Trails and treasures in Beverley

Growing up in a small East Yorkshire village, we shopped regularly in the market town of Beverley. Having not been for years, a four-night break seemed ideal for a trip down memory lane and catching up with family and friends.

The Champney Treasure House
Our first stop was the Tourist Information Centre in the Champney Treasure House. Not only was there an extensive range of leaflets about Beverley and the surrounding area, but an incredibly helpful lady chatted to us about our interests, highlighting the key things we should see and do on a map.

The building also housed the small but interesting Treasure House Museum covering several diverse aspects of the East Riding’s history and culture, which ranged from Hornsea Pottery, through to the importance of chalk in the county. My favourite cabinet was about lamprey, a jawless eel-like fish found in the River Hull. It was a delicacy enjoyed by the wealthy in medieval England and was served in a pie at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. As it had become a protected species by the time of Charles III coronation, it was substituted with a ceremonial pork pie. There was also a short but fascinating film with short historical clips: Lyons groceries in Market Weighton and their delivery service to surrounding villages, a girl playing with her dolls in 1959, a boat trip on the Bridlington Queen, and Queen Elizabeth opening the Humber Bridge, to name but a few.

A temporary exhibition, ‘Resurrecting Ancient Egypt: A Monumental Yorkshire Journey’, consisted of photographs of Egyptian style architecture, mainly obelisks, found around the county.

Also in the building was the Beverley Art Gallery, housed in a recently refurbished Edwardian room which was worthy of a visit in its own right. Here were several paintings by local artists Fred and Mary Elwell. Particularly impressive was ‘A Panic’ by Henry William Banks Davis, a giant oil painting of cattle stampeding in all directions. The only sculpture was a pair of free-standing trousers cast in bronze, created by an Austrian who divided their time between Switzerland and Beverley.

A viewing platform on the third floor (lift available), provided excellent views and with frames drawn on the windows, you could photograph landmarks like the minster through.
The building also has a coffee shop.

As the weather was unseasonably fine, we wanted to spend time outside. Two trails with numbered sights, were not only fun to complete and tick off, but helped us to orientate past haunts.

Beverley Town Trail
This trail told the story of the town’s medieval history through the associated guilds, crafts and trades. Whilst we had a free map, we splashed out £2 on an excellent book which listed each of the 39 trades, including armourers, creelers, and hatters, which had been immortalized in either a sculpture, etching or design in a paving stone. They were grouped into four walks, and we found the vast majority with only a small number proving elusive. However, what amused us the most was the number of people who stopped and asked what we were photographing or looking for. Having explained the trail, most professed to be local and told us they’d passed the landmark so many times without seeing it. One man, waiting for his wife outside The White Company, couldn’t wait to tell her about two snakes twining up door posts representing barber surgeons, whilst another helped us find six stainless steel eels ‘swimming’ along the curb representing fish traders and shipmen.

Paint the Town – Fred and Mary
Having visited the Beverley Art Gallery, we’d seen many of the works by local artists Fred and Mary Elwell which Fred had bequeathed on his death in 1958. However, 22 of the paintings have been liberated from the gallery and placed on walls around the town for maximum exposure. A Paint the Town trail map showed the location of each, along with a thumbnail and brief details. Apart from a couple of the more inaccessible ones, we ticked off the vast majority and found they covered a range of subjects including portraits and local scenes. Most were easy to find, but having initially struggled with number two, we remembered being told at Tourist Information that ‘Seated Nude in the Studio’ was in a slightly obscure location to avoid causing offence. Just outside the Beverley Bar was a blue plaque denoting Bar House, the home of the Elwell’s.

Beverley Beck
Despite its name, this is a canal leading from the River Hull right into the centre. It was an area I’d never explored before, but it was an extremely pleasant walk. We passed the historic barge ‘Syntan’, owned by the Beverley Barge Society, and a volunteer working on it, explained how it was used to move hides from Richard Hodgson’s Tannery, one of the largest employers in Beverley. After nearly a mile, we neared a lock where the beck joins the River Hull, and boats were moored. Here we crossed on to the other side and returned. Although we’d been told that it was possible to walk all the way into Hull, we would either have to retrace our steps or catch public transport back.

Beverley Guildhall
Although the Guildhall had restricted opening hours it was free. A helpful volunteer suggested beginning with the former magistrates court and as it was quiet, she took photographs of us sitting in the judges chair wearing wigs from the dressing up box. Mine made me look like the Queen, whilst Roy’s long grey locks reminded me of Brian May from Queen. The room had been used in 2004 for filming the TV series Death at Pemberley which had a stellar British cast, including James Norton and Penelope Keith. Information told us how all modern traces had to be removed, and the paintings had to be valued before being put into storage. Although the filming was scheduled to take three days it was completed in a single day. Upstairs, the former magistrates’ retiring room housed original furniture including a particularly impressive table, and a bink or three-seater wooden bench. The Beverley Beaver was carved into wooden furniture and engraved on pewter plates, and we learned that the derivation of the name Beverley is the Anglo-Saxon ‘Beoferlic’ or ‘Beaver Clearing in the Woods’. A further room, still used for ceremonial functions, had only skylights and no windows, as when built, the great and good did not want to be seen enjoying themselves. A second staircase which led to the exit was lined with photographs of the mayors of Beverley on the walls. Unfortunately, the upper floors have no disabled access, although a virtual tour is available.

A ground floor room had a temporary exhibition on boggles, ghosts and rag-wells. This was about paranormal activity, ancient ritual monuments, and how the dangers of deep-sea fishing made seafarers particularly superstitious. For example, seafarers never wear green or black and if meeting someone with red hair on route to their ship, the seafarer has to speak first.

The room opposite was full of historical information about Beverley and particularly former industries, including Richard Hodgson’s Tannery and Armstrong Patents.

Churches – Beverley Minster and St Mary’s
The Gothic Beverley Minster is one of the town’s biggest attractions, and having visited on several occasions, chose to go to Choral Evensong where the choir nearly outnumbered the worshippers.

For our religious fix, we visited the Minster’s ‘daughter’ St Mary’s Church, which I’d passed so many times without venturing inside. A laminated card with short poems pointed us in the direction of key sights, mainly involving animals. This included a stone archway with a carving of a perky upright rabbit, thought to be the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. There was also a display of large plaster cast figures from Narnia, as in 2020 stonework restoration began replacing weathered carvings with characters from The Chronicles of Narnia books by C. S. Lewis.

Beverley Westwood and the racecourse
As the weather was good, we walked out to the unique and much-loved Beverley Westwood: common pastureland which has been under the guardianship of the Pasture Masters for generations. I remember it mainly for its Burgess’s ice cream van and eating fish and chips in the car after a Saturday night drive out. Horse racing has been an important part of Beverley’s local economy since the 16th century, and the Westwood is home to the racecourse, which we walked up to.

Shopping
The pedestrianised Toll Gavel, which extends from Saturday Market to Wednesday Market, provided retail therapy with outdoor wear shops (Mountain Warehouse, Rohan, Cotswold Company), ladies clothes shops (Joule, Sea Salt, Edinburgh Wool Shop etc) and smaller independent shops (Beverley Bookshop), and an essential for keen cooks, Lakeland.

We loved our five days in Beverley: the train station is in the centre of town, everywhere is easily walkable and there was certainly plenty to see and do and eat – see separate review of eating out.