Nineteenth Century Background

Though parts of its central districts were packed with notorious slums, other areas that we now know as crowded streets and suburbs were then fields and woods. Hessle Road was still being built along, as were Anlaby, Beverley and Holderness Roads. You would not have to travel far down what we now know as Spring Bank West to find yourself in open countryside. Pubs such as the Gardners Arms on Cottingham Road were then beyond the edge of the urban sprawl, whilst several miles of flat fields - many like those that can still be seen along Priory Road today - separated the town from the surrounding villages of Hessle, Kirkella, Cottingham and Sutton. During the latter half of the nineteenth century local newspapers often carried reports of athletic sports days. Many local towns and villages, including Beverley, Cottingham, Hessle and South Cave, attracted large crowds to their summer meetings.