As it’s currently Heritage Open Days time, we got our ancient rock Angus Young to chip in with some pieces of history anyone can visit.
They’re not part of any official tourist trail around Hull’s Old Town. Nor do they feature in Hull City Council’s register of non-listed buildings or structures regarded as being of local historic interest – a tier below Historic England’s national listing system. Instead, three large hand-carved stones dating back to the late 1700s remain largely overlooked despite the fascinating story they tell. So here’s an opportunity to see them for yourself the next time you visit the Old Town as we take you on a tour of some of the area’s most unusual physical landmarks.
We start in Chapel Lane. Head along the historic route from Lowgate towards High Street and you will see a car park on an open patch of land on your right just after Standidge Buildings. A rather splendid old brick wall separates the car park from the warehouse and if you get up close to the wall you will see a large rectangular stone standing on top of it. Inch a bit closer and you can just about make out the faded words carved onto the stone. They read:“A Party Wall from North to South 60 feet.”
The first significant legislation requiring party walls to be constructed between neighbouring buildings was triggered by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Under the new law, party walls had to be sturdy enough to withstand two hours of fire, giving people the chance to escape while also providing a greater opportunity to extinguish the blaze. The legislation helped turn wooden towns and cities into brick ones.
In Hull, bricks had long played an important part in the town’s built history as natural stone was relatively scarce locally and had to be imported at considerable expense. As such, the party wall stone in Chapel Lane would have been a significant acquisition as well as identifying an important newly-built safety feature in the street. Records of businesses based there suggest it was constructed between a brewery and a bakery and could well be the work of stonemason Daniel Hopewell who owned a yard in the late 18th century.
The second stone on our tour can be seen in Scale Lane. Walk up the lane from Lowgate towards the pedestrian bridge over the River Hull and look to your left at Bayles House, first documented in 1751 as a wealthy oil merchant’s house set back from High Street. Originally set within an inner courtyard, the party wall stone is now set on a gable end overlooking the lane. Natural erosion makes it hard to read but my take is: “A Party Wall 44 Feet 7 Inches Length By 2 Feet Width”.
This stone is much smaller than the one in Chapel Lane but the third is probably the largest of them all. Sadly, weather damage has obliterated the wording but its impressive size indicates the importance of the wall it sits on – the boundary between the original Trippett Street burial ground of St. Mary’s Church and the Charterhouse Maister’s House. The land was consecrated as a burial ground in 1775 and the house was built five years later so the dates fit with the other stones, suggesting a contemporary trend in Hull for physically recording the dimension of boundaries for use in potential future land ownership deals or disputes.
They might not boast the architectural beauty of an ancient church or a civic building but, for me at least, these old stones are just as fascinating for the stories they tell about Hull and its history.