EVIDENCES RELATING TO EAST HULL. 69 



and four pence. Its history in the reign of Elizabeth is 

 chiefly contained in the Rolls of the Manor Courts which I 

 shall quote, but in a survey made in 1674, when the Crown 

 lease of the Meaux Abbey pasturage was held under 

 Catherine the Queen of Charles II, four hundred sheep-gates 

 were nearly overlooked because, for many years, sheep had 

 not been turned in, as the profit would not have been enough 

 to pay the highway rate. The suggestion that the name 

 comes from So'mer-gangs would be more convincing of 

 the name if the ancient lake had been the South Mere, but 

 there is no evidence of this. It was a pasture, only used in 

 summer and, on account of its wetness, not always in that 

 season. 



In my book upon Sutton I have shewn how this grazing 

 for 400 sheep in Summergangs, with pasturage for the lambs 

 in the Ings "in the season of separation," was granted by 

 Sayer de Sutton 3rd to Martin de Otringham, Knight, a 

 burgess of Hedon, and given to Meaux Abbey by his grand- 

 son Richard, a priest. After the Dissolution it was included 

 in the leases to the Alfords of Meaux Abbey. The Prioress 

 of Swine had here pasturage for 500 sheep and all other 

 cattle except pigs. This was worth 26s. 8d. per annum at 

 the Dissolution, and was sold in 1557 to Sir John Constable 

 and his son. 



In 1637, Margaret Bell alias Stalker, a servant, died 

 of the plague which she got at Hull. She lies buried in the 

 Summergangs. 



The Holderness Road, made for public access to Hull, 

 was not precisely new ; it followed the old line of one of the 

 rights of way granted by Sayer the third to the Nuns of 

 Swine. His charter (Stowe 485) gave them freeway for 

 carts and wains, men, horses, and other animals from the 

 bridge of Bilton, through the midst of the meadow of Sutton 

 as far as Summergang-dike, and through the pasture of 

 Summergangs as far as Dripole and Sotecotes and to their 

 sheepfolds. In 1302, in the time of John de Sutton, the 

 grandson of Sayer, the King took, without payment, the 

 meadow and pasture along this track, for laying out the road 

 into Holderness. It passed "through the middle of the town 

 of Dripole to Suttecoates Som'gang," (at Dansom Lane), 

 thence to the cross in Somergangs, (the position of which 

 is lost), thence to the west end of the town of Sutcotes, (near 

 Mile-house), and thence to Lambhelmsike — where Summer- 

 gangs-dike is now crossed by the road. It may be that the 

 omission to pay for the land was due to its being an old 



