Cemetery Wildlife October

The “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” is how John Keats described Autumn in his famous 1820 ode to this season.  The cemetery has not seen any mists this month but there has been the usual Autumnal mix of rain and cold days and sunshine and warm days.Cemetery Wildlife September

Plants

Many of the plants are now bearing that fruitfulness, including the Guelder Rose shown at the start of this report.  This is the season when it now becomes obvious why the Snowberry is so named, and its white berries are a good source of food for the cemetery wildlife.  Please note however that they are poisonous to humans!

Snowberry

The Pyracantha bushes are now full of their distinctive reddish-orange berries and they look particularly striking along the grass verge on Spring Bank West.  They are an excellent source of food for the many birds living in and around the cemetery.

Pyracantha

Last month seems to have been the best one for Elderberries and Brambles, with very few ripe fruits left on the bushes.  But there are still a few Brambles left, some of which are not quite ripe enough for the cemetery wildlife to eat.

Brambles

The Blackthorn bushes still have a few of their dark purple Sloe berries on them, although only in small numbers as you can see here.

Blackthorn

The Yew trees still have some of their small red berries on them.  The Berberis bushes growing in various places have started to show some nice autumn colour on their leaves.  They have small oval dark berries growing along the branches.

There are not many traditional-looking flowers to be seen this month other than a few Dandelions on the grass verge and small patch of Feverfew.

Feverfew

But the most abundant flowers to be seen this month are on the Ivy.  Initially the flower heads don’t look much like a traditional flower.  But when you look at them in closer detail you can see all the usual elements you’d expect to see in a flower, but just positioned differently.  If in the course of writing future editions of this column I have a “slow news month” then I may use that opportunity to talk about Ivy in greater detail.

Ivy

Butterflies and other insects

The only Butterflies I saw this month were a few Speckled Wood in the central grassy area of the cemetery during a warm spell earlier in the month.

Speckled Wood

There is an abundance of Ladybirds though – they can be seen just about everywhere.  Some are the native British ones and some, like the one on the Feverfew photo, are non-native Harlequins.

Birds

Nesting season is now over.  Some dry sunny days in the middle of October provided the ideal conditions for the volunteers to check the nest boxes to see which ones had been used.  This is the second year of doing this so it was interesting to compare this year’s findings with last year’s.

A total of 41 boxes were checked and 26 of them had been used, giving an occupancy rate of 63.41%.  (Last year a total of 40 boxes were checked and 24 had been used, giving an occupancy rate of 60%).

These figures suggest that this year was more successful than last year.  But three of the original boxes were either no longer present or were not located.  There are also 5 new boxes that were put in place too late to be included in last year’s check.

I could split the above figures according to nest box design and even down to the size of the hole in the front of the box.  This would generate more statistics, some of them quite impressive, but this is intended to be just a brief overview of the volunteers’ work relating to the cemetery wildlife.

Nest hygiene

For reasons of hygiene nest boxes are always cleaned out and left empty ready for the birds to start all over again in the Spring.  This is in accordance with guidelines from the relevant wildlife organisations.  The nests we found were like miniature works of art, carefully built from dried hogweed stems, twigs, feathers and leaves.  Most if not all of the nests contained moss which the birds can easily find on the trees and headstones.

Box 5 - 25 mm

Box 12 - 32 mm

I can’t say for definite who the occupants of the nests were but the first one was from a nest box with a 25mm hole.  This would suggest it had been occupied by either a Blue Tit or a Coal Tit.

Blue Tit

The second nest looks a lot cosier, doesn’t it?  The white material appears to be artificial filling of some kind and I think the small amounts of red material are wool are from the Poppies that are attached to the small wooden crosses dotted around the cemetery.  These are to commemorate the graves of soldiers from WWI and WWII.

I can’t say for definite which species of bird built this nest.  But it came from a box with a 32mm hole which would allow for a slightly larger bird such as a Great Tit or even a Nuthatch.  It was occupied last year too.

As mentioned earlier, the checking of the nests is not quite complete and needs a bit more work.  A few additions and clarifications to our existing data could make future checking easier and the results more meaningful.  Perhaps this time next year, after 3 years of checking the boxes, we will be able to publish a full report of our findings on the website.

Conclusion

October has been a quiet but colourful month for the cemetery wildlife, and the birds are becoming easier to see as the leaves start to fall.  The daylight hours may be less but there is still plenty of time for a leisurely stroll.  I’m sure you’ll manage to see at least one of these endearing little characters during your time here!

Robin

Grey Squirrel

 

 

Cemetery Wildlife September

As Summer Ends and Autumn begins we are now at that time of year when the days are roughly the same length as the nights. Cemetery Wildlife – August Well, for a couple of weeks anyway.  At the time of writing it looks like this September is set to be the warmest one on record.  For a few days we had temperatures in the mid to high 20s and it has been very dry with rain falling on only a couple of days.  This has created perfect conditions for a leisurely stroll to appreciate the cemetery wildlife.

Birds

Not much to report this month – the birds are still around but proving hard to capture on film.  The ones born this year are slowly starting to develop their adult plumage, such as this Chaffinch.

Juvenile Chaffinch (male)

You can see the steely blue crescent starting to appear around the head, indicating that this one is a male.

The volunteers sunk a shallow dish into the ground in the Quaker Burial Ground recently and the birds seem to appreciate this. No doubt other wildlife such as Squirrels and Foxes will appreciate it too.

Blackbirds

On a couple of days towards the end of the month I heard a Tawny Owl calling at sunset and this is very encouraging as the call seemed to be coming from the direction of the Owl boxes.

And finally, I was surprised to see a couple of Parakeets flying overhead while I was walking along Princes Avenue!  They were quite high up but from their call I could tell they were Ring-necked Parakeets.  It was disappointing to realise they were not headed for the Cemetery but probably for Pearson Park or East Park, where they have occasionally been sighted.

Butterflies and other insects

There are still some butterflies around including this Red Admiral on the grass verge along Spring Bank West.  It is a shame that it landed on a piece of litter but this butterfly looked too perfect not to take a quick photo!

Red Admiral

There were also some Small Whites along the verge, and a Holly Blue feeding on a Thistle.

Small White (male)

Holly Blue

But the butterfly most often seen inside the cemetery is the Speckled Wood.  They seem to be the easiest ones to photograph because they rest mainly on leaves and remain still long enough to get a good photo.

Speckled Wood

This was taken in the recently trimmed meadow area in the centre of the Cemetery.  The volunteers took care not to cut down the Teasel and as soon as the area around it was cleared the plant was buzzing with insects.

Teasel with Hoverflies

It is also that time of year when there are plenty of spiders around.  One of the most common ones is the Cross or Garden Spider.  It is a member of the Orb-weaving family and has a distinctive cross marking on its abdomen.  Many can be found in our gardens and parks as well as in the cemetery.  Look out for them and if you’re lucky you might get to see one creating its web.  It’s a fascinating process.

Spiders pair

This one has its prey neatly trussed up ready for consumption at a later date. The photo on the left shows a different spider of the same species, resting on our gardening equipment.

Also seen in the meadow area was this attractive White-lipped Snail.

White Lipped Snail

Plants

There are very few plants in flower at the moment.  A few Hogweed are still in flower, but most have now gone to seed – a good food source for the cemetery wildlife.

Hogweed

Other flowers seen this month are Feverfew, Thistle and Smooth Sow-thistle.  There is also some Cyclamen in flower near the Cholera Monument, although this is not a wild flower.

Smooth Sow Thistle

Cyclamen

Many of the plants have now started to produce berries and I hope to write in more detail about this next month.

Mushrooms

I have not found anything new this month, other than the usual very tiny Fairy Inkcaps growing in groups on the ground.

Conclusion

The cemetery is a great place to see and hear wildlife.  It is a great place to remember and appreciate the lives of the people who are buried here.  It is also a great place to appreciate the artistic beauty of the headstones and memorials.

Also it is a great place for photography.  As we head into Autumn the changing colours of the leaves and the increasing levels of light create the perfect setting for taking photos of the cemetery wildlife. Why not give it a go and share your photos on our very popular and vibrant Facebook page?

Tree hugging

Tree hugging gets a bad name. It’s used as pejorative term to denote people who are not on speaking terms with reality. As my mother would have said, ‘away with the fairies’. This was usually when she was talking about me.

Moving on.

However, in some cases, it can be a useful tool to estimate the age of a tree. The item below is taken from a book, ‘Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape’ by Mary-Ann Ochota. It was published in 2016. It’s worth buying.

As Mary-Ann says in her introduction,

When you look at the British landscape, you don’t just see the new, the now: you also see the traces of what came before – in the shape of a field, the wall of a cottage, a standing stone or churchyard.’

In essence, history is all around us and its up to us to read it. In terms of the cemetery the easy bits to read are the headstones.

Tree hugging

Other things are a little more tricky. And here we come to the trees. Some of the trees in the cemetery are probably remnants of the original plantings when the cemetery was laid out in 1847. Now that’s close on 200 years old. That’s a decent age. Only long lived species will have survived that length of time. So Oaks, Limes, Ash, Horse Chestnut and maybe Whitebeams are the likely survivors of the original planting.

The ubiquitous Sycamore that swamps the cemetery now is almost certainly not an original planting. Indeed it’s doubtful it was planted at all but invaded from outside. The Silver Birches that were originally planted will have died by now as their life spans are almost comparable to humans. The Yew in the Quaker Burial Ground would not have been planted until 1855 at the earliest. So that one’s easy to date.

But here’s a fun way to gauge the age of some of the trees in the cemetery.

How old is that tree

As Mary-Ann says, this could be fun, especially with children. Once the foliage dies down and it gets easier to get to some of the trees, why not try it?  Half term might be a good time.

Here’s a handy chart to help you with an Oak. You won’t be far off with other trees using this guide. Good hunting.

How old is that tree 2

 

 

Cemetery Wildlife – August 2021

August was a quiet month, weather-wise, with no extremes of heat, cold or rain but with plenty of dull days.  Pretty much a typical summer month in these parts! Summer Wildlife

Birds

It seems to have been a good year for the cemetery’s birds, with plenty of young ones around.  All the cemetery’s Tit species have bred successfully – Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal (pictured above).  There are some young Blackbirds around, and I saw a young Song Thrush too – its tail feathers will appear later but it is still able to fly without them.

Juvenile Song Thrush

The best, albeit brief, sighting this month was a pair of Bullfinches but I didn’t manage to get a photograph of either of them.  The young Goldfinches of last month’s report are doing well and starting to feed independently.

There are plenty of Chaffinches around and these are easy to spot, especially the males with their pinkish-brown feathers.  The females are much duller shades of brown and can sometimes be mistaken for Sparrows.  But male and female Chaffinches have white feathers in their wings which make them easily identifiable in flight.

Male Chaffinch

Female Chaffinch

I find it fascinating that the males and females of some bird species have distinctly different plumage – for example, Chaffinches and Bullfinches.  This is known as sexual dimorphism. Their differences are quite obvious to see.  However, the differences between male and female Goldfinches are much more subtle to the point of them being almost identical.  I would not be able to say with confidence what sex the Goldfinches of last month’s report were!

Butterflies and other insects

It has been a very quiet month for butterflies.  One of my neighbours has a huge Buddleia in her garden which is normally teeming with butterflies in August.  I have only seen a couple on it so far and this lack of activity is reflected in the cemetery.  I caught brief glimpses of a few White butterflies (I was unable to tell which species) and I saw a Holly Blue flying high around some Ivy.

The most common butterfly species in the cemetery is the Speckled Wood and on sunny days there are usually a few around.  They flutter around each other in the air and then spend time basking in the sun.  This one was in the Quaker Burial Ground.

Speckled Wood

There are Ladybirds and Hoverflies around too but not in great numbers.

Marmalade Hoverfly on Wild Carrot

Flowers and other plants

The Cow Parsley and Wild Garlic has died back completely to the point where it’s hard to see where it once grew.  Any plants now in flower that look a bit like Cow Parsley will most likely either be Hogweed, which is quite a tall plant, or the lower-growing Wild Carrot.

I struggled to find anything in flower to show you this month.  The cemetery is still very green though!  I did manage to find a few Buttercups, Herb Robert, Nipplewort, Great Willowherb and Feverfew.  The berries are now starting to appear on the Snowberry bush but it is still in flower.

Nipplewort

 

Great Willowherb

 

Feverfew

 

Snowberry

My main aim is to write about the wild flowers and plants in the cemetery.  This section of the newsletter is called Cemetery Wildlife after all!  But many of the trees and shrubs growing in the cemetery are there because of what was planted in the past.  They have now become naturalised so I will not draw any distinctions between these and the wild flowers.  Regardless of whether or not they are native, they still have value to the cemetery wildlife.

The volunteers will only be planting native species in the cemetery, such as a recently planted English Oak.  Any wild flowers to be set will be native species that will blend in with their surroundings and complement what is already growing there.

The situation in the Quaker Burial Ground is slightly different because this area is owned by the Quakers under a long lease.  They have requested that the Friends of Hull General Cemetery manage this area on their behalf.  It is still in a conservation area where the same considerations apply with regard to the felling of trees and so on.  But we have been able to set some new shrubs and plants that are not necessarily native species.  However, we will also be planting some native species whenever we can.

Mushrooms

I have not seen any fresh large specimens this month, but there are still plenty of tiny mushrooms to be seen growing on the ground.  Given that the footpaths are covered in wood chippings this is not unexpected!

Mammals

I have no new Fox or Hedgehog sightings to report, but there are always some Grey Squirrels around and these can be seen almost every day.  There will always be someone who doesn’t like them of course.  But I never tire of watching them chasing each other up and around the trees, or simply posing on the ground.  And what child doesn’t love seeing them during family walks through our favourite cemetery?

The Grey Squirrel can vary in colour quite a lot – this one has a brilliant white chest and mainly grey/brown colouring.  But some Squirrels can have more gingery hairs and very pale ginger chests.

Eastern Grey squirrel

Conclusion

A rather uneventful month for the cemetery wildlife, with the dull and cooler days perhaps accounting for the low numbers of butterflies on the wing.  The grass verge on Spring Bank West still doesn’t contain many flowers and this will have affected butterfly numbers too.  But the birds are around in good numbers.  Berries are now starting to appear on the bushes so they will have plenty of food to keep them going as we head into September. Dare I say that it is starting to feel slightly Autumnal already?

News

Here is an update to the news from last month.

Firstly an apology. I wonder how many times I’ve started this item with that phrase. Answers on a postcard please.

Anyway, due to a mix-up, I will not be giving talks on Hull General Cemetery for this year’s Heritage Open Days. I would also like to state that the mix-up was not my fault.

Suffice to say that I noticed that the talks were not in the brochure. I pointed this out and after much apologising by the organisers I was asked if I still wanted to give the talks although they were not in the brochure

I decided not to as it would be confusing to people. The talks will take place next year. To be quite frank I have too much on and not giving these talks was a boon. News

Wrecking Ball, Whitefriargate

I will be giving a talk on the Spanish Flu in Hull 1918-19 on Wednesday, September 15th.

The venue is now The Wrecking Ball. I’m informed that it has no disabled access sadly. I’m also unaware of any booking facility nor how many the people the venue can hold. Many of the regular venues that are usually used for HODS have been found wanting in some way or another. Hopefully by next year those issues should be resolved.

To be able to hold a HODS this year has been an arduous process undertaken, at least in Hull, by just two people. John Netherwood and his wife Christine.

After last year’s events had to be cancelled, and with the uncertainty this year, I think we are lucky that it is going ahead.

Taken from Punch - A recent picture of a family enjoying hgc

Guided Walks

I will also be taking guided walks around Hull General Cemetery. These will take place on Saturday the 11th and the 18th. Both walks will meet at Princes Avenue corner.

The first walk begins at 11.00 a.m. whilst the second walk will begin at 1.30.

Stout footwear is recommended and each walk takes roughly two hours.

I’m hopefully to be accompanied by another of the FOHGC volunteers, Helen Bovill, who will point out the environmental aspects of the site.

I know there’ll be more news later, especially about the work in the Quaker’s site. However that will be written up later.

Thanks

http://www. hullandbeverleyheritagestore.co.uk

Stonemason of the Cemetery; part two.

This is the concluding part of the story of the Hodsman family. The family that provided the two master stonemasons for the Cemetery. The first part of the story dealt with Peter Hodsman. Stonemason of the Cemetery This second part deals with his son William and the ups and downs of his life.

William Hodsman was born in 1853 in Longton, Staffordshire. We will never know why his family were there but we can have some shrewd guesses. Peter, his father, was a journeyman stonemason. As a journeywoman he would have gone to where the work was no matter the distance. And at this time the Potteries was a booming place for such men as Peter.

The Potteries

Longton is now a part of Stoke-on-Trent. When William was born it was one of the Five Towns made famous by Arnold Bennet’s works. On the Potteries website it is noted that Arnold Bennet compared Longton itself to Hell. That may well have been true but it was a place where Peter’s skills would have been in demand. Skills such as brick-making and stone dressing.

Longton

So, William was born in Longton as this parish record shows. He was baptised on the 21st August 1853.

Wm Hodsman's baptism entry

His childhood may have been spent amongst the brick kilns of the Potteries. We have no way of knowing. What we do know is that by the time of the 1861 census the family were back in Hull. The next we know of William after the 1861 census is his introduction to the life of the Hull General Cemetery.

Stonemason’s apprentice

William Hodsman learnt his trade in the Cemetery. We know that his entire working life was spent with the Company. On the 6th August 1868, shortly before his 15th birthday, William was taken on as an apprentice stonemason upon the request of his father Peter. Peter, as we know, was the master foreman of the stonemasons in the cemetery. The Board were dependent upon his skills and valued his opinion. In this case his advice was tinged with nepotism but it was still good advice.

By the time of the 1871 census William is still living with his parents in Albion Terrace, Walmsley Street. He is titled a stonemason.

Peter Hodsman 1871 census

The Cole family

We now encounter a mystery. Those of you who have dabbled in genealogical waters know what I mean. An aberration that cannot be easily explained. We know that William was employed by the Cemetery Company and had been since 1868. It is extremely unlikely that he would have given up this job.

So, him turning up in the announcement of his wedding banns in Great Yarmouth in 1875 is surprising. Of course, it’s not impossible that he travelled to Norfolk and the rail network then was much better than now. Still it is interesting

One wonders how William met his future wife, Emma Maria Cole. She was the daughter of John Pilo Cole. Below is the 1861 census on which she appears for the first time.

Emma Cole 1861 census

As can be seen John Cole was self-employed as a house painter. Indeed he employed others, nine men and one apprentice.. He would have been one of the lower middle class of the time. By the time of the 1871 census his circumstances appear to have changed. He was still an employer. The workforce was smaller, now only three men.

His trade appeared to have changed too. The enumerator put down on the census form that he was now a plumber and glazier. All of these trades would have been essential during the house building boom of the mid Victorian period. John Cole was probably riding the crest of this wave and was capable of turning his hand to whatever was needed.

That he was also reasonably well off can be deduced by his neighbours in 1871. These were school teachers, publicans, master coopers and foremen. John died in December 1880.

Emma Cole 1871 census

Still a mystery

However we still have no idea how Emma, a Norfolk girl, met with William Hodsman,  a lad from Sculcoates. Allow me to romanticise a little. Notice on the above census the address at the bottom of the page. Indeed the premises right next door to the Cole family. ‘Stones Yard’. Now this could be a name derived from someone’s name in the past or it could be a descriptive term for a stone yard.

What about the idea that William, sent by his father as part of his apprenticeship to another stone yard on some errand, met and fell in love with the ‘girl next door’.

I know, I am ‘romancing the stone’ so to speak but we are left with no information as to how this couple met.

Suffice to say that it was a love match.  They did not separate until death intervened.

In 1875 the wedding banns were proclaimed. Harriet, Emma’s sister, served notice of them in November 1875

Wm Hodsman wedding banns notice1875

I’d like you to note that William had originally said that his father was a stonemason. It was later changed to ‘manager’. Its also interesting to note that William himself has had ‘stonemason’ crossed out and ‘monumental carver’ place instead. We will see further evidence that William saw himself as more than a stonemason.

The banns were completed by the end of the year and Emma and William were married in 1876.

Wm Hodsman marriage banns 1875

Back to Hull

We know the young couple made their home in Hull. The couple lived at 6, Norwood Street for as long as they both lived. The map below shows the right hand side of Norwood Street with St Jude’s Church at the top facing on to Spring Bank. The house at the very bottom of the map is number 6. It was demolished in the late 1970s. The house would have been conveniently situated  for them. William was close to his workplace, the Hull General Cemetery, and also close to his father and mother who lived further down Spring Bank in Stanley Street.

 

6. Norwood Street, Spring Bank

A tragedy

That they lived at this address from such an early date is confirmed by a sad piece of news. The small newspaper item below, of October 1876, imparts a tragedy.

27 Oct 1876 Hull Packet twins death Hodsman

And another mystery

And once again we encounter a mystery. The date given of the tragedy is October 18th yet the newspaper item is dated the 27th of that month. A period of grieving perhaps? Yet, as we know, the family would have wanted this news to be shared with well-wishers and friends.

So why the delay? On top of that is the fact that the stillborn children are not buried in Hull. Their burial did not take place in either Hull General Cemetery, Western Cemetery or Hedon Road Cemetery. Yes, they may have been buried in Sculcoates Cemetery but that is extremely unlikely to say the least.

Did Emma go home to her parents for the latter stage of her pregnancy? It’s a possibility. If so could the children have been born, died and buried in Great Yarmouth? That is a possibility too but as the Great Yarmouth cemetery records are not accessible we cannot check this. No, this is a mystery we will never solve at the moment.

Professional life

We have followed up on William’s personal life without taking into account his professional one. Let’s backtrack a little. In December 1872 the Cemetery Company Board increased his father’s wage and at the same time also increased William’s from 30/- to 35/-.

This was a significant amount for a young man to be earning. Remember he had only joined the Company in the August of 1868, just over three years earlier. Using the ‘measuring worth’ website it’s reasonable to suggest that at its lowest comparative value to today it would be in the region of £136 per week. More likely it would be around £800 per week. As I said a significant sum. Around about £38,000 per annum today.. More than enough to start a family, as William did later on.

On another tangent it must be mentioned that Peter had two sons that survived. The second one, John, was born in 1863. In the August of 1877 Peter applied once again to the Board for this son to become an apprentice and this application was also accepted by the Board.

As we found out last month Peter died in 1879. We don’t know if William took his place immediately  at the Cemetery but it is likely. William would now be time-served and skilled at the work.

Letter to the Board

In June 1881 William wrote to the Board. His letter was discussed at the following Board meeting.

HGC minute book June 1881

And that memorial stone still stands in Western Cemetery.

Hodsman headstone

More tragedies

William’s personal life during this period was traumatic.

Another son, Herbert, was born in the June1881, the month William was asking for the contribution to his father’s headstone from the Company. Herbert lived just over 4 months and died in the October 1881. The cause of death was listed as mesenteric disease which is a cardio-vascular disease. It is caused by the arteries hardening in the abdomen with a consequent restriction of blood flow. The disease causes severs stomach pains and may come on slowly or rapidly. Even today it can only be diagnosed via ultra-sound  What chance of diagnosing it in 1881?

Herbert was buried in the grave next to his grandfather Peter in Western Cemetery. This grave contained Louisa, his aunt, who had committed suicide in 1873, by poisoning herself.

Please note that in the burial record below William is cited as the foreman of the monumental works.

Herbert Charles's burial record

Tragedy struck again in 1886 when the daughter of William and Emma died. Beatrice May had been born in 1880. She died in January 1886 of diphtheria.

She was the first occupant in what was to become the family grave in Hull General Cemetery.

1881

By this time The family of William and Emma consisted of themselves, Lillian Emma born late in 1877, William Harold born in 1879, Albert Ernest, born in 1882 and his brother Frederick Peter Hodsman born the year that Beatrice had died. Let’s look at the 1881 census return for the Hodsman family. William is listed as the manager of the monumental works.

1881 census return

Kingstonia

Towards the end of the decade William Hodsman is mentioned in prose. Some of you may be familiar with John Symons. An eminent Hull antiquarian and also a civic leader. He penned many interesting books throughout the latter part of the 19th century. One of these was Kingstonia, a collection of essays, some of which had been published earlier in the Eastern Morning News. One of these essays was entitled ‘ A Visit to the Spring Bank Cemetery’.

Two of my colleagues have recently posted their re-enactment of this ‘visit’ on our Facebook site. It will feature on this site next month. When Mr Symons was undertaking his ramble around the Hull General Cemetery his guide was none other than William Hodsman.  As Symons stated,

‘Mr Hodsman, the monumental manager of the Cemetery, who accompanied me in my peregrination, pointed out to me, amongst others, the grave – parallel with the monument erected to Dr Gordon – of a man who did useful work for the town.’

As the book was published in 1889, this guided tour would have been earlier, probably 1888.

Financial cut backs

This would have been the same year that finances began to bite the Company even harder and wage cuts were introduced, even to skilled men like William. His wage was reduced from 60/- a week to 52/-.

A considerable reduction. especially as at the next year’s AGM in February 1889 the shareholders voted themselves a dividend on their shares of 16/- in the pound PLUS a 2/6d bonus. By the August of 1889 further reductions in wages were introduced. William’s wage was reduced from 52/- to 45/- in summer and 40/- in the winter!

This was problematic for William as by the 1891 census his family had grown.

1891 census a

 

1891 census b

He now had four sons and one daughter. Times were challenging. And tragedy was never far way too. John Cole died that spring.

John Cole burial record 1892

More cut backs

William was not the only one affected by these changing times. At the AGM in February 1892, after voting themselves another 14/- dividend, the directors informed their fellow shareholders that,

‘The directors would remark that they continue to bear in mind the necessity for every possible economy in the working of the company and they have lost no opportunity of urging this on the company’s employees. They are therefore glad to report that by the appointment of Mr Kelly at a salary of £120 per annum a substantial saving to the company will be effected.’

Michael Kelly had become the new cemetery superintendent plus also the Company secretary. I’m pretty sure that one of his first jobs assigned to him was to look for places where expenditure could be trimmed. By the April he had found something.

One of the features of the Company’s stone working had been to have an amount of stone on stock that could be worked from scratch. Kelly put forward the idea that this way of working could be dispensed with. Instead of working the stone to different designs he suggested buying in designs and simply lettering them. Needless to say, the directors thought this was a great plan. They directed him to enquire of stone masons in the area if they could supply these ‘off the peg’ stones.

April 1892 minute book

The next month Kelly informed the Board that,

May 1892 minute book

The end of the work of the stone mason

With this decision the Company turned its back upon its stone working business. The very business that the Company had insisted keeping when in serious discussion over the sale of the Cemetery to the Corporation in the 1850s. It’s adherence to a ‘strong’ line on this point meant that those negotiations collapsed.

And now it threw it away in its desire to keep paying over the odds to its shareholders. Whilst desperately seeking cutbacks in expenditure from any and every source other than that. I’ve said this before in talks about the Cemetery but the Board were dreadful managers of this business. Tt is a wonder that it survived as long as it did.

Whilst researching the Cemetery I came across a number of headstone design images, numbered as if from a catalogue. Michael Kelly had used the backs of them to make notes.  these images had survived strangely enough when more important material was lost.

Here’s a few of them and understand that you are looking at evidence of what probably destroyed the Hull General Cemetery memorial business.

headstone image one

Headstone image three

Meanwhile William Hodsman was not a fool. He would not have been foolish enough to recognise which way the wind was blowing and how it could effect him. We have no evidence that he took any steps to secure his own position except for one, which we’ll come to later.

Changes to the workforce

In case you are wondering it was not only the stone work side of the Cemetery business that was being curtailed.

In February 1895 George Ingleby, the gardener and the foreman of the gravediggers gave in his notice. What Ingleby did not know when he resigned was that at the previous Board meeting it was decided to dispense with his services. At the same meeting it was decide to reduce Hodsman’s wages once again. This time the reduction proposed would be  from 45/- a week in the summer  and 40/- in the winter to 40/- all year round. In the space of six years William was expected to take a drop in wages of 33% whilst he would have known that the shareholders were effectively taking money straight out of the till.

William countered the offer from the Board. He,

had asked that the directors might kindly consider whether they could not give him 2 guineas a week for say a year and see how it things went on and consider the matter again at the end of that time’

They agreed.

Wages versus dividends

At the AGM later that month the wages of all the staff of the Cemetery was just under £622. The amount paid out in dividends was £550.

Later that year the greenhouse was to be sold to the Corporation who offered £20 for it. Due to the bad feeling between the two parties this deal fell though. Eventually the greenhouse was sold at auction and netted just over £16. Yet another loss for the company.

In the April of 1897 the Company decided to dispense with William Hodsman. William was ready for this. He asked for a reference.

May 1897 minute book

We, of course, do not know whether he managed to get one. It’s unlikely the Company would have refused  However, if he did not get one I’m certain that his good name had gone before him.

1901 and beyond

By the time of the 1901 census we see William apparently in good heart. He was cited as a ‘retired manager of granite, marble and stone monumental works’. A young age to retire at in those times but the 1911 census shows the same inscription. Maybe, when times were good William was careful with his money. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall in the 1890s and kept on being careful. I also suspect that he worked occasionally as a freelance worker. His work was well known in the town and there were many monumental masonries than today.

Of note in the 1901 census return is the occupation of his daughter Lillian Emma.

She was now a school board teacher. Some 50 years earlier her grandfather had attended a public meeting to vote on the rapid introduction of secular education into Hull. One gets the feeling that he would have been proud of her choice of occupation. The other members of the family are all in secure, white collar jobs. Not for them the wet mornings in the Cemetery trying to erect a headstone that constantly slipped from the wet harness around it or the horse moved at the wrong time.

William 1901 census

In 1902 there was more joy. Lillian married. The boy she married strangely had the grave just behind her grandfather’s. Did they meet whilst tending their respective family members’ graves. I’ll leave that to your imagination but that plot could surely have come out of a Charles Dickens’ novel.

5 Aug 1902 Hodsman marriage

By 1911 these two were living comfortably at 136, De La Pole Avenue. He was now a solicitor’s clerk and sadly, she had left the teaching profession. There were no children.

William Harold

In 1903 William’s eldest son, William Harold, married  a lady called Hannah Mary Cook. William Harold had been born in 1879 and was baptised at St. Jude’s, the church on Spring bank at the top of Norwood Street.

William Harold baptism 1879

This entry caused some confusion. Not only for me but for the recorder. The occupation and the address are transposed and placed in the wrong columns to all the rest on the page! It’s telling isn’t it that William called himself a sculptor rather than a stonemason.

The wedding took place at St John’s in Newland

2 April 1903 Hodsman marriage

By 1911 William Harold had moved to Scunthorpe and was a Milk Dealer. Self-employed he now had four children. Once again William probably could be proud that another of his children was not freezing in the Cemetery trying to make a living.

1911 and Frederick

The 1911 census shows us that William and Emma Maria were living at 6, Norwood Street and that the other occupant was Frederick Peter.

As you can see he was a checker at a shipping company. William still basked in the glory of retirement and his last employer listed was the Cemetery Company. Two years later this happy situation was to change dramatically.

William 1911 census

In 1913 William and Emma lost this child.

He died from congestion of the lungs. He was 28 years old.  His grieving parents placed a notice in the newspaper. One wonders what emotion and hurt this simple notice hid.

3 June 1913 Death of son Hodsman

The end of William and Emma

In 1928 Emma Maria passed away. The cause of death was a mixture of thrombosis of the the left femoral artery and gangrene of her left foot. She was buried in the family plot in Hull General Cemetery.

Two years later William himself died. The cause of death was syncope, or an episode of fainting due to a loss of blood pressure. One has to wonder whether he felt that life was not worth considering after Emma had died.

26 Sept 1930 Wm hodsman fune

John Hodsman

John, his younger bother who was also taken as an apprentice stonemason by the Company, died in 1945. He had worked at the cemetery but this relationship, like his brother’s, had ended in the 1890s. After leaving the Cemetery he had become a gas fitter and he does not play any part in the story of the Cemetery.

William’s burial and memorial

William’s burial record is below.

William Hodsman burial

Now, one would expect a monumental stone mason to have a monument on his family’s grave. And yes, there was one once. And yes, you know where I’m going with this don’t you? Strangely you’d be wrong.

My research has shown that it survived the disaster that was the 1977 / 78 clearance. What it didn’t survive was the neglect of recent years.

Here’s a copy of the memorial recording team in the 70’s  As you can see the stone was sound and in good order.

Hodsman record of stone

And here’s the record of the inscriptions that were on the stone.

Hodsman inscription on stone

That was then. Here’s the stone today. Well at least the only part that can be seen.

the remains of the hodsman stone

And here’s what destroyed it.

the sycamore that has destroyed the stone

So, the monument to a monumental mason, who probably carved some of the beautiful pieces of art in the cemetery, has almost gone. Lost beneath what, in my uncharitable moments, I would designate a weed. A sycamore. The curse of all Victorian cemeteries.

Its too late for the Hodsman monument but surely this is food for thought. We neglect these things for a short time and when we turn around to find them again they’re gone. Just like William’s monument  A lesson there for us all.  Hodsman’s monument won’t come back. It’s gone forever. A valuable heritage asset of the history of Hull destroyed. The sycamore, on the other hand, no doubt has spread its progeny far and wide. So, it is not irreplaceable like the monument. In fact it is very common and quite replaceable. And yet….

The other monuments in the cemetery must be better protected. And that protection has to start now. And with you and me and all of us.

Next Month

Hi,

Firstly, an apology. I was going to tell you the story this month of the very last board meeting of the Company and the extraordinary decision they had to make there.  This was to be the anniversary spot this month. Sadly, I’m a bit dense. It should have been last month because it happened in June 1972!!

However, people appeared to like last month’s anniversary item, so its swings and roundabouts. I promise I will write up that story for the future

Next month I’m going to be giving the bulk of the newsletter over to Bill and Helen mainly. Bill’s contributions are from Facebook and we’re attempting to archive them all on here so they can be found more easily. And preserved too. Helen I’m sure will show us more of the wildlife in the Cemetery and it’s changing faces every month.

I’ll finish off the story of Peter Hodsman’s sons. Both stonemason’s of the Cemetery Company. Stonemason of the Cemetery

By the time of the next newsletter we should be back to ‘normality’, whatever that term might mean now.

With that July 19th date in mind, who knows, we may be able to meet up with the powers that be and start asking some searching questions about what the Council want from us and vica versa. We’ll see.

 

Anniversary: July 1880

This month the anniversary we are celebrating is an unusual one It took place in July 1880.

One of the problems that Hull General Cemetery faced, and surprisingly is still facing, is access to water. Not the rising water that you’d expect from a cemetery built alongside two drains. No, the problem was, and is, the difficulty in obtaining fresh water.

There was a well built when the Cemetery opened. This was in the work yard to the north east of the site. This was used by the workforce for watering the Cemetery horse, cleaning the stables, cutting the stonework and other tasks.

What a bore!

However there was nowhere for patrons of the cemetery to replenish their water for their flowers. After numerous complaints the Board decided to do something about this.

In June 1880 they asked a Mr Villiers, a surveyor, to construct a bore hole in the cemetery. A price was fixed of around £12 for this task and on the 1st July 1880 Mr Villiers set to.

The bore hole passed through many layers, as the Minute Books tell us, and finally reached a fresh water spring.

The creation of a water supply in the middle of the cemetery

So the borehole was 93 feet deep. The strata that this bore passed through is very interesting. It probably shows the way most of the geology of the Hull Valley is comprised. Clay, chalk, marl and flint. At some point it was a sea bed. A sea bed from million of years ago. I still have the proof.

When I worked in the Cemetery, when it was much less overgrown, it was possible to pick up Gryphaea arcuata by the handful. Known commonly as Devil’s Toenails, they are a fossilised mollusc or type of ancient oyster.

They lived mainly during the Triassic and Jurassic period. Approximately they lived 200 million years ago. I was always surprised that these fossils were so abundant. And also, only in Hull General. I never found any in Western Cemetery next door. What was going on?

A group pf Gryphaea

Jurassic Park

I now believe that I have solved that mystery. I think that they were abundant because they had been returned to the surface from the depths they had been buried in over those millions of years. By the drilling of this bore hole the debris from it would have been returned to the surface. In the debris the Gryphaea must have laid.

The Gryphaea were seeing the light of day for the first time in a very long time. This debris, from the borings, would have been scattered around the Cemetery. It’s hardly likely that it would have been carted away and there is no mention of it being moved away. As a result of the spreading of the debris these small fossils were strewn over a large area.

Well, that’s the best answer I can come up with anyway to explain their abundance..

Their presence in such quantities should perhaps cause us all to pause for thought. At one time they owned the site of the Cemetery. It truly was a Jurassic Park. An underwater one, true, but nevertheless it was their home.

Moving forward

Much, much later wild birds and aquatic mammals would have lived in this swamp land of the River Hull valley after the last ice age. Still later, hunters would have arrived and caught and killed these creatures. Setting up make-shift camps before moving on when the game dried up.

Still later, hardy sheep, goats and possibly cattle would have been driven on to the land in the summer when it dried sufficiently for grazing. When the winter rains came they would be driven back to stockades and huts on the high ground around Cottingham to live on hay until butchered and salted.

By the medieval period the site became permanent pasture land after drainage work. This pasturage and garden land was then transformed by the Cemetery Company into a manicured semi-forested area.

At present it has become a much more forested area than it has ever been. It’s probably at its peak now as a forest.

Change is the only constant of the universe

All of these changes have happened to this small stretch of land. Just 13 acres or about 8 hectares.

All of the above, from ancient oysters to forest trees have called it their home. And all have passed away as the present residents will at some point. There’s a small part of me that’s sad about that. There is, of course, a much greater part of me that is pleased about it too. These changes that have happened in the past and will happen in the future show that evolution continues. And without evolution life itself dies.

So, when people start getting exercised about such things, it’s as well to remember that. We’re not custodians. We’re just passing through like all the rest. And that includes the trees, the wildlife, the humans. We’re just a blink of an eye in the scale of things. Don’t get me wrong here. I would like all of the environment that I am familiar with to survive ad infinitum. It won’t but I’d like it to survive.

People talk blithely about ‘saving the planet’. I happen to know that the planet has, unless it is very unlucky and has some gigantic collision with another space object, at least another four billion years left. The phrase ‘saving the planet’ is totally meaningless. Trust me on this. The planet will be here long after we, the trees, the oysters have gone.

Taxi for Homo Sapiens?

When people use that term they are really saying ‘save the present environment so humanity, especially me and mine, can continue to exist’. Which is something similar to my comment earlier.

But, when you think of it, that is a pretty pointless exercise. We know the world will change, either by our doing (which seems likely) or some other factor (which also is likely).  The only thing we should be confident about is that it will change. Just ask the Gryphaea. They lived in the sea and here they are now, buried metres underground.

We have our time now, just like the Gryphaea had theirs then. And when our time is over… well, evolution will carry on.

And after a million years or so we’ll leave behind less trace than the Gryphaea.

I find that strangely comforting after a few years of picking up the detritus that other people leave in the cemetery.

 

 

Wonderful Wildlife

Wonderful Wildlife

June

It is very disheartening to have to start a report with bad news.  At the start of June Hull City Council cut down the vast majority of the wildflowers growing in and behind the grass verge adjacent to the Cemetery on Spring Bank West.  An important resource for pollinating insects and in turn other wonderful wildlife has thus been lost, and in the middle of the bird nesting season too.

The Council has not at the time of writing this provided FOHGC with an explanation for their actions.  I also made my own complaint about the destruction in my capacity as a private individual.  The Council’s last email to me said they couldn’t respond yet ‘’due to the complexity of the issues involved’’.

I took the above photo just a few days before the destruction of this attractive and important wildlife resource.  The Council’s mowing also went back further than the grass verge and into the Cemetery itself.  This seems to be in direct conflict with the Stop Order the Council placed on the volunteers in April.

Birds

Now that the trees are in full leaf the birds are harder to see.  They can still be heard though – Chiffchaffs, Robins, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chaffinches and many others’ songs filling the air as usual.  I once saw a report (I can’t remember where and therefore provide a link) that birds in urban areas sing up to 20% louder than their counterparts in the countryside.  This makes sense, as our birds have the traffic noise on Spring Bank West to contend with.

young blue tit

Some of the birds I did manage to see were busy gathering food for their chicks, many of which will now have fledged.  Young Blue Tits are the same size as the adults but are a lot paler in colour.  They have powder blue legs and the yellow gape is still visible at the sides of their beaks.

Butterflies and Other Insects

There were not many butterflies around this month.  The ones that emerged earlier in the year will have mated, laid their eggs and then died.  The period between that and the emergence of the next generation from July onwards is what has become known as the ‘’June gap’’.

There were still some Speckled Woods around though and I caught a brief glimpse of a Red Admiral.  I also found an Orange-tip caterpillar.  This will then pupate away from its food plant and emerge as an adult next Spring.

Speckled Wood butterfly

There are currently lots of these unusual little bugs around – they’re Ladybird larvae.

Ladybird larva

Flowers and other plants

Lots of Summer flowers are now starting to open inside the Cemetery, including a Rhododendron.  Opinions are divided as to whether this is a good or bad plant to have here, but it is small and not growing close to any of the headstones.  It adds an attractive splash of colour in a shaded area and provides a source of nectar for insects.

Bearing in mind the destruction of so many of the wildflowers on the grass verge, any source of nectar is more important than ever.

Rhododendron

The Cow Parsley, Hogweed and Wild Garlic has started to die back as expected.  There are plenty of smaller wildflowers now coming through including Buttercups, Speedwell, Wood Avens and Red Campion.

Some of the flowers planted by the volunteers prior to the Stop Notice are now starting to flower but I will talk about those in the next newsletter.

Campion

Mushrooms Wonderful Wildlife

Some more glistening Inkcaps were seen on a log, and I found some Common Inkcaps too.

Inkcap fungi

But the best find was a beautiful Chicken of the Woods!  It was the first time I’d seen one in the Cemetery but unfortunately a few days after I took the photo on the left someone removed most of it.  The photo on the right shows where the brackets have been sliced off.

Another sad, selfish and disheartening act, this time by an individual.  This has deprived other people of the change to simply enjoy looking at some beautiful and amazing specimens.

Chicken fungus

Mammals

A new sub-heading to reflect the very good news that the foxes have had at least two cubs!

Fox caught on camera

The foxes are rarely seen during the day so one of the volunteers placed their own trail camera in a secluded position away from the footpaths.  And the results were very encouraging to say the least!  The camera is no longer there; this was just a quick experiment for a few nights only.

Conclusion

Overall a month of mixed fortunes for the wonderful wildlife of our favourite cemetery.

We can only hope that the Council will allow the grass verge to recover so that we can once again enjoy seeing the wildflowers, butterflies, bees and other insects as we walk past or linger to take a photo or two.

The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

As everyone should know by now, there has been a complaint made about the FOHGC. The Council are therefore holding an official enquiry. As a result there has been reduced activity of the FOHGC during April and May in HGC.

Here’s a summary of the reduced activity of the FOHGC during those two months.

April

The FOHGC received a couple of donations of £100 from Facebook members. This money was to purchase plants etc. The FOHGC also purchased a third Silver Birch and planted this, along with a mix of 15 hazel, crab apple and rowan trees donated by the Woodland Trust.

Since 2019 the FOHGC have planted well in excess of 300 native trees on the site.

The buzzard appeared to have left for a while but has since been sighted several times.

Pete Lowden continues to maintain the website. Helen Bovill’s monthly nature posts have been received enthusiastically.

Hull Civic Society do not contribute any funding to the FOHGC and now no longer pay the insurance. As a result the FOHGC have acquired their own insurance at a cost of £230 per annum.

Site visit

After the recent complaint to the Council, Andrew Wilson, Jennifer Woollin and Mike Tindall, council officers, met with the representatives from the FOHGC on site for a positive meeting. The notes of this meeting were distributed separately. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC

As agreed with Jennifer Woollin, the volunteers have planted the wildflower meadow with the special EW1 seeds recommended by Jennifer. We have however been prevented from planting the butterfly garden until the review is complete. A further planting will now have to take place in the autumn. As a result, and at the request of Andrew Wilson, Open Spaces manager, the wildflowers that were for the Butterfly Garden have now been planted outside the site on the Thorseby Street cut through.

Accounts

The accounts show that we have a balance of £4,705.25, although the monies for the insurance are not deducted as yet from that figure.

The volunteers re-erected the broken fence at the rear of the Princes Avenue shops. Sadly, it looks like more rubbish is beginning to pile up at the shop’s rear.

Several species of butterfly have been noted in the cemetery by Helen Bovill, particularly on the Spring Bank West frontage.

Many bird species, including blue tits, great tits, tree creepers, chaffinches and goldcrests have been seen in the cemetery this month. A tawny owl has been seen on the site. It has occupied one of the owl boxes erected by the group. We believe it mated and two owlets were seen in April in this box. They now appeared to have fledged. Wonderful Wildlife

The reduction of the activities of the volunteers has seen an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour. This includes a fire, theft of litter bins and a proliferation of rubbish dumped. There have been an increase of people who have volunteered to litter pick on the site.

May

A few more donations were received from Facebook members.

Research was undertaken on several of the vases/urns that were recovered from the drain shaft in the Quakers section. Particularly the one of Ronnie Jackson who was lost on the St Romanus in 1968. Andy Lister has repaired the vase and mounted it on an oak plinth. It will be presented to Ronnie’s step brother during the next couple of weeks.

An English oak was donated from a teacher at Thoresby Primary. It was planted in the Workhouse Memorial area.

The two areas near the Thoresby Street cut through were tidied and the drains were cleared.

12 headstones that failed the Safety push test were laid flat by the Council.

The Quaker’s committee have asked the volunteers to help improve their burial section.

Conclusion

That’s a summary of the activities the FOHGC have done over the last two months. Not bad is it?