Evidence of human occupation has been discovered in the area of Kirk Ella: axes dating back to the Bronze Age, an Iron Age enclosure and Roman pottery. Since ancient times the town has undergone several name changes and had a chequered ownership. Before the Conquest it was known as Aluengi and formed part of the hundred of Hessle, which at the time covered the area between the river Derwent in the west and the river Hull in the east. By the reign of Richard I the village had become known as Elveley. In 1440 it was incorporated into Hullshire, also known as the County of the Town of Kingston upon Hull, along with the villages and hamlets of Hessle, North Ferriby, Swanland, West Ella, Tranby, Wolfreton and Anlaby. In 1838 they in turn were all absorbed into what was then the wapentake of Harthill (Hunsley Beacon division), part of the historical East Riding of Yorkshire (see maps in Introduction). At this point the parish of Kirk Ella included West Ella, South Ella, Wolfreton, part of Anlaby and part of Willerby.

In the Domesday Survey Elveley was mentioned in connection with four manors. In 1066 Siward and Thorkil were lords of one manor, including part of Anlaby, and were replaced in 1086 by Nigel Fossard as lord under Count Robert of Mortain, its tenant in chief; another manor, including Wolfreton and part of Anlaby, was owned by Edeva, wife of Topi, and taken over by Ralph de Mortimer as both lord and tenant in chief; in a third manor Hugh, son of Baldric, became lord and tenant in chief of Ketil’s holding; and Alwin, Cnut, son of Karli, and Ketil were similarly replaced in a fourth manor by Gilbert Tison. The latter manor included the church of St. Andrew, which Tison gave to the Abbey of St. Germain at Selby, along with the tithes of Elveley, a gift that was later confirmed in the 1200s by Richard I. But in the early 1300s Edward II gave licence to the prior of Haltemprice to grant land in Hessle to the Abbey of Selby in exchange for the advowson of his church at Elveley. This is how Thomas, Lord Wake of Liddell, as founder of Haltemprice Priory, obtained the advowson of the church of St. Andrew. Lord Wake in turn gave the advowson, a large part of his lands in Elveley and the hamlet of West Elveley, along with his vassal and the latter’s family and cattle, to the monks of the priory.

Over the ensuing centuries the most prominent land owners in the parish of Kirk Ella were the Anlaby, Legard, Ellerker and Sykes families. The Anlabys were the oldest family, but in 1100 the Legards obtained most of their holdings and the Anlabys’ presence in the parish came to an end in the early 1300s (see Anlaby below). The Ellerkers’ seat was in Risby and their holdings in Kirk Ella were sequestered in the mid 1600s as a result of the Civil War. The Sykes were a merchant family in Hull and one of those seeking a residence outside the city, when in the 18th and 19th centuries the area became a location of choice and several large houses were built, but without any significant increase in the population. This was particularly the case in the village of Kirk Ella, when houses like Kirk Ella House and the Old Hall were built in the late 1700s. Starting in the 1930s and continuing after the Second World War, the village and its surrounding hamlets grew substantially and their populations increased accordingly. The trend continued into the 20th century, drawing Kirk Ella, West Ella, South Ella, Wolfreton, Anlaby and Willerby into a single a conurbation.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, is an ancient building of stone in the Early Gothic and Perpendicular styles. It consists of a 13th century chancel with a 19th century side chapel, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a mid 15th century western tower with its more recent clock and six bells. The windows of the chancel are filled with stained glass, as are several of those in the aisles and nave. The elongation of the north aisle forms the Legard chapel, where many members of that family are buried; it is used today as an organ chamber and vestry. On the north wall of the chancel is the white marble monument to Joseph Sykes, merchant, alderman and twice mayor of Hull, who died in 1805. The church contains several other tablets in memory of the Sykes family, all of which remained untouched during the extensive renovation of 1860.

Anlaby was recorded as having five separate holdings at Domesday, but they were smaller than those of Kirk Ella and three were waste. By 1086 their owners mirrored those of Kirk Ella – Count Robert of Mortain, Ralph de Mortimer and Gilbert Tison – with the addition of William I and Thorkil, the latter being only non-Norman. Some historians claim that Charles Anlaby was granted lands in the area by William I, but no written evidence of this has been found. However, it is known that the family that took the name Anlaby was in possession of the hamlet until 1100, when it died out in the male line and the Anlaby heiress brought a large part of the family’s estate in marriage to the Legard family. In 1342 William Anlaby was unable to withstand a legal action brought against him by Thomas Wake, Lord of Liddell, forcing him to give up his manor of Anlaby to the latter. Wake conferred the manor on the priory and prevailed upon the prior to take William Anlaby and his son Peter into his care. Peter Anlaby died in 1414 at Haltemprice after which this branch of the Anlabys became extinct, though another branch continued in Etton. By then the most prominent land owners in the hamlet were the Legards. In 1611 Moot Close was described as one of their possessions; it probably refers to the field in which Moat Hill used to stand. Moat Hill was for centuries a landmark on the eastern outskirts of Anlaby and was at one time part of the pastures of Anlaby Manor farm. It was originally made up of a rectangular moat surrounding a raised island, on which buildings stood, including what the locals called “the castle”. Christopher Legard had his seat at Anlaby and joined the Parliamentary forces in Hull at the beginning of the Civil War (1642-1653), but during his absence Royalist forces damaged or destroyed part of his property at Anlaby, which perhaps explains the ruinous state of Moat Hill when excavations were undertaken in 1954. The moat had been filled in many years ago and the oldest remains that were unearthed were Roman. The whole area was destined to be developed and Moat Hill has now been totally obliterated by new housing, its outline now roughly followed by Manor Way. The Legards’ mansion in Anlaby had already fallen victim to development in 1929. A description dated 1789 states: “The mansion in which the Legard family lived is still standing, and many of family pictures, executed in a very masterly manner, and in a good state of preservation, yet remain.”

South Ella owes is its existence to the name of a house. Initially called Mount Ella or simply The Mount, later South Ella and sometimes South Ella Hall, the house was built of brick on a 46 acre plot for Hull banker Robert C. Pease in the 1800s. It was situated at the western end of the plot and would have commanded fine views of Hull from its slightly elevated position. Over the ensuing years the house and estate passed though many hands, the house being extended and the estate enlarged, so that by the end of the 1800s the latter covered 100 acres of wooded parkland stretching from West Ella Road in the north to Tranby Lane in the south. The initial entrance and lodge were on Beverley Road, with a drive across the The Lawn to the north wing of the house. By the mid 1800s the drive had been extended north to West Ella Road, providing a more convenient access to Kirk Ella. In the late 1800s a small herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle was purchased and a farmhouse, known as South Ella Model Farm, built to accommodate the bailiff who tended the cattle. In the early 1900s a second lodge was built on Beverley Road at the entrance of the track to the farm; it is still standing today. At the same time extensions and new buildings were built, including a garage to accommodate the then owner’s motor car. By 1927, when Thomas Moyes bought South Ella, the farm had been sold as a separate entity and the Aberdeen Anguses replaced by dairy cattle. Houses with large estates had by then become prohibitively expensive to run and a number of plots around the perimeter of the South Ella estate had already been earmarked for development. The house had become run down when Moyes died at South Ella in 1933 and his wife and young son were forced to sell their house, its contents and what remained of the estate to pay off the debts the family had accumulated. The Moyeses were the last family to occupy South Ella. Continued development during the second half of the 1900s resulted in the further reduction of the former estate, part of which became the playing fields of Wolfreton Upper School, built in the late 1960s. The school was transferred to a new site in Willerby and the old school buildings were demolished in 2018, freeing up the whole site for a new housing estate. Once this is completed all that remained of the South Ella estate will have been obliterated, save for a handful of its magnificent trees, in particular the stately oak tree, estimated to be about 300 years old, standing at the centre of the urban sprawl.

West Ella, previously West Elveley, contains evidence of human activity from the mid Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Roman period. Variants of Ella are mentioned four times in Domesday and one is thought to refer to West Ella. For centuries the hamlet remained the little sister of Kirk Ella, and even the construction of country houses for the merchants of Hull in the 18th and 19th centuries largely passed it by. The only large house was – and still is – West Ella Hall, built c1740, which became the property of Joseph Sykes in 1756. He enclosed the grounds and extended the original two storey, four bay house on each side in the 1770s and the family undertook further extensions in the early and late 1800s. The Sykes family was responsible for “gothicising” the houses of West Ella; not even the so-called Ancient Manor House (dated 1753) escaped the Sykes treatment.

Willerby was not recorded in Domesday. At the time of the 1832 boundary changes it was divided between the parishes of Cottingham and Kirk Ella and it too had by then a handful of merchants’ houses. Willerby Hall was built in the Dutch style in the late 1600s by William Mould, a Hull merchant, who also became mayor of Hull. It was remodelled in the 1700s when an extension was added and major alterations were carried out in 1878. Its final resident died in 1937 and the house was eventually converted into flats. The Beeches, originally known as the Summer House, was exceptionally built of ashlar stone rather than brick by Raspin Norrison, a “Willerby gent”, in c1729. It later became a residential care home for the elderly and in 2008 was converted into flats. Willerby Manor, despite its medieval sounding name, was built in the mid 1800s. It was still used as a family house a century later, but was sold, extended, modernised and converted into a hotel in the 1960s. The hotel’s two successive owners were perhaps over ambitious as it was never financially viable, and the Covid pandemic sounded the death knell on the venture. By then the new Wolfreton School and Sixth Form College had been built on the eastern part of Willerby Manor’s park, and in 2022 the staff and pupils witnessed the demolition of another country residence. Its place is inevitably being taken by a new housing estate.

Wolfreton was mentioned in Domesday as part of the holdings of Edeva, wife of Topi, and passed in 1086 to Ralph de Mortimer. Wolfreton Garth is thought to have been built in the early 1890s in an architectural style described as “Jacobethan”. It was occupied by three generations of the Bladon family who were owners of a department store in Hull. The last member of the family to reside in the house died 1956, after which it remained unoccupied, fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1959. The building and its park have now been completely obliterated by new housing. Its former lodge, built in similar style, stands on Beverley Road, diagonally opposite Wolfreton House, built in 1804, both of which have so far resisted the development frenzy. The hamlet of Wolfreton is today undistinguishable from the rest of the Kirk Ella conurbation.

The founding member of the Pickerings of Kirk Ella was probably a member of one of the Hackness Pickering families, as he was born in Horcum and baptised in Lockton in the North Riding. His wife was from Pickering, but the couple were married in Kirk Ella and both died in Willerby. It can be assumed that there was a connection with the Legard family of Anlaby who later moved their seat to Ganton, as the same branch of Pickerings is found farming in both areas, the implication being that they were tenants of the Legards. Only a DNA test will prove or disprove this theory.

Sources:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/KirkElla
https://intel-hub.eastriding.gov.uk/parish-profile/#/view-report/bd6a0cb7f85a46998f874a42bfd0dc8e/PP085
History of the Town and County of Kingston Upon Hull, pp. 885-887: https://books.google.fr/books?redir_esc=y&id=GAk-AQAAMAAJ&q
History and Topography of Yorkshire, York, Ainsty, East Riding, vol. 2, pp. 544-547: https://books.google.fr/books/about/History_and_topography_of_the_city_of_Yo.html?id=3cEHAAAAQAAJ
Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of East Yorkshire with Hull 1892, pp. 666-671: https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/324025
https://awake.u3asite.uk/u3a_groups/local-history

Kirk Ella:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Ella
https://opendomesday.org/place/TA0229/kirk-ella
Church of Saint Andrew: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103401?section=official-list-entry
Kirk Ella House: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1347006?section=official-list-entry
Old Hall: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103363?section=official-list-entry

Anlaby:
https://opendomesday.org/place/TA0328/anlaby
The Anlaby Cartulary: https://catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/catalogue/C-DIGW?tab=description
Excavation of a Medieval Moat at Moat Hill, Anlaby, near Hull, YAJ, vol. 39, pp. 67-85: https://archive.org/details/YAJ0391958/page/67

South Ella:
South Ella Hall, parts 1 to 8: https://awake.u3asite.uk/u3a_groups/local-history

West Ella:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ella
West Ella Hall: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103367?section=official-list-entry
Ancient Manor House: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1161681?section=official-list-entry
https://awake.u3asite.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/alinkbetweenwestellaanddevon.pdf
Sykes family of Sledmere

Willerby:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willerby,_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire
Willerby Hall: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103366?section=official-list-entry
The Beeches: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103365?section=official-list-entry
Willerby Manor: https://awake.u3asite.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/willerbymanorpart2.pdf
https://awake.u3asite.uk/u3a_groups/local-history

Wolfreton:
https://opendomesday.org/place/TA0329/wolfreton
https://awake.u3asite.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/apartialhistoryofwolfretongarthanditsresidents.pdf