* * * * *
"LAND OF GREEN GINGER."
(Vol. viii., p. 160.)
I wish that R. W. ELLIOT of Clifton, whom I recognise as a former
inhabitant of Hull, had given the authority on which he states, that "It is
so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in
early times." The name of this street has much puzzled the local
antiquaries; and having been for several years engaged on a work relative
to the derivations, &c., of the names of the streets of Hull, I have spared
no pains to ascertain the history and derivation of the singular name of
this street.
I offer then a conjecture as to its derivation as follows:--The ground on
which this street stands was originally the property of De la Pole, Duke of
Suffolk, on which he had built his stately manor-house. On the attainder of
the family it was seized by the king; and Henry VIII. several times held
his court here, on one of his visits having presented his sword to the
corporation. It was then, 1538, called Old Beverley Street, as seen in the
survey made of the estates of Sir William Sydney, Kt. In a romance called
_Piraute el Blanco_, it is stated "The morning collation at the English
Court was _green ginger_ with good Malmsey, which was their custom, because
of the coldness of the land." And in the _Foedera_, vii. 233., it is stated
that, among other things, the cargo of a Genoese ship, which was driven
ashore at Dunster, in Somersetshire, in 1380, consisted of green ginger
(ginger cured with lemon-juice). In Hollar's Map of Hull, 1640, the street
is there laid out as built upon, but without any name attached to it. No
other plans of Hull are at present known to exist from the time of Hollar,
1640, to Gent, 1735. In Gent's plan of Hull, it is there called "The Land
of Green Ginger;" so that probably, between the years 1640 and 1735, it
received its peculiar name.
I therefore conjecture that, as Henry VIII. kept his Court here with his
usual regal magnificence, green ginger would be one of the luxuries of his
table; that this portion of his royal property being laid out as a garden,
was peculiarly suitable for the growth of ginger--the same as Pontefract
was for the growth of the liquorice plant; and that, upon the property
being built upon, the remembrance of this spot being so suitable for the
growth of ginger for the Court, would eventually give the peculiar name, in
the same way that the adjoining street of Bowl-Alley-Lane received its
title from the bowling-green near to it.