soon after that George was "removed to the workhouse infirmary".  It's quite likely that Mary Jane had been the carer for her husband who, with her death, could not look after himself and so had to go.
 Sometimes we see a woman who is obviously the wife of an inmate admitted after her husband has died.  She has been given a room in her own right.
Another curious fact is that when waiting lists for rooms appear in the archives the men are categorised by their former occupations; the women only as single or widowed.  (Women, of course, could not be awarded a room in their own right if they were married.)  This reflects the normal 19th century practice of seeing a married woman as simply an adjunct of her husband.  Census returns rarely record an occupation for a wife, even though we know that very many working-class wives had jobs or earned money working from home.  They were not deemed to be the bread-winners.  When we try to trace the history of some of the Charterhouse widows, all we can usually learn is what their husbands did for a living.
One such is Hannah Lax, who was admitted in 1910.  She was the widow of Charles Lax, described as a music teacher and then a flautist and bandmaster.  She was removed to the infirmary in 1913 because of "mental infirmity" and died in 1926.  Another is Emma Whincup, admitted in 1896 when she was only 60, the widow of Thomas Whincup, a butcher.  There are many more such women whose histories are hidden until someone undertakes more detailed research.

One Charterhouse widow whose story has been well researched is Jane Wing.  Born Jane Barnborough in 1778, she married John Wing who ran the mail coach service between Hull, Hedon and Patrington from premises beside North Bridge.  When John died in 1826 Jane took over the business, and ran it successfully with the help of her son John.  Two of her sons emigrated to Australia with their wives in 1840, but one of them, David, returned two years later with his wife and the daughter who had been born in Australia.  He got a job as a "relieving officer", administering the Poor Law for the Board of Guardians, and this may be connected to the fact that his mother was given a room in the Charterhouse in 1844.  She died on 27 June 1854.

Ann Roberts' story is known thanks to the fact that the local paper ran a story about her.  Born Ann Squires in 1819, she married twice.  Her first husband, Henry Sayle, was lost at sea in 1861; her second, Thomas Roberts, died in 1884.  Ann was admitted to the Charterhouse in 1905, and lived here for 10 years until she was "removed to the workhouse" when she was 95.  The workhouse was then the only source of what we now call "social care", and Ann could no longer look after herself.  But in 1919 the workhouse threw a party to celebrate her 100th birthday.  The Hull Daily Mail (which published the photo) made it a news story.  It said that she "had not troubled doctors much", was "quite bright" and "very much alive".  Ann died in 1922 aged 102.  If she had stayed at the Charterhouse she would have been our only known centenarian.

All we know about Elizabeth Brown comes from the inquest into her death, reported in the local paper in February 1836.  Despite her "deranged state of mind" there was nowhere else for her to go.  She was probably the wife of Edward Brown who was admitted in 1832, but she does not appear in the register with him.  Her body was found a long way from home, so she must have wandered for some distance.

Alice Booth's death in 1895 was also a tragedy.  The details are quite harrowing.  She had gone to the wash-house to get hot water from the copper (the type heated by a fire underneath).  The door to the furnace had been left open, and Alice's dress caught fire.  Her screams were heard by a young window-cleaner who threw water over her and rolled her on the ground.  She was kept at the Charterhouse for two days, with the Matron and a doctor attending to her burns, but was then taken to the Infirmary  where she died two weeks later.  We know about her death - but all we know of

her life is that she was born in the Malton (Yorkshire) area in 1817 and was married to John Booth, a grocer.  She was widowed by 1881 and entered the Charterhouse in 1887.

From its foundation the Charterhouse provided a refuge for both men and women.  But, as in society as a whole, it's the men who are most visible.