In the early Middle Ages Myton was a berewick, that being a unit of land within a manor of greater extent (this being my definition, various medieval words to describe units of land could vary in meaning and geographical area). The manor here was that of Ferriby (‘north’ came much later), incidentally the area of the very large manor of Ferriby roughly corresponded to the ‘Hullshire’ local authority area of later centuries. Myton berewick was recorded in the ‘Domesday Survey’ of 1086 and simply described as ‘waste’. Given that the land of Myton berewick was fertile alluvial clays the term waste may imply that it was neglected agriculturally or, more likely, that it had suffered from the ‘Harrying of the North’ in the late 1060s as had many landholdings on the north bank of the Humber Estuary.
Studies by Frost (Frost, C. Notices Relative to the Early History of the Town and Port of Hull (published by subscription, 1827) and Travis Cook (Travis Cook, J. Notes Relative to the Manor of Myton, 1890) speculated that the area of Myton berewick extended north-south from the Humber foreshore to Walton St/West Park and east-west from the west bank of the lower River Hull to Division Rd., Hessle Rd., a point later to become the municipal west boundary of Hull (see O.S. map 6 inch, First Series, 1856, sheet 240). The emerging trading settlement of Wyk (later Wyke) on the watery location immediately west of the confluence of the River Hull and The Humber Estuary was in Myton berewick.
Frost’s publication of 1827 included a facsimile of a sale of lands c. 1160, plus a translation from the latin text, this the earliest surviving document relating to Wyk. By its terms Matilda (or Maud) Camin sold land to the Abbot of the Cistercian abbey at Meaux, east of Beverley and near the east bank of the River Hull. She had inherited land from her late father, some in ‘Wyk of Mitune’ (Mitune being the spelling used in the Domesday Book).
(to be continued).