Willerby, East Riding of Yorkshire

Willerby is a village and civil parish located on the western outskirts of the city of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Willerby was a minor settlement up to the 20th century, during which it became a suburb of Kingston upon Hull, and its urban development extended south-eastwards towards Hull. The village centre is located about five miles (eight kilometres) west of Kingston upon Hull city centre and lies outside the city boundary.

History

The name Willerby derives from the Old English personal name Wilheard, and the Old Norse bȳ meaning 'village'.

Until the 20th century Willerby was a small village.

Enclosure of land around Willerby was enabled by acts of parliament in 1796 and 1824. In 1844 the population of the eight hundred and twenty acres (three hundred and thirty hectares) township of Willerby was 214 persons, in 45 houses. By the 1850s Willerby had a primitive methodist chapel (built 1850), a Hall, Oak Hill House, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, now known as Willerby Hall, and another large dwelling, the Summer House, later known as The Beeches dating to the 18th century, and extended in the 1820s and 1850s. as well as smaller dwellings along Main Street, the village's original main road.

A mental asylum, Hull Borough Lunatic Asylum, later known as De la Pole Hospital, and an associated chapel, was constructed beyond the village to the north in the 1880s.