This was the principal burying ground associated with St Peter Church in the ancient village of Drypool, originally within the parish of Swine. During the 17th century, the new parish of Drypool cum Southcoates was created within the Church of England parochial structure. Reference to a church building dates to the 13th century and is clearly drawn on maps from the 14th century. The Church and its burial ground existed in open land immediately across the river from Kingston upon Hull, until industrialization and an expanding population caused Drypool parish to be formally incorporated into the metropolitan area of Hull in 1837. By 1822, the Church building was in a bad state and a new structure was built and opened in 1823.

The Churchyard had seen several centuries of burials and was becoming overcrowded as the population of the parish increased. In 1843, the parish received a request from the Dock Company to purchase a portion of the Churchyard to be used in the construction of Victoria Dock. This was achieved after four years of negotiation when a princely sum of £1,800 exchanged hands, and the Dock Company agreed to build a new iron fence around the Churchyard to deter body snatchers and to pay any expenses associated with removals of buried remains. A second burial ground for the Drypool cum Southcoates parish was secured further east in the parish along Hedon Road and opened for burials. St Peter Churchyard was formally closed to further burials in 1855.

Burials in St Peter Churchyard are recorded in the parish registers. These have been deposited in the East Riding Archives (The Treasure House, Champney Road, Beverley HU17 9BQ). St Peter lost its status as parish church when St Andrew Church was consecrated on 12 December 1878. The parish registers from St Peter were also transferred to the new parish church. St Peter continued as a chapel of ease and separate parish registers from 1878 have been deposited in the East Riding Archives. However, burials in St Peter Churchyard (1572-1855) are only found in registers deposited with those of St Andrew in the Archives. The registers for the years 1572-1812 were transcribed by M Edward Ingram and published in 1961 by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. The East Yorkshire Family History Society (Carnegie Heritage Centre, 342 Anlaby Road, Kingston upon Hull, HU3 6JA) has a record of monument inscriptions from Drypool St Peter.

St Peter Church stood within the Churchyard until 1941 when it was bombed out of existence. The area encompassed by Drypool parish was one of the most heavily bombed parishes in England during WW2 primarily due the presence of docks and other shipping infrastructure within its boundaries. At least two other churches in the parish, St John the Evangelist and St Columba (both built in the early part of the 20th century), were also destroyed. The parish church of St Andrews was badly damaged and it was eventually demolished. New church buildings were built for St John The Evangelist and St Columba, and the Drypool parish registers were transferred from St Andrews to St Columba in 1961. During post-war reconstruction, debris was removed from St Peter Churchyard and the area was converted to a green space. Victoria Dock was closed in the 1970s and the site was redeveloped as a residential complex during the 1990s. A few prewar memorial stones remain in the Churchyard but most have been lost.