s Westerdale's Yard and Savile Street, Hull and And Westerdale's Yard and the 'Wellington' from the New Dock - Hull Museums Collections

Westerdale's Yard and Savile Street, Hull and And Westerdale's Yard and the 'Wellington' from the New Dock

Willoughby may well have learnt his craft from Hull's earliest identifiable marine painter, Thomas Fletcher (flourished 1789). By his early 30s Willoughby was already an accomplished artist. These two views of Westerdale's Yard have all the detail and elegance associated with paintings of the Georgian period, and include busy figures whose presence gives us an exciting glimpse into working life around the docks. Like the work of Robert Thew (1758-1802) they show the area around the New Dock, focusing here on the premises of William Westerdale, a mast-block and pump maker who occupied a workshop at the north-west corner of the dock from about 1803-1830. The busiest scene shows a mast being hauled across Savile Street. The companion picture depicts the newly fitted-out ship, the 'Wellington', with a group of ladies being welcomed aboard. To the left in the background is St. John's Church, erected in 1791-2 but demolished in the 1920s to make way for the Ferens.