Aerial Photograph taken in 1945 showing the Malt Kiln Buildings

We lived at a house called 10 Chapmangate Pocklington (now called 4 Chapmangate for some reason), from approximately 1936 till 1949. My father owned an Agricultural Contacting company and haulage company, (P.W. Huffington Ltd.) during the period 1934 to the late 1970’s and during the period 1936 to 1949, the business was located behind the house on Chapmangate. The house at 10 Chapmangate is marked as Number 107 on the 1844 Watson map and listed as being owned and occupied by a Mrs Stables in the corresponding 1845 Easton Directory.

It's a shame my parents never kept any of the old photos of the trucks and the yard which ran alongside Pem Lane (Listed as Stables lane on the map of 1844), from Chapmangate to Waterloo Square, (Called Church lane on the 1844 map). It's all gone now and has been made in to houses.

I remember when father converted the Malt Kiln to a garage with a pit for working under the trucks. The part he chose for the pit was where the old furnace had been to generate heat to malt the barley. The bricks were so fire hardened it took 3 times longer than he had thought to dig it out!

In the buildings that ran down from the Malt Kiln up to the house that fronted on to Chapmangate, (the back of George Todd’s shop), there were still parts of the old tannery that was also on the site, including a big VAT that had water in it. We were told it was bottomless and to "Keep Out". It was a great place to play as child.

From information on the Malt Kiln section of the Pocklington History Site it indicates this location had been a tannery but we always thought it had been a brewery and that the VAT was an old brewery vat. There is a book in the Beverly library called “Breweries of Hull & the East Riding” by Pat Aldabella (I think that is the book) and I copied the section about Pocklington from it. One piece says the following:

“Chapmangate, south side:
Seth Stables was a brewer and matlster c.1823 in Chapmangate. He sold malt to Joshua Tetley in the 1820’s. He had been a tanner in Tanfield Close and converted premises on the south side of Chapmangate into a Malt Kiln. The kiln was probably by the church backing on to Collinson’s brewery. His only child Bessy, married Jonathan Harrison; the malt Kiln passed to them on the death of Seth in 1830; subsequently it was owned by the Middlebrough’s of Selby. Mary Stables was a malster in Chapmangate in 1834.”

So whether the Vat was a Brewing vat or a tanning vat I still don’t know. The book on Breweries is also confused about where the breweries were and how they were linked if at all. The section on Pocklington starts out:

POCKLINGTON:
There is some confusion over the location of the three breweries in the early 1820’s. However it seems likely that Collinson’s was in Pavement; Stavley’s on the north side of Chapmangate and Stables on the south side of Chapmangate”

It then goes on to describe Collinson’s as backing onto the Stables brewery and that they had a malt kiln. It also goes on to say that when the brewery was closed it subsequently became George Todd’s grocery store. It may be that all the buildings were linked at one time and the Vat we used to play around was really belonging to the old Collinson Brewery. All very complicated.

The buildings that ran from the Malt Kiln to Waterloo Square (Called Church Lane in 1844) were once stables and above them was a big empty area. I don't what is was originally used for but during the war the Army or Home Guard or Territorial’s used it and stored equipment and arms there. I saw my first Bren gun in that room.

The electoral registers for Pocklington show number 10 Chapmangate occupied
in 1930 by Eliza Sarah Croft and Louisa Young, by 1939 the occupiers were
Esme Millicent and Percy Wharram Huffington, in 1950 Thomas, Violet O and
Geoffrey T Capstick occupied the property. The number change did not occur
until 1968.

The ownership details however are slightly different, Thomas Capstick purchased the property from James O'Gram in 1948; James O'Gram purchased the property from Percy W Huffington in 1947. Percy had purchased the property in 1945 from John Nordin Middlebrough and Thomas Alec Jacques, two surviving trustees appointed in 1933, after the property was held by the Public Trustee from 1918 when George Middlebrough died. Before this the property had been in the Middlebrough family for many years.

There was a family story that the house had been a girl's school of some
type some time in the past and I can only wonder if the Eliza Sarah Croft
and Louisa Young referred to as the occupants before my parents were the
ones running the school.

I remember my father building a wall that separated the house from the yard
and the Malt Kiln and I believe it was about 1946. Our family then moved
to live at Yapham Rd in 1947, at the time the house was sold to James
O'Gram. Subsequently Mr. O'Gram sold it on and subsequently the number was
changed. (No reason given but I think some old properties on Chapmangate
were demolished around that time so there was probably some new numbering
going on).

With regard to the Malt Kiln and the rest of the yard, my father continued
to operate the haulage business from there till July 1951 when the business
was nationalized by the Government British Road Services. My father acted as manager for BRS until October 1953. I think the BRS sold the yard and Malt
Kiln to a company called "Creasers" whom I believe in part ran a fleet of
agricultural lime spreaders. What happened to the occupancy and ownership of
the Malt Kiln after that I do not know.

Paul Huffington.
February 2012.