Botanising on bomb sites: Eva Crackles’ studies of Hull’s flowering plants

Eva Crackles with a 12-inch puffball mushroom (U DEC 1998/05/9/91)

It’s easy to think that living and working in the city, we can become somewhat nature-starved, and that we have to make our way out into the countryside to a nature reserve like Spurn or Allerthorpe Common in order to ‘properly’ experience the natural world. But Eva Crackles, one of Hull’s best-known naturalists, saw the city centre not as a place devoid of botanical and environmental value, but as a treasure trove for discovering lots of unexpected and rare plants – it’s just a case of knowing how and where to look.

In my last blog, I wrote about Eva’s early passion for birdwatching, explaining how her enthusiasm for birding began to fade at the start of the 1950s, leading Eva to start searching for an area of natural history in which interesting species were more readily available and close to her home in Hull. What especially captured her attention were the many waste places and bombed sites in Hull, which appeared during and after the Second World War when buildings were destroyed or damaged during the air raids on the city. Despite the devastation through which these spaces were created, Eva started to notice that they were now teeming with life: new and unfamiliar plant species were squeezing through cracks in the concrete, colonising piles of rubble and filling the city with blooms of colour.

Eva’s botanical career began in these urban spaces, and she frequently found sites of botanical interest and delight in the city throughout the decades. In this blog, I explore how and where Eva botanised in the city of Hull, and show how her engagement with the city’s flowering plants changed over time.

Bomb site botany

In an unfinished piece about the flowering plants found on Hull’s bomb sites, Eva writes that:

When Jerry succeeded as he did in the regrettable business of reducing so many of our houses, our shops, our warehouses and our factories to a heap of bricks […] [this] was instrumental in providing the botanist […] with a golden opportunity of studying the subsequent colonisation by plants of large patches of bare ground. […] Here was the chance to discover just what species would turn up first, which would manage to establish themselves in the prevailing conditions of high lime concentration and of burnt ground, which would be eventually successful in competition with other species and which would resist man’s great efforts […]. (U DEC 1998/05/20/178)

Piece of writing about flowering plants of bomb sites (U DEC 1998/05/20/178)

This paragraph shows how Eva was especially attracted to the bomb sites of Hull because of their potential for conducting important scientific research into ecological succession, the process by which plant and animal communities in an area change over time. All over the UK, sites that were cleared during the Blitz became of great interest to ecologists – in the City of London, for instance, the Second World War was the first time open ground had been made available since the Great Fire of London in 1666, and these areas were soon home to a range of pioneering plant species (McArthur 2015).

Extract of talk written for broadcast about plants in Hull city centre (U DEC 1998/05/25/213)

This was certainly the case in Hull, too, as Eva describes in a radio broadcast: “Before the war this was a highly built up area and wild plants must have been exceedingly rare, although there were interesting plants on the dock-land wastes” (U DEC 1998/05/25/213). Over the period from 1950 to 1953, Eva visited 350 bomb sites and ‘waste places’ in the city of Hull, recording in detail what kinds of plants were present at 250 of these, a remarkable effort observable in the countless notebooks and folders of notes held in her collection at Hull History Centre. The table below, for example, shows a collated list of plants recorded in different regions of the city, indicating the sheer variety and quantity of plant life thriving in these devastated spaces (U DEC 1998/05/20/175 OR 18/166). Many of these are familiar sights in urban areas, with species like Common Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), Scentless False Mayweed (Matricaria inodora), White Clover (Trifolium repens), and Rosebay Willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium) present.

List of bomb site plants in Hull (U DEC 1998/05/20/177)

In the above-mentioned broadcast, Eva explains further that she had initially intended to focus on four alien species that were establishing themselves in the city – Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus), Eastern Rocket (Sisymbrium orientale), Tall Rocket (Sisymbrium altissimum) and Sticky Groundsel (Senecio viscosus) – but decided to accept “the challenge of identifying every plant I met”, resulting in her recording an astounding 270 species (U DEC 1998/05/25/213). She goes on to describe how her investigations into the bomb sites pushed her to ask the question ‘why’, demonstrating both her curiosity and her expertise:

Why was a plant in one place and not in another[?] In the circumstances such questioning focussed attention on methods of dispersal and the most useful exercise was to plot the sites on which thirty or more species occurred. (U DEC 1998/05/25/213)

These early investigations pushed Eva to think more about how plant distributions are affected by a range of nonhuman and human factors, and this curiosity (as well as the purchase of a motorbike and later a car) led her out of the city to explore other parts of East Yorkshire. This doesn’t mean, however, that Hull became any less important to her.

Planting the seeds of interest

Eva’s botanical investigations took her all over the county, and she was soon appointed the official recorder for vice county 61 (S.E. Yorkshire) for the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI), a role she held until 1998, she started to regularly publish notes and short articles in specialist botanical journals, and she would regularly visit botanically significant places like Spurn, Leven Canal, and Pulfin Bog.

Her studies, undertaken while also working full-time as Head of Biology at Malet Lambert School, began to make her somewhat of a local celebrity. The Eva Crackles collection contains numerous cuttings from various local newspapers from the 1950s onwards that are about Eva or that involve her in some way. An early example from 1952 is titled ‘Hull teacher discovers rare bomb-site plants’, and discusses some of the rare species she was finding in these places, but also reveals her sense of humour when talking about people’s reaction to her work: “People are quite curious, but recently I have found a few – a very few – who have been genuinely interested and have helped me quite a lot. The majority, however, are just curious and think I am quite crazy.” (U DEC 1998/05/9/91).

Newspaper article about Eva’s bomb site studies, 1952 (U DEC 1998/05/9/91)

Newspaper article about the ‘Slender speedwell’, 1972 (U DEC 1998/05/9/91)

Another example from 1972 comes from the ‘John Humber’ column, written by Mike Thompson, who employs Eva’s expertise in an article entitled ‘Has your lawn got the “Speedwell blues”’? (U DEC 1998/05/9/91). The column is about the Slender Speedwell (Veronica filiformis), an invasive blue flower that can easily overwhelm garden lawns, so Eva requests readers to send her information and cuttings of the flowers by post for her to identify. I wish I’d read this one before I opened an envelope and was surprised by a dried clump of Speedwell (that I thought was a spider) falling out onto the table!

In June 1978, Eva published her first article in the Hull Daily Mail in a series that came to be known as ‘Crackles Country’, a piece entitled ‘Observe these ‘foreigners’ whilst you may…’ (U DEC 1998/05/9/90). She writes: “In June many species of wild plant will burst into full flower and this is as true of Hull’s city centre as of the surrounding countryside”, and asks: “How many of Hull’s citizens notice the wild flowers on the car parks, by pavements and on walls?”. The focus of this article is on the Oxford Ragwort, which was, at the time, abundant throughout the city, especially around the Old Town and the docks.

Crackles Country article about the Oxford Ragwort, 1978 (U DEC 1998/05/9/90)

Crackles Country article about weeds, 1978 (U DEC 1998/05/9/90)

What is interesting about Eva’s celebration of urban flora in this article and throughout the series is that she never discriminates against ‘weeds’, always marvelling at the capacity of any plant, ‘alien’ or ‘native’, to flourish in the most unexpected of places. Indeed, the second article in the series asks readers to ‘Spare a thought for the weeds’, questioning the notion of a ‘plant out of place’ and whether there is a case for “affording hospitality to the less aggressive, less common ‘weeds’” (U DEC 1998/05/9/90). This attitude seems unusually modern, and brings to mind the writer Richard Mabey’s definition of ‘weeds’ as “boundary breakers, the stateless minority […] who remind us that life is not that tidy” (2012).

Crackles Country article about the High Street, 1979 (U DEC 1998/05/9/90)

Eva also wrote articles explaining how and why some plants were growing in certain areas, communicating research she was publishing in more specialist journals to a wider audience. An article from 1979, for example, tells us that, at the time, the High Street was home to a considerable number of native and non-native plant species such as Flax, Buckwheat and Coriander, either deliberately or accidentally transported to Hull via boat (U DEC 1998/05/9/90). The article ends, however, with Eva lamenting the imminent loss of these plants to redevelopment: “Great-grandfather’s birthplace is under the new road, the bulldozers have moved on to the last remaining High-street sites and an era which began with Hitler’s bombs will soon virtually end with ‘Operation Clean Up’”.

Observe, Record, Think

Eva’s concern with the loss of places in Hull that held botanical value isn’t surprising, as throughout her career she was involved in various conservation battles across East Yorkshire, such as at Allerthorpe Common and in Kilnsea near Spurn. In the collection, there are several letters and reports written by Eva and others in the late 1970s and early 1980s, relating to different aspects of Operation Clean Up, a government programme that offered grants to local authorities to ‘tidy up’ waste areas in their cities.

A letter of 22 March 1979 from Sarah N. Priest of the Nature Conservancy Council to the Director of Leisure Services in Hull City Council provides a summary of Eva’s detailed report on the scientific value of some of the waste places in the city, and concludes: “I very much hope that your plans to clean-up the City centre might be sufficiently flexible to allow at least parts of these sites to remain as temporary nature reserves with the minimum of tidying up.” (U DEC 1998/05/31/276) She continues: “In anticipation of your sympathetic consideration of such a suggestion, I wonder if it might be helpful for Miss Crackles and I to visit these sites with one of your staff and point out the precise areas of interest?”, showing how well-known Eva had become for her knowledge of East Yorkshire’s flowering plants.

Letter from S.N. Priest about Operation Clean Up, 1979 (U DEC 1998/05/31/276)

Piece written by Eva about Operation Clean Up (U DEC 1998/05/31/276)

Cities are always changing, of course, but Eva’s defence of the city’s waste places is certainly something to be admired, and she sums up her reasoning in a short piece of writing: “It seems a pity if these riches are to be destroyed in the tidying up process. Is there no other answer to the problem?” (U DEC 1998/05/31/276).

There is, however, plenty of evidence showing that Eva continued to botanise in Hull in the 1980s in her notebooks and in newspaper cuttings, after she retired from teaching and was working on publishing her book, The Flora of the East Riding of Yorkshire (1990). And walking round the city today, it’s very clear that, rather than being entirely clear of wild plants, numerous wildflower species are still finding places in which to establish themselves.

Article ‘Observe, Record, Think’ written by Eva (U DEC 1998/05/31/291)

Extract of talk written for broadcast about plants in Hull city centre (U DEC 1998/05/25/213)

I want to end by drawing attention to a short article published in the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust Bulletin entitled ‘Botanical comment 1: Observe, Record, Think’, the first of a series of ‘comments’ that Eva contributed to the journal (U DEC 1998/05/32/291). As the title suggests, she provides practical advice on how to improve your field botany, discussing skills of identification, observation and recording. But what I like the most about this article is its ending, a message of encouragement for the budding botanist: “May you become a keen observer, a careful recorder, and may you have exciting thoughts which lead to yet more discoveries!”. Perhaps we should follow in Eva’s footsteps here, and start looking a little closer at the plant species still making themselves known in the very fabric of the city. As Eva herself declares:

You too may be surprised to find just what is growing in some waste place, even in a built up area. One thing is certain: you will not know unless you look. (U DEC 1998/05/25/213)

Common groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) on High Street, July 2025 (photograph: author)

References

Mabey, R. 2012. Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants. London: Profile Books.

McArthur, J. 2015, ‘When the Fireweed Flowers’, Imperial War Museum, 16 June. Online at: https://www.iwm.org.uk/blog/research/2015/06/when-the-fireweed-flowers [Accessed 15 July 2025].

The art of birding: Eva Crackles’ early ornithological work

Photograph of Eva Crackles bird watching [U DEC 1998/05/18/164]

Florence Eva Crackles (known as Eva), born in Hull in 1918, is a well-known figure that many would associate with botany, that branch of science that studies the biology and ecology of plants. Indeed, Eva spent much of her life dedicating herself to research and writing in this field, culminating in the publication of her extensive 'Flora of the East Riding' in 1990. Eva’s interest in botany, though persistent throughout her life, started to really blossom after 1950; before this, her enthusiasm for natural history focused more on ornithology, the study and observation of birds.

I’ve recently been rooting through the uncatalogued papers of Eva Crackles, which are held at Hull History Centre, as part of a placement I am undertaking related to my PhD research on Spurn Point. One of the first and most exciting things I discovered was a box full of Eva’s ornithology journals, detailing journeys taken across Yorkshire and elsewhere in the 1940s and 50s, and the remarkable diversity of bird species that she saw. As well as these journals, the Eva Crackles collection contains correspondence between Eva and different ornithologists, draft versions of presentations given on birdwatching and study, and piles of notes, drawings and photographs relating to bird anatomy, identification and behaviour.

Today, birding is an increasingly popular pastime, and as we better understand how getting outside into nature is beneficial for our physical and mental wellbeing (Hunt 2025), I think that learning a bit more about the early ornithological experiences of one of Yorkshire’s best-known naturalists is more relevant than ever.

Birding: art or science?

In a draft of a talk given at the Bird Club that she set up when teaching Biology at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys in 1947, Eva notes the many different activities involved in the scientific study of birds, such as observing, recording, theorising, and so on. Interestingly, she then offers a description that comes across as a bit less ‘scientific’:

But bird study has another appeal to me too. Do you like to stand in an art gallery and enjoy gazing at masterpieces, pictures of Vincent van Gogh, landscapes by Constable – perhaps at skeins of Geese flying over some lonely marsh by Peter Scott – and just steep yourself in the atmosphere captured by the artist? I gain that kind of satisfaction from my bird watching. (U DEC 1998/05/18/161)

Extract from the draft of a talk given by Eva, 1947 [U DEC 1998/05/18/161]

Here, she compares the difficult-to-express feeling of immersing oneself in an artwork with that of observing birds in the field, revealing the significance of the emotional to the pursuit of ornithology. She continues:

There is a series of most beautiful pictures waiting to be discovered. Some still peaceful scenes – perhaps Dunlin standing on one leg with his bill tucked under his scapulars [feathers covering the base of the wing]. But many scenes full of vitality – a series of moving pictures – a Fulmar Petrel circling with straight motionless wings by some chalk cliff; a Green Woodpecker feeding on an ant hill, his red head flashing as it meets the sun’s rays; a Goldfinch fluttering over some thistle head and showing the gold banded black wing to good advantage. Then there are sound pictures too in the gallery of my memory. (U DEC 1998/05/18/161)

This combination of the scientific and personal is also evident in the birding journals that Eva kept from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. The first of these begins with a brief section summarising her experiences of birding while studying at University College, Hull, when she lived at Thwaite Hall in Cottingham. The entries for these early years are rather precocious, suggesting her growing excitement and curiosity for the study of birds. She describes how, “in the precincts of Thwaite […] two of us […] experienced the joy of watching the feathered folk go about this daily business. We practised the art of moving quietly and waiting patiently. We were rewarded by learning a little about the habits, particularly at nesting time of some of the common British birds” (U DEC 1998/05 Box 1). The journals reveal a journey that takes us from Eva learning these fundamental bodily practices key to birding – patience, silence, and so on – to the honing her skills of recording, identification and description, which developed alongside her formal scientific education at the university.

Extract from one of Eva's journals, 1930s [U DEC 1998/05 Box 1]

Eva’s birding journeys

Later journals reveal how Eva would travel far and wide to observe and study birds, visiting popular birding locations such as Skokholm in Wales and Flatford Mill in Suffolk, though she would most frequently visit places in East Yorkshire like Bempton Cliffs, Hornsea Mere, and Spurn Point. In October 1946, for instance, she stayed at Spurn for several days, filling her time by taking walks round the peninsula and observing a range of common and rarer birds. These walks were often taken with significant figures in the history of Spurn, such as George H. Ainsworth, a co-founder of the Spurn Bird Observatory (SBO), and H.O. Bunce, who was, among other things, the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union bird recorder from 1960 to 1974 (and with whom Eva describes ascending the lighthouse at Spurn Point and watching as birds would crash into the windows, be picked up and ringed, and then let go!).

A long entry on the 27th October 1946 provides a great example of Eva’s enthusiasm for birds during this period. She recounts spotting a Great Grey Shrike, a large predatory songbird, perching on a telegraph wire outside Blue Bell Cottage, and she notes in detail its characteristics and behaviours: “the bird adopted an almost horizontal posture on the wire. The grey upper parts; black mark through eye; white scapulars; black wings with white bar and black tail were noted” (U DEC 1998/05/1/9). The bird then “dropped from the wire, hovered kestrel fashion and then dropped to the ground, harrying a blackbird which flew across into the lane” (U DEC 1998/05/1/9), and after watching for some time, she runs off to tell Bunce, who only manages to catch a glimpse before the Shrike flies off and disappears.

Entry from one of Eva's journals, 27 Oct 1946 [U DEC 1998/05/1/9]

The journals relate visits to places even closer to home, too. The same journal explains how on 7th December 1946, Eva had intended to catch the bus to Spurn, but a message came through from George Ainsworth (of the SBO) to let her know that a party of Waxwings had been spotted on Tween Dykes Road in East Hull. She cycles there as fast as possible, setting up to observe them despite low visibility. What follows are a number of pages of careful observations on the features and behaviours of the birds – she notes their crests, plumages and feeding behaviours (apparently, they swallow berries whole). Ever the keen photographer, she sets up a tripod on a branch that appears especially popular with the Waxwings and waited for one to land, describing how two became “so indifferent to [her] presence” that they “passed within a foot or so of [her] head” (U DEC 1998/05/1/9).

Entry from one of Eva's journals, 7 Dec 1946 [U DEC 1998/05/1/9]

The Eva Crackles collection also contains a remarkable amount of written correspondence between her and various significant figures of ornithology and natural history: there are letters from George Ainsworth and H.O. Bunce, as mentioned above, but also Ralph Chislett and J. Lord of the SBO, celebrated evolutionary biologist David Lack, and the pioneering naturalist and educator Margaret Massey Hutchinson (U DEC 1998/05/6). In these, we read how apparent Eva’s knowledge and skill were to others, as they would share details about recent trips and rare bird sightings, and some even point to Eva’s tenacity and confidence in her skills. In a letter of 27th December 1948, sent from Eva to ‘P.E. Brown’, she defends the identification of a Yellowshank, a rare vagrant in England, made by her and her two friends, Miss M. van Oostveen and Mrs Isaacs, at Minsmere in Suffolk:

Far be it from me to be adamant concerning the identification of a species of which I have no previous experience […]. However, we are all agreed that the 3 birds were of a species not seen before or since by any of us. As you know we all had excellent views of the birds and on the first occasion I approached remarkably close to them. Also I have had excellent opportunities of studying waders. Until recently I have been able to visit Spurn Point and favourite wader haunts along the river regularly. (U DEC 1998/05/6)

Copy letter written by Eva, 27 Dec 1948 [U DEC 1998/05/6]

Eva refers here to her already-extensive experience, particularly relating to wading birds, in order to prove her qualifications for identifying this unlikely visitor. The letter mentions that it was “a pity” that the birds had disappeared by the time a Mr ‘D. Ennion’ turned up – it’s not insignificant, either, that Eva and her friends were all women operating within a field that was at that point still dominated by men of a higher social class, and thus had to work harder to be taken seriously as natural historians.

From birds to botany

Later entries in the journals slow down somewhat, and we can find an answer as to why this is in Eva’s series of ‘Personal recollections’ published in the Bulletin of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union in the mid-1990s, copies of which are in the Eva Crackles collection. She moved back to Hull from Cambridge in January of 1950 to take a job at Malet Lambert High School, and in late March of that year, cycling home from school, a black cat ran in front of her bike and caused her to dive headfirst over her handlebars – “not a recommended activity!”. The resulting concussion meant she was unable to travel very far to engage in field research.

Extract from 'Personal Recollections 2, The Nineteen Fifties', written by Eva, 1995 [U DEC 1998/5/8/71]

But even before this, she explains that birdwatching, “which was of necessity somewhat at random, was no longer satisfying. What I did not want was a rarity hunt or a mere list ticking exercise. I had tried to study bird behaviour but it was impossible to get continuity of observation given my personal circumstances” (Crackles 1995; U DEC 1998/5/8/71; emphasis added). It seems then that she was becoming disillusioned with the competitive nature of birding, and was instead looking for something where she could sate her interest in natural history more readily.

These two events pushed her to begin poking around the bombsites in Hull, where new and unexpected plant species were establishing themselves in the disturbed ground. In a way, the combination of the incident with the black cat and this loss of enthusiasm for birding were two important catalysts for one of the most consequential careers in botany in both Yorkshire and the UK more widely. But, despite moving away from birding and more into the world of plants, the skills that Eva honed – her ability to watch and observe, her keen eye for detail, an aptitude for recording – as well as the connections, friendships and memories she made evidently remained significant for the remainder of her career and her life.

Photograph showing Dunlin in the air at Spurn, Sep 1947 [U DEC 1998/05/18/168]

References

Hunt, E. 2025, ‘How to become a birder: 10 easy ways to start this life-changing hobby’, The Guardian. 19 June. Online at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/19/how-to-become-a-birder-10-easy-ways-to-start-this-life-changing-hobby [Accessed 19 June 2025].

Toby Horkan
PhD Researcher in English, Centre for Water Cultures (University of Hull)

The ARA Survey results are here!

If you visited the Hull History Centre searchroom towards the end of 2024, you may have been asked to complete a survey about your visit to us. The Archives and Records Association, which runs the survey, has now released the results.  We’re delighted to see that the vast majority of our visitors were satisfied or very satisfied with their visit. We’re especially pleased that our staff scored 9.8 out of 10 for availability, attitude and appropriateness of their advice.

The results did suggest some areas where visitors think our services could be improved, as well. One concern for some visitors was the History Centre’s opening hours, which are shorter than they were before the pandemic. We are aware that the weekday hours don’t suit everyone, and so in November 2024 we began opening on Saturdays again for the first time since 2020 – hopefully this will allow some of those who don’t have free weekdays to visit us. You can check our full opening hours here.

We are open fewer hours than we were in February 2020, and this is based on user trends. Many of our researchers now prefer to order copies of documents to study remotely, a change which came with the pandemic and has not gone away. To balance the needs of our on-site and remote customers, and allow staff to carry out the vital behind-the-scenes work which keeps our service running, we can’t return to our pre-pandemic opening hours in the near future. But we do appreciate feedback on our hours and we take it into account in our future planning, so if you have comments for us please do send them via our feedback channels.

Another area for improvement is our online catalogue. Although 85% of users rated its usability as “Very good” or “Fairly good”, 15% of users found it “Poor” or “Very poor”. Our online catalogue is now ten years old and is feeling its age – in internet terms it’s quite ancient! We are pleased to report that we’ll soon be starting the process of updating our cataloguing systems, which will come with a new online catalogue. This will take a year or two to implement, but once it’s done it will deliver a great new interface for our archive catalogues. In the meantime, if you find it difficult to navigate our online catalogue you can always contact us for help.

The History Centre arcade - beautiful but hard to heat!

Finally, the building itself. As the survey took place at the end of the year, there were a few comments about the temperature of the arcade – it does get chilly in there in winter! The Centre’s striking translucent roof and glass-walled design unfortunately makes it hard to heat the arcade in the winter and cool it in the summer.

Thank you to everyone who completed a survey for us! We really appreciate everyone who took the time to do so. 

Hull's Lost Museum

A priceless collection of old buildings and fittings

a piece of creative art which must be seen to be believed…

(HDM, 24 Jul 1935, p. 4)

The Hull “Old Times” Museum was the brainchild of the Director of Hull Museums, Thomas Sheppard. It was heralded at the time as a one of a kind, there would be, “Nothing like it in the country when complete”. (HDM, 24 Jul 1935, p.4)

Of course, there had been many short-term historical street exhibitions which were popularised over the previous 50 years, but these were all outdoor affairs. Creating a historical street that was enclosed was something very new. The impetus for Hull’s new museum came from Sheppard’s desire to save aspects of a city that were vanishing with little trace, he lamented that: 

For more years than I care to remember, I have watched the demolition of old properties, the changes in the streets and roadways, in the methods of transport, lighting, and engineering…in the march of progress. (L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

While much was removed from his surroundings, Sheppard had, since his appointment as Curator in 1904, managed to save various pieces here and there. He housed many items in cellars, empty rooms and warehouses around the city. When the Wilberforce Buildings were acquired by the Hull Corporation in 1903, the large yard and warehouse at the rear, also known as “Wilberforce Warehouse”, was used as income generation for the museum through its use as a grain store. In October 1931 the current tenant of the warehouse decided not to continue the lease, and it was suggested that the building be pulled down due to its upkeep costs. Sheppard however, had another idea, and suggested that recent donations, along with items already in store would enable them to reconstruct a Hull street from a few centuries ago. (C TCM/2/45/2, Hull History Centre)

He would go on to list several buildings that would make up the interior, suggesting that he had been thinking about the project for some time. The warehouse itself almost abutted Wilberforce House and ran back to the River Hull. It was 36 metres long by 12 metres wide and four stories high, it would be an ideal setting to house Sheppard’s 9th museum.

Image: The land and property acquired by the Hull Corporation
in 1903, included Wilberforce House and its warehouse.
(C TLA/2119, Hull History Centre) 

Image: View of Drypool Bridge from the River Hull.
On the left above the second barge funnel is Wilberforce Warehouse, c. 1930s.
(C TDP/2/1/28, Hull History Centre. © Yorkshire Post.
Not to be reproduced without permission)

Sheppard’s new construction would take up the first two floors of the warehouse and by 1935, the museum had a dozen shops and buildings. From a tavern to an undertakers, their contents come from as far afield as Northumberland and Sussex.

The exhibits ran down both sides of the warehouse and the floor was paved in slabs and cobbles in keeping with the period, they had been removed from recently developed areas in Hull. Down the centre of the street, ran a gully paved with “petrified kidneys” like the Hull streets of old. The following is a list of the buildings and some of their contents in Sheppard’s “Old Times” Street:

Tavern:  A small-scale replica of an old public house in Hull. Its frontage came from the Talbot Hotel in Scale Lane, with fittings and features from the Greenland Fisheries and the Crown Hotel in Hull. 

Chemist: The frontage came from Ware, Hertfordshire whilst the entrance way hosted two impressive golden serpents of Aesculapius that came from an old chemist’s shop in Market Place, Howden. Above this was a board from Hall’s Chemists shop on the corner of Spring Bank and Beverley Road. The shop housed leech jars, bleeding instruments, mortars and pestles and other paraphernalia.

Image: Chemists shop, complete with serpents, mortar and pestle
above the doorway and large glass chemists jars in the window,
c. 1935. (L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Tobacconist: With a window from York and the upper constructed in a half-timbered style the shop’s fittings came from Mr Pickering’s tobacco shop in Bond Street. Above the doorway was a statue of a boy with ostrich feathers and an original 1660s style tobacco pipe which was purchased from the Battersby’s Museum at Paull. Inside were kilns, moulds and a large stone trough, used by Messrs Stonehouse, the last Hull tobacco pipe makers situate in Marlborough Terrace.

Image: Tobacconist shop, complete with 17th century
statue and clay pipe above the window. You can also
see the chemists and tavern entrance, c. 1935.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Gunsmith: The exterior showcased a large gilded gun smith sign from Robin Hood’s Bay, inside were, harpoons, pistols and other guns manufactured by George Wallis, the Hull gun maker. Including a gilded Blunderbuss and a double flint-lock whaling gun from the Hull whaler Volunteer.

Woodturner: Signposted by an original carved wooden sign reading “Architectural, Ornamental and Antique Carver” from an old Hull shop, it housed various wood carving and clog makers tools, as well as jet polishing and turning tools from Whitby. Also inside the building were furnishings from buildings in Hull and Beverley from the Elizabethan to the Georgian period. The shop was also functional, with a working 18th century wood turning machine.

Blacksmith: This shop was largely the whole of Mr Moore’s shop on Holderness Road, a well-known craftsman of Hull at the time. It included a good sample of tools and horseshoes.

Image: Chemists with serpents, tobacconist
with carved statue, gunsmiths with gilded sign,
blacksmith is out of view on the corner with the
King’s Head Inn, housing the plumbers,
c. 1935. (Copyright: Hull Museums & Galleries)

Plumbers: Housed from a semi reconstructed frontage of Hull’s oldest building, the King’s Head Inn, which was pulled down from the High Street in 1905 and parts salvaged by Sheppard. The doorway, its carved oak spandrels and oak beams were used alongside a window from Edwin Davis’s old drapery in Bond Street and another from Sutton. Inside were huge, elm trunks which had been bored for main water pipes, as well as some of the old pumps from Scale Lane. A large table, used to cast the lead for Beverley Minster, along with plumbing pieces from monasteries and early lead pipes from Hull. Cast iron window frames from the former Citadel could also be seen.

Image: Plumbers’ shop in the “Old Times” Street, formerly
part of the Kings Head Inn, High Street, c. 1935.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Hotel: Starting on the opposite side of the street were part of the frontage of the White Lion Hotel, formerly in Collier Street, which was pulled down in 1930. It was transported almost entirely including bottles and fittings and rebuilt inside the warehouse. Inside could be seen the original dart board, false coins nailed to the counter and scales for weighing four.

Image: Interior of the White Lion Hotel, reproduced exactly
in Sheppard’s warehouse.
(Copyright: Hull Museums & Galleries)

Mercers: Housing, spinning wheels, tools for winding wool, a printing machine, old type, copper plates and lithographs, it was an example of a general merchant’s shop. It also held an early printing machine, theatre bills and books illustrating the art of printing in Hull from 1642.

Antique Shop: The catchall shop, within which many of the objects not suitable for the other buildings were housed.

Undertakers: This shop housed an elaborately carved Gothic hearse, the first made by Annison’s the Hull funerary parlour. It too housed cinerary urns and other funerary ephemera.

Organ Builders/Music Shop: Inside this building was an old Gothic organ from Hedon Church alongside a collection of historical music instruments from Hull and other makers.

The last few buildings in the warehouse were a Hatters, and a Bootmakers but little is known about these buildings. One of the larger pieces secured for the street was a 6 windowed Georgian shop front acquired from Lewes.

Image: The Georgian shop front prior to its removal from
Sussex which was rebuilt inside the “Old Times” Street,
c. 1930s.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Down the middle of the street between the shops were vehicles, such as, an early 18th century stagecoach from Exeter, a horse drawn carriage, an early motor car and a Driffield subscription fire engine built in 1840. The street itself was lit with whale oil lamps that came from Queens Dock and was adorned with an early Hull milestone, gallows and stocks. It housed everything one might wish to see in a historic street exhibit.

The museum was originally accessed via an old flagged yard which would not have suited as an entrance to a museum. This was resolved by moving back some of the adjacent buildings to create a more pleasant entrance, with the work being funded by the Reckitt family. (HDM, 01 Aug 1935, p.6)

Image: Drawing of the new entry way to Hulls “Old Times”
Street, c. 1930s. (Museums Journal, Oct 1935, p. 251)

The new museum was set to open in March 1939. On the first week of opening the shops were to be staffed by people in period costume, a real blacksmith at work and beer being produced from the re-created inns. However, Sheppard was still awaiting approval from the Property and Bridges Committee in May 1940. By this point there had been no bombing raids in Hull, but this soon changed, and over the following 12 months there would be 44 raids and the 45th would change the city forever. It was during this raid that Sheppard’s “Old Times” Street was severely damaged.

On the night of the 8/9th May 1941, the city was subjected to a heavy bombing which resulted in numerous fires breaking out across the city. Several of these were in High Street, where the streets are narrow and buildings several storeys high. John Colletta a volunteer firemen was credited with saving Wilberforce House and was awarded the George Medal, however, there was another that acted equally as heroically and went un-recognised.

The fire watchman at the museum, James Anthony, was first on the scene. He recalled that:

at Wilberforce House they dropped 5 incendiaries [he got to work to put them out] …After that they dropped a H.E. Bomb and it knocked me into the Doll’s House. I picked myself up and…started playing on the fire to keep it under control…[and] stop it breaking in at the top floor. (Ref: C TYG/1, Hull History Centre)

Image: Account by James Anthony of the Raid
on the 8/9 May 1941 that almost destroyed
Wilberforce House. (C TYG/1, Hull History Centre) 

Just after mid-night when the firemen finally arrived, Anthony had been working on the fire for hours. The firemen found that 5 warehouses were ablaze, 3 on the west of High Street and 2 on the east. The latter were directly behind, and adjoining Wilberforce House, which Anthony was trying to put out alone. Colletta, arrived around 12.30 and began attacking the fire at Ware’s warehouse in front of the museum, he soon found himself and Wilberforce House surrounded in flames.

He remained there, amidst the falling debris…with utter disregard for his own safety. There was no cover for him (Ref: HO 250/43/1671, TNA)

With fires still raging Coletta moved to fight the raging inferno that was overtaking the warehouse behind Wilberforce House. 

separated by a distance of only six feet from the wall of the blazing…warehouse…Colletta insisted on remaining in the narrow alley…the building was expected to fall at any moment. In this place the heat was terrific (Ibid)

The firemen were called away at 2am due to further fires elsewhere but Anthony continued alone, until nearly 9am by which point the fire which was subsiding began to take hold again. Anthony recalled that: 

It was one large furnace all around. I have been in France but nothing like the night I went through. (Ref: C TYG/1, Hull History Centre)

Although Wilberforce House was saved, the museum was gone. In his report, Sheppard stated that: 

Our warehouse at the back, which contained the various shops and their contents, forming the “Old Street”, as well as the exhibits stored on the upper floors, was entirely burnt out, and practically everything destroyed, though we may retrieve a few objects from the debris. The roofless four walls are standing, and the 29…cast iron pillars supporting the floors are still erect…The wharf on the harbour side adjoining the warehouse, is burnt through, and cannot be used…. (Ref: C TCR/1/10/1, Hull History Centre)

Image: View of the war damaged warehouses behind
Wilberforce House. The “Old Times” Street was housed in
the building directly behind the barge funnel,
c.May 1941-Sep 1942.
(C TDP/2/9/1/10, Hull History Centre)

Image: Wilberforce House and the site of the “Old Times” Street
cleared of debris, May 1946.
(Air Photo Mosaics, 54/1028 N.W, Hull History Centre) 

Sheppard retired in October 1941, as was the Corporations policy. The warehouse, however, remained a bomb site. The cast iron pillars were unsupported and at risk of falling into Wilberforce House. By April the following year work started on clearing the site, as seen above. Very few exhibits had been recovered from the wreckage and by July 1944, the remnants of the warehouse and surrounding buildings had been pulled down and approval was given for the area, which was Hulls “Old Times” Street to be turned into gardens for Wilberforce House. (HDM, 31 July 1944, p. 4) In late 1949 the work had almost been completed. Using period bricks from bombed properties in High Street the garden was to be in a Georgian ornamental style and was described in 1950 when it opened as:  

arise[ing] from the former waste of bomb damage…it will be entirely in keeping with the historic house…Already the lawn and the fan shaped ornamental trees and climbers…look thoroughly established… [It is] a green oasis in the Old Town. (HDM, 15 Apr 1950, p. 4)

Image: The new Wilberforce Garden, replacing Hulls
“Old Times” Street, c. 1950.
(L(SLA).069.538, Hull History Centre)

Sheppard’s last museum took almost a decade to complete and although its tragic loss means it was never seen by the public at large you can find examples of an early streets at the Streetlife Museum in Hull, the York Castle Museum and Kirkstall Abbey Museum. Or if you would like to get up close and personal with history you can also visit Hull’s Hand's on History Museum.