Charterhouse, Kingston upon Hull

Charterhouse

The Charterhouse (built c. 1780)
Monastery information
Full name	Hull Charterhouse
Order	Carthusian
Established	1377
Disestablished	1538
Dedicated to	Saint Michael

The Charterhouse (Hull Charterhouse) was a Carthusian monastery and almshouse in Kingston upon Hull, England, built just outside the town's city walls. The hospital building survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries; the priory was destroyed in 1538. The structure of the hospital was destroyed before the first siege of Hull during the English Civil War. A replacement was built in 1645, which was replaced again in 1780; the buildings function as an almshouse with an attached chapel, and remain in use to the present day (2012).

The 1.65 hectares (4.1 acres) area around and including the Charterhouse was designated a conservation area in 1975, which includes a Victorian board school – Charterhouse School – and an 18th-century burial ground.

According to Tickell in The History of the Town and County of Kingston Upon Hull (1796), there was a religious house at the Charterhouse site from the time of Edward I.

It is certain that the land became the property of William de la Pole in the 14th century. He established a hospital there, known as the Maison Dieu, around 1350. According to the Chronicle of Melsa, during William's life there was at one time a community of thirteen men and two women living there, as well as a college of six priests; as a result of conflict within and without the community they were removed, and later the Friars Minor occupied the place. William had acquired a license from Edward III to establish a monastery there, and intended to found one for the Poor Clares, but died before it could be completed. His son, Michael de la Pole, completed the foundation of a monastery in 1377, dedicated to Saint Michael, to house thirteen monks of the Carthusian Order.William, Duke of Suffolk (great-grandson of William the founder) was buried here by his widow, Alice Chaucer, as was his wish, this being their family church (and not in the Wingfield church as is sometimes stated).