Sheet 3 – Poverty in Hungate
Dig Hungate - Investigating York’s Social History
During the 19th century York did not evolve to become one of the large industrial centres
comparable with of the West Riding such as Leeds and Bradford, but relied on small
scale manufacturing and marketing to sustain its economy. York did, however, draw new
immigrants to the city with the arrival of the railways and confectionary manufacturing
and between 1801 and 1901 the city’s population trebled.
New people arriving in York to work, often with very little money or possessions, required
housing. Land lords reacted to this new demand and areas of the city previously not so
favoured for residential property, including Hungate were built upon with properties
available for rent. By the 1840s Hungate had become an area of densely packed
working class housing.
St Saviour’s Court, Hungate
In the relatively cheap and poor quality housing built in Hungate living conditions
became deplorable when compared to modern standards. It was also recognised at the
time that conditions were particularly difficult at Hungate and in 1901 part of the Hungate
area was referred to by Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree as one of the main slum districts
of York. Some parts of the area, however, were not so poor, with a number of houses
keeping servants.
The Dig Hungate project provided a unique opportunity to reveal more about the late 19th
and early 20th century living conditions at Hungate, both the slums and the slightly better
houses, combining archaeological excavations and documentary research.
Documentary Evidence
For Hungate there is a wealth of documentary sources available for study including
maps, photographs, oral history, health reports, census returns and land tenure and
ownership records. Workhouse records are also relevant to the study many of the
people living in Hungate meant lived on very small incomes which meant that any
downturn in their economic fortunes could result in not being able to pay the rent and
therefore needing to turn to the local authorities for assistance.
One of the most useful documents to the Dig Hungate project was the Sanitation
Improvement Survey. This survey was carried out by the City of York Corporation (city
council) and identified houses that were deemed them to be sub-standard or unfit for
habitation. As part of the work a plan of the area was drawn up, indicating the types of
use of buildings (residential, commercial, etc) and condition of any that were residential.
Sanitation Improvement Survey Plan (showing worst housing outlined in red)
The detail in the Plan helped the archaeologists work out which buildings they were
excavating and their street addresses. This in turn could help research not only the
remains of the houses but evidence in the documentary sources, such as census
returns, as to who was living in them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This was
fascinating for the archaeologists as they usually excavate much older buildings where it
just isn’t possible to know the names of the people living there, how old they were, etc.
Health Reports also provide somewhat shocking statistics about high infant mortality
rates, high rates of infectious diseases, stemming from overcrowding, damp, dark
houses, often in a state of disrepair, poor sanitation and general hygiene and lack of
good nutrition. Many of the households were on very low incomes and therefore often
found it difficult to pay their rent and provide themselves with adequate food and
clothing.
Although steps were taken to improve living conditions we know that problems still
existed into the 1930s when the houses were finally demolished and the people who
lived in them moved out to new council house estates or to private lets in other parts of
the city.
In 1996, as the result of an oral history project run by York Archaeological Trust and the
York Oral History Society, a book called ‘Rich in All But Money: Life in Hungate 19001938’ was published. This book also proved to be a valuable insight for the new
research being undertaken at Dig Hungate from 2006 and resulted in an updated edition
being published in 2007. Many people who lived in the Hungate area just before the
houses were demolished provided their memories for the book, including Ted Chittock
who lived at No.14 St John’s Place. He recalls what the house was like
“..the normal two up two down. The floor was quarry tiles. There was a front room and
back kitchen, the staircase led to the bedrooms. The fireplace was where you did all the
cooking. It was a big black range with the old spit over the top of it.”
When the archaeologists at Hungate uncovered the demolished remains of the house
they could compare what they found to this description. Ted Chittock also visited the site
and the remains of his home and provided further information to the archaeologists. The
archaeologists could then check these ‘memories’ against the archaeological evidence
to see if it all matched up.
Former residents of Hungate provided a vivid picture of what life in Hungate was like,
both the good and the bad. The overall impression given, however, was that although life
was often difficult and people didn’t have very many possessions, there was a vibrant
community spirit in the neighbourhood and people helped each other out in times of
hardship and made the best of things as far as possible. So in that way the people said
they lived a rich life, even without much money.
Nell Fearn summed up this attitude
“It was marvellous. Everybody helped everybody else…… It was a tough environment,
but it wasn’t a vicious environment compared to today’s standards……You had to share
what you had down Hungate. It was a community and it would be a damn sight better
today if there was a few more like it”.
Ted Chittock tells archaeologists what he remembers about life at 14 St John’s Place
Archaeological Evidence
The excavations at Hungate uncovered the demolished remains of a number of the 19th
century houses, as well as some of the roads, footpaths and yards that the houses faced
or backed on to. Some of these remains were better preserved than others, having been
knocked down to a few bricks high and then covered with a ‘levelling’ layer of rubble and
soil. Some of the houses still had their internal floor surfaces intact and also evidence of
fireplaces, position of kitchen sinks and staircases and even outside toilets.
Some of the remains also showed evidence of poor quality construction, with very
shallow foundations, single thickness walls and un-mortared brick floors which had been
laid onto a thin sand layer on top of bare earth. The poor construction meant that houses
would have been cold and damp and, because of their shallow foundations, susceptible
to subsidence and cracking walls. By standing in an individual ‘room’ it was possible for
the archaeologists to get an idea of just how small some of the houses were. The photo
below shows an archaeologist explaining the layout of No. 14 St John’s Place to visitors
to the site. The small area of concrete they are standing on is the kitchen floor in a four
roomed house which we know from historical research was occupied by eight people
when Mr Chittock lived there. Bearing in mind it was common practice for the downstairs
front room or ‘parlour’ to be kept ‘for best’ then it does indeed suggest very cramped
living conditions.
No 14 St John’s Place
The Dig Hungate excavations also revealed more information about the ‘services’
provided for the houses, including water, gas and sewerage. In the late Georgian and
early Victorian houses the disposal of human waste was in earth closets or ‘night soil’
pits, in the back yards. These were usually square brick or stone lined rectangular pits,
which would periodically require emptying.
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Night Soil pit serving houses on Haver Lane in the early 19 Century (before St John’s Place)
By 1907, however, many of the houses had been ‘upgraded’ to ‘tipper flush’ ceramic
toilets. Although an improvement on the pits, they were flushed with rain water and dirty
water (‘grey water’ from household chores) and were inefficient at clearing away all the
debris, and therefore still quite unsanitary compared to modern water closet toilets.
Tipper Flush toilet serving 13 and 14 St John’s Place and 7 Haver Lane
The 1907 Sanitation Improvement survey had identified many houses with defects and
substandard accommodation but the archaeological, documentary and oral evidence
suggests that improvements were piecemeal, and did not solve the basic problems of
lack of light, ventilation, damp and sanitation. The houses finally began to be demolished
from the late 1920s into the 1930s and by the start of the Second World War, residents
had been re-housed in other parts of York, either in alternative private lets or in newly
constructed council houses.
The land at Hungate was subsequently used for light industrial and commercial premises
until 2008 when the most recent redevelopment saw the building of new modern houses
and apartments and the establishment of a new community.