Having been diverted to the early days of Pickering Park, Hull I need to get back to the theme in hand.
Another old booklet I bought at Hull History Centre (s.p.b.s) is entitled ‘The Manor-House of the Bishops of Durham at Howden’ written by John Bilson, F.S.A. this being reprinted from the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal of 1913. John Bilson has been mentioned before in connection with the design of many of the 30 plus Board Schools built in Hull between 1870 and the Great War. David Neave mentions ‘Bilson’ in his analysis of the architecture of Howden Minster ( The Buildings of England – Yorkshire: York and the East Riding, p.485-490) but not in his analysis of ‘The Bishop of Durham’s Manor House’ (p.490-492), although he does give a plan of its ‘Surviving Medieval Features’ (p.491) which corresponds with the folded one in the booklet.
The remains of the Bishop’s Palace in Howden lie to the south-east of the ruined chancel of the parish church of St. Peter which until the Reformation was the base for a college of secular canons. The remains of the Bishop’s Palace are therefore in the north-east corner of the municipal park with its tree-lined carriageway south of St. Peter’s.
David Neave’s plan shows that the Great Hall of the Palace survives as does its north porch opening onto the courtyard of the original complex as do the pantry and buttery to its west. The Victorian Rectory was built in the south-west corner of what had been the Palace’s courtyard. David Neave’s study of the site of the Bishop’s Palace provides a good example of how historic ruins often went through various stages of change before the present time, these sometimes ensuring their preservation and at others hastening their destruction.
(To be continued).