Today’s picture has nothing to do with Myton but given that I, and I imagine at least some others, am clinging to the hope of some more settled spring weather its comforting to see a mid summer grass verge which includes some tall (yellow) agrimony.
The text of the Act for ‘Dividing and Inclosing a certain Common Pasture called Myton Carr’ (s.p.b.) includes this early paragraph ‘And whereas the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town of Kingston upon Hull, are Lords of the Manor of Myton, and in right thereof are feifed of or intitled to the Soil of the said Common Pasture called Myton Carr’. Clearly then since the reign of Edward VI the ruling elite of Hull had exercised their authority.
So what was the land of Myton like in this early modern era? With it being on the flood-plain of the lower River Hull and that of the Humber Estuary it was level lowland inevitably somewhat protected from daily inundation by linear clay banks but equally inevitably often flooded by high spring tides and/or German Ocean coastal surges being squeezed up the Estuary. It is also interesting that the Act relates only to ‘Myton Carr’. The summary (s.p.b.) also includes the extent of the Carr as 170 acres, as the area of Myton manor must have covered a much greater area than that it must be assumed that the remainder of the farmland of the manor had by 1771 been enclosed by piecemeal private agreement previously.
So where was the land of Myton Carr compared to today’s map? A simple hand-drawn map accompanies the text of the Act. If we assume that the road passing across the map is Anlaby Road (rather than Hessle Road) then most of the Carr-land was to its north with a lesser proportion south. No detail is given to locate the allocated fields but an anonymous commentator has estimated the western edge to be now Walton Street with the eastern side then probably up to the remaining (then) medieval town walls.
(to be continued)