HUNMANBY ARCHIVES

ALL WORDS AND PICTURES ARE THE COPYRIGHT OF CES.MOWTHORE. THESE MAY BE COPIED - BUT IN ALL CASES FULL CREDIT MUST BE GIVEN TO CES.MOWTHORPE Copyright (2003).

The late Miss L.M.Owston wrote a definitive history of Hunmanby in her book ‘HUNMANBY -A STORY OF TEN CENTURIES’. It is now out-of-print but a number of copies survive, one in Hunmanby Library. In her work she was assisted by many of the elder villagers such as the late Frank Witty, T.P.Young and similar. All presented first-hand accounts of life in Hunmanby during the last half of the 19th century. Miss Owston also founded the Hunmanby Local History Group in 1955 when the village was still largely populated by native families, in order to pass our historical background on to the new ‘incomers’ who were starting to settle here. Bear in mind that in 1955 only one new road, the bottom half of Wrangham Drive, had been built and none of the new estates we now possess existed. Although not a ‘true’ native of this village, Miss Owston, whose grandmother was a ‘Hunmanby’ Sellers, lived at ‘Heathfield’ 127 Stonegate for 61 years before moving into a bungalow in Fountayne Road where she spent her latter days. Chairman of both Hunmanby Parish Council and the late Bridlington Rural Council, Miss Owston was the most important civic leader that Hunmanby has ever possessed since the break-up of the Hunmanby Manor in 1920-21. As a direct result of her leadership Hunmanby gained a new County Primary School, NEW METHODIST CHURCH, Library and the fine Hungate Court facility. Likewise the new estates which were built in 1950 - 60 - 70 and 80 all were devised and named under her general supervision. As Chairman of the Local History Group for twenty-five years, I was greatly assisted by my Secretary, Mrs Joan White, who, like myself, was born in Hunmanby. Between us we produced three booklets ‘OSBALDESTON HUNMANBY’, ‘HUNMANBY REMEMBERED’ and ‘A VILLAGE AT WAR‘. These give information about further events at Hunmanby. Much further information has been acquired over the years and it is the object of this web-site to record as much as possible for the benefit of future generations - before it gets lost in the annals of time. Ces.Mowthorpe. Life-President of Hunmanby Local History Group. October 2002. Without the assistance of Simon Baines who originally set up this website three years ago, none of these would have been possible. Likewise Chris Skelton is contributing and helping in many ways.

First item in the archive is the PRE-ENCLOSURE PLAN of Hunmanby, drawn by J.Dickinson. Surveyor. 1801 on the instruction of Humphrey Osbaldeston of Hunmanby Hall, the occupying Lord of Hunmanby Manor (1770-1835). Humphrey Osbaldeston was a far-seeing and just Lord of the village. He had condensed, by selling, trading and various means, the village ‘manor’ into approximately 8,500 acres which completely surrounded the village proper, its eastern boundary being the Filey Bay coastline. This was transformed by the 1809 Enclosure into the roads, fields, farms and village that existed until the expansion of the 1950- 60 -70 - 80 and 90’s. The following plan/map shows it as it had exsisted for hundreds of years prior to the 1809 Enclosure. This is a Plan - not a true map. It’s purpose was to show all the plots of land within it’s compass. Most belonged to H.Osbaldeston but small plots were in private hands. Many of these were bought out by Osbaldeston. If not, then equivalent lands had to be allowed for in the new field system. The largest of these was the 500 acres between North Burton road and Wold |Newton road belonging to ‘Hall and Trentham’. They retained this land as it exists on the plan. A decade late Mr Hall bought out Mr Trentham and later still Mr Hall sold to H.Osbaldeston, thus bringing it back into the Hunmanby agricultural estate, when it became ‘Howe Farm‘. Roadways outside of the village were mere tracks or lanes with adjoining land going right to the ‘road’. No verges at all and few hedges except off the Outgates Lane area. Some roadways appear to lead to nowhere - these of course are leading to fields only. Several examples still survive, two leading eastwards off Outgates Lane. Other boundaries were either ditches or non-existent. Much of the land was ‘manorial waste’, overgrown with gorse and only used for grazing sheep. The Enclosure (dated 1809) meant carefully draining all the lands, improving or forming roads, creating the fields as we know them today and building new farms of various acreage - usually 100 to 250 acres - which were let to local tenant farmers. Smaller tracts became ’small-holders’ but never-the-less farmers in their own right. To assist newcomers to Hunmanby I have drawn the 1801 roadways in red. Likewise on the extreme eastern boundary the sea is show blue. The plan is shown facing south so I placed a small compass heading in the top right-hand corner. Also small capital letters ‘A’ to ‘J’ identify present-day (2003 AD) features, as follows:-

A. is position of ’All Saint’s Church’.

B. is Hungate Lane.

C. is Stonegate.

D. is Northgate.

E. is Malton Road

F. is (we believe) a ’lost’ street called Crackrop (sic) which was converted into a driveway through the newly-formed Hall Park, to Hunmanby Hall.

G. is a tract of land marked ‘Vicar by Exors’ meaning it had been left to ‘All Saint’s Church’ and is today, logically. VICARAGE CLOSE.

H. is the south-eastern boundary, beyond which is marked ‘Reighton Township’.
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I. is the south-western boundary beyond which is marked ’North Burton Township’.

J. is the eastern boundary ie. Filey Bay, approximately opposite where Butlins Camp/ Amtree Park stands today.

The majority of fields are numbered. These all belonged to Humphrey Osbaldeston but were often let to village tenants who changed annually and were the responsibility of the Estate’s agent who looked after them for the Lord of the Manor.
The final result of the 1809 Enclosure was the village, farms and field system that we see today. Together with all the new roads and farms, Humphrey Osbaldeston added the North and South wings to Hunmanby Hall and added the Hall Park. Hall Park was formed by taking away properties on the road known as ’Crackrup’(sic) which then became the driveway up to Hunmanby Hall via the Low Lodge (‘ruined’ gateway ?) on Bridlington Street and doing away with the old North Burton road which crossed the new Park just in front of the South wing, replacing it with another road to the south, known today as New Road Hill, adjacent to ’God’s Acre Cemetery’.
Many properties were removed on Cross Hill and this space opened out to provide a suitable village access to Hunmanby Hall. To replace all these homes, several rows of cottages were added, namely in Hungate Lane, Bridlington Street (then known as ‘Southgate‘) and upper and lower Stonegate - most of which were condemned and demolished in 1939-45 after their tenants had been re-housed in the new council houses built in Simpsons Ave. and Stonegate/Hungate during 1938/9.
To provide the bricks and tiles required in this major 1809 re-building of farms and cottages, a Brickworks was started to the South of Northgate where the remains of the hillside from which the clay was extracted can still be seen. These bricks were dried naturally by leaving them stacked outside in the open air for twelve months.