About Blaydes House
and Our People

Blaydes House in its present form was built in the mid-eighteenth century as their family home and as a place to entertain clients and conduct business.

This is reflected in the grandeur of the hallway, the sweeping carved staircase and the fine panelling and plasterwork in many of the rooms. Blaydes House was designed to impress and to demonstrate wealth and status, but it was also a place of work, and the land behind it accommodated warehouses and a quay where the Blaydes’ ships unloaded. The family’s shipyards on the River Hull, at Paull and at Hessle Cliff built many vessels for local shipowners, and also for the Royal Navy.

The most famous was the Bethia, built as a merchant ship in 1784 but bought by the Navy five years later and converted into HMAV Bounty. Others included HMS Boreas, once commanded by Nelson and HMS Rose. The Blaydes family left Hull during the early nineteenth century, and the house passed through a variety of owners before being bought by the University of Hull in 1999. The University subsequently restored the house, with period colour schemes and sympathetic modifications to fit it for its new role as the home of the Blaydes Maritime Centre. In addition to office space, the beautifully carved drawing room now serves as a lecture theatre, and the servants’ quarters house one of the finest maritime history libraries in the country.