CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL HEDON EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE COUNCIL MAY 2006 1 HEDON CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL DEFINITION OF HEDON’S SPECIAL INTEREST INTRODUCTION The special character a nd appearance of Hedon was designated as a Conservation Hedon, (which caused it to be the first to Area in January 1969 by the former East be designated as a Conservation Area in Riding County Council. Holderness), lies in its unique assembly of 18th and 19th century properties Shortly after the reorganisation of local within a constricted town centre into government in 1974, the former Holderness which relatively little 20th century Borough Council reviewed the Hedon development has intruded. Conservation Area and, following consultations, it was increased considerably beyond its original boundaries. a) TOPOGRAPHY AND ITS RELEVANCE Adjustments were made in 1988 when the former Railway Station and its yard were Hedon lies about six miles east of Hull, and included, and further amendments to some two miles from the Humber estuary. improve protection of the street scene in this area followed in early 1992, when the The Hedon Conservation Area lies within whole of the designated area was reviewed. the ‘Burstwick to Withernsea Farmland’ Further adjustments were made some two Landscape Character Area, as identified in years later when the rather arbitrary the East Riding of Yorkshire Landscape alignment of the boundary running north- Character Assessment (ERYC, 2005). The south along the backs of the properties on Landscape Character Assessment recognises the west side of St. Augustine's Gate was re- that, in contrast to the large field systems drawn to comply with boundaries on the closer to the coastline, examples of medieval ground. field systems can be observed at Preston, Hedon and Bilton and several moated sites The 2006 re-survey has been undertaken in and deserted medieval villages are present. accordance with Guidance on Conservation St Patricks’ Church at Patrington is one of Area Appraisals issued by English Heritage the biggest and architecturally significant in August 2005, in order to meet national churches in the area and the spire is an government's aim that Conservation Areas important landmark on the skyline of should be re-surveyed every five years. Holderness. Wetland habitats are also present in this Character Area, especially dykes and ponds with fenland plants including greater water parsnip and greater spearwort. As with other parts of Holderness the hedgerows are dominated by hawthorn, with hazel, ash, blackthorn, elder, field maple and dogwood also present. 2 development for as long as they were The north western edge of the Hedon required to be navigable to small craft. Conservation Area is adjacent to the ‘Hedon, Preston and Bilton Farmland’ These transport aspects notwithstanding, Character Area. The Landscape Character however, Hedon is both low lying and level, Assessment describes how the urban edge rising to more than 20 ft above sea level of Hull impacts on the character of this only on Market Hill, which prominence was agricultural landscape because of its stark used for the site of the Church. interface between development and the countryside. This landscape is low lying and It was probably a product of Hedon’s generally well drained with little significant proximity to the (then) main road from the tree cover. Field systems tend to be west, coupled with its ability to act as a port medium to large in size and are generally for the south west of Holderness which regular in pattern with hedgerows and promoted its potential for development. In drainage ditches acting as boundaries. The those times its location, standing back from open nature of this landscape provides good the estuary, probably made it easier to views to the west over the skyline of Hull defend as well as being less susceptible to and to the east, landmark buildings such as inundation. the churches at Hedon and Preston are The Borough of Hedon was founded by the important landscape features. The cooling Counts of Aumale early in the twelfth towers at Salt End are also a very dominant century, its name not being found in the and highly visible feature of the southern Domesday Book of some forty years earlier. skyline. The town has experienced more change than most settlements in its area, first of all with the building of the direct link with Hull (Hedon Road), a route which was only developed from around 1830 because of the marshy nature of the terrain. Thereafter Hedon was on the (new) direct route from Hull to South Holderness, which became the A1033. It was not until the late 1980’s that the Hedon by-pass was completed and the town achieved some small respite from Market Hill the ever-increasing volume of traffic by its re-routing to the south of The Haven. b) DISPOSITION AND DEVELOPMENT Before these changes, it was another aspect of the topography around the town which had contributed greatly to its commercial The layout of Hedon’s central core has probably always been in a north-south success - the fleet, or stream, named The Haven, which linked it to the Humber, and alignment, from the Middle Ages onward being known as Soutter Gate, St. from which it derived a significant part of its trade. Augustine’s Gate and (severally) Sheriff Bridge Way, Westgate and Mill Lane, the Although this aspect of Hedon’s past is present Market Place between Soutter and St. Augustine’s Gates being referred to in dealt with in more detail in the Hedon Haven Conservation Area document, it is the early 17th century as the “new” market place to differentiate from its former right to acknowledge that the drainage extensions to the fleet, which at one time location which had been on Market Hill. extended to surround most of the town, would have had a limiting effect on Hedon’s 3 Parallel to this “main” street, lay Walker published in 1840, makes interesting Gate and Hay Well Lane, being more or less reading. Within the “Township” there were where Church Lane and Ketwell Lane now 195 inhabited and 21 uninhabited lie, and Woodmarket Gate, Cat Bridge Gate, properties, housing 218 families, of which and Lythehouse Gate, presently known as 16 were chiefly involved in agriculture with Love Lane, Station Lane and Thorn Road a further 109 in trades, manufactures and respectively. handicrafts, making a population of 1,080 people in all. (By comparison current Baxtergate is, of these, the only one which figures for the Parish indicate a population has retained its original name. of 6,170 and 2,168 houses). The principal east-west street was known in c) RELEVANCE AND part as St. Nicholas’s Gate, part IMPORTANCE OF OPEN Fleshmarket Gate (now Fletchergate) and SPACES further west as Fisher or Highson Lane (now part of New Road). The larger the town, the more important are Further north lay Wind (later Swine) Gate, its open spaces. Whilst this is a which was renamed George Street when re- generalisation, it certainly applies to Hedon, developed in the 19th century. whose development has been, as previously described, generally of a small-scale nature There was also Thief Lane and Wayfarer with similar sized curtilages. Lane, which became known as Wayfbain Lane. Hedon has two grassed areas which are of particular significance - Market Hill and In the Middle Ages the town’s buildings Wychcroft (to the east of Station Lane), as stood mainly around Soutter Gate, well as deriving value from the open space St. Augustine’s Gate with the suggestion to the North of Ivy Lane. that the existence of the lost churches of St. James and St. Nicholas, off Sheriff Of these, Market Hill has suffered most due Highway, may have caused the southern end to the ravages of Dutch Elm disease which of the town to have had development which destroyed three specimen trees estimated as was later lost. being around 200 years old when they had to be felled in the 1980’s. Records from the seventeenth century refer The approach to Hedon from Preston is of to a high incidence of fires which in 1657 middling quality until one reaches Station destroyed 42 houses. Houses at this time Lane where, to the east, an area of were small. Of the remaining residential traditional pasture land affords perhaps the properties listed by the Department of the most attractive approach to the Environment in 1979, only one is suggested Conservation Area. to date from the 17th century - 63 and 65 Souttergate (The Manor House) and even this is advised with a caveat that the visible details are 18th century. From the incidence of surviving properties, there was much rebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries with the result that in the historic core only the occasional infill plot (often created by the demolition of earlier buildings) dates from the 20th century. The population information provided by Poulson in his History of Holderness 4 walled and hedged gardens and are not immediately apparent to the casual observer. With so many of Hedon’s thoroughfares consisting of kerb-side properties, those having front gardens can provide an opportunity for enhancement of the built environment, and the number of lawns and other grass which can be seen from the public highway are extremely limited. Particularly worthy of mention is the green area to the rear of 9 and now called Cautley Mews. 11 St. Augustine’s Gate, a pleasant contrast to the landscape of Hedon’s main commercial street. e) TREE PRESERVATION ORDERS No.2 Market Hill Its high landscape value is particularly There are a considerable number of Tree noticeable in spring and is reflected in the Preservation Orders which affect the paddocks, hedges and trees which remain Conservation Area and a full list is given on Station Lane’s west side.