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
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.
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| 1890s map |
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| 1948 map |
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