Sutton-on-Hull



Sutton-on-Hull is clear enough for name and location, except then it would be called Norton-on-Hull, would it not, lying to the north of Hull? In those days Wyke was the port and Sutton's relationship with it was down the ridge, like Wawne, from the abbey at Meaux (until 1542), an area above land liable to flood but drained and used for sheep farming. Wawne had the first parish church - Sutton was St. Peter's chapelry. Sutton became 'on Hull' in 1929 in terms of political association, and no longer its own parish. From the 1960s it was surrounded by housing estates.
Sutton-in-Holderness makes much more sense, or south town/  settlement, as the Saxon name Sudtone means south farm or small settlement. It was one of 48 places in the hundred of Holderness [Middle Hundred] with 20.4 households.



The dominant feature is the Anglican Church, dating from a 12th century chapel and St. James as now from 1349. Much later came two Methodist chapels. Sutton Reading Room (1877) was a Wesleyan Chapel and its new life had darts, billiards and bagatelle games for men, and outside has now a bowling green, tennis court and pavilion.
I lived in Sutton from 1964 to 1985. In the earliest years I used to go in the neighbour's van (Watson Street) to the milking (in churns) at a farm just off Leads Road, now Bransholme's boundary. I travelled on the railway a few times when I lived in Hornsea; my father was a commuter. The railway closure on 10th October 1964 (completely on 13 May 1965) caused the family to move to Watson Street in Sutton. I now live in Chamberlain Close, one street away.
Back in the fifteenth century, the Hastings Manor House stood at Church Mount. In 1675 the Manor House moved to 30 Church Street (Elm Trees).
Sutton was both rural and with plenty of posh - and the latter in the sense of large houses built well back from Church Street (to the east). Some of the large properties were found at Wincolmlee House (1778, by Thomas Mowld)  - replaced by The Elms and Beech Lawn, Sutton Grange (1815) (Chestnut House), and, by 1852, Lambwath House, Sutton House, Sutton Grange, Tilworth Grange and East Mount (Reckitts').
As for being poor, a poorhouse was built in 1757, and there were almshouses (Leonard Chamberlain Trust, Ann Watson Trust), and Ann Watson hospital. I live in an alms house.
Sutton Station, opened 28th March 1864, became Sutton-on-Hull in 1874. It encouraged house building and Sutton as a commuter stop. My father took the bus from Sutton to Stoneferry.
There was a windmill to the west in the early eighteenth century, burnt down in 1884.
Sutton School opened in 1859 - a Church of England school. The pupils moved to the new St. James School in Bransholme in 1977. The old school is now a museum, open on Fridays for four hours. The Church Hall was preceded by a large hut erected by soldiers, many of whom came to Sutton to stay in the school and other buildings before going to France.
RAF Sutton was positioned where now approximately is found Bransholme Centre. It had 2000 male and female operatives by later 1942. Barage balloons were raised to offer some defence of Hull.
Some of the estates' housing around Sutton is now being replaced. The monotone architecture is being diversified, if at some cost of social access. Sutton has evolved, and perhaps now these estates will do so into the future.

 

Adrian Worsfold