Beverley, 1918–45
The history of Beverley after 1918 is one of change, gathering momentum and
becoming massive by the 1970s. Among general causes, the development of motor
transport was probably the most important. It made the commuting distance
between Hull and Beverley insignificant, and the analysis of employment is
consequently rendered difficult by the fact that many people resident in Beverley
worked in Hull and vice versa. (fn. 41) It also initiated a change in the map of the area
which would scarcely have been possible before. Motor transport allowed direct
communication between Beverley and the crescent of middle-class suburbs, from
Cottingham to Hessle, which lay outside the western boundaries of Hull. The
existence of that area found institutional expression in the establishment of the
urban district of Haltemprice in 1935, and Beverley was included with it in the
staunchly Conservative constituency of Haltemprice created in 1955. (fn. 42)
A second general influence on the evolution of the town was the growth in the 20th century of administrative and welfare agencies for which Beverley became
the local centre. At the same time the range of activities which were administered
entirely locally, within the borough, was becoming circumscribed. Responsibility
for education in the town was thus shared between the corporation and the county
council under the Education Act of 1902. Beverley was included in the Hull
telephone area from 1914, and electricity, which was supplied to Beverley as late
as 1930, was taken from Hull from the start. It was not until after the Second
World War, however, that Beverley ceased to have its own water and gasworks. (fn. 43)
The corporation's responsibilities after 1918 moved increasingly into the area of
housing and town planning. At the end of the war there was a housing shortage,
as elsewhere, which was the result partly of pre-war demolitions and partly of four
years' interruption of normal building. A survey made in 1919, by the medical
officer of health, assessed the scale of the problem: of 2,923 working-class houses
39 were dilapidated, of which 21 were empty, there was 'marked' overcrowding in
115, and 33 were occupied by more than one family. In the next 30 years the
standard of 'unfitness' was to rise markedly. (fn. 44) The corporation was quick to make
use of the subsidies available under the Addison Act of 1919, and bought land on
Grovehill Road in 1920. It was there, between the town and Swine Moor, that
most space was available for the development of new housing estates. The
corporation had built 88 houses there by 1923, when government funding ceased,
and added a further 78 by 1926 under the Wheatley Act of 1924. (fn. 45) In 1926 the
Hall, Lairgate, and its grounds, occupying much of the open area remaining
between the town and Westwood, were bought from the trustees of the Walker
family, and 119 houses were built there, the Hall itself becoming municipal offices
in 1930. (fn. 46)
Government housing policy changed in the 1930s. With the passing of the
Housing Act of 1930, local authorities were charged with the duty of identifying
and replacing slum-clearance areas. Under this Act the corporation laid out two
more estates east of the town, at Cherry Tree Lane, where 126 houses were built
between 1931 and 1933, and at Mill Lane, where another 128 houses were built
between 1936 and 1938. Land was also bought in Goth's Lane in 1938 for another
estate, but building was held up by the war. (fn. 47)
Altogether 285 council houses were built before 1930 and a further 254 by 1938.
That represented an 18 per cent addition to the working-class housing stock of
1919, and offers an insight into the housing conditions of the 19th century.
According to the criteria adopted by the 1901 census Beverley was not overcrowded,
yet the 'historic' centre of the town had become more and more tightly packed,
with terraces and cottages built in backyards and alleys. In such a place the concept
of a clearance area as laid down in the 1930 Act was difficult to apply. The lists
of dwellings condemned show that they were to be found in clusters of perhaps
half a dozen, some in and behind the principal residential streets, many of them
in the areas on either side of Toll Gavel bounded by Lairgate and Walkergate.
They were condemned as being too small and in a general state of disrepair. (fn. 48)
The slum-clearance programme was slow to begin. In 1933 the owners of 14 of the houses scheduled for demolition appealed successfully against the Order in the
county court, the judge holding that 'the houses in question are decent houses for
the class of tenant who resides in them'. That decision put the rest of the clearance
programme in jeopardy, and it also found favour in the council's health committee,
which carried a motion stating that 'the need for an appeal procedure has their
hearty support'. As in the case of the water proposals of 1881, however, the council
was overridden, this time by the Ministry of Health. (fn. 49)
Outside the programme of house-building, change was slow, for example in the
conversion of privies. By 1934 water closets were provided in about half of the
houses in the town, but it was not until the late 1950s that practically all houses
had them. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s both the birth-rate and the death-rate
remained consistently higher than the national average, though the rates do not
necessarily point to unhealthy housing conditions. (fn. 50)
The industrial life of Beverley in the period largely continued along the lines
which had been established in the 19th century. Of the old-established industries
brewing was reduced when production ended at the Golden Ball brewery after
Robert Stephenson's death in 1919, though his malting was kept going by new
owners. (fn. 51) Similarly fertilizer manufacture suffered by the winding up of Tigar's
Manure Co. in 1923, (fn. 52) and seed crushing by the ending of production at Hull
Bridge in 1942. (fn. 53) The last of the town's brickworks had been closed by 1927. (fn. 54)
The 1920s also saw the end of another long-established industry, the manufacture
of agricultural implements. The East Yorkshire and Crosskills Cart & Waggon
Co., which had been wound up in 1914, was revived in 1919 as the Beverley
Waggon Works, but it was in liquidation by 1927. (fn. 55) The firm's advertisements of the
1920s made it clear that, despite its impressive name, it had ceased manufacturing on
its own account, and was merely an agent for various makes of agricultural and
gardening equipment. (fn. 56)
Scarrs' shipyard at Weel was closed in the 1930s. (fn. 57) Cook, Welton & Gemmell
continued to build trawlers and other small ships at Grovehill throughout the
period of the depression, although output and employment varied greatly from
year to year. That was at a time, moreover, when shipbuilding in the north-east
suffered a catastrophic loss of orders. Hodgson's tannery was taken over by Barrow,
Hepburn & Gale, a national concern, in 1920. After expanding to meet wartime
demands the tannery stagnated in the 1920s before moving forward again in the
1930s. By 1937 the number of hides treated had been more than doubled. The
firm also diversified. Glue and gelatine production, which was started before the
war, was much increased and vegetable tanning extracts were also produced on a
large scale. (fn. 58)
In general it was still true that the economy of Beverley was tied to that of Hull,
but the town acquired one new and successful industry which owed nothing to the
proximity of Hull. In 1907 Gordon Armstrong opened a garage and workshop in
North Bar Within and in 1909 he built a car, which he manufactured until the
First World War. During the war he worked on munitions and tractors, and in
1917 to provide additional space he bought the Eastgate site which had formerly been occupied by Crosskill's sons. In 1919 Armstrong produced the first of several
models of shock absorber. They became the mainstay of the firm, and by 1926 he
was producing 200 shock absorbers a week and had gained orders from Ford. An
order from Morris in 1929 enabled the scale of the business to be enlarged tenfold, and in 1938 Armstrong built new and larger works on the Eastgate site, where
at the outbreak of war he produced 4,000 shock absorbers a day and employed
about 450 workers. (fn. 59) The town acquired another new industry in 1925 when
Charles Deans of Hull bought the former Tigar manure works at Grovehill. The
firm already made musical instruments but it greatly expanded after turning to
motor vehicle and furniture components. (fn. 60)
In spite of these developments unemployment occasionally rose to critical levels
between the wars. In 1931-3 the figures, at the end of January each year, were
498, 548, and 981 respectively, (fn. 61) which must be measured against a total population
of 14,000 at the 1931 census. There appears to have been a quick recovery
thereafter. In 1933 the medical officer of health referred to 'the activity which has
prevailed at the shipyard' and to the briskness of various occupations employing
young people; in 1934 he wrote in similar vein, and in 1935 he stressed the constant
work going on in the tanneries. Employment remained steady in 1936 but in 1937
there was a shortage of work in the shipyard. The reports show how industries
catering for particular local demands could prosper in a way which contradicted
the national trend. (fn. 62)