Stand by the ruins of Beverley Gate today looking to the
northwest and before you is a sea of concrete stretching all the way to
Cottingham. For someone standing on the
same spot during the Middle Ages, the view would have been somewhat different; a
vista of open green fields disturbed only by some windmills and a few scattered
buildings. Though they lived in town,
the people of Hull were still connected to this countryside. Burgesses could graze their cattle, sheep or
horses on the common land just outside the town walls. Myton farm, owed by the de la Poles, was
often rented out to Hull merchants like John de Dymelton who took it over in
1388.
Each April on Rogation Day, people all across England would
gather together to beat the bounds of their parish. Led by their priest, they would walk slowly
in procession around the boundary of their village praying for plentiful crops
in the months ahead as well as clarifying for the benefit of any envious
neighbours exactly what land was theirs.
The inhabitants of Hull were keen to continue this traditional custom,
so much so that they kept a number of temporary wooden bridges in storage. Each Rogation Day these were then placed over
the ditches and dykes surrounding the town, enabling people to progress around
the walls and keep their feet dry.
On this walk they would have that seen that signs of urban
life had escaped the confines of the town walls in a few places. One was the archery butts. Edward III had passed the first law requiring
men to practise archery in 1363 and subsequent kings reinforced this,
particularly when the country was under threat.
By the 1460s it was compulsory for towns to provide places to practice;
usually a large cleared area that had earthen work mounds with targets on top
at one end. Males between the ages of 16
and 60 were expected to spend their spare time on Sundays and holidays here practising their shooting skills rather then wasting it in frivolous and
pointless pastimes like football.
Just outside Myton Gate was the site of a brickworks. Established early on in Hull’s existence, its
bricks helped build the town’s churches, friaries and houses. They were also used by nearby villages,
including during the building of St James’ Church in Sutton. As late as 1430 these works were producing
105,000 bricks a year however by 1450 they had closed; cheap imports from the
great manufacturing centre of Beverley having made them unprofitable. What remained was something familiar to any
urban dweller today; a brownfield site, strewn with rubbish and ripe for
redevelopment.
Picture: Section from map of Hull by John Speede, circa 1610.
