In October 1834 workmen discovered a dungeon, or cell, when digging for stone on Market Hill in Hedon, in that part of the East Riding of Yorkshire known as Holderness. It was ‘several yards square’ with stone walls, and ‘a few remnants of military trappings’. James Iveson, an antiquary of the town, took possession of stone from the chamber and removed it to his nearby home. There he already had a hoard of carved stone, salvaged from the remodelling or demolition of churches in Hedon and beyond, and he used these fragments to create a sham tomb in his garden.

To tell the tale the Flâneuse is delighted to be joined by Holderness historian and writer Lucy Brooke…

The mausoleum purports to be that of Albina, a fictional niece of William the Conqueror. The tale (succinct version) goes that in the eleventh century William rewarded Drogo de la Bevrière (there are variant spellings), a loyal follower, with the title of Earl of Holderness and the hand of his niece in marriage. His bride, Albina, was a ‘young lady of extraordinary beauty’, but Drogo was an insanely jealous man, and he accused Albina of infidelity. Although she was proved innocent, Drogo poisoned her and left her to die in a dungeon. When her ’emaciated remains’ were eventually discovered, and Drogo was found to have fled, the local populace razed his castle to the ground.

Not content with simply erecting a sham tomb, Iveson (1770-1850) even commissioned a play telling the story of the doomed Albina. His chosen playwright was the prolific writer John Galt (1779-1839), but the two men were not acquaintances, and it is not known why Iveson chose Galt. Iveson sent him a set of illustrated notes, and this document (a brilliant find by Lucy) gives a firm date of 1834 for the construction of the tomb. The notes were accompanied by ‘three beautiful illustrative sketches’: the tomb, Hedon’s church of St Augustine, and an imagined view of Drogo’s castle in Holderness.

Galt was bed-bound when Iveson’s proposal arrived, but having read the outline with ‘thrilling interest’, he completed The Demoniack of Holderness: an Historical Drama in Three Acts in six sittings, and sent it to Iveson in November 1836. Although largely true to Iveson’s outline, for dramatic effect Galt has Drogo murder Albina with his sword when she refuses to drink a cup of poison.

The document tells that the ‘pilasters, columns and the segments of the front of the arch’ of the folly had only travelled across the road from St Augustine’s church when it was renovated. The floor, front walls and wings were built of stones from the excavated dungeon on Market Hill.

Iveson’s notes record that the two figures of King Athelstan and St John the Bishop were taken from the east end of Beverley Minster when ‘two modern figures of these personages were substituted’. Modern carvings added to Albina’s tomb included ivy leaves, a pun on Iveson’s name.

Iveson died in 1850 and Ivy House (as it had became known during his period of residence) became home to another historian, Godfrey Richard Park (1818-1907). Park wrote of ‘the pleasure and interest attending visits to the abodes and sepulchres of our ancestors’, so Albina’s tomb was in safe hands, and it was probably Park who extended it into a considerable garden room, as shown below. Park was the author of a history of the town, published in 1895. The volume included a few lines of verse about the tomb which begin:

Within a cell a corpse was found
Which told to all the lady’s doom,
And now, upon that spot of ground
Is built an arch, ‘Albina’s Tomb’.

Park opened his garden for charity events and in 1894 ‘The Ruins’ were ‘utilised for the Vicar’s stall’ at the Hedon Bazaar. The local paper noted that the vicar shared the space with the ladies of the town’s Sewing Meeting, although sadly it is not recorded what wares he and the ladies were selling. Rather more exotic was the fortune teller who had set up stall near the re-erected ecclesiastical fragments called the arcade. This sage had travelled ‘all the way from Egypt’ or, as the reporter thought more likely, ‘somewhere else’.

The enlarged tomb was still standing in the 1980s, but by the time the present owner, Greg Butterworth, bought Ivy House in 2016 the upper section had collapsed, the tomb was completely hidden in a dense web of ivy and thorns, and the interior was filled with rubble.

With Lucy’s help this has since been cleared, and the collapsed masonry rescued for safekeeping, but the folly (grade II) remains fenced-off until funds are available for further consolidation. But the tomb does have regular visitors – the ghosts of Albina and Drogo are said to haunt the ruin.

The gardens were also home to a rustic tea-house (only the tiled floor survives) as well as the arcade mentioned above. This was a substantial structure built out of fragments of masonry from churches in the district. It too has been rescued from the brambles and awaits further research and restoration.

Ivy House (grade II), a handsome red-brick Georgian residence, is a private home but the garden is opened regularly for Heritage Open Days in September.

There are no records of The Demoniack of Holderness being performed in Iveson’s lifetime, but a manuscript copy survives in Hull History Centre should anyone wish to bring it to the stage. Thanks to Martin Craven, Greg Butterworth and the team at Hull History Centre for their help with this post.

Lucy writes about the history of Holderness at her new website theholdernesshistorian.com

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In the Victorian age, many churches were rebuilt or renovated in the very latest taste. One of these was St Augustine’s at Hedon, east of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Here, the architect G.E. Street oversaw the work, part of which included the replacement of the window in the south transept. But the ancient traceried window removed during the works was to get a second and even a third life elsewhere…

The history of the window was far from transparent, but guest blogger the Garden Historian has gone to great pains to establish the facts and enlighten readers.

The story starts with William Thomas White (1822–1888), who, by 1857, was managing the family firm of fruit brokers in Hull (founded by his father in 1837) and had moved into a property in Hedon (pronounced head-on) that would later become Lambert House, so-called after his late mother’s maiden name. 

At some point White developed an interest for things antiquarian. When the historic Citadel at Hull went out of use and was subsequently demolished, many of the ‘Very Valuable Materials’ were sold at auction from January 1863. One of these was an entrance arch from the time of Charles II (the keystone has his cypher), which White acquired.

White was active in local and parochial concerns, and in 1866 a scheme was set in motion to restore the town’s only remaining medieval church. The initial phase of work, which involved fitting a new window in the south transept, took place between 1867 and 1869 and the old window made its way to White, no doubt helped by the fact that he was active on the church’s Restoration Committee.

By 1874, both the arch and the window had been re-erected in the garden of Lambert House, as noted by The Hull Packet and East Riding Times which reported on the parish church school festival that summer:

‘The procession wended its way to the beautiful grounds of Lambert House, and passing through the ruined arches into the croquet lawn, the children were seated on the raised terrace which surrounds it’.

Croquet hoops aside, other embellishments were added in the grounds, some from uncertain sources but all in keeping with White’s antiquarian leaning. When he enlarged the house, various stones and smaller architectural fragments that he had collected were incorporated into a room, ‘The Dungeon’, which remains today. 

Lambert House descended through the family until it was sold in 1931, but by that date the garden features had been removed by one of White’s grandsons, Joseph Dalton White (1881-1974). He had purchased Lea Hall, near Hatfield Heath in Essex, and it was there that he re-erected the two ‘arches’, plus another piece of salvage that may have come from Hedon (all listed Grade II).

And there they remain. When visited in 2023, Lea Hall looked like a building site, probably because that’s exactly what it was due to major restoration and renovation work taking place.

The grounds and its features are part of the Lea Hall refurbishment plan, and so are likely to delight and cause curiosity for many years to come.

Other salvaged windows have likewise become features in gardens across the country, and it has to be said that the town of Hedon has more than its fair share of architectural remnants used in such a way… but these are stories for another day.

Lambert House is now a guest house and function venue, but is usually open for Heritage Open Days in September.

Thanks to the Garden Historian, aka Dr Michael Cousins, for researching these garden ornaments and giving the Flâneuse a week off. And thank you for reading. Please scroll down to the comments box to share any thoughts.