Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had a population of 18,014. It is the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The town was founded in the seventh century by John of Beverley, who established a church in the area. It was originally named Inderawuda, and was part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. The town came under Viking control in the 850s, then became part of the Kingdom of England. John of Beverley was made a saint in 1037, and the town was a place of pilgrimage for the remainder of the Middle Ages. It continued to grow under the Normans, when its trading industry was first established, and eventually became a significant wool-trading town and the eleventh-largest settlement in England. After the Reformation, the stature of Beverley was much reduced.
The town contains several landmarks, including Beverley Minster, Westwood common, North Bar gatehouse, St Mary's Church, and Beverley Racecourse. It inspired the naming of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts,Rev. E. M. Stone History of Beverley (Mass.), from its settlement in 1630 to 1842. 12mo. Boston, 1843Genealogical and Personal Memoirs – Page 1460 William Richard Cutter "Mr. Balch was born in Beverley, Massachusetts, September 30, 1704, and died in Bradford (Grove- land) January 12, 1791–2."Los Angeles Magazine – December 1996 – Page 99 Vol. 41, No. 12 "Beverly Farms appears to have been named after the nearby town of Beverly, which was in turn named after Beverley, England. That Yorkshire cathedral town was named in the 8th century or so for an earlier settlement called Beverlac – a ... which in turn was the indirect source of the name for Beverly Hills, California, which was named after its Beverly Farms neighbourhood.Marc Wanamaker, Early Beverly Hills, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005, pp. 17–18
History
Northumbrian and Viking period
The origins of Beverley can be traced back to the time of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria in the 7th century. The first structure built in the area, which at the time was known as Inderawuda (meaning "in the wood of the men of Deira"), was a Christian church dedicated to St John the Evangelist. This was founded by the Bishop of York who later became known as John of Beverley, who was believed to have performed miracles during his lifetime, and was later venerated as a saint. Around the 850s, the now developed monastery was abandoned in a hurry; historians presume this was because of the invasion of the so-called Great Heathen Army of Vikings who had invaded England, and established the Kingdom of Jórvík in the Yorkshire area. However, the population was increased during the 10th century, by people who came to venerate Saint John of Beverley.
Before the Battle of Brunanburh, possibly located further north than Beverley, the King of England at the time Athelstan visited Inderawuda, he prayed all night and saw a vision saying he would be victorious: in return he helped the town to grow greatly. The name of the town was changed to Bevreli or Beverlac, meaning beaver-clearing or beaver-lake, in the 10th century; a reference to the colonies of beavers in the River Hull at the time. The last three Anglo-Saxon archbishops of York helped Beverley to develop, via the rise in prominence of Beverley Minster and the town in general; along with York itself, Ripon and Southwell, Beverley became one of the most important Christian centres of Northern England. Ealdred was declared by king Edward the Confessor as "sole Lord of the manor of Beverley". Beverley developed as a trade centre, producing textiles, leather and objects made out of antler. Beverley Minster was constructed in 1220 and there were three phases to its construction. 1220–1260, 1320–1348 Stopped during the Black death and again in 1420–1440 but Beverley Minster is not complete. The chapter house was demolished in 1660 and only the doors remain in the church.
Normans and the Middle Ages
After the Norman Conquest, many pilgrims flocked to Beverley upon hearing reports of miracles wrought by the town's founder, John. However, much of the North of England rejected Norman rule, and sought to reinstate Anglo-Saxon rule. Towns in Yorkshire were obliterated by the Normans in response, with the Harrying of the North; but Beverley itself was spared, upon the Normans hearing about the town's saintly history. In 1086, Beverley was recorded in the Domesday Book as comprising around 19 households and lying within the Hundred of Sneculfcros. In the 12th century, Beverley developed from a settlement of several thousand, to an extensive town, stretching from around the North Bar area to the Beck in an elongated pattern, it was granted borough status in 1122 by Thurstan. Industry grew further, Beverley especially traded wool with the cloth making towns of the Low Countries.
The town suffered a large fire in 1188 which destroyed numerous houses, and damaged Beverley Minster. Lady Sybil de Valines gave the Manor of the Holy Trinity on the east side of Beverley to the Knights Hospitallers in 1201, where they established a preceptory; also to be found in Beverley during the 13th century were Dominican friars who were given some land by Henry III upon which they erected buildings. Franciscans were present. A dispute arose between local farmers and the archbishop during the 13th century, about land rights; after the locals demanded a royal inquiry, the archbishop granted the townspeople pasture and pannage in the Westwood and other places.
During the 14th century, England experienced periods of famine caused by poor weather conditions which destroyed crops. There were other nationwide issues to contend with at the time, such as the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War and the Great Rising. However, Beverley continued to grow: and by 1377, had become the 10th largest town in England.
The earliest surviving secular drama in English, The Interlude of the Student and the Girl (), may have originated from Beverley.
Reformation decline in Tudor times
Beverley was reliant on pilgrimage, but changes brought about by the Reformation impacted upon this tradition, resulting in a decline in its status. Local Beverley man Cardinal John Fisher was martyred along with Thomas More for refusing to accept the Tudor King Henry VIII as Head of the Church of England. In October 1536, there was a popular rising in Beverley where 500 men in the town gathered at the Westwood under the leadership of a local lawyer named William Stapleton, later becoming part of the larger Pilgrimage of Grace in York and, in turn, part of the 30,000 rebels opposing Henry's new religious laws. Henry followed through with the break from Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolving the Dominican Friary in Beverley and taking their land for himself, the Knights Templars in Beverley suffered the same fate in 1540.
As a result of the tensions across the North of England, governance duties were handed over to the Council of the North so the Tudors could control the area at arm's length. Beverley was visited by John Leland, the man known as the "father of English local history", he wrote of the town in some detail, estimating the population of the time at around 5,000. Beverley Minster was threatened with demolition by its new owners who wanted to profit from selling its stone and lead, however the local people led by wealthy merchant Richard Gray saved it from this fate. During the time of Elizabeth I, Beverley was endowed with its own mayor; Edward Ellerker was the first to take this position. The gap between Beverley's rich and poor became more pronounced during the Tudor era, due to large unemployment. The substantial drop in pilgrimage to Beverley in honour of its founder John of Beverley affected the jobs of the working class as it was Beverley's main industry.
Civil war and Restoration recovery
In the early 17th century Beverley was affected by the plague which caused many deaths. Due to the close geographical proximity to Hull, focus on the area became magnified when the people of Hull refused to open the gates to Charles I a couple of months before the fighting began in the English Civil War. After being turned away from Hull, the king spent three weeks as a guest in a house at North Bar in Beverley, where he was openly greeted with the ringing of St Mary's Church bells. Beverley was initially royalist: however, it was taken by the parliamentarians of Hull, forcing the king to flee. A royalist army led by William Cavendish defeated Thomas Fairfax to reclaim the town for the royalists; from here they launched another Siege of Hull. Eventually the parliamentarians won the civil war and established the Commonwealth of England, in which alehouses were shut on Sundays and theatres and race meetings abandoned: the Puritans visited the then Church of England houses of worship and destroyed anything they thought to be idolatrous.
Beverley Minster managed to escape this fate, in part due to the prominence of the Percy family and the fact that the church housed memorials to their ancestors. Beverley's Quakers were not so fortunate, and were strongly repressed by the Puritans. The English Restoration with Charles II coming to power was generally well received in Beverley, and his royal coat of arms was hung in the Minster and remains there. In terms of trade Beverley was not rich in the 17th century but had improved slightly, the majority were based in agriculture. During the Georgian era, Beverley was the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire and became the prime market town in the area during the 18th century; competition from Pocklington, Howden and Market Weighton was insufficient. The replacing of old timber buildings with new ones in the Georgian style helped the town recover in prestige, with the religious structures also undergoing restorations. During the Industrial Revolution, Beverley's people retained most agricultural jobs, though there was a presence of iron workers within the town.
Industrial revolution and military The population of the borough and liberties of the town in 1841 was 8,671.The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge Vol III (1847), London, Charles Knight, p.278.
Hodgsons Tannery (1816–1979) was a major employer in the town. The tannery turned animal hides into leather. At the time of closure there were 750 redundancies. After Hodgsons closed, part of the factory site was used by Clairant (chemical production company). However, this had also closed by 2005 with the loss of 120 jobs. Another tannery Melrose Tanners, formerly Cussons, on Keldgate, closed in 1986.
Beverley had a cattle street-market for 1300 years, which was transferred into Beverley Mart in 1864.Bentley, J., "A Slice of Market Life" in Yorkshire Life, February 2026, page 39 The mart served as the centre for the region's livestock trade until it closed. The site is now the car park for Tesco supermarket, which opened in 2002.
Armstrong Patents Co. Ltd. (1917–1995) was also a well known company and major employer. The factory on East Gate mainly produced Armstrong shock absorbers until it closed in 1981.
Beverley Shipyard opened in 1884 and continued to build ships until the yard closed completely in 1977. From 1905 until 1962 the yard was owned by Cook, Welton & Gemmell Shipbuilders. In 1954 the yard employed 650 people. Ships were launched sideways into the River Hull.