Sand Hill ~ One of the 7 Historic Grimsby Hills
Sand Hill is believed to have been largely used for commercial purposes.
We are trying to put together a comprehensive historic guide to the site
Unlike the other hills of Grimsby which had primarily religious and defensive uses it is believed that Sand Hill was more of a centre for commerce.
The theory is based mainly on location, it bordered the two havens and was also the start of the Fosse Way.
Whether this is a later structure than some of the others or whether its use was simply changed is debatable but if its primary was fishing and port based then perhaps it was a slightly later structure than some of the others.
It must have been an important area in Roman times otherwise why would the have taken the Fosse Way up to this point. Of course it makes sense that it would be, look at the location. It’s exactly in the middle of the country and a safe sheltered harbour, when looked at through eyes which ignore prejudices of today it makes sense that it would be an area of prime importance.
The Seven Hills of Grimsby
This is merely a fledgling attempt and we hope to have much more information to add as and when possible
If you can add to the sum of knowledge or have any comments to make then please do share them with us.
Update as to location
Working purely from maps so as to avoid being lead by anything written which could be wrong I’m tentatively suggesting the location of Sand Hill to the area near the back of the Littlefield Lane allotments, old ambulance station etc, somewhere in the ‘green area’ above Westward Ho - see below
The Actual Location ?
All the best
Rod
Please see also the related articles on
Toote Hill ~ Holm Hill ~ Abbey Hill ~ Cun Hu ~ Sand Hill ~ Ellyll ~ Spittal ~ Chapel Hill ~ Mill Hill
Rod said,
December 20, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
Update:
possible location and maps added to original article
Rod said,
December 21, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
I now feel pretty confident about this location. there’s a segment below of the post enclosure map.
I’ve left Nuns etc in as a pointer, the road system corrolates nicely to a modern map as well
In 1829 records (found in The Enclosures of Scartho 1795-1798 and Grimsby 1827-1840 book) note a piece of land owned by G.R. Heneage which is marked as plot 79 - it is known as …
“Sandhills in the Parish of Grimsby”
It matches up perfectly with my edited suggestion in the original post. Also note when looking at the plot 79 there is a dotted outline extending beyond the boundry - is that a hill ?
See plot 79
Amiguru said,
January 6, 2010 @ 3:05 pm
Sand Hill….Lat. 53° 33′ 27″N Long. 0° 05′ 46″W On the football ground just south of the path.
Amiguru said,
January 10, 2010 @ 5:12 pm
Hi Rod,
Once again there doesn’t seem a ‘right’ place to put this so its ended up here. Could I suggest you you have a kind of ‘miscellaneous’ thread?
Question: Do you know of a George Collins who lived at 28 Havelock Street in 1912?
Regards,
le
N
Amiguru said,
January 10, 2010 @ 5:38 pm
Rod,
Sorry, I have another question.
Have you seen James Hollingsworth’s map of 1801of The Town and Harbour of Grimsby?
Regards,
le
N
Rod said,
January 10, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
Neville,
never heard of George I’m afraid and the map doesn’t ring a bell either
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,
January 10, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
Hi Rod,
Just a stab in the dark that George might have been a relative. Incidentally, he paid the council £8 9s p.a. rent, so about 3/3d. a week. I think that would be called a fair rent in 1912 as it was less than half a day’s pay for an unskilled worker.
That was just a titbit. The good news is that the temperature rose a little today and at long last I ventured into my loft to bring down the rest of my Lincolnshire library!
Just out of interest I weighed the lot and it came to 67 kilograms so expect a blast of information over the next year or so.
One of the volumes alone contains the large Grimsby map of 1801 mentioned above plus three smaller ones of 1795, 1831 and 1848. Oh and another Skelton drawing! I suspect we will be back at school tomorrow and I’ve a History Society meeting at 5.30 so it will be later when I can get scanning. I shall e-mail you copies asap. I had totally forgotten about some of the books so it was a pleasant surprise.
Bibliophilically yours,
le
N
Rod said,
January 11, 2010 @ 8:45 am
Neville,
sounds like a mouthwatering hoard - can’t wait to see what lies therein.
Sorry to hear you’ve got to go back to school - makes you sound about 10 years old
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,
January 11, 2010 @ 8:54 am
Rod,
That would be nice; to be ten again, with the proviso that acquired wisdom could be retained and thus the silly mistakes we make could be avoided.
Regards,
le
N
Peter Mullins said,
February 28, 2010 @ 1:39 am
Looking at your map above, I think that what is being exposed at the moment by the reculverting work at Nuns Corner (in preparation for the the new Higher Education building at the Grimsby Institute) is likely to be part of the South Field Drain which separates plots 174 and 175.
Rod said,
February 28, 2010 @ 9:00 am
Peter,
that’s interesting, I didn’t know the work was going on - is it worth a look do you think ?
Best
Rod
Peter Mullins said,
February 28, 2010 @ 9:32 am
Not much to see really, other than a lot of earth moved in a straight line which seems to correspond closely to the line of the drain on the map and lots of concrete tubes ready to go in. My wife and I tried to follow the possible line of the drain round there yesterday, and discovered in the process that the first house in Eastwood Avenue (which we estimated must back on to the line of the drain) is called Brookside.
Rod said,
February 28, 2010 @ 10:11 am
Peter,
thanks for that, I wondered if it was worth a visit or if they’ve uncovered anything.
Interesting what you say about Brookside in Eastwood Ave, so names clearly go back some way.
Coincidently my uncle used to live in Eastwood Ave
Regards
Rod
Peter Mullins said,
March 1, 2010 @ 4:55 am
My wife tells me that Bob Lincoln’s History says Westlands House (at the end of the present Westlands Avenue) was built on the site, and my plotting of a modern map on top of the Enclosure Map above does indeed put Westlands House in the middle of Plot 79 which you say you’ve found called Sandhills.
Of course, those who drew up the Enclosure Award may simply have used a name for this field / Plot associated with the rough area, and Bob Lincoln may simply have known the Plot was called Sandhills and therefore concluded that Westlands House was built on the ancient site.
But, if Plot 79 / Westlands House the is correct place, then it is slightly east of the boundary of your photograph, and of the Lat and Long coordinates Neville gives.
The photograph shows the line of the South Field Drain clearly: coming in near the bottom right corner, flowing in a straight line north west passed houses and the cricket ground, then turning to flow north in a straight line initially along the west boundary of the cricket ground. Compare the Enclosure Map and you see that Plot 79 is well east of the Drain and a little south of the point where the Drain will turn northwards.
Rod said,
March 1, 2010 @ 8:08 am
Hi Peter,
great stuff, great connection with Bob Lincoln s well - many thanks.
I enclosure map came after I’d already made my rough estimate at the site - it seemed to be further corroboration.
One of the issues I was/am acutely aware of Peter, apart obviously from the accuracy of old maps and drawings etc, was the size of the hills.
Getting a marker on Toothill for example, is it the north edge, south edge etc or bang in the middle.
On the ground that’s quite an area - it also makes a difference when plotting the possible location of another hill relative to it.
There’s still some refining to be done I’m sure and I suspect it will be best achieved with further snippets of info and ‘geological type’ evidence on the ground.
Best regards
Rod
Jean McKeating said,
November 7, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
Reading your articles on the Grimsby area is interesting especially the reference to the sand hill as this was my favourite place to play as a child,but forbidden by my parents as it was considered very dangerous and was told of children dying there by digging tunnels which collapsed on them.Dont know if this is true or just to deter me going there,it still did,nt stop me.The way I remember getting there was through what is now the Grange Estate in a straight line from St Mark,s church to where there is now a T junction ,it was to the left of there but not too far.If I don,t remember the street names it,s because I haven,t lived there for almost 50 years but do remember the fun of the sand hill
Rod said,
November 8, 2010 @ 9:35 am
Hi Jean,
thanks ofr the comment nad welcome to the site - great to hear this anecdotal information - I’ll take a look at a map and try to trace your directions - many thanks indeed
All the best
Rod
Jean McKeating said,
November 11, 2010 @ 8:15 pm
Hi Rod, I have looked on google maps on satellite and there was a good clue there having live on heathland for 30 years with sandy soil it was interesting between Carnford Crescent and Coventry Ave is an area bisected by Cromer Ave there are many gardens that say there is sand under them as compared to the general area the grass is very dry.This is common on sandy heathland .Hope this helps you with your search,I,m always interested in my home town and defend it when ever I can.Can you tell me anything about the stone wall near the old bus depot,it always fascinated,there were so few stone buildings in the town so it stood out .best wishes from here in sunny Spain…..Jean
Rod said,
November 11, 2010 @ 8:35 pm
Jean,
many thanks for that, interesting and useful.
I don’t know anything about the stone wall, but I like wall s so I’ll look into it
Kind regards
Rod
History Hunter said,
November 13, 2010 @ 1:07 am
Stone wall? Castle?????
Rod said,
November 13, 2010 @ 9:48 am
HH,
whenever these street and area things crop up I immediately think of you -
“where’s that exactly ? - HH will know !”
Do you know the spot HH ?
History Hunter said,
November 13, 2010 @ 10:18 pm
Im not instantly aware of the whereabouts of said wall, but i shall ask the old fella tomorrow, of the position of the old bus depot as hes older than he realises!!!! He will probably need poking with a stick but the memories will return in time.
History Hunter said,
November 14, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
It seems i am the one with a memory problem as i forgot to ask him, BUT Mrs HH pulled me out the poo by asking another ‘elderly’ (he wont thank me for that) friend who said that the bus depot has always been positioned where it is. Now unless Jean actually means the bus station as opposed to the depot, that would alter things.
Rod said,
November 14, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
HH,
I wasn’t too sure about the station/depot either, look forward to anything interesting you dig up.
You’ve already helped me today as it is - look out for a comment on another thread later.
Thanks and regards
Rod
Kate said,
November 14, 2010 @ 9:39 pm
Apologies Rod, another link…
Don’t know if it’s any use, but have you had a look at the excellent (…well, I think so
) UK geology map now available from the British Geological Society here
http://maps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyviewer_google/googleviewer.html
- you’ll need to zoom right in to Grimsby to have a proper look, but it strikes me that some of the surface and underlying geology could line up with the estimated positions of the hills on the old map drawn by the Rev. Smith???
Or am I imagining things?
I’ve been having a play with this for a few months now and it seems that some features are definitely in the corresponding places with the hills, so the hills could have been natural, but later shaped and used by people….
Kate
Jean McKeating said,
November 26, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
as a matter of interest where did Lock hill fit in with Grimsby remember the mound at the back of catholic school as I went to the Tech school and our school lunches where at Holm hill school so this was my stomping ground for many a year
Rod said,
November 27, 2010 @ 8:26 am
Hi Jean,
Lock Hill has never come up in any of my research - could be worth looking into
Thanks and regards
Rod
RButhnot said,
February 8, 2011 @ 4:04 pm
What is the story behind that area beneath Littlefield lane? It is surely very attractive to developers, yet apart from allotments seems largely undeveloped. Looking at that inspirational tool, Google Earth, there seems to be a line of pits heading North/ South - bomb craters? Sand extraction? I’m not a Grimbarian, but I remember passing along Cambridge Road and noting that the Northeastern side of that area gave the impression of a ridge - as if it was the side of a hill - Or is this just fancy?
Rod said,
February 8, 2011 @ 7:03 pm
RB,
I think ,ost of the land in that area is tied up by allotments, schools and local authority.
I think also I as a Freeman of the Borough ‘own’ land around there as well
Regards
Rod