T. Tindall Wildridge presented his own ideas on this Early History in his book ‘Holderness and Hullshire, Historic Gleanings’, published in 1886. In a short section entitled ‘Pre-Historic Hull’ he focusses on a discovery made when the building of a new warehouse on High St. was taking place. Apparently when digging the foundations about 10 feet down in the riverine silts the upright trunks of young birch and oak trees were found, this organic material preserved in the anaerobic waterlogged soils. Around were twigs and branches lying horizontally. Further digging in the immediate locality unearthed many bones, these at a depth of 16 feet. Analysis by experts at the time showed these to be from ox, sheep, pig, deer, geese and sea-fowl. Tindall Wildridge then regrets that the building programme then resumed and so no further excavation was possible.
The writer then speculates that this was once a site of human habitation, almost certainly hunter gathers of the time now called Mesolithic, this assuming that a wider excavation would not have revealed any evidence of Farming. In the late 19th century evidence of pre-historic water platform dwellings had captured the public imagination and the writer suggests that here was another example. Excavated examples in England, Scotland and Ireland by that time had been characterised by collections of animal bones, presumably related to middens.
Tindall Wildridge concludes that, if nothing else, this discovery proved that the early history of Hull went way back and that the River Hull had always followed its present course (an issue discussed here in previous blogs/posts).
The writer’s supposition has been challenged subsequently but there is no doubt that the discovery itself happened and, if nothing else, proves that the finds were from a time when the sea level was much lower given that the River Hull must always have been tidal.
(to be continued).