Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island

Sunk Island was land on the Holderness peninsula reclaimed from the sea and added to the mainland in 1826. Holy Trinity church (1877) there was designed by Ewan Christian. Winifred's Cold Island Colony in South Riding was clearly modelled on Sunk Island.

My other posts on Winifred Holtby:

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Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3:Withernsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2:Hornsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston
Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3: Withernsea

27 Waxholme Road, at the northern end of Withernsea, and where the writer Winifred Holtby stayed from the middle of April to the end of June 1934. Here, she worked on Women and a Changing Civilisation. Withernsea was probably part of the composite of 'Kiplington' in the novel South Riding.

My other posts on Winifred Holtby:

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Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2:Hornsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston
Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2: Hornsea

71 Cliff Road, Hornsea, East Yorkshire, where Holtby stayed between February and April 1935, and which probably contributed to the fictitious Kiplington in South Riding.

'Winifred Holtby

Novelist and

Social Reformer

1898 – 1935

AUTHOR OF SOUTH RIDING

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SHE WORKED ON

SOUTH RIDING IN ROOMS

IN THIS HOUSE IN 1935'

Nearby Holtby Gardens in Hornsea also remembers the writer.

My other posts on Winifred Holtby:

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Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3:Withernsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston
Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston

Winifred Holtby was born in the East Yorkshire village of Rudston, where in the church graveyard there stands a prominent prehistoric monolith to the east of the chancel:

'THIS MONOLITH STANDING AMOST 26FT ABOVE GROUND LEVEL

WAS HEWN AND BROUGHT HERE IN THE LATE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

POSSIBLY circa. 2000 B.C.

IT CONSISTS OF A SLAB OF MOOR GRIT CONGLOMERATE AS FOUND

IN A WIDESPREAD AREA OF THE CLEVELAND HILLS INLAND

OF WHITBY. '

'IN THIS CHURCHYARD IS THE GRAVE OF

WINIFRED HOLTBY 1898 – 1935

BORN AT RUDSTON HOUSE IN THIS VILLAGE
EDUCATED AT QUEEN MARGARET'S SCHOOL
SCARBOROUGH AND AT SOMERVILLE COLLEGE
OXFORD, SHE WON A HIGH PLACE AMONGST
THE WRITERS OF HER DAY. HER WORK WAS
NOTABLE FOR UNDERSTANDING, INSIGHT,
& SINCERITY. HER CHARM AS A WOMAN CAME
FROM GENTLE GRACE OF MANNER, HIGH
COURAGE AND PURPOSE, PRACTICAL SYMPATHY
FOR OTHERS AND AN ENDEARING SELFLESSNESS.
SOME OF THE MANY WHO CALLED HER FRIEND
OR WHO KNEW HER THROUGH HER WRITING
HAVE SET HERE THIS TRIBUTE TO HER MEMORY.

BEATI IMMACULATI.'

'IN

LOVING MEMORY

OF

WINIFRED,

DAUGHTER OF

DAVID AND ALICE

HOLTBY.

DIED IN LONDON

29TH SEPTEMBER 1935,

AGED 37 YEARS.'

The parish church sells the Winifred Holtby Guide, partly written by her biographer Professor Marion Shaw, and an important link to the Holtby sites in East Yorkshire. Most of my information for my future posts is culled from this leaflet.

My other posts on Winifred Holtby:

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Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3:Withernsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2:Hornsea
Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

William Wilberforce and Hull

This wall is in Nelson Mandela Gardens by the University of Hull's Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), just off Hull High Street (actually now quite a distance removed from the city center), which bears the names of a number of people variously associated with opposition to the slave trade and/or who have make significant steps toward emancipation in general. From left to right in descending order: Steve Biko, Aung San Soo Kyi, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King,  Nelson Mandela, Raoul Wallenberg,  Rosa Parks, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sylvia Pankhurst, Edmund Morel, Mahatma Gandhi, José Martí, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass,  Harriet Beecher Stowe, Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Granville Sharp, Tom Paine.

William Wilberforce, M.P. and campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, was born in this house opposite WISE on High Street, Hull in 1759.

The base of the statue in the front garden reads:

'WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

BORN IN HULL 24TH AUGUST, 1759

DIED IN LONDON 29TH JULY, 1833

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR HULL

FROM 1780 TO 1784

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR YORKSHIRE

FROM 1784 TO 1812

---------------------------------

ENGLAND OWES TO HIM THE REFORMATION OF MANNERS.

THE WORLD OWES TO HIM THE REFORMATION OF SLAVERY'

The towering Wilberforce Monument stands in front of Hull College of Further Education off Wilberforce Drive and slightly to the east of Queen's Gardens.

A close-up of the statue of Wilberforce at the top of the monument.

The first stone of the monument was laid on the same day as the abolition of slavery in 1834, one year after the death of William Wilberforce.

Winifred Holtby in Cottingham and Hull

Holtby House is an imposing building in Thwaite Street just outside the village of Cottingham, and belonged to the Holtby family, although it was originally known as 'Bainesse'. It was later owned by Hull University for some years, but is now in private ownership.

'ONE OF THE

ODDEST STREET NAMES

IN THE COUNTRY.

LAND OF

GREEN GINGER

WAS THE TITLE OF A

WINIFRED HOLTBY NOVEL'.

THE NAME'S ORIGIN

REMAINS A MYSTERY.'

'The Land of Green Ginger' is an exotic name for the street in the center of Hull, and is the name of a Holtby novel too, although it is not one of her best. Many people would perhaps claim the posthumously published South Riding (1936) holds that honor, although I was far more impressed by her The Crowded Street (1923), which for most of its length has the spinster protagonist Muriel (and Holtby of course did the spinster novel very well) virtually incapable of functioning without others moving before her, but ends transcendentally by her taking responsibility for her own actions and thus defining herself.

But for a very different - and much neglected - non-spinster novel, there is The Astonishing Island: Being a Veracious Record of the Experience Undergone by Robinson Lippingtree Mackintosh from Tristan da Cunha during an Accidental Visit to Unknown Territory in the Year of Grace MCMCC–? (1933), in which the above mentioned protagonist fails to understand the insanity of life in Great Britain: this is a wonderful opportunity for Winifred Holtby to satirize social ills in a much wider context.

My other post on Winifred Holtby:

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Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #4: Sunk Island
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #3:Withernsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #2:Hornsea
Winifred Holtby in East Yorkshire #1: Rudston

The Poet Stevie Smith in Kingston upon Hull

The poet Stevie Smith (1902-71) was born Florence Margaret Smith at 34 De La Pole Avenue, Hull. She lived there until she was three, when the family went to Palmers Green, north London, where Smith spent the most part of her life.

'POET & WRITER

STEVIE SMITH

(1902-1971)

WAS BORN HERE

29TH SEPTEMBER 1902'

Surely I can't be the only person to find the words 'Poet and writer' - also used on the Larkin blue plaque - slightly, er, odd?

Philip Larkin and Toad, Newland Park, Hull

Returning to Kingston upon Hull, England, it was very odd to find a toadless city: last year we spent the best part of two days hunting for the 40 toads strewn about the city and outposts, and the results are here.

We returned to fill in the spaces between the toads that we hadn't had time to do last time, and that includes Larkin's last address, 105 Newland Park, which is a lovely leafy road very close to the university.

And what did we find? Larkin Toad, formerly in Princes Quay shopping center, has been bought by the owners of Larkin's former house, and is on display on the first floor balcony. Is this the only Larkin toad still viewable to the public, I wonder?

A close-up of the plaque, with intrusive blossom, which reads:

'Poet & Writer

PHILIP

LARKIN

(1922-1985)

lived here

1974-1985'

As an end to the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death - on 2 December, exactly 25 years afterwards - his statue was unveiled on the concourse of Hull Paragon railway station.

The bronze statue was the work of Martin Jennings, who also sculpted the John Betjeman statue in St Pancras station in London. He said that he hoped it was a 'reasonable likeness' of Larkin. The Philip Larkin Society commissioned the statue. Their web site has a link to the unveiling, with the Hull band Black and White Tango singing his poem 'Is this for now or for always' in the background, which is one of a number of songs from the album All Night North (2010), a compilation of Larkin's poems set to music by various artists.

The 'surfboard' carries the line 'That Whitsun I was late getting away' from 'The Whitsun Weddings' from the book of the same name.

My other post on Philip Larkin:

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Larkin with Toads in Kingston upon Hull
Philip Larkin in Coventry, Warwickshire
Philip Larkin in Cottingham Cemetery

Andrew Marvell and Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire

'The former Hull Grammar School with an impressive statue of old boy Andrew Marvell (1621-78), the metaphysical poet, in front.

An old plaque on the north-facing wall records that William Wilberforce also attended the school, which is now The Hands on History Museum.

A closer view of the Andrew Marvell statue.

Immediately below the statue is a brief note of the man's perceived qualities: 'Andrew Marvell[.] An incorruptible patriot, a wise statesman, and a zealous and energetic representative of this his native town in Parliament from 1658 to 1678. Born 1620 [sic], died 1678.'

At the base of the statue are the first four lines of probably the most famous poem of Marvell's, which I include below in full. It was in another grammar school - High Pavement, Bestwood Estate, Nottingham, that I first encountered it. I remember it well, as I was taught by the late eccentric Bill Gray, who always made a point of wearing odd socks, insisted that the world is round, and usually smelled of nicotine and stale beer. Bill it was who taught us that this is a carpe diem poem, and his interpretation of the whole thing was very blunt: 'Gerr 'em off! Drop 'em!' Ah, the benefits of a bourgeois education.

To His Coy Mistress

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Charles Dickens in Kingston upon Hull

This building in Kingston Square, Kingston upon Hull, was built in 1830 as the Assembly Rooms, designed by R. H. Sharp under the direction of Charles Mountain. It became the New Theatre in 1939.

The plaque on the theatre wall reads: 'In this building in 1859 and 1860 the novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) gave selected readings from many of his works.'

ADDENDUM: I notice an interesting paragraph in Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life (London: Viking, 2011) in which she notes that in Hull Dickens went into 'Dixon's shop in Whitefrairgate' and, along with giving an assistant a free ticket to a local reading by him, bought six pairs of women's silk stockings (almost certainly for Ellen Ternan).

Larkin with Toads in Kingston upon Hull: The City Remembers Its Famous Resident 25 Years after His Death

The poet Philip Larkin is being remembered 25 years after his death, in 1985, in Hull - where he spent many years as a librarian at the university - by the introduction of 40 fibreglass models of much larger-than-life toads in and around the city. Each toad is about a metre tall, comes from an original model by Chris Wilkinson, and has been decorated by artists and community groups. Various businesses and members of the public have sponsored the works, and practical support had been given by Artlink. The original intention was to leave the toads there for only ten weeks, although such has been the enthusiastic response to them that they may stay longer.

The toads remind us of Larkin's metaphor for work in his well known poems 'Toads' and 'Toads Revisited', and were initially greeted with scorn by some local residents. I was first acquainted with the toads in this week's TLS, which mentions the problems with Punkphibian, which was scalped twice in two days. Below, I list, with photos, the 40 toad sites I visited this weekend, although I only actually - for reasons mentioned - saw 37 of the toads.

The leaflet 'Larkin with Toads' lists the toads in a rather vague numerical order, beginning with the 27 (or 26) toads in the city center, and continuing with the further flung 13 (or 14) 'Citywide Toads' that stretch as far as Melton Business Park and Beverley. I retain the original numbers.

1. Maritime Toad was originally situated on the third floor of The Deep, Hull's impressive aquarium, although it is now on the ground floor by the admissions desk, presumably as a result of its overwhelming popularity.

2. Typographical Toad is diagonally opposite The Deep at the end of the footbridge across the River Hull.

3. Squatwit (presumably named after Larkin's ambivalent toad squatting on his life) is nearby on Nelson Street.

4. Fish & Chips Toad is at the junction of Humber Docks Street with Wellington Street West.

5. Archi-toad is by Hull Marina over a footbridge slightly to the south of the Holiday Inn.

6. Not to be confused with Tiger Toad, Tigger the Toad is on prominent view on the A63 (Castle Street) by Humber Dock Street.

7. Sponsored by ARC, Hull's regional architectural centre, the impressive Reflective Colours toad stands by the entrance to ARC on the corner of Queen Street and Castle Street.

8. Neat Toad is in Trinity Square in front of the old grammar school the metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell attended, which is now a museum.

9. Hull Fair Toad sits in front of Princes Quay Shopping Centre on Princes Dock Side.

10. The Larkin Toad is one of the three toads inside shopping centers, this one being in Princes Quay at the foot of the stairs. I preferred the full frontal view for the expression on this representaton of the poet.

Stop press: for an update on Larkin Toad's whereabouts now, see this.

11. Kasey Toad is an obvious victim of bullying, and it is sad that all we could see was the base where he had been while he's being mended.

12. I also liked the aggressive, and slightly comical, full frontal of Tiger Toad in Queen Victoria Square in front of the Maritime Museum.

13. The Hidden Toad is not hidden at all, but in Victoria Square near the Paragon Street information center.

14. The Chiltern Toad is on Jameson Street, and named after the primary school responsible for the artwork.

15. Teletoad in Paragon Square.

16. Another street casualty, and another Paragon Square toad, and the younger public are led to believe Space hopper is out exploring in space.

17. St Stevens Shopping Centre is taking no chances with this toad, Eastwest, and puts protective ropes around it.

18. In Theatre Square, Ferensway, the much-abused Punkphibian is an obvious crowd-puller, and designer Liz Dees believes the strong new hairdo makes him far more difficult to be sabotaged.

I don't like the grammer.

19. Tequila Toad on Ferensway by Springbank.

20. Heat Toad is in Hull Central Library, but the staff, unlike the inconsiderate Hull Citycare people, (see below), at least leave their toad for the general public to see at times of closure.

21. Kiss Me Quick has also received the vandal deterrent of ropes, this time in the Prospect Shopping Centre.

22. Three Quarters Sky is a Touring Toad, and for a month it's presently housed in The Calvert Centre, which is a fair distance from the city center. So this Saturday, I drove there to find its gates firmly locked and not a toad in sight. Obviously, The Calvert Centre imprisons its toad so no one can see it outside office hours. Another couple drove up behind us in a second vain attempt to find the toad, but of course again had to leave disappointed. They weren't too happy with The Calvert Centre, and nor are we, as this goes against the grain of the 'Larkin with Toads' stated intention to make this a 'mass participation art event'. Ha, but The Calvert Centre wouldn't let us participate!

23. Hull Folk in Kingston Square in front of the Hull New Theatre.

24. Toad in the Hull is a rather lame pun perhaps, but a nevertheless impressive work in front of the Hull History Centre on Worship Street.

25. A delightful Lobelia Toad on the east side of Queen's Gardens.

26. And at the west side of the gardens, the Weather Rain or Shine.

27. Just a few feet from Weather Rain or Shine, one of my favorite toads: Harlequin, Mischievous Man of Mystery.

And after Harlequin, the other toads now leave the center and take up various positions around the city.

28. 10-5 Toad is just outside the entrance to Morrisons on Holderness Road, and quite an attraction with the local teenagers climbing all over it.

29. Not far from 10-5 Toad, in East Park Animal Education Centre, squats Cityscape. The education centre wasn't open at the time of my visit, but - unlike at The Calvert Centre - it was perfectly possible for me to see the toad and take a photo of it through the fence. No arguments here.

30. Also in east Hull, at the entrance to St Ambrose Court on the Bransholme estate, is the delightfully named Labyrinth on My Back.

31. Four toads are in close proximity to each other around the Anlaby Road area, this Topographical Toad being on Woodcock Street.

32. A few hundred yards away, on Hawthorne Avenue, is The Newington Toad, named after its creators from Newington Primary School.

33. The St George's Toad on St George's Road.

34. The Carnegie Toad faces the Carnegie Heritage Centre in West Park. I rather like the 'Read it Read it' pun on the sound toads make.

35. Hull Toad Poem on Princes Avenue.

36. My favorite of them all, Twinkle Toad on the Artlink Balcony on Princes Avenue. Artlink cheerfully lets the public enter to photograph the toad, which actually does sparkle electrically. Here again, Hull Citycare take note, it doesn't matter too much if the place is open or not, as the toad is clearly visible from the road.

37. Floral is in a lovely setting in Pearson Park, just a very short distance from where Larkin used to live on the road of the same name - Pearson Park.

38. Global Pop Toad is multicolored, and the toad that 'Larkin with Toads' features on its cover. It is in Cottingham Road, just inside the grounds of the University of Hull.

39. Magenta Toad is on Gibson Lane, Melton Business Park, as opposed to Melton village, from which we were re-directed by a lovely woman walking a dog. This is the most distant toad from the center of Hull, but surely one of the most arresting?

40. In the town of Beverley about seven miles from Hull is the final monster - Tannery Toad.

Really, though, instead of toadspotting, wouldn't I be better employed reading Larkin's books? No, of course not: Larkin said '[b]ooks are a load of crap.' As Larkin wasn't, er, averse to the French language, did he think that writers are just a load of crapauds? How do the United States compare? Try Cherokee, North Carolina, and Aiken, South Carolina.

ADDENDUM: Below is a link to a 16-minute professional video clip about the Larkin toads project, plus my other links to Larkin.

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Larkin with Toads
Philip Larkin and Coventry, Warwickshire
Philip Larkin in Newland Park, Hull
Philip Larkin in Cottingham Cemetery