Blaydes House is a grade II* listed Georgian house in

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Built in the 18th century for the Blaydes family, it is now owned by the University of Hull's Maritime Historical Studies Centre.

History

Blaydes House was built in the late 1730s or early 1740s (the precise date is unknown) to the designs of the architect Joseph Page as the residence and business premises of the Blaydes family, one of the leading merchant families in the town and also owners of two shipyards,

Blaydes Yard Blaydes' Yard was a private shipbuilder in Kingston upon Hull, England, founded in the 18th century which fulfilled multiple Royal Navy contracts. Her most notable ship was HMS Bounty, HMS ''Bounty'' famed for its mutiny. History Hugh Blaydes ...

: the North End Dock on the

River Hull The River Hull is a navigable river in the East Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. It rises from a series of springs to the west of Driffield, and enters the Humber Estuary at Kingston upon Hull. Following a period when the Archbishops o ...

, near the house, and another at Hessle Cliff, close to the northern end of the present-day Humber Bridge. The yards turned out vessels for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

from the 1740s, but their main output was merchant ships, most famous among which was a collier named ''Bethia'', which was purchased by the Navy in 1787, adapted and renamed ''

HMS Bounty His Majesty's ship the Bounty, also known as the Bounty, HMS ''Bounty'', or HMAV (His Majesty's Armed Vessel) ''Bounty'', was a British merchant ship that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the ...

''. The Blaydes family were also prominent in town politics, Benjamin Blaydes (whose initials can be seen in a carved monogram in the hallway ceiling) serving as Chamberlain in 1736. The family probably remained at the house until the early 19th century, by that time trading as part of the Blaydes Loft Gee & Company partnership. After this firm was wound up the family left Hull and sold the house. Subsequently, it was used as office space by a number of local businesses. In May 1941, during the Hull Blitz, a large office building immediately to the south was destroyed by a direct hit, but Blaydes House received only light damage.

Current use

After a period of disuse the house was purchased by the Georgian Society for East Yorkshire. In 1999 it was sold to the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

and refurbished to become the headquarters of the university's Maritime Historical Studies Centre.

References

Literature

* Frances Bibby (2006) ''The Blaydes: shipbuilders of Hull''. (This work has been criticised as follows: ''"... very thorough as far as it goes (but) some information (was) misunderstood due to the complex relationships within this family (for example at the time of the ownership of the Blaydes House by the merchant Benjamin Blaydes, there were two other close cousins also named Benjamin). She has also missed the main line of male descent within the family. The line of descent in Burke's Landed Gentry is correct. Family Information prior to 1500 listed in Burke's is incorrect and was due to fraudulent research in the middle 1800s. These lines have now been sorted (you need to follow the major property bequests in the wills to follow the correct lines, and also understand that they did not follow the standard convention of oldest male inheriting everything,) (Mark Blaydes)"''

External links

Maritime Historical Studies Centre

concerning ship-building in Hull, and especially the history of the Blaydes Family *{{NHLE , num=1209566 Historic houses in Kingston upon Hull Grade II* listed buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire Grade II* listed houses