Stoned love in Hull’s Old Town: The weather-beaten stones telling stories of city’s past
CENTURIES OF HISTORY: Buildings overlooking the public plaza near Scale Lane Bridge
Now & Then, a column by Angus Young
The Great Fire of London legacy in Hull’s party walls
“Have you got five minutes? There’s something I want to show you and I know you like your history.”
How could I resist Nick Wood’s invitation? The director of Hull Lighting led me out of his family-run shop and into Chapel Lane, which runs between Lowgate and High Street in Hull’s Old Town.
“Over here,” he beckoned, striding across a car park on an open patch of land I must have walked past hundreds of times in the past without giving it a second glance.
“There you go, what do you think of that?” he said, pointing at a brick wall standing between the car park and a warehouse forming part of the Standidge Buildings complex which, until recently, was used as storage space for the business.
The wall looked old but was still impressively sturdy. What was even more impressive was a large stone on top of it.
We got closer to read the faded words carved into the stone: ‘A Party Wall from North to South 60 feet’.
I thought I knew most of the Old Town’s historic physical features fairly well but this was new to me. As it turned out, I was soon to come across two more similar stones.
“Thought you’d like it!” declared Chris triumphantly.
The first major legislation requiring party walls to be built between neighbouring buildings was triggered by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Party walls between houses had to be thick enough to withstand two hours of fire, giving people the chance to escape while giving more time to extinguish the blaze.
The regulations turned wooden towns and cities in England into brick ones.
In Hull bricks had long played an important part of the town’s built history, from being used to construct the Medieval churches of Holy Trinity (now Hull Minster) and St. Mary’s to the old town walls. An estimated five million bricks were used in the construction of the walls and, because of the ready availability of natural clay, the town once boasted a substantial number of brickworks.
Stone, on the other hand, was scarce locally and, as a result, expensive to import. So to see a large carved stone deliberately set on top of the old party wall in Chapel Lane aroused my curiosity just as Nick knew it would.
Despite being relatively unique, the Chapel Lane stone is not part of any official tourist trail that I know of. It doesn’t feature in Hull City Council’s recently updated register of non-listed buildings or structures regarded as being historically important locally either.
It’s possible the stone could be the work of Daniel Hopewell who owned a stonemason’s yard in the lane until 1799.
Born in Mexborough in 1751, Daniel’s family tree charts a tough but determined life. Married at 18 in Sheffield, he would eventually marry four times, with three of his wives and four of his children dying before him. The records of the birth and death of his son Joseph in 1790 during his second marriage confirm his presence in Hull for the first time.
Joseph’s baptism is recorded at St. Mary’s Church, which stands at the eastern end of Chapel Lane while his burial just 18 months later also took place there. At the time, Daniel’s occupation is recorded as stone cutter.
The church presumably provided him with regular work but in April 1799 he was on the move, announcing a business re-location in a newspaper notice.
It read: “DANIEL HOPEWELL Returns thanks to his Friends, and begs leave to inform them and the Public, that he has removed his STONE-YARD from Chapel Lane to Waterhouse Lane, adjoining the Beast Market, where he carries on the MARBLE and STONE business as usual. Hopes for a continuance of their favours which he shall endeavour to merit by every assiduity and attention.”
Perhaps a larger premises became available, or did he want to be near the recently opened Trinity Burial Ground? Whatever the reason, was he responsible for the surviving party wall stone in Chapel Lane?
A more detailed look at old maps of Chapel Lane suggest the wall once formed the boundary of a brewery which previously stood on the site now occupied by Standidge Buildings. Dossor’s Brewery was owned by John Dossor who was born in 1773.
His premises in Chapel Lane survived long after his death in 1835 as an 1883 sketch of Chapel Lane by celebrated Hull artist F.S. Smith includes the brewery building looking dilapidated with its windows broken. The drawing was completed a year before most of it was demolished to make way for the Standidge complex.
Did Dosser commission Daniel Hopewell to create the distinctive stone to cap the boundary wall of his new brewery? The dates certainly fit.
According to an 1825 trade directory, the wall separated the brewery from a neighbouring bakery owned by flour-dealer William Beck. However, the Chapel Lane stone is not the only one hiding in plain sight in the Old Town.
Just a few streets away in Scale Lane a similar stone can also be seen but not on a boundary wall. Instead, it’s a feature of a gable end.
Natural erosion has made the carved inscription harder to read. My take is: “A Party Wall 44 Feet 7 inches Length By 2 Feet Width”.
Today it forms part of the recently-refurbished Bayles House, a three-storey house first documented in 1751 as the home of an oil merchant set back from High Street with a warehouse to the rear overlooking the River Hull.
The date of the stone is not known but until recently it set within a rear inner courtyard wall. A £1.2m transformation of the house and the adjacent Danish Buildings by Allenby Commercial three years ago saw it relocated to its current position next to the small public plaza on the approach to Scale Lane Bridge.
Again, there’s no reference to the stone in any tourist guide book but it’s worth a look if you happen to be walking by.
I came across a third stone by accident during a recent wander through the Trippett Street burial ground but this one proved to be impossible to read thanks to weather damage. Instead, the sheer size of the stone set on a wall captured my attention.
The land was consecrated as a burial ground for St. Mary’s Church in 1775 due to overcrowding at the original churchyard in Lowgate. The wall on which the stone sits marks the boundary between the burial ground and the Charterhouse Maister’s House, which was built in 1780.
Again, the dates fit with what seems to have been a trend in Hull for marking boundary walls with distinctive inscribed stones detailing their dimensions.
They might not boast the architectural beauty of an ancient church or a civic building but, for me, these old stones are just as fascinating in the stories they tell about Hull and its history as the city’s better known landmarks.
If you know of any more, please get in touch. There’s a new tourist trail just waiting to be launched.
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