John Walkington - another piece of Hull's history

 Every older Hull native remembers the Humber ferries and the pier; and most of us have explained that the railway station by the pier never had trains.  Many have enjoyed the hospitality of the Minerva Hotel.  I was interested to discover that a past resident of the Charterhouse was a part of that history.

John Walkington was born in Malton, Yorkshire, in 1786.  He married Sarah Skelton there in 1811.  He was making his living as a currier, the branch of the leather trade which took the tanned leather and treated it for use.  But he and his partner went bankrupt in 1814.  So John seems to have come to Hull soon after and tried a different career,  He disappears from the public record until September 1840,

when an advertisement appeared in the Hull Advertiser.  John Walkington is running what we might now call a boutique hotel at 7, Nelson St, down by the "new" pier, and has apparently been doing so for more than 20 years.  It is ideally placed for the Hull & Selby railway terminus on Railway St, as well as for steam packets crossing the Humber.  Very similar adverts appeared in 1841 and 1843.  The 1841 census confirms John's address at 7, Nelson St but, since that census rarely records occupations, he is described only as "Ind." - of independent means.

This later map (around 1892) shows how well-positioned Walkington's guest house was.

This photo (undated) shows Nelson St with the early Minerva hotel on the left.

In 1848 Sarah Walkington died.  Perhaps it was this which prompted John to sell up - or perhaps the owners of the building knew what was coming and wanted him out.  Certainly John's son, also John, was not in a position to take it over.  He opened another guest house elsewhere in 1849.

And in 1849 John auctioned off the entire contents of the establishment, and the notice of the auction gives us a fascinating insight into the furnishings of a mid-19th century hotel.  It doesn't seem to have made John rich.  Or perhaps the proceeds went to his son to enable him to start his own venture.  Whatever the reason, John Walkington was admitted to the Charterhouse a year later, on 1 August 1850.

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway had begun a new ferry service; and their first offices in Hull were opened in 1853 at 7, Nelson St, Walkington's premises.  The building also accommodated a flat for the clerk in charge.

When the 1851 census was taken of Charterhouse residents John gave his former occupation as "currier"; and he did so again in 1861.  Was that old job more important to him than the two decades as a hotel manager?  He died on 29 November 1865.

Thanks to Bill Longbone and members of the Hull: The Good Old Days Facebook group for their help with this research.