Description

Admin History:

Thomas Tindall Wildridge (1858-1928), records clerk, antiquarian, artist and author, was born in the St Pauls area of Sculcoates in 1858 to Thomas and Elizabeth Wildridge. His father was a local timber merchant. After attending Hull Grammar School, Thomas Tindall was employed in the Hull Dock Offices, before becoming the Corporation of Hull's first records clerk in 1884. He was to be paid £10 per month, with most of his time to be spent on indexing. Despite delivering some 144 cwt of records for destruction he hdid manage to catalogue numerous others. Many of these records were likely to have provided him with information for some of his own works, such as 'The Honorary Freedom of Kingston upon Hull' and 'Holderness and Hullshire Historic Gleanings'. In December 1892, Wildridge submitted a translation of the Edward I Charter. In November 1893 the Corporation gave him three months to complete his work, and by 1894 he had been dismissed. In 1892 Wildridge was the driving force behind the formation of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, which was later 'admitted into union with the Society of Antiquities (of London)'. He later became the honorary librarian of the Municipal Library but failed to get the post of chief librarian of Hull. After retiring, Wildridge moved away from the area and died in 1928 in Waddesdon, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Description:

The full title of this book is 'Old and New Hull: a series of drawings of the Town of Kingston upon Hull, with descriptive and historical notices; also Portraits of local worthies, with biographical and genealogical notes.' The volumes in this collection are covered in oak from the Hull Grammar School in South Church Side dated 1583. Apparently Wildridge bought some of the beams from the school and used them as covers for his books. It appears that several of these bound editions were given as gifts to certain individuals of note by Wildridge himself. There are reference copies available at L.9.7