C.S.Todd Archives - Friends Of Hull General Cemetery

Anniversary September 1852

August 23, 2022 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Volunteers

The Coming of the Railway

This month’s anniversary is related to the railway that once ran past its gates.

On the 2nd September 1852 the Board received an engineer’s report. This engineer was employed by the York and Midland railway Company. This report detailed a new layout for the proposed branch line to the Victoria Dock. It was the culmination of a campaign waged by the Company to get the railway company to change its mind. And it was a success. Let’s go back a bit and see how this situation came about.

Back in December 1851 the Board received an unexpected and definitely unwanted Christmas present. C.S Todd, the secretary reported that,

‘plans and sections of the proposed Victoria Dock Railway had been lodged with the clerk of the peace for the borough of Kingston upon Hull on Saturday evening and that the proposed railway was projected to pass between the north west corner of the late waterworks and the gates of the Cemetery at a distance of comparatively a few feet and requested instructions as to the course under such circumstances.’

What to do?

Obviously this development caused consternation with the Board. They knew that a branch rail line was in development but they had no idea it would impinge upon the cemetery. That it would run a ‘few feet’ from the entrance would be disastrous for the cemetery. The effect it would have upon the Lodge was also something that had to be taken into consideration. The Board knew it had to do something quickly.

‘It was resolved that a deputation consisting of the chairman, Mr Irving, and Mr Todd do wait upon the Directors of the York and North Midland Railway Company upon the subject of the injury to the cemetery in consequence of the above railway and that in the meantime the solicitor do see the plans lodged and get all the requisite information upon the subject.’

The meetings

The meeting with the Railway Company was soon forthcoming. The meeting took place on the 14th January 1852. To say it wasn’t a success would be putting it mildly. The Railway Company saw no reason to change their plans. If it caused the Cemetery Company problems , well that was no concern of theirs.

The Company employed their own engineer, Mr Clarke, to draw up alternative plans for the route of the railway line. The Board also thought that an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders should be called to inform the proprietor’s of this situation.

This meeting took place on the 20th February.

‘The chairman opened the proceedings by stating succinctly to the meeting what had already been done by the directors respecting the proposed crossing of the railway Company immediately in front of the cemetery’.

He then called upon the secretary to read out the correspondence between the Railway Company and themselves. Sadly none of this survives but the Secretary, in the minute book, does state,

‘that he had received from the directors of the Railway co., a letter by no means satisfactory inasmuch as it bound the company to no fixed mode of arrangement’.

Oh, the wealth of meaning behind his clipped legal words.

The feeling of the meeting was pretty high at this point and the proprietors made their views quite clearly to the Board and the meeting,

‘fully authorised and empowered (the Board) to take such steps for the protection of the Company’s interests in the matter of the railway crossing as they may be advised and deem right and that if necessary they be authorised to proceed to parliament for the purpose of attaining that object.’

Parliament

This was the nuclear option and the Railway Company probably did not see it coming. The issue was raised with the standing committee of transport and by May a resolution was forthcoming. The Railway Company accepted the plans as put forward by the Cemetery Company,

‘and that the railway Company had agreed to pay this company £2500 on condition that certain suggested alterations should be made at the entrance of the cemetery.’

So, a victory for the Cemetery Company. Well, not quite. Firstly the railway line was still to run quite close to the front of the Cemetery. Secondly, what were these ‘alterations’ mentioned?

Getting the builders in

An insight into these was noted in July. The minute books state that ‘extra gate piers’ were needed at the front of the Cemetery. Where and how they would fit into the original scheme is difficult for us now to visualise. The Board empowered John Shields, the superintendent, to,

‘be authorised to purchase the necessary stone requisite for the extra gate piers and also obtain an estimate of the difference of expense to the company between our having gates across the whole of the new entrance or only palisading with a dwarf wall for two openings, both in the present and projected entrance and in the event of the latter plan being adopted then the cost of removing from the present to the new entrance two sets of the gates now at the former and that in the meantime the new walk required for a cab stand to be laid out, planted and completed forthwith.’

So, these were the alterations that needed to be carried out. As I mentioned visualising the changes is difficult as the only image we have before the railway was laid out is from Bevan’s lithograph which is an artist’s impression.

The lithograph shows both the lodge and the chapel built with gates. This is wrong as none of those buildings were built at the time of the lithograph being printed. There would have been some gates at the entrance but what they were like is open to question. In other words we are quite in the dark about these ‘alterations’. Suffice to say that they took place.

One cottage or two?

On the 26th August, a visit took place from Mr Carberry. This was the engineer from the Railway Company. He fully approved of all what the Cemetery Company had done. But there was a sting in his tail for he went on to show the detailed plans he had brought with him.

‘Mr Carbery then laid before the Board the plan and sections for the Gatekeeper’s house, as proposed to be erected by the Railway Company, and the same having been examined by the Board, and it appearing to be the intention of the Railway Company to erect such house in front of the entrance lodge of the Cemetery.

It was determined to make an offer to the Railway Company to build them a gatekeeper’s house on the ground of the Cemetery and corresponding in style and architecture with the Cemetery lodge, on receiving from the railway Company £100 the amount intended to be expended by them, the additional expense to be borne by this company and that in the event of such an offer being accepted another house should be built on the other side of the lodge in uniformity with the gatekeeper’s house and Mr Carbery stated that he would lay such an offer before the Railway Directors and recommend that the same should be carried out as proposed.’

Horrified

The Cemetery Board must have been horrified by the idea that a workmen’s hut should be placed in front of the Lodge. But they knew that they could not resist this insult. That is, unless they upped the ante. This they did by saying that they would build the gatekeeper a house on their land to the west of the Lodge, in the style of the Lodge. This was agreeable to the Railway Company and the gatekeeper of the level crossing for Botanic Gardens Station lived there until its demolition in 1907. That the Cemetery Company then felt the need to add ‘balance’ to their frontage and erect another cottage to the east of the Lodge was simply just showing off. It was used to house the foreman of the Cemetery staff which at this time was a man called George Ingleby. He remained there until the 1890s.

Not top of the range

These cottages were not built to the standard of the Lodge. Simpson and Malone, quality builders and stonemasons, wee employed to construct them. As the bill tendered for payment indicates, the cost for building both cottages was £170 each. The lodge cost much more than that. Still one had to keep up appearances. The final bill for the cottages came to £320 when other aspects were taken into account. The Company probably thought it had done well getting 320 knocked off the price.

And so we come to that date in September 1852. The anniversary of the coming of the railway to the Cemetery. At the meeting,

‘A letter was then read from Mr Gray, the secretary of the York and North Midland Railway Company, accepting the offer made to Mr Carbery as to building the gatekeeper’s house on the Cemetery grounds provided his company would give to the Railway Co. a lease of the house for 21 years and after the expiration of that period agree not to terminate the tenancy unless upon giving 6 months’ notice and repaying the said sum of £100 and the matter having been discussed it was resolved that this Board do approve of such an arrangement and that the secretary be requested to communicate with the Railway co.’s secretary in order to carry out the same.’

And there the matter was resolved.

The final cost

However, was it worth it? Was the proximity of the railway line to the front of the Cemetery that important? We are not in a position to judge whether the moving of the track bed by a few feet was so vital to the interests of the Cemetery. Obviously the Company thought it was. But was it worth it? Ah, that’s good question, especially knowing how things turned out for the Cemetery.

Firstly we have no idea what the cost was for the erection of the extra gate piers but it was a cost the Company had no need to indulge in at that time. Secondly, we do know how much the erection of the cottages cost and that was £320. Yes, they were a fixed asset and they received rent from them but it was a cost that was unnecessary. Thirdly, parliamentary time does not come cheap and the cost of that was £850 5s 1d. This is a considerable sum. The cost of buying the entire site for the Cemetery was only just over £5000. And then we have the cost of the new gates, ordered from Thompson and Stather for £53 10s.

So, overall a cost of northwards over £1200. The Bank of England inflation estimator reckons this sum would be worth £116,966 today. Now that’s quite a tidy sum to spend because you don’t want to have a railway track next door. Some people might say that about having a Cemetery next door. There’s no accounting for taste.

Anniversary July 1857

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Anniversary 1859

April 20, 2022April 20, 2022 by Pete Lowdenin History, Volunteers2 Comments

The anniversary this month is from May 1859. It is, at least in my opinion, the point where the Cemetery began its slow decline. An Emergency Board Meeting was called by the Secretary, C.S.Todd. He said he had received a letter from the Chairman. The minutes of the meeting describe what the contents of this letter contained.

‘The sec. said a letter from Mr J.S.Thompson resigning his office as chairman and director of this board. The directors having considered the reasons assigned by Mr Thompson for such resignation and being desirous that he should still continue to act as chairman of the board. It was resolved that such resignation be not accepted. That the sec. be instructed to address a letter to Mr Thompson expressing the earnest desire and request of the directors that he will reconsider his decision and by withdrawing his letter of resignation resume his position and seat as chairman and director the board.’

The reply

On the 2nd June that year C.S.Todd read out the reply from J.S.Thompson to the Board. The minutes simply state that,

‘ received a reply thereto which he read to the Board and from which it appeared that Mr Thompson had determined not to withdraw his letter of resignation’

It is difficult to gauge from the above what a momentous point in time this was. The dry minutes do not reflect what consternation this resignation letter would have engendered. John Solomon Thompson had been the man who had navigated the Company through the task of selecting and buying the land. He had been instrumental in instigating the Act of Parliament that prevented the Hull Corporation for taking over the Cemetery. As the Chair he had negotiated hard with the Railway Company and forced it to change the proposed route of the Victoria Dock line. He had brought the Company through all of these perils and now he was resigning. Why?

What’s gone wrong?

Sadly, we have no knowledge of the ‘why’. Where are these letters? They are lost to us now in the wastepaper drive fomented by Churchill in World War Two. What on earth had happened that made the esteemed Chair feel he could no longer carry on?

In March everything was rosy. The Company were in negotiations with the Local Board of Health about leasing the western part of their grounds for burials. The Company had just signed the agreement and covenant with the Hull Workhouse for the burial of the town’s poor.

In those intervening two months something had upset John Thompson so much that he felt he had to resign.

I could hazard a couple of guesses on what had caused this turn of events but that is only guesswork and not to be written down as proof. Oh, how I’d love to have seen those letters that were sent. As I said earlier it’s just another of those mysteries that crop up now and again and cause me a headache. A troublesome anniversary. Anniversary April 1858

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Edward Nequest

December 27, 2021December 27, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History4 Comments

Edward Nequest was part of a very select group of people. There were only four superintendents of Hull General Cemetery.

John Shields was the first. He and Cuthbert Brodrick laid out the paths and plots of the cemetery prior to its opening in 1847. John Shields died suddenly in 1866. He was succeeded by Edward. He himself retired in 1891. Michael Kelly took over until 1944. After that Michael’s daughter Cicely Kelly continued in this post until her enforced retirement in the 1950s. There were no more superintendents.

Edward’s birth

Edward Nequest was born in Hull in 1823. The image below shows his baptism at Holy Trinity that year.

In the second column below, which may be difficult to read, the name Edward is inserted. This is followed by ‘S of’ denoting ‘son of’. The registrar also had difficult with the surname. The correction is in brackets. Edward’s parents were Peter and Mary. Their address is given as Myton and the father’s occupation is recorded as a mariner. The incumbent of Holy Trinity at the time was John Bromby.

This vicar had the longest tenure of any incumbent of this parish. He became the vicar of Holy Trinity in 1797 and stepped down from the post in 1867 after 70 years service. He died the following year and is buried in the churchyard of North Ferriby.

Edward was the second son from this marriage. The first son was also called Peter and he was born in 1821 and baptised at the same church.

Home

We have no idea of where the Nequest family lived at this time but by the 1841 census we know the family lived in Cogan Street. It still exists but in a truncated form. Clive Sullivan Way now occupies the southern part where Cogan Street stood.

In the 1841 census of Peter Nequest we find him listed as a ‘Stower’, and his wife, Mary, is strangely placed near the end of the family listing. The 1841 census generally is a blunt tool in comparison with later ones. It often rounded the ages of children up or down to the nearest five yearly span. We find that in the 1841 Nequest census both of Peter’s sons’ ages, Peter and Edward, are given as 15 yet Peter would have been 20 and Edward 18 at the time. The younger Peter, as you can see, is listed as an attorney’s clerk. Edward was soon to follow his brother into this profession.

You may also see that Peter the elder has an ‘F’ against his name. That is because he was born in Sweden in 1793 and migrated to Hull. We have no information why he did this. A shrewd guess would be that it may have been due to the Napoleonic Wars and the British blockade of the continent at the time. A mariner would have found work difficult at that time and emigrating to Britain was a way out of this dilemma.

1851 census

By the time of the 1851 census Edward has moved from the family home. He now lived in a small terrace called Ville Terrace off the newly laid out Hessle Road not far from no1. Hessle Road.

Perhaps more importantly for Edward was that he now was married. He had married Ann Plaxton in 1849. He was also a solicitor’s clerk.

Not just any solicitor. He was apprenticed and articled to one of the most famous solicitors in Hull. His employer was Charles Spilman Todd. This man had been instrumental in carrying through the purchase of the cemetery’s grounds. Indeed the first meeting of the provisional committee took place in his office at no.15 Bowlalley Lane.

C.S.Todd as he was known was both the solicitor and secretary for the Company and also was a large shareholder. Still later in his life he was a councillor and became the secretary for the Local Board of Health and eventually he was elected as Sheriff of Hull. The Creation of Hull General Cemetery: Part Two

Shadrach Wride

In the 1840s the first secretary to C.S.Todd was a man called Shadrach Wride. This man is worthy of an article himself.

Baptised in 1796 in Holy Trinity the year before Rev. Bromby took over. Shadrach was the son of a man of the same name. This man had been the foreman of Jackson’s wood yard in the Groves and he ‘luckily’ married the bosses’ daughter. When he died in 1823 he left the business to his son. Whether the business was in a good state or worth anything is open to question.

Sadly the business failed in 1827 and Shadrach Wride entered the Bankruptcy Court. The timber yard was auctioned off. Even the family home on Charterhouse Lane had to be sold.

Debtor’s prison

One has to remember the draconian laws then regarding debts. Today a person who becomes bankrupt can have that burden discharged after two or three years whilst not paying their debts. Not so in Georgian and Victorian times. Charles Dickens’s father was a debtor and was placed in Marshalsea Prison until the debt was repaid. Dickens himself had to work in a blacking factory to help pay this debt at the tender age of 12. This had a marked effect upon the young boy and it came out in his works in later life.

Little Dorrit is almost completely set inside a debtor’s prison. Nicholas Nickelby, Great Expectations and Pickwick Papers all allude or feature the stigma of the debtor’s prison. Shadrach Wride would have used all in his power to avoid being imprisoned for this ‘crime’. That he did so, and was later rehabilitated says a great deal about the man.

Rebuilding his life

After this date Shadrach contented himself in making ends meet by taking on a number of roles. Often cited as an agent for insurance companies and emigration agencies he was still a respected member of society. He was the secretary for the Fish street Church and was part of that committee until his death. His abode was at 15 Spring Bank, on the corner of Spring Street, and this address was often used as a postal address for the Cemetery before the lodge was built.

To show that the ‘Good Old Days’ never really existed the newspaper item below perhaps shows that modern life is typical of what went before.

Mr Wride was also the secretary for the C.S.Todd’s legal practice and therefore the secretary for the Company. The evidence for this is often to be found in the newspapers of the time but also in the records of the Company that still exist.

Shadrach Wride was also listed as the Company secretary on the brass plate that was buried in the foundations of the Lodge at the official opening of the Cemetery in June 1847.

Wride’s death

So the man’s death came as a shock to many parties. Shadrach died on July 25th 1850 as the news item below shows.

He is buried in Hull General Cemetery in compartment 35 only two grave spaces away from his employer C.S.Todd’s own grave. the cause of death is cited as apoplexy. The vacancy he left was filled by Edward Nequest.

Edward’s work

The first we learn of Edward’s new appointment is once again via the local newspaper. This is some five years after Wride’s death. It is obvious that Edward is not taking things for granted, signing himself as pro secretary. The term ‘pro‘ here is standing for pro tem, meaning for the time being. There were no chickens being counted too early here.

By the following March, in a further newspaper item, Edward signs himself as the secretary, so his appointment must have been confirmed.

However whether any such appointment was ever confirmed is open to doubt. Shadrach Wride’s occupation given in the Cemetery’s burial register is ‘agent to the life insurance company‘ even though he had been both C.S.Todd and the Company secretary for at least five years. Edward, when he bought graves in the Cemetery, is listed as ‘Attorney’s clerk’ and this terminology lasted until the mid 1860s. It appears that the Company didn’t like to be tied down.

Domestic issues

But we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit here. Edward, as we know, was a family man and the domestic side of his life needs some explaining. Or at least an attempt should be made for there is one aspect that is a mystery.

Edward Nequest owned three graves in Hull General Cemetery. They are in compartment 105 close to the south side of the cemetery.

Whether he bought them all at the same time is debateable. What we do know was that the first purchase took place in 1850 for on the 3rd October the first burial took place within it. This was of a young girl, Jane Bell. This child was the daughter of ‘the late Robert Bell, Customs Officer’. I have struggled to find a family connection but in vain. The only supposition I have come up with is that Robert Bell may have been a friend and neighbour as the address given is Elizabeth Place, Hessle Road. This was very near to Edward’s own address at the time. I’m afraid this tenuous link is the best I can do.

1861

By the time of the 1861 census Edward had moved house. He now lived at a house in Porter Street with his wife and young daughter Mary Ann.

Sadly, only 2 years later, in the July of 1863, this child was the second burial in this plot. Measles and consumption of the bowels was the cause of death.

Becoming superintendent

In November 1866 John Shields, the first superintendent passed away suddenly. In the following January the Board appointed Edward Nequest to the post of superintendent.

They also decided, short-sightedly, to combine the roles of superintendent and secretary. Seemingly implemented as a cost-cutting measure it alienated their solicitor, the fore-mentioned C.S.Todd who resigned from the Board. When he became the secretary to the Local Board of Health this alienation came back to bite the Company but that is another story. An Anniversary

The minute books

The minute books of the Company record this decision.

‘Special meeting of directors 20/12/66. Present Irving, Bell and Oldham

‘The vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr S. the late superintendent again came under consideration of the board when the question as to the desirability of amalgamating the two offices of secretary and supt., was discussed and it was ultimately unanimously resolved that in the opinion of the board, the time has now arrived when it seems desirable that the two offices of sec., and supt., may be advantageously combined.

It was further resolved that a copy of the foregoing resolution be handed to C.S.Todd esq, the secretary and that the directors have an early interview with him on the subject. The necessity of filling up the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Shield’s death having been discussed and an application for the office received from Mr Nequest having been considered it was unanimously resolved that taking into consideration Mr Nequest’s long and satisfactory connection with the company the situation of supt., and registrar be offered to him at the salary of £110 per annum with the use of the lodge and this his duties to commence on Tuesday the first of January 1867.’

This appointment was recorded in the local press.

A Company Man

It’s fair to say that Edward threw himself into his work, much like John Shields had done, and Michael Kelly after him would do. Edward often represented the Company at investigations and on committees. In 1868 he applied to Cottingham Local Government Board for them to provide two lamps outside of the Cemetery which they agreed to. This would have been the first street lighting on what was to become Princes Avenue.

He was less successful in 1873 when he asked them to repair the road outside the cemetery.

In 1869 he attended the Local Burial Board Committee and spoke, mentioning that new burial ground of the Corporation ( Old Western Cemetery) was rapidly filling up. The same year he had to explain that it was Company policy to give visiting clergymen a surplice at the office and not to give them a surplice at the graveside as one irate clergyman demanded. The Burial Board sided with Edward.

An important meeting

A more important meeting that Edward attended took place before this appointment as superintendent. On the 21st April 1860 the Hull Advertiser recorded his intervention into a meeting of the South Myton Guardian Society.

In the meeting, which appeared to have been called as to whether the parishioners of Holy Trinity should pay for a new burial ground, Edward was forthright. The snippets below, taken from a very long article, show that Edward was a bright, eloquent speaker who was passionate about the Cemetery.

Still later, in defending the Hull General Cemetery’s charges,

Needless to say that the parishioners voted against having a rate set against them for the purchase of a burial ground. The result of this was that Castle Street continued to be used for burial for a further year until Sophia Broadley donated the land to lay out Division Road cemetery in 1862.

1871 and after

By 1871 his family had increased and living in the lodge must have become a bit tiresome.

As we know, three years later he requested that he be allowed to move from the lodge. Anniversary January 1874 This request was accepted by the Board and he moved out to a larger house. This was at 7, Zoological Terrace, situated on the corner of Norwood street and in between the Swedenborgian Church on one side and St Jude’s on the other corner of Norwood Street.

It is the building with the group of men outside of it on the pavement in this image. Here’s another image and it is the house with the steeple behind it.

Edward continued to live at this address until his death in the 20th century. By the time of the 1881 census there had been no new additions to the family but as you can see below Elizabeth had married.

A terrible decade

She had married John Frederick Byron and had borne him a son, Frederick Edward the following year. Her husband was still living with his parents at 47, Stanley Street and he lists himself as a ‘foreman of wine and spirits warehouse’.

In the 1880s his daughter, now Elizabeth Byron, lost three children. Ann on the 22nd of October 1885. She was 5 days old. The cause of death was put as premature birth. The following year, in October 1886, Ellen died at the age of 12 days old. Her cause of death was listed as disease of the spine. And in the February of 1889 another daughter, Lillie, died at the age of four from croup.

Culminating a terrible decade for Edward in the September of 1889 he lost his wife Ann. She died of cancer of the liver. Her death took place at 2, Albion Place, Quay Road, Bridlington. Cancer is rarely a sudden death and I surmise that Ann was away from home, probably with Edward, as a holiday / leave taking for both of them.

Going through the motions

It’s fair to say that the loss of his wife was a disaster for Edward. I would suppose that he no longer wanted to be associated with death for it now held painful memories for him. Sadly, worse was to come.

In the meantime, in the September of 1891, he offered his resignation from his post as Superintendent and Secretary for the Hull General Cemetery.

Its arrival is recorded in the Company minute books,

‘Read a letter that from Mr Nequest tendering his resignation of the office of secretary as and from 30 instance. Resolved that such a resignation be accepted. Read a letter from a Mr Kelly of Granville Street, Hull, for the office of secretary and superintendent rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr Nequest and after considering the same and it appearing that Mr Kelly was suitable person to fill the office it was resolved that Mr M Kelly be and he is hereby appointed secretary and superintendent on the terms named in his application.’

His daughter

Edward’s daughter by now had a family of three children. Frederick Edward now aged 10, Charles aged 8 and Gertie, born that year. Her husband, John Frederick, now listed himself as a dock labourer, so a definite coming down in the world for the family. They lived at Ebenezer Place, Raywell Street which was off Charles Street.

By the 1901 census John Frederick is nowhere to be seen and Elizabeth is listed as a widow. Indeed this is strange record for all the inhabitants are simply designated with initials.

The truth of the matter is that John Frederick had absconded to the United States where he proceeded to make a new life for himself and scant regard for his past life.

His mother had died in 1883 and his father died in 1894. By 1895 he had emigrated. two years later he committed bigamy by marrying Ruth Newman on the 15th September 1897 in Salt Lake City. I say committed bigamy but Salt lake City was and is the home of the Mormon religion and polygamy is accepted and recognised there. Did John F Byron become a Mormon? We have no way of knowing. Suffice to say that he had six more sons and five more daughters whilst in the USA so we can say he embraced his second wife if not the religion. He died in 1918 in Idaho.

Her illness

We have no idea why he absconded. It could well have been that his wife Elizabeth was ill. She eventually died from locomotor ataxia. This disease was and is extremely problematic and embarrassing for sufferers. Predominantly it is a disease of the spine. It manifests itself in locomotion issues such as jerky walking and disorientated movements which give the appearance of being drunk. Sufferers need to constantly check where there are limbs are. It is often a symptom of Tabes Dorsalis which itself is often a symptom of tertiary syphilis.

Elizabeth died in 1903. She is buried in grave number 14765, the bottom burial plot in the image shown earlier. You many note that the other grave plots are classed as B whilst Elizabeth’s is D. She is the sole occupant of that grave plot. I’m sure, like me, you can hypothesise about why this occurred but it is only guesswork and perhaps we should leave this tragedy untroubled.

1911 and beyond

The 1911 census shows Edward living in his home with his son Edward and a housekeeper. The house was spacious consisting of eight rooms and both the Edwards appear to be living a comfortable life.

The elder Edward died on the 3rd July 1920 at the age of 97.

His son then married! At the age of 56!! Once again we can wonder at this turn of events. Did the younger Edward love someone whom his father disapproved? We shall never know. And once again tragedy stalks this family. The younger Edward survived his father by less than five months, dying in the December of the same year.

He left a gross estate of £3,301 and personal wealth of £731 to his new bride Mary Elizabeth (nee Young) who continued to live in 183 Spring Bank. On February 2nd 1949, Mary Elizabeth Nequest died. She was cremated and her ashes were buried alongside her husband and her in-laws in grave number 14363. With her death this line of the family ended.

Obituary

Finally let us leave with the obituary that the Hull Daily Mail saw fit to print about Edward.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Anniversary January 1874

December 13, 2021December 17, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Volunteers2 Comments

New Year’s Day is the anniversary of some interest. This anniversary of January 1874 shows that Gothic may be nice to look at but as to living in it. Well that’s another matter.

On that day in 1874, the superintendent wrote to the Board and asked to leave the lodge. The superintendent, Edward Nequest, had lived in the lodge since the previous occupant had died.

The previous occupant was John Shields. He was the first superintendent of the cemetery and had died in 1866. However he had requested to move out of the lodge some time before this and moved to a house in Derringham Street.

After Edward Nequest had moved on the lodge was rented out to George Ingleby, the gardener for the Cemetery. Michael Kelly, the next superintendent took on the lodge. He too found it trying and asked to be able to find his own accommodation.

Just before its demolition in 1925 the chairman had referred to it at the AGM as, ‘the old, perished, insanitary lodge.

So, it’s quite possible that although the lodge was beautiful to look at, it was not a great place to live in.

Nequest said in a presentation to the Board that,

‘that the Lodge in which he resided was very damp and unsuitable to live in and having requested the Board to provide him with a residence outside the cemetery and the matter having been considered it was resolved that Mr Nequest do provide himself with a suitable house and that the Company allow him £20 a year towards the rent of such house and provide him with coals and gas heretofore.’

Census entries

That the Board accepted this demand so easily perhaps shows that they were fully aware of the force of his argument. After all they met in one of the rooms of the lodge and must have seen how bad things were.

Edward Nequest moved from the lodge to a house on Spring Bank. In the image above, taken from the 1881 census, Edward then lived at 7, Zoological Terrace.

By the time of the 1891 census this address had been renumbered to 183, Spring Bank. Edward continued to live there until his death in 1920. The house stood on the corner of Norwood Street only a few doors away from Peter Hodsman, the master stonemason of the cemetery. Stonemason of the Cemetery

This image was taken by Chris Ketchell just over 25 years ago. In the 1980s it was a butcher’s shop.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Anniversary November 1846

October 29, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Volunteers2 Comments

This month is the anniversary of a very important point in the Cemetery’s life. On the 5th of November 1846 the Company’s board held an important meeting. The Cemetery wasn’t due to open until the June of 1847 so planning was still taking place. At this meeting two important points were discussed the ramifications of which are still being felt today.

The first point discussed was the extension of the Cemetery’s land holdings. Remember that it was only in the spring of 1846 that the Company had bought their original site from Henry Broadley. Even before the Cemetery opened they were hopeful of extending the site to the north. Seemingly the Board were so confident of the success of this venture.

More land to be bought

How this point was raised at this Board meeting was due to John Shields. As you all know, he was the first superintendent of the Cemetery. As he described the reason why he had brought it to the Board’s attention,

‘Mr Shields informed the board yesterday that Mr Nutchley and himself had seen Mr Wilkinson and that he had offered the Board the field contiguous to the cemetery grounds at £300 per acre, with the understanding that a final answer should be given by Saturday next.’

The Board were obviously interested in this development. As can be seen by the map below Mr Wilkinson owned the site that now comprises Welbeck, Thorseby, Newstead Streets as well as further land. On the map ‘the land to be taken for the enlargement of the cemetery’ was also owned by Mr Wilkinson.

So, yes the Board were interested. £300 per acre was a reasonable price, similar indeed to what they had paid Henry Broadley.

The Board agrees

Accordingly the Board agreed to accept this offer. As the minute books state,

‘After conversation thereon it was resolved unanimously that Mr Wilkinson’s offer be accepted and that Mr Todd be instructed to inform him the same and arrange the terms of payment in the following manner if possible viz £500 to be paid on the 1^st of July 1847 and the balance at the end of three years from thence with interest thereon at 4% per annum having also the option of paying off the same earlier on giving three months’ notice of their intentions to do so.’

All well and good so far. However, as you all should know by now, The Company’s dealings were always fraught with disaster.

The Board meeting of the 18th

If we look forward to the Board meeting of the 18th the situation had drastically changed.

The Board received a letter from Mr Wilkinson’s solicitor, Mr Samuel Lightfoot, who is buried in the HGC and whose stone still stands.

This letter was clear and unequivocal in its language.

‘We are the more surprised at this inasmuch as you have been apprised both by Mr Wilkinson and ourselves, that the offer which you made to purchase would not be accepted.’

What happened?

What had happened? We are not privileged to know all the details. We can safely assume that C.S.Todd, the secretary and solicitor of the Company, had performed his task as instructed. He was, after all, extremely competent, later to become the Secretary to the Local Board of Health and later still the Sheriff of Hull. So it is unlikely any blame would lie with him.

The most likely problem was that the Company’s terms of purchase were not to Mr Wilkinson’s liking. After all, he had not said he wanted to sell his land for anything less than cash up front. Not the complicated purchase scheme the Company had suggested. This may have been agreeable to Henry Broadley but Mr Wilkinson was not that man.

That also Mr Wilkinson had stipulated a time limit for the purchase. If he had seen this offer from the Company as a method of extending the negotiations this may have prejudiced him against going through with the sale.

And a more damning factor was that the Cemetery Company jumped the gun. Part of the solicitor’s letter stated that the Cemetery workmen had,

‘broken down Mr Wilkinson’s fence in great parts.’

To take this action before the ink was dry on the sale was stupid, especially with a man of Mr Wilkinson’s temperament.

An enemy for the future

With this action, compounded with further infractions in the December, the Company had made an enemy of their neighbour. His distrust and enmity of the Company bore fruit long after Mr William Wilkinson had died for his wife and son continued the vendetta.

Surprisingly his son chose to be buried in HGC and I have often thought this was a token revolt against his parent’s.

An alternate history?

The chance to extend the Cemetery to the north was lost forever. But let’s just imagine for a moment how an alternate history of the HGC may have run.

One of the aspects of this alternate history would have been that the Dukeries would never have been built. It is also questionable whether Garbutt’s Avenues project would have taken off. After all the residents of such an area may have enjoyed being near neighbours to the Park, the Cemetery perhaps not so much.

With the Cemetery extending to the north it would have had no need to extend to the west. Would the Local Board of Health have opted to begin the municipal burial ground that became Western Cemetery northwards instead of westwards? If this had happened the Avenues project would almost certainly not have happened.

The creation of Chanterlands Avenue

The creation of Chanterlands Avenue may not have begun either. When the Western Cemetery burial ground was simply the five acres leased from the Hull General Cemetery it was offered in 1884 another 15 acres of land as an extension. The person offering this land? Why none other than a representative of William Wilkinson’s son. Vendetta’s last a long time. He also offered another 20 odd acres further to the west.

However he stipulated that as he had extensive land to the north he wanted a 40 foot road created in between these lands as an access road to his property. The Council readily agreed and this was the beginning of Chanterlands Avenue.

Back at the Board meeting of the 5th

The second point at the meeting above was raised by Cuthbert Brodrick. Not a board member although a shareholder he had been invited to attend. The subject at issue was how to enclose the Cemetery grounds. As you may remember the chair, John Solomon Thompson, had made extensive field trips to cemeteries in London and Birmingham. The Creation of Hull General Cemetery: Part One

As such he knew what was out there. Although the need for the strict security that some of the cemeteries of London had employed to keep out the grave robbers was now redundant walls and gates were the norm. An example of which is below from Nunhead Cemetery.

With this in mind Brodrick had been entrusted with providing plans for such necessary items.

Unfortunately no such copy of the plans have come down to us. Suffice to say that, upon consideration, the Board felt that,

‘Mr Broderick attended the Board with a design for the wall and iron fencing which were considered and after discussion it was determined that as the expense would be so very large, it was advisable to put up a wood fencing.’

Wood rather than brick

The result was that Cemetery was fenced rather than walled. In the short term the Board made a judgement call on the cost. They were in the midst of an ever increasing sea of costs at that time. The laying out of the Cemetery, the buildings necessary for its workings, the staffing costs etc were all coming from the increasingly small sum that had been gathered as a result of the share subscription. With no income until the Cemetery opened the next year the Board probably felt that some cost cutting measures were needed.

That these plans appeared at the same meeting that the projected extension of the Cemetery’s lands outlined above, with the costs this would entail, was unfortunate. At the same meeting,

‘Mr Harker attended the board with a plan of the engine house, boiler house and stalls and also with a plan of the fencing which were referred to a meeting of the board to be held Saturday next.’

Cost cutting

More expense. The Board were probably looking at some area where cost could be cut. What better than replacing the idea of an expensive wall with a much cheaper wooden palisade?

Well, as I said, a short term cost cutting eventually became a serious headache for later generations of Board members. The fence continually needed maintaining. Let us not forget how far it stretched. From the workshops in the north east corner, along the Dukeries side, past Thoresby School, along the western edge, back along Spring Bank West until it reached the gates at Princes Avenue corner. At no point in time was it free of maintenance costs. When the Cemetery Company fell on hard times it was one of the first things that fell by the wayside.

The result of this far-reaching decision, made in November 1846, is still with us as you can all see. The anniversary still resonates today.

Once again it would be interesting to imagine what would have been the result if the decision had been to take on Brodrick’s designs. I think I’ll leave that one with you to follow where it may lead.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Mysteries

September 17, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Volunteers

A couple of years ago I was told that there was to be a talk at the History Centre. It was entitled ‘The Mysteries and Secrets of Hull General Cemetery’. I thought I’ll pop along to that. I’m always open to increase my knowledge of the site

About a couple of months before the talk I was in the History Centre. Chatting to the staff I was told by the person who usually books the monthly talks that she was sorry. She said HGC was usually my topic and that the booking had happened whilst she was off ill. I was touched by this nod to my idiosyncrasy. I said I was happy to share the topic but I was intrigued as to what the mysteries and secrets were, as to my knowledge, there were very few if any. She nodded.

It was common knowledge amongst the staff there that I had copied or photographed every item that they possessed about Hull General Cemetery and that I had acquired a few things myself that they didn’t possess.

As it turned out the talk didn’t talk about any mysteries or secrets in HGC. Don’t get me wrong here. It was a good, well researched talk and it definitely had lots of visuals to keep the punters happy. But the ‘mysteries and secrets of Hull General Cemetery’, well, I’m afraid there was little sign.

Not Hollywood

That circumstance lies in the fact that the life of HGC is not a movie script. Harrison Ford does not uncover the catacombs of the ‘lost chapel’. Sam Neil, whilst cutting back the brambles, does not find he’s walked into a velociraptor nest. No, sorry. Highly unlikely. Much more likely is that Harrison Ford would find the remains of a shooting-up drugs gathering or that Sam Neil would tread in some maggot ridden kebab.

Yes, there are stories within the cemetery. Stories of its trials and tribulations. Stories of the people who are buried there. But it is not the Marie Celeste. It is not Area 51. It is not the X-Files. The truth isn’t ‘out there.’ It’s a shame but that’s the way it is.

The real Secrets and Mysteries

The secrets and mysteries, if they exist, are found in far more mundane places. They are written in numerous documents. These documents take a lot, and I mean hundreds of hours, of painstaking research to extract that small nugget of information you are seeking. And this process takes a number of years. At the end, the result may be as unexciting as finding that a miscalculation on the part of some clerk a century ago can now be cleared up. But to someone with that penchant for ‘the truth’ it;s like gold dust.

I did mention my idiosyncrasy, didn’t I?

So, with my Harrison Ford / Sam Neil hat on, I have entered this dangerously tedious world many times.

There are two mysteries I’d like to put forward. The first one is about the mystery of Thomas Skerrow and, to add background, the rest of his family. The second one could be titled, ‘What did they do with bodies?’ You’ll understand when you read it.

In some ways these mysteries are mundane and perhaps only of interest to someone like me with that specific ‘nerdiness’ mentioned above but they are mysteries. And I can’t confidently say I have solved them. Yes, I know that my solutions are the most likely yet something still bugs me. See what you think.

Thomas Skerrow

Thomas Skerrow was a gravedigger. You should all know by now my affinity with such people. One could say that it’s in the blood but thankfully it isn’t. Other wise I’d probably be dead from tetanus or anthrax by now. Quite nasty soil borne diseases. No thank you.

Not in the blood but I do have some understanding of these under sung heroes’ roles. And indeed the stresses that were placed upon them. A Grave Digger

Thomas Skerrow had been employed by the Company since its inception in 1847.

As I’ve mentioned before, the workforce of the cemetery, received less than star billing in its production. I suppose that’s why I want to highlight them. Without them the Company would have failed, and the citizens of Hull would have had to put up with the horrific conditions of burial that took place prior to the HGC.

His death

We first learn of Thomas Skerrow by his death. Here’s his burial entry in the HGC burial register.

He died on the 9th April 1854 and was buried on the 12th.

Edward Skerrow, his father

The family already had a family grave as his father Edward had died the previous November. This was a particularly sad case as his father committed suicide. His death resulted in a post mortem and the death reached the local press.

When Edward’s daughter Fanny married later that decade she was still so mortified by the death of her father she refused to provide her father’s name to the registrar. In the burial register of the Cemetery his cause of death is listed as ‘insanity’.

Cowkeeping

Edward Skerrow had been born at Tadcaster in 1791. He lived at 21, Canning Street and his occupation at his death was cowkeeper. Not as outlandish an occupation as we sophisticates of the 21st century would believe. It was quite common for small entrepreneurs to keep a number of cows. These could be hired out for breeding or when ready, sold for slaughter.

However the major source of income from keeping cows was milk. Milk was sold door to door to the gentry. The poorer classes often bought some too though mainly for weaning purposes. It was a thriving industry. Approximately where the old Edwin Davis Store stood in Bond Street was the site of a street called Milk Street because of the number of cows pastured there in the early 19th century..

Alan Harris, in his The Milk Supply of East Yorkshire, 1850-1950′, quotes F.M.Eden saying that in the closing years of the 18th century, ‘for 2 to 3 miles round‘ Hull land was devoted to grazing ‘for the convenience of the inhabitants.‘

Harris also states, and this is probably appropriate to Edward Skerrow, that,

‘Within the towns themselves, still smaller pieces of land were used for purposes that, if not strictly agricultural, must nevertheless have created in their vicinity an unmistakeable aroma of the countryside. {…} William Eleanor, another Hull Cowkeeper, occupied in 1851 a yard and a range of outbuildings behind residential property in North Street, Myton.’

Now Edward was in a fairly lucrative business if he kept his herd healthy. Plus he had a sizeable property as the map below shows so his herd may well have been quite sizeable too.

Yet, as the newspaper article above shows he was an alcoholic and an opium user.

Opium for the masses

Let’s be clear here. Opium was the drug of choice of many people then, from all classes. Queen Victoria enjoyed her laudanum as much as the workman who bought his pennyworth of opium for his pipe. It deadened the pain of living. It took away guilt, hunger and emotion. In Britain of the 1850s that was something to be cherished.

As for the alcohol, it was as readily available as was the opium. As were the public houses. You may note that Edward’s post mortem was conducted in a public house. This was that a public house was, in essence, neutral territory. It could accommodate the officials and the witnesses for such a gathering. It is only in the recent past that civic buildings have eclipsed the public houses in this role. Coroners, magistrates and other civic officials conducted their affairs from hostelries. It was felt less threatening and more fair.

The downside of that was that they were everywhere. So, if you had an issue with alcohol, then it would be difficult to avoid it.

Hannah

So, Edward Skerrow was dead. In death he left about £100 to his widow Hannah. By the 1861 census her son Edward junior had taken on the cowkeeper role and she disappears from the public eye for about 20 years.

She resurfaces in 1881, living in Hallgate, Cottingham and is described as a ‘property owner’. She died a year later and I’m sure no one could smell any trace of cows or manure at her funeral.

Of interest, the younger brother of Thomas, Edward, took over the Cowkeeping business from his mother some time in the late 1850s as mentioned above.

Prior to that he too worked for the Cemetery Company. In 1858 he found a box laid beside the cholera monument. Inside were two babies, born prematurely and probably dead at birth. The box was handed to the police who investigated but to no avail. Another mystery but probably all too common back then.

Back to Thomas

Back at Thomas. He died of a heart condition. The Company went as far as resolving to buy a headstone for his grave.

And now we come to the mystery. Or mysteries shall we say.

Firstly, there is no record of a stone being erected on the grave. From the entry above in the HGC minute books it appeared to be quite straightforward. A stone was to be erected and James Sibree, the Cemetery’s chaplain, was to write an inscription for the stone. Was it just forgotten? Quite unlikely. That the Company wanted to do something to mark Thomas Skerrow’s passing in the first place is unlikely but that they said they would and minuted this gives credence to the fact. So where was the stone? It wasn’t destroyed in the 1970s as far as we know. Did it ever exist?

No, I cannot solve this part of the mystery.

What compounds the mystery is this. In September 1858, the Board had given the tenants at the west end of the Cemetery notice to quit. One of these people, John Hill, sent a sharp letter to the board. The minute book tells the story.

The Company under attack

Mr Thompson and Mr Todd, chair and secretary respectively of the Company, appeared to be unduly worried at this attack. Why? The man was behind in his rent. He had been given notice to quit. All was above board. That they both, busy men that they were, went to see Mr Hill shows something of the anxiety this letter from Mr Hill caused them. Again I ask why? The Cemetery was in fine shape and often cited as a boon to the town. What would such gentlemen care for the word of a disgruntled tenant? What harm could his tittle-tattle do?

We already know that Thomas Skerrow died from heart failure. He wasn’t crushed by any graveyard calamity was he? What was Mr Hill alluding to? Was the probable cause of death something he caught during this particular job that later affected his heart? Could any damage to Thomas’ heart have been caused during this particular task?

Ordinarily I would dismiss such questions. I have a death certificate and burial entry all saying the same thing. That’s gold plated in my book. But I still have that nagging doubt, simply caused by two of the major players in Hull at the time, going out of their way to discuss an irate tenant’s baseless claim. Both of these men were learned, C.S.Todd was a solicitor and later became the Sheriff of Hull. They could and should have laughed at this or possibly taken legal action. They did neither.

With my Probation Officer head on I find it’s just a little odd. What do you think?

Cholera

And the second mystery is shorter but more difficult. As most of you will know in 1849 cholera hit Hull for the second time.

The Cemetery fulfilled a public duty and buried the corpses in a timely and safe manner. To cater for the great mass of bodies the Cemetery Company set aside two full compartments and two halves. This was recorded in the Minute books of the 9th August 1849.

As can be seen from the map below taken from the Cemetery records the compartments chosen were 96,97,122 and 123.

The Cholera monument was erected in Compartment 96. All fine so far.

The problem

Now we come to the problem. Many of the people who died from cholera were not buried in those plots. Yes, if a family grave had already been purchased the relative could be buried irrespective of the cause of death. What is more surprising is that many of the burials in the portion assigned to the Cholera ground appear to have been in Compartment 121.

Unfortunately there is no Compartment 121 in the Cemetery except for a rump that was sited under what is now the shops on Princes Avenue. So, what’s going on?

That this issue was not noticed for 50 years is surprising. Michael Kelly, the last Superintendent, noticed it and remarked on it during his tenure. But it was obviously a mystery to him too.

Compartment 121

Let’s look at one of these graves. Grave number 18844 is a public grave. It was first dug for Ann Levitt who died of cholera on September 4th. She was buried that same day. The following day Charles Cheeseman, Elizabeth Gossop and 8 year old Bridget Dunbar joined her. Cholera was the cause of death for all of them. This was the last entry for burials in Compartment 121.

The first burial in Compartment 121 took place on August 12th, grave number 20645. It was filled within two days and a new one opened at 20647. All were cholera deaths.

Now we know that the burials were taking place. They were recorded meticulously by the Cemetery staff at the time. The problem is where are they? The grave numbers do not match any other grave numbers in the cemetery. Quite frankly, they do not exist.

So, we are left with a mystery. Those people were buried in the Cemetery but not in the grave number given, and certainly not in the Compartment 121.

Yes, a clerical error perhaps. I agree with Michael Kelly; they must be in Compartments 122 and 123. I’d just like to know how we could ever find that out.

Over to you to solve this mystery.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

The Creation of Hull General Cemetery: Part Three

June 25, 2021June 29, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Public Graves, Workhouse Graves, Catacombs and Crosses

The context of the story

This is the third and final part of ‘the Creation of Hull General Cemetery. As I said at the beginning of the first part it was originally written in 2015. It was published in the Hull Civic News in 2016/17. I’ve tweaked it and enlarged parts of it here. I can do that here without worrying about ‘how can I fit that on the page?’ or ‘that image is in the wrong place’. However, in the main, it’s the same story that I originally wrote. That’s why, at the end, there is the reference to Hull City of Culture. For when I wrote this, that was still in the future.

As we know Hull General Cemetery played a small part in that pageant. It was used as a backdrop to some acrobatics. The cemetery itself was used as a low-rent Hammer House of Horrors setting. No effort was made to highlight the architecture or culture artefacts in there. No attempt was made to hold up to a wider audience the history of the site.

Post 2017

Here we are now, four years after that whole cultural festival year, and one year after it officially ended. The heritage aspects of the cemetery are still under threat. From indifference on the part of the Council with regard to the irreplaceable heritage aspects of the site to a group of people who ‘know’ that they are right and who feel that a Sycamore is more important than the headstone of the first woman photographer in Hull. History was seen as important by all groups when the City of Culture was in full swing.

Now, in a place where it is most vulnerable, it is under attack. A short sighted view. The site is big enough for both heritage and nature but right now the pendulum is far and away on the ‘nature’ side. A little appreciation of the valuable assets that can be lost forever if we don’t take some care now is imperative.

Culture Wars

There’s a great deal of discussion lately about ‘culture wars’. There’s one taking place right now in the Hull General Cemetery. I know which side I’m on.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this final part of the site’s beginnings.

The first shareholder’s meeting

On the 21^st November 1845 a full general meeting of shareholders was undertaken. Amongst other things, this meeting voted to allow the directors of the new company to raise a loan for £5,000, as the land from Mr Broadley was for sale at £6,000. This loan would have allowed the Company to act on this purchase without straining their shareholders.

It was fine establishing a Cemetery Company but a cemetery needed land to pursue its business. That was the next task at hand.

In early December the Directors of the Company reported in the local press that,

‘upwards of 150 of their townsmen are already subscribers to this intended beautiful and well-ordered place of undisturbed repose for the Dead of all classes of this large community.’

The land for the proposed Cemetery were two pasturages. These were situated at the crux of Newland Tofts Lane or Princess Bank, as it was sometimes known as, and Spring Bank leading westwards. This part is now known as Spring Bank West.

The site was owned by Robert Wood in the last decades of the eighteenth century. It had been farmland since the medieval period when it had been drained by the creation of the Julian Dyke in 1404. The land passed to Robert Carlisle Broadley in 1804. By the time the Company were trying to buy it Henry Broadley appeared to own it.

Copyhold

A meeting took place between Mr Thompson and Mr Irving for the Company and Mr Broadley at Beverley in mid-January 1846. The sale of the land had already been agreed but this meeting was about the enfranchisement of the land. It appeared that Mr Broadley owned the land yet it was ‘copyhold’ land. Mr C.S.Todd had been informed of this development late in December 1845 and had informed the Directors. Yet another unforeseen cost to the Company.

Copyhold was probably one of the last vestiges of feudalism.

Wikipedia explains

It is best explained by this Wikipedia entry;

‘The specific rights and duties of copyholders varied greatly from one manor to another and many were established by custom. Initially, some works and services to the lord were required of copyholders (four days’ work per year for example), but these were commuted later to a rent equivalent. Each manor custom laid out rights to use various resources of the land such as wood and pasture, and numbers of animals allowed on the common. Copyholds very commonly required the payment of a type of death duty called an heriot to the lord of the manor upon the decease of the copyholder.’

The cost to the Cemetery Company

These legal duties were eventually phased out over the nineteenth century. However at this time the landowners were still gripping such vestigial rights tightly.

In this instance the manor was Cottingham and the Company would need to pay a significant sum to the Lady of the Manor. Mr Broadley, in recognition of his ‘error’, offered £100 towards this enfranchisement cost. Later still this sum was increased to £250. Perhaps this shows how much the sum involved was. The final cost was £529 7s 6d to the Company.

On the 4th February 1846 a conveyance was agreed. The parties being Henry Broadley and the Board of Directors of the Company. These were John Solomon Thompson, William Irving junior, Thomas Abbey, Charles Stewart, Benjamin Ansley Tapp, John Malam, and George Robinson. The cost of this conveyance was £5,566 5/-. This was to be paid back in annual instalments over five years at an annual rate of interest of 4%.

Making enemies

By December 1847 this debt had been reduced to £4,489 10s 4d and that is where it stood for the next six years. The Company failed to pay this debt off during Henry Broadley’s life time. His sister Sophia, who had inherited Henry’s property, agitated for this debt to paid off. It was finally paid in 1853. Once again, through stupid self-interest or possibly lethargy, the Board had made an enemy. Sophia would be instrumental in providing the land for the the Division Road Cemetery in the 1860s. Once again the Company had provided the impetus behind a serious competitor for custom.

Changes afoot

Meanwhile back in 1846. The Board was influenced by a visit Mr Thompson had made to Kensal Green Cemetery in London. From this visit he was intent upon making the Cemetery as splendid as it could be. The Board agreed.

In February an advert for designs from architects was placed in the local press. This finally showed that the cemetery would become a fact of life rather than just an aspiration. The Hull Advertiser noted this in an editorial of the same edition that began with the words,

‘It affords us no little satisfaction to notice the actual commencement of operations for carrying out this long-needed improvement.’

Promenade…again

The same article went on to say that,

‘The site, running parallel with the Spring Bank, is well chosen; and a delightful promenade, by improving the present bank and the road in front of the Old Waterworks, might, with a moderate outlay, be provided for our busy population; in fact the whole of the road from the Zoological Gardens to its termination at the entrance gates of the intended cemetery, is capable of being made an attractive adornment to the town.’

The idea of the promenade would linger on until Mr Garbutt took it in hand some 30 years later with his Avenues project and General Cemetery would play little part in that plan.

The Cemetery moves from being a hope to a reality

The Hull General Cemetery was fast becoming an established fact. It was soon to exist to cater for the town of Hull.

The winner of the competition to design the Lodge and Chapel for the Cemetery was a young architect called Cuthbert Broderick. The story of the Lodge and its history will feature as another article later this year.

In the April the Directors had invited the shareholders to look at the designs for the laying out of the cemetery grounds. By the 8^th May the designs for the cemetery buildings were approved unanimously by the Directors with Cuthbert Broderick being hailed by the press as, ‘our talented young townsman.‘

In this month too a war of words with the Holy Trinity Churchwardens had apparently been amicably settled. This spat had erupted due to the fact that the church would only receive the minister’s fees for officiating at a service in the Cemetery. When they opened a grave in Holy Trinity churchyard or the Castle Street burial ground the costs of the burial were collected by the church. A meeting between the Directors and the Churchwardens appeared to resolve this issue.

John Shields

On the 13th August 1846 it was noted in the minute books that John Shields had approached the Board as to his employment by them.

This was coup of the first water. Here was an experienced cemetery superintendent asking for work. Not only that but York General Cemetery was held up as a model of planning and efficiency. Here was a great chance for the Company to progress further with an an astute guiding hand helping the Board.

You may be surprised to know that, for once, the Company did the right thing. The Board unanimously approved the appointment of John Shields as the first superintendent of Hull General Cemetery at the board meeting of 26th September 1846. His salary was £90 per annum and the Board would pay for his accommodation until the Lodge was available. After that he would live rent free on Company land. He would remain as the Cemetery Superintendent until his death in the 1860s.

His first job

At that very meeting when Shields was informed of his appointment he was also given a number of tasks.

As you can see, he was instructed to mark out the ‘first field’. The site, as you know, was divide up into two fields for the purposes of pasturage. The first field ran from, what is now Princes Avenue up to just past where the Cholera Monument stands.

The second field would eventually contain the Quaker burial ground, the Workhouse mound and the 5 acres that were eventually taken by the Hull Corporation for Western Cemetery. The approximate dividing line between the two fields is marked by the drainage pit in the Quaker plot.

He was also asked to cost the hard core he would need to use for the laying out of the paths in the Cemetery as well as attend to the Newland Tofts drain. The Board wneeded his expertise and knowledge. The local press were not slow in recognising what a find John Shields was for the Cemetery.

The Deed of Settlement

It would have been easy for the Company to have taken its eye off the ball though and miss out on John Shields. Other matters were pressing.

The Board were concerned at the delay in receiving their Deed of Settlement from the Registry of Companies in London. Without this deed much of what they proposed to do was technically illegal. The solicitor C.S Todd was often moving back and forward between London and Hull during this summer.

Eventually the precious document was received. This news was quickly advertised in the local press. The Hull General Company now existed in reality. It now owned the land for the Cemetery. It was progressing with the drainage and laying out of its grounds. Finally, the Company was registered as a corporate entity. In essence it could now begin to exercise its reason to exist; the burial of the dead.

Cottingham Drain

Running concurrently with all of this was a step undertaken by the Company to tender a contract to widen and deepen the drains and to join them to the Cottingham Drain. This was an ambitious undertaking.

Not just by the length of the scheme, but that the tender specified that the drains would be, ‘brick-barrelled’. This would obviously cost more than simple soak away drains or cuttings. The remains of the Cottingham Drain may be seen still as the grass verge running parallel with Queen’s Road.

Culverted and covered in the mid 1960s it still empties into the River Hull close to the High Flags point on Wincolmlee. You used to be able to see it from Scott Street Bridge but with the removal of that bridge that sight has gone forever..

The lodge, chapel, trees and shrubs

The same day tenders were appearing in the local press for the construction of the lodges and the chapel. The following week tenders for supplying ‘ornamental forest trees’ and,

‘evergreen and deciduous shrubs, sufficient for planting and laying out of the grounds of the company’.

Later that same week the contract for the draining work was awarded to Mr. Benjamin Musgrave. The tender for the erection of a temporary cottage was given to Mr John Darley. The cottage was for the purposes of a night watchman. Theft was just as prevalent then as now, whatever people say about the ‘good old days.’ In September a spade was stolen from the grounds.

All of this industry was recognised and applauded in the local press. On the 23^rd October the tender for the provision of the fencing of the site was advertised for. The press reported that,

‘the directors do not pledge themselves to accept the lowest tender’.

This implied to the eager public that the Company desired quality as it had in all other aspects of the development of the Cemetery.

This ‘desire for quality’ did not last. When the estimate for building a wall around the cemetery hit the Board’s table it was found expedient to go for fencing instead.

The same day that the fencing tender was advertised it was reported that a trial grave had been dug on the site. Some 8-foot-deep, it had been excavated to test the drainage and that it was “thoroughly dry”.

It was also reported that only 63 shares were left to purchase by future subscribers. It was stated that any subscriber could either have their share as an investment or relinquish it for a vault in the cemetery in lieu of their subscription. Over the lifetime of the Cemetery may shareholders cared to do this.

Progress

An extraordinary meeting of all shareholders took place on the 26^th November 1846. This was to ratify a number of issues that the Directors of the Company had undertaken. One of these issues was the agreement with Holy Trinity Parish to sell some of the Company’s land to the joint parishes of Holy Trinity and St Mary’s. The land identified would be consecrated and encompass about 10 acres at the western end of the Cemetery. This agreement met with approval by the shareholders.

The Company had no idea what trouble this issue would lead to.

The meeting was also a time for the Directors to acquaint the shareholders with the progress they had made on their behalf. The temporary cottage was to be erected at a cost of £70. The contract for draining the cemetery grounds was settled on the sum of £159 6/- whilst the outer draining was contracted to be £400. A well was sunk in the work yard.

The erection of a pump house and installation of a steam engine for the maintenance of the draining of the cemetery was contracted for £195. The chairman, Mr J.S. Thompson, thought this, ‘is one of the cheapest things I ever met with.‘

Holy Trinity burial space

Backtracking slightly, a week before this extraordinary meeting, a public notice had appeared in the press. It was placed there by Charles Frost. Charles Frost was a noted Hull historian, second only to Sheahan in my eyes. He is also buried in Hull General Cemetery and his headstone was destroyed in the ‘clear-up’ of the 1970s.

He was acting as solicitor for the Church Wardens of Holy Trinity Church. The notice was informing the public that the church was seeking an Act of Parliament. By this Act they were hopeful of selling Castle Street burial ground and purchasing the westernmost 10 acres of the Hull General Cemetery.

Castle Street burial ground to be sold

One has to wonder who on earth would want to buy Castle Street which at that time was simply a large cess-pit of the dead. One also has to wonder at the temerity of the Church to even consider doing this. With little or no thought for the parishioners or their loved ones who they had buried in there.

This very idea shows how the Church at that time viewed the disposal of the dead and why the Hull General Cemetery was so needed. The Church put forward the idea that the bodies would be exhumed and re-interred but the families would not be consulted on this.

When the press reported the Extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of the cemetery it was this point that was deemed to be the most important.

Not the Promenade again!

On the 18^th of December the old chestnut of the Promenade surfaced briefly in a letter to the Hull Packet from “A Pedestrian” in which he stated that improving the south side of Spring Bank by the Council would provide,

‘a pleasant walk of about half a mile, with two interesting objects in it, viz the Zoological Gardens and the new Cemetery.’

The correspondent then went on to say that his scheme would be to,

‘buy land from the Cemetery northwards, including all Tofts Lane to the Cottingham Drain, and make that into a handsome promenade.’

That this actually occurred some 30 years later shows that this idea did not simply originate with Mr Garbutt when he laid out the Avenues.

The church starts to get cold feet

All was not plain sailing for the Cemetery Company though. In February 1847 the plan that had been agreed upon with the Churchwardens of Holy Trinity for the church to have the western end of the Cemetery came to an abrupt end.

The vicar and his wardens disagreed between themselves who was to fund the £100 needed to present their Act of Parliament to the appropriate parliamentary committee.

Eventually one of the Churchwardens, a Mr Mitchell, felt duty bound to put sureties, with provisos, for the £100 up himself. He stated that he still felt that the vicar had acted in bad faith.

This, however, would not be the end of this matter.

Enter the Government Surveyor

On the 29^th January 1847 the Surveying Officer for the parliamentary committee, George Hammond Whalley, gave notice in the local press that he would be surveying the site of the cemetery on the 10^th February. He would also be inspecting the other burial places in the town.

As part of his role he would be conducting a hearing with interested parties on this issue.

The Hull Advertiser Editorial

On the 4th of February the Hull Advertiser ran an editorial. It occupied almost one full page.

In this piece, it was obviously troubled by what it thought was a degree of duplicitous on the part of the church. It would be proved to be correct.

The editorial warmed to its task. It cited horrific sights in supposedly holy places.

The editorial also flagged up the prospective Act of Parliament devised by the church authorities although it appeared to not hold much faith in it.

It also informed the public of the intended visit of the surveying officer and the reason for his visit.

And finally, it pointed the way forward using the example of the Hull General Cemetery as a solution.

The surveyor did not attend on the 5th but attended on the 12^th of February. He inspected not only Holy Trinity burying ground, the vaults of the church but also the cellars of the house in King Street that abutted the burial ground. He also visited the site of the new cemetery. Not that it did him much good.

The night before his visit and his hearing for the proposed Act of Parliament. a disaster waylaid all the plans. A man-made disaster and based solely upon money.

Disaster

The next day, in quite measured tones, The Hull Advertiser advised its readers that the necessary Bill in parliament to grant the necessary Act of Parliament to set up the part of the cemetery that was to be religiously endowed was dead.

At an impassioned and rowdy parishioners’ meeting the day before, the resolution to apply for the new Act to set up this cemetery was voted down by angry parish members who did not want to increase their church rates.

At 3.00 p.m. on the day of his inspection the Surveying Officer was informed of this decision and refused to hear any further evidence on the subject. In fairness to him there was no point in continuing the hearing. The hearing had been expressly called for by the proposed Act. With the idea of the Act dead in the water his role was effectively complete.

John Solomon Thompson doesn’t miss his chance

It didn’t stop the Company representative, John Solomon Thompson, from extolling the virtues of the Cemetery. The Surveying Officer was impressed with the site and said so in his report but this had no bearing upon the proposed Act brought by the Church authorities.. Charles Frost, placed in an invidious position, could only say to Mr Whalley that he could not present any evidence in support of the Act. Mr Whalley therefore concluded the meeting and left the town.

Never trust the church

The Cemetery Company now showed that they had had enough of dealing with the religious interests. They would not enter into any further agreements with the churches as to leasing or selling them any land.

This meant that when the burial grounds were closed in Hull by Order in Council in 1855 Castle Street was granted an extension. By 1860 it was ordered to close by the Inspector of burial grounds.

Once again it was given an year long extension because it was close to providing a new burial ground. It closed in December 1860. The new burial ground was Division Road.

On the 18th February the Company gave notice to the occupier of the second field of the site. They were now showing that they would use the whole of the site for their own purposes.

Another shareholder meeting

There was general shareholder meeting on the 5^th March 1847. The progress that the Cemetery Company had made was laid out to the shareholders.

The drainage works was now complete on the site. Both the Spring and Derringham Ditches had been widened and deepened and this work was almost finished. The fencing off of the site was almost complete. The laying out and planting of the ground were proceeding.

Finally, the chairman brought the shareholders up to date by mentioning the recent visit of the Parliamentary Surveyor,

In late March the Hull Advertiser paid a visit to the site and commented favourably on it, stating that there were,

‘Already upwards of 3,000 ornamental trees, deciduous and evergreen and shrubs, have been planted, together with 100 of the newest and best sorts of standard roses.’

It also said that a temporary chapel had been constructed until the more permanent one could be built. In April the tender for contracts to erect the lodge and entrance gates were advertised in the press.

The first interment?

On the 16^th of April the first interment, that of the child of a Mr Smith, a draper of the firm Marris, Willow and Smith in Whitefriargate, took place.

There is however, another story here. For those of you who have seen the first page of the Burial records of the Cemetery one thing stands out. The second burial recorded took place before the first one.

How could this happen?

The second burial, that of William Irving, was a re-interment from Fish Street Chapel. This took place on the 14th April. William Irving was one of the founder members of the Cemetery Company. He was the first chair of the Provisional Committee, and he took over as the Chair of the Company later when John Solomon Thompson resigned.

This re-interment may have been planned well in advance. For instance, the brick lined vault would have needed to be excavated and built in preparation for the child’s remains. William Irving may have probably been hoping for the ‘glory’ of having the first burial taking place in the Cemetery.

Imagine his chagrin when Thompson arranged with John Shields to have Mr Smith’s daughter interred so quickly.

The local press made amends though.

A real promenade

The Cemetery was also becoming a place to visit. Hull, at that time, had no public parks where you could while away the time. The Botanic Gardens, established in the early nineteenth century, were available. At least to those who could afford to pay the entrance fee. As was the Zoological Gardens but the entrance fee was still a drawback to the poorer classes.

The Cemetery, however, was free to enter and enjoy – if that’s the right word here. The Company had spent a considerable amount of money on landscaping and it looked like the townspeople were appreciative of it.

On the 23^rd April, the day before the article above, a long-awaited advert appeared the local press.

It announced that the Hull General Cemetery Company were proud to say that the cemetery was, ‘now ready to receive interments.’ The advert went on to say that the rates for their services would be published soon. And they were. 10,000 copies of them too!

A week later, on the 28th April, an impressive funeral took place.

Undertaken by nearly 200 stonemasons of one of their brethren, the procession began at Carr Lane and proceeding up Spring Bank to the graveside. In some ways it set the tone for many other funerals that the Hull General Cemetery hosted over the next 130 years. Stonemason of the Cemetery

The official opening

Although the Cemetery was open for business, its official opening ceremony took place in the June of that year. It was an occasion of great pomp and ceremony with all of the local dignitaries being present.

The local press recorded the occasion.

Various objects were interred within the foundation stone. The press recorded what these were.

On top of the bottle was placed a brass inscribed plate.

None of these items survived the demolition of the Lodge in 1927 except for one. This was a list of the original shareholders. It’s held now in Hull History Centre.

However, there may be one other item from this ceremony that survives.

As stated above, the Mayor, Mr Jalland, laid the foundation stone of the lodge ‘in the presence of a numerous concourse of spectators, principally of ladies,’ on the 2^nd of June 1847.

Where is the trowel?

In laying the foundation stone he used an inscribed silver trowel as stated above. This trowel was specially made for this occasion.

In the minute books of the Company it is mentioned.

The silver trowel, made by Mr Northern of Lowgate, was presented to the Mayor.

It is my belief that it still resides in some cupboard or cellar within the Guildhall. A tangible reminder of the day that Hull began to dispose of it’s dead with dignity.

The Foundation stone was laid. And now there were, as usual, a number of speeches. Following those was a brief prayer by Rev. James Sibree. He would later write so movingly about his time spent in the Cemetery during the Cholera outbreak in 1849.

Finally, as the Hull Packet, almost apologetically recorded, ‘and the doxology having been sung, the assembly dispersed.‘

The end of the cemetery

After a long and hard struggle, with one or two missteps along the way, Hull now had a cemetery. The cemetery it had needed for the past thirty years. It served the community well for the next century or so.

By the time I was kicking through the fallen leaves on my way to Hull Fair it had long given up its pre-eminent place for burials to the municipal cemeteries. It became secluded and a haven for wildlife. Its wilderness appealed to the poetic and the historian. Its decay appeared to enhance its beauty. It wore its shabbiness with a genteel pride. No amount of skilful artifice could have manufactured it.

In 1972 the Hull General Company was finally wound up.

The final burial, of an urn of ashes, took place in 1974. I worked with the man who interred it. I can show you where this happened.

Some five years later the clipboards and the bulldozers of the Council moved in. An historic part of our shared heritage was destroyed. In about an 18 month period, what had taken over 130 years to produce, was gone. And to create…what? A Monumental Loss

Welcome to Hull, City of Culture 2017.

Isn’t it one of the paradoxes of life that what was once thought to be unimportant becomes very important but only when you’ve lost it?

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

The Creation of Hull General Cemetery: Part Two

June 1, 2021June 25, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Volunteers

The initial meeting

In the February of 1845 another advert appeared in the local press. This advert offered the speculator the chance to purchase shares in the new company. A prospectus was issued about a month later.

Of course, many of Hull’s townspeople had seen this stuff before some 5 years ago and were watchful of developments. The Hull Packet of the 7^th March simply said that, ‘We hear that a great number of shares have been taken to forward the project of a new cemetery at Hull, and that the provisional committee consists of some of the more influential inhabitants of the town.’

The press were quite right. Some of the most influential people of Hull were involved. What the press did not know was that a meeting had taken place on the 5th March. This meeting took place at the offices of Charles Spilman Todd at 15, Bowlalley Lane. Below is a picture of that address today. It is now a private house.

Charles S.Todd was to become both Sherriff of Hull and also the Town Clerk. At this time he was merely a practising solicitor and the solicitor for the proposed cemetery. It is from this date that the creation of the Hull General Cemetery really begins.

The Committee

Throughout March and April, the local press continued to run constant adverts for people to buy shares in the new company. The names behind the Committee were now published and the bankers too as part of these adverts.

By the 12th March the draft of the Prospectus was examined by the Committee and on the 19th it was released to the press. By the 5th April C.S.Todd could tell the Committee that he had received 400 share applications. It looked like the time was right for the creation of the Cemetery and its success.

You may notice that the membership of the Provisional Committee had increased. Whilst some early adherents had left, such as Edward Brady, this was more than compensated by the new arrivals. Sir William Lowthorp had joined the committee. He had been the mayor of Hull in 1837. It fell to him to present the town’s best wishes to the newly installed monarch. As a result he was knighted. He was also the father-in-law of Dr. Gordon. William Watson was another landowner to the west of Hull who had joined the committee.

John Solomon Thompson

The most important new arrival, however, was John Solomon Thompson. This man was to become the first chairman of the Cemetery Company, and in some ways, the best. He guided the Company through its initial days of purchasing the land and laying it out. His negotiations with the London and Midland Railway Company when their proposed rail line would have demolished the front of the Cemetery were admirable. He was also instrumental in pursuing the Act of Parliament that incorporated the cemetery. This in the face of the Hull Corporation pursuing its own Act of Parliament which would have enabled it to take over the cemetery. He will be the subject of an article later this year.

Evidence of something more substantial than simply selling shares was indicated by an advert in April that appeared in the press showing that the new company directors were not being idle and were actively seeking a suitable site for the Cemetery as may be seen below.

Above is no.15, Spring Bank today, which was the site of the temporary offices of the secretary of the Cemetery Committee, Shadrach Wride before the building of the Cemetery Lodge

Finding the perfect site

Some two days later C.S.Todd reported to the Committee that he had written to Mr Webster of Yafforth Grange. This gentleman owned property that was suitable for the cemetery. We’ll return to this person later.

By the end of April two more offers of land had been received. One plot was on Dansom Lane from the Revd. Nicholas Walton. This was dismissed out of hand. The Committee felt the price asked was ‘an exorbitant one and the offer could not be entertained.’

The second offer was for a site in the village of Marfleet, ‘A close of about 12 acres adjoining Marfleet Lane on the Holderness Road and belonging to Mr Pease’. This man was one of the bankers for the provisional Company. However, when C.S.Todd wrote to Mr Pease’s solicitor, Mr Saxelbye, who later was one of the first inhabitants of a large house overlooking Pearson Park, the offer of land was withdrawn.

Webster and Pearson

But by the time this offer was received and withdrawn, Mr Webster had replied and asked the Committee how much land they desired. As a result John S. Thompson and C.S.Todd set off on the long journey by coach to Northallerton. Instructed to ‘make the best bargain possible’ and not to offer more than £220 per acre their instructions were clear. Sadly, Mr Webster wanted £350 per acre and the deal fell through. Later, Zachariah Pearson bought the land it and became Pearson Park.

The map below is from1847. It shows what was to become Queen’s Road running along the top of the map from the top right hand corner till it joins Newland Tofts Lane, later Princes Avenue. The Sculcoates Union Workhouse, later Kingston General Hospital, can be seen at the right hand side of the map. The upper central portion is Webster’s land which became Pearson Park in 1860.

Enter Mr Broadley, M.P.

The Committee had another offer of land throughout this period. On the 5th May Charles Stewart had alerted the rest of the Committee to it. Henry Broadley had a site ‘on the Spring Bank of about 19 acres’.

Henry Broadley, and indeed the Broadley family, are well known. He was an M.P. for the County and it was said that one could travel across the East Riding without stepping off his land. Conservative in nature, and conscious of his position, he was a strange mix.

He owned tenements in Leadenhall Square that were so dire that the Corporation and the Church railed against them. Many of them were brothels or worse.

Foster, in Living and Dying, cites one instance where a policeman, entering one of these premises, disturbed a lady plying her trade with customers. In the ensuing struggle, the policeman’s presence caused a rotten window frame to be dislodged and broken. When this episode was reported in the press and debated in the Council Chamber the landlord was excoriated. Sir Henry, rather than be embarrassed, sued the Corporation for damage to his property.

Yet, he donated time and some money to helping young people away from crime. And he was very interested in treating the dead with dignity.

By the 28th May C.S.Todd was instructed to proceed with the necessary arrangements to buy Mr Broadley’s land. Of course nothing was that simple. Broadley instructed C.S.Todd to deal with his land agent. His land agent said he did not have the leeway to deal with the Committee. Broadley then said that he could not contemplate any discussion about the land until Parliament went into recess. As such the Committee were left in limbo.

The drainage report and public disquiet

A report as to the drainage of this site, and of Dr Webster’s, was drawn up Mr Francis Tadman. He informed the Committee that the drainage of the Spring Bank site was about 4 feet 6 inches whilst the drainage from Dr Webster’s site was only 3 feet. This report finalised the Committee’s determination to acquire the site.

However, to the general public, things had gone suspiciously quiet once again, as this letter to the Hull Packet showed.

The first AGM

The following month the Committee, probably reacting to this pressure, felt they should inform their subscribers of the situation. They called a General Meeting of the subscribers for the 29th October. The Chair, J.S.Thompson, outlined what the Committee had attempted to achieve. He then set out the difficulties they had met in acquiring a site. Finally, he outlined both of the sites points. Below is the record from the meeting related to the Spring Bank site.

As you can probably guess, the Committee recommended to the subscribers the purchase of the site on Spring Bank. Henry Broadley offered the site on Spring Bank for £300 an acre. This land was to be the site of the creation of the Hull General Cemetery.

The formation of the Company

At this same AGM the Committee felt that a resolution should be put forward to form the Hull General Cemetery Company. Needless to say, the resolution to buy the Spring Bank site, ‘at such price and upon such terms as they deem advisable’ was passed. As was the resolution to form the Company.

On the 31^st October this news from the AGM was reported in the press. The news was what many people had been hoping to hear. It was reported that the Committee had held an introductory shareholder’s meeting to lay before them the progress they had made and that they desired the power from the shareholders, ‘for the purchase of Mr Broadley’s ground near the old Waterworks on the Spring Bank.’

This power was given to them under the resolution, ‘That the Company be formed and that immediate steps be taken for securing the purchase of a very suitable site near the Old Waterworks, offered to the Provisional Committee by Henry Broadley, Esq, M.P.’

General means general

The newspaper item went on to state that all denominations were to be allowed burial on the site. No doubt a view to both enhancing good will and maximising profit. Stating this was ensuring no shortage of future customers due to any short sightedness in terms of religious observances. In essence, the directors were adhering to the principles of a General Cemetery.

The map above was drawn in 1854 for the Hull General Cemetery Act. As you can see the proposed enlargement of the cemetery would have taken it to what would become Chanterlands Avenue. It would have engulfed the future sites of both Newstead and Welbeck Streets. An article on how this proposed plan to enlarge the Cemetery will be published later this year.

The map shows both the reservoir at what was the end of Bank Street, now entirely subsumed under William Jackson’s’ factories, and also the beginnings of Princes Avenue but known then as Newland Tofts Lane. The cemetery was in the parish of Cottingham and was well out in the country and therefore met the criteria as laid down by the 1843 statute mentioned in the previous part of this article.

A grand boulevard

Tying neatly with other civic aspirations as to a grand boulevard or promenade being developed, the Committee also stated that if they took up the option to buy Mr Broadley’s land they would also seek help and apply for a grant from the government, “for making a Promenade on the Spring Bank, as had already been proposed.”

This proposal stemmed more from the proprietors of the Zoological Gardens than it did the Hull General Cemetery Company as the zoo attempted to encourage more business for their venture. Indeed, although this isn’t clear from the documents, I believe it was the Zoological Gardens that made the appeal for the grant. The idea for a “promenade” along the Spring Ditch had been mooted in 1830 by Charles Frost and associates but had never been acted upon due to financial issues.

Cheap is best!

Civic pride being what it is, and the Victorians being the way they were, an article in the Hull Packet of the 21^st of November positively crowed that Hull had not only spent less on procuring a cemetery than other significant towns in the country but that it was bigger than those others too. This before the site was actually bought and well before a body was buried there!

The structure of the Company

On the 17th November, the bare bones of the Company and how it would work was laid out to the subscribers and passed unanimously. The voting at AGMs would be determined on how many shares a subscriber held. No one could have more than five votes no matter how many shares they held. There would be seven directors and no one with less than five shares could become one. The first directors were as follows: William Irving junior, John S Thompson, George Milner, Benjamin A.Tapp, John Malam, Charles Stewart and John Robinson.

Auditors would have to hold three shares at least. These first auditors were Thomas Abbey and Thomas Dalton Hammond. The bankers, Pease and Liddell, were chosen and the directors and auditor’s remuneration for their work was accepted.

Two further resolutions

Two further resolutions were passed at this meeting. Both would be problematic for the Company in later years. The first effectively restricted it’s capital to £10,000. A goodly sum in the ‘hungry 1840s’ but this would prove not be enough to finance their enlargement plans a decade later. To do that they would need to issue a further tranche of ‘half-shares’. Just another further complication.

The second resolution would prove more disastrous.

On the face of it an eminently sensible action. To create a Reserve Fund from the annual profits was sound business principles. If it had been used like this, for example, ‘extending operations of the company’ the Cemetery could even now be a going concern. Where it failed was in the first point of the Reserve Fund. ‘For equalising Dividends’.

This was fine during the good times but this Reserve Fund was used throughout most of the Cemetery’s life in the 20th century to prop up the dividends to the shareholders. But by then it was surrounded and could not expand anyway. It had frittered away its life blood keeping its dividends at inflated levels and failed to plan long term. And it was this resolution, made in November 1845, that allowed that to happen.

This is the second part of the story of the creation of Hull General Cemetery. The third part will appear next month.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk