Account book of building work at Beverley Park

Negative copy, and transcript, of a sixteenth century account of expenses for building work undertaken at a lodge in Beverley Park

The settlement at Beverley owes its origins to a monastery founded in 705AD on a site near to the River Hull. Archbishop John of York retired to Beverley and it was around his tomb that a number of miracles were said to have occurred, John was made a saint in 1037, attracting many pilgrims to the town. A further source of wealth in Beverley's early days was the cloth trade, both in terms of dyeing and weaving wool.

Although Beverley was spared in the Harrying of the North, the Minster was destroyed by fire in 1188 with work on its replacement commencing in 1220 but not completed for two hundred years. The town continued to grow and by 1377 was estimated to be the 10th largest in England with a population of about 5000 but it had already started to decline following the rights and privileges granted to Hull in the 1299 Charter. The town did develop a reputation for brick and tile making and a large leather industry also developed. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries the town was passed from the Archbishop of York to the Crown and pilgrimages were discouraged.

Access will be granted to any accredited reader

Donated by Adult Education Department, University of Hull, 8 Nov 1934

The original item, held at The National Archives [Ref E101/458/24].