With claims to be England’s largest village, Cottingham has a history dating back to the Bronze Age and, like other places close to Hull, saw considerable expansion from the 18th century as those of wealth and social standing moved to enjoy the blessings of country living. Martin Limon reports . . .

West Green, Cottingham, on a spring day

Exploring the wealth of lovely villages that abound in the East Riding is often an activity best done on foot, since from behind a windscreen it is so easy to miss features that are not immediately obvious.

Cottingham is a case in point, for this fascinating village (with a name thought to be derived from “homestead of Cotta’s people”) was, by the 13th century, the site of a “castle” (or fortified manor house). This stood on a mound and was protected by an inner moat and outer ditch and these features still exist.

However, the former site of “Barnard Castle” is these days so surrounded by houses on Northgate and West End Road that it is only possible to catch brief glimpses of its ramparts.

In the 14th century, the original manor house fell into ruins, but the name lived on through Cottingham’s oldest secular building: A rarely seen 17th century half-timbered residence constructed within the confines of the “castle” and reached by a private road off Hallgate.

Hallgate has long been the principal street of “Old Cottingham” leading from the magnificent church of St Mary the Virgin to the medieval manor house (or hall) that gave the street its name. The church dates from the early 14th century and its size and splendour indicates how prosperous Cottingham was in the Middle Ages, when it was the third largest place in the East Riding (after Beverley and Hull) with an estimated population, in 1377, of 1,500 people.

Like many East Riding villages, Cottingham obtained the right to hold markets and fairs by royal charter (1199-1200). The modern-day Thursday market, held on Market Green at the heart of the village (established 1985) is a revival (after a gap of more than 100 years) of this relationship between sellers and buyers.

Cottingham, like other places close to Hull, was affected by the quarrels between King Charles I and Parliament culminating in the Civil War of 1642-1646. The walled town and port of Hull was held by the parliamentarians and became a target for royalist forces during two sieges in 1642 and 1643.

The village of Cottingham was well placed to become a royalist base for the Duke of Newcastle’s army to launch their attacks on Hull’s defences during the autumn of 1643. And it suffered all the horrors of occupation by an unpaid army that sought to compensate themselves in other ways.

In a letter of 24th October 1643 a bailiff of Cottingham wrote: “Misery is fallen upon us. Our horses, beasts and sheep are driven away and most of our houses plundered. We are now brought to utter ruin.”

If the depredations of the soldiers were not bad enough, Cottingham’s residents also had to contend with a mass of women camp-followers who had followed their menfolk to the battle area and robbed the inhabitants “of all their linen without any pity at all”. Yet despite the efforts of the royalists, the second siege of Hull was a failure and the Duke eventually ordered a retreat.

However, his troops carried out acts of sabotage to forestall any pursuit and also stole valuable plates from Cottingham Church.

In the more peaceful conditions of the 18th century, Cottingham was well placed to attract newcomers from Hull’s increasingly prosperous merchant class, especially with the improvement of the Newland to Cottingham road by the local turnpike trust (after 1764).

One of the earliest surviving examples of the residences they constructed is Snuff Mill House, built by William Travis, a snuff and tobacco merchant. Snuff (ground tobacco inhaled through the nose) was extremely fashionable among the elite in Georgian England and claims were even made about its health benefits!

The front entrance of Elm Tree House

In 1755, Travis bought Cottingham’s South Mill, powered by the waters of Cottingham Beck and formerly used to mill corn and for paper-making, to grind tobacco into snuff and built the adjacent Snuff Mill House soon after.

Another survivor of Cottingham’s wealth of grand houses is Elm Tree House, built in 1820 on a two-acre site off South Street for John Hebblewhite, a Hull draper. This imposing residence, with its stone front and grand staircase, was altered and enlarged in the 1860s and the opulent lifestyle of a succession of well-to-do owners is indicated by an auction of the contents when the last of them (Gunter Lacey) died in 1934.

Among the lots sold at auction in December 1935 were 10 bottles of claret (that sold for £1-2s-6d, or about £1.12 in modern money) and a gallon of whisky which realised £2-18s-0d (£2.90)!

For the past 60 years, Elm Tree House has been the home of Cottingham’s famous Memorial Club. This had begun life in 1919, when a number of Cottingham’s ex-servicemen got together to form an organisation that would commemorate those comrades who had lost their lives during the First World War and to sustain the comradeship of the survivors by providing the facilities of a first class club.

In 1949, the Cottingham Memorial Club purchased Elm Tree House and in the intervening years much time, money and energy has been expended in providing first-rate snooker and social facilities for its 780 members. The club now has five snooker tables together with a comfortable lounge / bar area. Club secretary Bryan Peaks told me of its appeal: “For a £50 annual membership fee, the club is a great place to come and relax in a pleasant setting and to be involved in activities like snooker and golf.

“We have a growing women’s membership and many of them enjoy the opportunity to pop in during the day for coffee or lunch. Many members enjoy the social activities we provide and the club’s twice monthly quizzes and our live entertainment evenings are well supported.”

Cottingham Memorial Club is just one of a number of organisations that make the village such a stimulating place and which demonstrate its remarkable community spirit. The village is probably the most written-about place in the whole of the East Riding and thanks to a thriving local history society (formed in 1952) numerous publications have explored the heritage of this fascinating community.

For sports enthusiasts, too, the village is a very desirable place to live for it has, among other activities, a cricket club, a bowls club, a lawn tennis club and a rifle club.

One of Cottingham’s major success stories over the past 28 years is the effort that has gone into its Christmas lights and these displays are now widely recognised as among the best in Yorkshire.

Market Green / King Street Cottingham with the Duke Of Cumberland public house in the background

The idea sprang from a conversation between local shopkeepers in a Cottingham pub (September 1981) and a committee was formed soon after to do the planning. Initially, the lights were hired from Blackpool but such was the enthusiasm for the project that the decision was soon made for Cottingham to buy its own lights and install a permanent wiring system.

Supported by local fund-raising events, including a golf tournament, the “switch-on” event in late November has become an eagerly-awaited and much-cherished part of the Cottingham scene.

Cottingham has long been an active village for drama and music too. The Cottingham Little Theatre can trace its origins back to the early 1920s when one of its founding fathers, the pharmacist George Exelby of Hallgate, allowed his fellow thespians to use his premises for rehearsals. The group’s first public performance was of The Merchant of Venice in 1921 and since those early days, Cottingham Little Theatre has performed more than 180 plays, pantomimes and revues at various venues in the village.

These days this talented drama group puts on three productions each year at the Darby and Joan Hall in Cottingham and they always welcome new would-be actors and those who want to help behind-the-scenes.

Music performances are another strong feature of Cottingham’s vibrant cultural scene. The choir, known as the Cottingham Singers, evolved from a class at the Cottingham Evening Institute in 1973 and gave its first concert in 1974. In the years that followed, the choir achieved a growing local reputation for its performances and helped to raise many thousands of pounds for worthy causes at venues across the East Riding.

In 1999, they asked local teacher Margaret Wright (head of music at Malet Lambert School in Hull) to become the choir’s conductor and she served in this role until December 2007. Margaret and her husband, Peter, have lived in Cottingham for 34 years and she summed up the appeal of living in the village by saying: “Cottingham is a lovely place to live and the people here are very friendly. There is easy access to the centre of the village and there is a good range of local shops there to meet everyone’s needs.”

Margaret Wright’s association with Cottingham had, in fact, begun much earlier, for between 1968 and 1972 she was a student at Hull University and lived at Cleminson Hall on Thwaite Street. Indeed, no study of Cottingham would be complete without including something on the impact that Hull University has had on the village, for, from the moment that it was created (1927), there was a decision to house its students in Cottingham.

In 1928, Thwaite House (now Thwaite Hall) and Northfields House (now Needler Hall) were purchased for this purpose and in the years that followed, many more acquisitions were made. Today these student numbers make a significant contribution to Cottingham’s total population of more than 17,000 people.

The university’s largest site in Cottingham is The Lawns, on Harland Way, comprising seven halls of residence and associated facilities and built on a former military camp used by American soldiers during World War Two.

Apart from the student accommodation it provides, The Lawns also has associations with another of Cottingham’s major activities: Caravan making. In September each year, The Lawns hosts a “Caravan Extravaganza”, a showcase of the latest touring models and static holiday homes. Well represented at the show is Cottingham’s own caravan maker, the Swift Group, based at Dunswell Road.

The story of Swift Caravans is a rags-to-riches affair, since a company that in 2007 had sales of £191.3 million, began life in 1964 as a small operation located in a garage on Hedon Road, Hull. The company moved to Cottingham in 1970 and since then has expanded its facilities there with a training centre and a new factory complex.

Although hit by the economic slowdown that began in 2008 (and which led to significant job losses), the Swift Group remains a major force in the caravan and motorhome business and owns many of Britain’s most famous caravan brands, including Bessacarr, Sprite and Sterling.

Over the years, Cottingham has been home to some of the area’s most talented and creative people and these include the actor Brian Rix (who was born in the village in 1924); the journalist and novelist Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) and the stage and television playwright Alan Plater.

Cottingham is a place that continues to nurture creativity to this day and during a recent visit I spoke to the professional artist Shirley Goodsell, who has lived here for 30 years and has a studio at Linden Avenue.

Shirley was born in Hull, where she studied at the local art college before training as a teacher. She taught at schools in Hull and Beverley but has also worked as an artist in her spare time and her work has regularly been seen at the Ferens Art Gallery Winter Exhibitions.

Since her retirement from teaching, she has been able to devote more time to her painting and these days leads a hectic life in preparing for exhibitions at venues across the East Riding (like the Wolds Gallery in South Cave). One particular speciality is her work showing Beverley Minster during the different seasons of the year and these paintings have been well received by art enthusiasts and customers alike.

A major event in the calendar of local artists each year is “Open Studios” when members of the public have the opportunity to visit artists’ studios across Hull and the East Riding to view their work, talk to the artists themselves and buy original paintings. The aim is to enrich people’s lives by allowing everyone to access great art and during the October 2008 event, 68 local artists took part.

Shirley Goodsell was one of these and she said enthusiastically: “About 300 people came to the studio and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them all. One of them was a young lad who had brought his paintings for me to see and to ask my advice about them.”

Shirley told me that she will also be taking part in this year’s event (called Reveal 2009) which will take place during the first two weekends in October. Further details can be obtained from the website at www.eastridingopenstudios.co.uk

Cottingham residents may also be interested to know that an exhibition of Shirley’s work will be on display at St Mary’s Church in the village during the first week of July 2010. (Find out more about her work at www.shirelygoodsell.co.uk)

Cottingham, in spite of its rapid growth in the past 100 years and its close proximity to Hull, has retained its own distinctive identity and its own terrific sense of community.

Shirley Goodsell helped to sum up an affection for the village that is probably shared by all its inhabitants when she said: “Cottingham is both a lively and friendly place with a good mix of old and new properties. There are some excellent shops, a great library, brilliant pubs and a fantastic Thursday market which sells, among other things, delicious fresh bread and mouth-watering cheeses.”