The River Humber
The broad estuary of the River Humber forms the southern boundary of the East Riding of Yorkshire facing out across to Lincolnshire to the south, which from here seems like a distant separate country, beyond the sea.
Humber is a Celtic river-name meaning ‘good-well’ and the root of its name may be traced back to the ancient Sanskrit ‘Ambhas’, simply meaning ‘water’. The antiquity of the river-name perhaps demonstrates its importance and would have been familiar to some of the earliest coastal explorers from prehistoric times.
In much later times, during the Anglo-Saxon era, the Humber would give its name to the kingdom of Northumbria, literally ‘land north of Humber’ that once stretched as far north as Edinburgh and another great estuary, the Firth of Forth. The original core of the Kingdom of Deira from which Northumbria evolved was situated between the Humber and the neighbouring Yorkshire Wolds in what had been the heartland of the Parisi tribe in Iron Age and Roman times.
The Humber forms one of the largest river estuaries in Britain, matched in England only by that of the River Severn and River Thames in the south of England. It differs from both of those rivers in that the Humber is solely the name of a river estuary, whereas the Severn and Thames can be traced for many miles upstream.
The Humber is undoubtedly the most obvious historic boundary between the North of England and the English Midlands; yet the Humber’s catchment or ‘watershed’ draws those two regions together.
The Humber is formed by the confluence of Yorkshire’s River Ouse with that great river of the midlands, the River Trent. Upstream the Ouse is fed by the River Aire at Airmyn near Goole and by the River Wharfe at Cawood near Selby.
Further upstream, the Ouse is joined by the Yorkshire Derwent but upstream from York the Ouse is called the River Ure, the river of Wensleydale that is also fed by the River Swale from Swaledale. All of these rivers are destined for the Humber estuary.
As for the Trent, it is somewhat mind-boggling to realise that this river has flowed in a semi-circular route through Stoke-on-Trent; to Burton-on-Trent; Nottingham; Newark and Gainsborough to finally reach the Humber estuary.
Not only that, but the tentacle tributaries of the Trent stretch out across almost all of the West and East Midlands. A West Midlands river called the River Tame, for example, that gives its name to the ancient Mercian capital of Tamworth, joins the River Trent near Burton-on-Trent and can be traced far upstream to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
Other rivers that feed the Trent include the Peak District’s River Dove and Derbyshire’s River Derwent. Places from as far to the south as Leicester and Melton Mowbray and as far west as Stafford in Staffordshire are all situated on rivers that ultimately feed the Humber estuary via the River Trent.
Some important Yorkshire rivers feed the Trent too, or at least they did in historic times. The River Don, that gives its name to Doncaster, once joined the Trent near Hatfield Chase, just upstream from where the Trent merges with the Ouse to form the Humber.
In the 1620s, a Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, diverted the River Don to join the Ouse. This would not, of course, change the ultimate Humber destiny of the River Don. We might also mention that the River Sheaf, that gives its name to the city of Sheffield, and the River Rother that gives its name to the town of Rotherham are tributaries of the Don, so are likewise destined for the Humber.
There is one more Humber-bound Yorkshire river that we should mention that gives its name to a Yorkshire city. Here we of course refer to the River Hull that enters the Humber directly at Kingston-upon-Hull, the great port and city known simply as ‘Hull’.
Just about every single river in Yorkshire ultimately feeds the Humber estuary. The notable exceptions are the River Tees Yorkshire’s other major boundary river, that borders County Durham to the north, and the moorland River Esk that enters the sea at Whitby. Both of these rivers make their own way to the North Sea; while the River Ribble over in the Yorkshire Dales to the west heads in another direction altogether, making its way through Lancashire to join the Irish Sea via Preston.
The River Ouse and River Trent merge to form the Humber near Faxfleet, six miles east of the Ouse-based river port of Goole and fifteen miles west of the centre of Hull. Faxfleet is on the north side of the Ouse (and Humber) and possibly means ‘stream where coarse grass grows’ or stream of a Scandinavian called ‘Faxi’.
Nearby, east of Faxfleet, the Market Weighton Canal joins the Humber opposite an island in the estuary called Whitton Island. Across the Humber to the south are villages called Whitton, Alkborough, Winteringham and the market town of Winterton, all north of Scunthorpe, while east, further along the banks of the Humber are South Ferriby and then Barton-upon-Humber at the south end of the Humber Bridge. All of these places are, however, across the river in Lincolnshire.
On the northern, Yorkshire bank of the Humber, a few miles along the river east of Faxfleet is the town of Brough where a Roman road from York linked up with a Roman ferry across the Humber towards Lincolnshire.
Brough was known to the Romans as Petuaria and was possibly the tribal capital of the Parisi. The Parisi were the great Celtic or ancient British tribe of eastern Yorkshire. They are sometimes thought to be culturally more sophisticated than the Brigantes tribe who inhabited the rest of Yorkshire and may have had links with a Celtic tribe in Europe called the Parisi who gave their name to Paris in France.
The Humber Bridge
A few miles further east of Brough is Hessle on the outskirts of Hull, where the magnificent Humber Bridge crosses the River Humber. The bridge, one of the world’s longest single span suspension bridges was commenced in 1972 and opened in 1981. It links the Hessle Foreshore with Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire.
Similar in design to the Golden Gate Bridge (built 1931) in San Francisco, USA, the Humber Bridge is in fact bigger with a main span of 1,410 metres compared to the Golden Gate’s main span of 1,280 metres. The bridge crosses one of the narrowest points of the Humber estuary but the river here is still more than a mile across from shore to shore.
An information board notes that the landward journey time of 160 miles between Hull and Grimsby was reduced to 64 miles following the opening of the bridge. A particularly lovely location from which to admire the bridge is the Humber Bridge Country Park on the west side of Hessle near the outskirts of Hull. Much of the country park occupies a former chalk quarry that has been colonised by beautiful woodland.
Most of the historic East Riding of Yorkshire, including the Yorkshire Wolds stretching north east to Flambrough Head on the coast form England’s most northerly chalk lands. These were formed during the Cretaceous period millions of years ago from compressed sea creatures.
Chalk has been quarried in this Humber cliff-side area of Hessle since at least 1317, with the powerful De La Pole family and Hull’s Carthusian Priory or Charterhouse involved in its extraction. Historically, the chalk has been used for many purposes such as hardcore rubble for road surfaces or for making lime for the improvement of soil quality or in the manufacture of cement.
The Hessle Whiting Mill, an old windmill dating from 1810 was used in the crushing of chalk for the making of a product called ‘whiting’ that was processed at a nearby whiting works. Whiting was used in the making of paints, plastic and rubber and when mixed with linseed oil it could be used to make putty. It has even been used in the making of toothpaste.
Hessle, incidentally, is a name that simply means ‘hazel tree’ and is situated near a little inlet of the Humber called the Fleet Drain. Hessle is a village that has been almost absorbed by the western outskirts of Hull. It is home to the medieval church of All Saints that was the mother church of the beautiful Holy Trinity church at Hull, that is now known as Hull Minster.
Hull
Hull is located at the point where the little River Hull joins the River Humber, some twenty miles from the North Sea. The city is home to lots of interesting and occasionally stunning buildings such as Hull Minster that are a testament to Hull’s history and its place as one of England’s greatest ports.
In most peoples’ minds the City of Hull is associated with the River Humber. The River Hull from which Hull takes its name is often overlooked or forgotten. Yet, the natural haven that this little river formed and the defensive possibilities it provided were a key factor in the siting and growth of the town of Hull, a town that is now a city.
The Hull river starts its journey in the Yorkshire Wolds near Driffield, where it is also known as the West Beck and flows south for around eighteen miles to eventually join the Humber at Hull itself.
On its way south, the Hull flows close to the eastern outskirts of the historic town of Beverley before reaching the northern outskirts of the city of Hull near Wawne. It then enters the built-up area of the city near Dunswell after passing beneath a bridge carrying a road called Raich Carter Way across the river.
Through much of the northern part of the city, the River Hull flows almost unnoticed but as we get closer and closer to the Humber and the centre of the old town, warehouses and old industrial buildings appear along its tidal course.
The city of Hull, has a population of around 300,000 and is the third biggest port in England after Liverpool and London. It is sometimes described as ‘the biggest fishing port in the world’.
During the Second World War, Hull suffered some of Britain’s heaviest wartime bombing and many new buildings were later constructed to replace those that were lost. Yet, there are still many great buildings and streets of character in Hull, particularly in what is known as the ‘Old Town’.
Today, Hull has important links with the European continent and there is a North Sea passenger ferry service to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, although sadly, the service to Zeebrugge in Belgium ended in January 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hull was originally a little settlement called ‘Wyke’ or ‘Wike’ which belonged to the Cistercian abbey of Meaux near Beverley. It also seems to have been known as ‘Sayercryk’ meaning ‘Sayer-creek’, possibly from the family name of a man called Saier who is known to have lived in the East Riding in the twelfth century.
It is thought that there may have been more than one point of entry for the River Hull into the Humber, which might account for the two names. Both ‘creek’ and ‘wyke’ come from Old Scandinavian words for an inlet and refer to the River Hull itself.
The river-name ‘Hull’ is thought to come from the Old Danish ‘Hul’ meaning ‘hollow’ though there is a suggestion that it somehow derives from an earlier Anglo-Saxon name ‘Sol’ meaning ‘mud’ or ‘muddy’, that in turn may derive from an earlier Celtic word of similar meaning.
In 1293, King Edward I purchased the village of Wyke from the Abbot of Meaux and built a town here that he renamed Kingston-upon-Hull, meaning the ‘king’s town’. Today, the name Kingston-upon-Hull is now more of an historic name and the place is almost always now known as Hull.
King Edward recognised Hull’s potential importance as the site for a harbour and war base and in 1299 ‘Kingston’ received its first charter. The harbour at Hull was developed by a powerful and influential merchant family called the De La Poles.
The neighbouring town and once thriving port of Hedon, on a channel called Hedon Haven to the east of Hull, gradually became increasingly unsuitable for larger ships and was prone to silting. Hull soon rapidly eclipsed its neighbour. Hull did have one major rival port in its early history, however. This was the now long-forgotten port of Ravenser Odd, a significant town and port situated on Spurn Head or at least situated on an earlier location of that drifting headland. The site of Ravenser Odd was eventually swallowed up by the sea.
Sir William De La Pole became Hull’s first mayor in 1332. His son, Michael also later became the Mayor of Hull and founded a Carthusian priory or ‘Charterhouse’ in the town.
Hull’s strategic importance was recognised centuries after the reign of King Edward when during the English Civil War, Hull was the first place to be openly hostile to Charles I. The king was on his way to Hull from Beverley in 1642 when the gates of the town wall were closed to him by Sir John Holtham, the Governor of Hull.
The Parliamentarians persuaded Holtham to side with them during a meeting at his house in Hull’s Silver Street. This house is now Hull’s Ye Olde White Hart Inn.
‘Old Town’ and river of Hull
Medieval Hull was located west of the River Hull on the north bank of the Humber. It was bordered on its western flank by a moat that served to protect this important town and war base from attack. This area of town is known as the ‘Old Town’.
Like York, Hull was a defended walled town. The old town was surrounded by a wall dating from the fourteenth century, which like York, had four main gateways as well as numerous towers and posterns. The street-name Posterngate is one reminder of Hull’s history as a defended town.
Later, during the reign of Henry VIII, the eastern bank of the River Hull, just outside the ‘Old Town’ was also enclosed by a medieval wall. Running north from the Humber, where there was a defensive fort or blockhouse, it continued northward as a curtain wall running parallel to the east side of the River Hull. To the north, it terminated at another blockhouse just across the river from the north east corner of the town wall.
This area of the town on the east side of the River Hull came to be known as ‘Garrisonside’ where the names of modern roads like Tower Street and Citadel Way are reminders of the fortifications that once existed here.
At the northern defended blockhouse, the two sides of the river were linked by a bridge across the Hull near Drypool. Half way along the curtain wall between the two blockhouses was Hull Castle, likewise built in the reign of Henry VIII.
In the seventeenth century the castle was superseded by a star-shaped citadel. Sadly, all of Hull’s town walls were demolished from the seventeenth century onwards and the remnants of the castle fortifications on the east side of the river would make way for dock developments during the nineteenth century.
In the old town, many of the streets and narrow alleys in Hull have medieval origins and you can still get a great sense of the town’s medieval layout. The moat on the western side of the old town later became the site of Hull’s Queens Dock, the town’s first docks, which opened in 1778.
Sometimes known as ‘Old Dock’ the Queens Dock closed in 1930 and was subsequently filled in for the creation of the Queens Gardens to the north of the Guildhall. The length of these gardens is overlooked at the eastern end by the great column and statue of William Wilberforce, just outside Hull College.
We will take a quick tour exploring the old parts of Hull. Streets in the ‘Old Town’ include Silver Street, Manor Street, Posterngate, Blackfriarate, Whitefriargate, Bishop Lane, Manor Street, Blanket Row, Silver Street, Finkle Street, High Street; Market Place and Land of Green Ginger.
Approaching Hull from the west along the banks of the Humber from the Humber Bridge and its country park we can follow the A63 into the city. Further east, bordering the A63, is a business park and then a retail park called St Andrew’s Quay. Here was once a mass of railway sidings connected to the port of Hull.
St Andrew’s Dock at St Andrews Quay, once also called ‘Fish Dock’ operated from 1883 to 1975 but was subsequently filled in. It was primarily a fishing dock. The retail park on its site opened in 1985.
Further east as we approach the centre of Hull is Albert Dock that is still a working dock today and a focus for the fishing industry. Fishing was transferred here from St Andrew’s Quay in the early 1970s. Albert Dock had opened in 1869 and was joined to another dock called William Wright Dock (1873) at the St Andrew’s Quay end in 1910. William Wright was the name of a the Hull Dock Company chairman. Nearby, in the English Street area, just north of the dock, is a cinema and the Hull Ice Arena.
Reaching the riverside area of Hull’s historic heart, the former Humber Dock and adjoining Railway Dock now form two parts of Hull Marina that is full to the brim with a lovely array of yachts with clinking masts.
The old Humber Dock opens out onto the River Humber itself and operated from 1909 to 1969. It reopened as part of Hull Marina in 1983.
On the east side of the Humber Dock Marina are new houses in what are sometimes centuries old streets. Humber Dock Street runs along the eastern side of the marina and here a plaque on a wall marks the site of one of the old entrances to the medieval town wall of Hull.
The plaque reads: “One of the four main entrances through the town walls, HESSLE GATE stood near here. It was stopped up against threatened invasion from the Scots 1640, not reopened until 1761 and demolished c1800.”
A star attraction of the Humber Dock Marina is the Spurn Lightship, described as “a beacon of Hull’s waterways for 50 years”. Almost like a cross between a lighthouse and a ship, it was a navigational vessel that guided ships through the treacherous waters of the River Humber. Built in 1927, it served a particularly important role during the Second World War and is now a museum visitor attraction.
A short walk from here, on the west side of the old Humber Dock and connected to it by a narrow channel crossed by a pedestrian swing bridge is the former Railway Dock (1846 -1969). This dock is now Railway Dock Marina.
Across the A63 to its north is yet another former dock. This is the Junction Dock, later called Princes’ Dock (1829-1968) that linked Queens Dock (now gardens) to the north, with Railway Dock to the south. It can be reached by a modern footbridge across the A63 called Murdoch’s Crossing but is not accessible to boats. It forms a pleasant ornamental lake for the Princes’ Quay Shopping Centre of 1991 that is built on much of its site.
Staying for now on the south side of the A63, to the east of Humber Dock Street and its marina are streets associated with the old town such as Blanket Row, Finkle Street and Humber Street. Finkle Street was first mentioned in Hull as ‘Fenkilstrete’ in 1443 and is a medieval street-name that occurs in so many historic northern towns including a Finkle Street in York. Nearby, Humber Street was first recorded as early as 1333 as ‘Humberstrete’.
Blanket Row and Blackfriars Street were once alternatively called ‘Monkgate’ in medieval times. ‘Blackfriars’ normally refers to a Dominican Friary but it’s not clear if such an establishment ever existed in Hull. There was certainly an Augustinian Friary or ‘Greyfriars’ in Hull from around 1303 until 1539 and a Carmelite Friary or ‘Whitefriars’ from 1290 to 1539, as well as a Carthusian priory or ‘Charterhouse’ established in 1377.
Along Pier Street to the south of Humber Street is Wellington Street and the neighbouring Nelson Street where we can look out upon the Humber estuary. Here, near Corporation Pier, we find a statue of William De La Pole, Hull’s first Mayor in 1332. Close by are the Minerva public house and a former ‘railway station’ that never saw a train pass through.
Dating from 1880, the railway station building was operated by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway as a booking office and waiting room for a ferry service across the Humber to New Holland in Lincolnshire.
There was no actual railway here and it was only after crossing the Humber and reaching the other side that passengers could actually board a train. Across the Humber at New Holland there were once two railway stations including one on the New Holland Pier itself.
Running northward from Nelson Street opposite the dandy De La Pole statue is Queen Street on the corner of which we find the neat Georgian style former Pilot Office building of 1819 designed by John Earle. Looking north along Queen Street we see Hull Minster looming in the distance. Queen Street will take us north across the A693 to the William III statue at the south end of the town’s Market Place but we will come to that later.
At the eastern end of Nelson Street we may view the River Hull entering the River Humber, an important symbolic point in the geography and history of the city. Here at the mouth of the River Hull we find a sculpture called ‘Voyage’.
Along with a sister sculpture on the south coast of Iceland, ‘Voyage’ symbolises the bond between Hull and Iceland that has existed for more than a thousand years, serving as a tribute to fishermen and other seafarers. It is a replica bronze cast made by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, who was the sculptor of the original, sadly stolen, in 2011.
Just across the River Hull, to the east, facing out to its confluence with the Humber estuary is ‘The Deep’, an aquarium that was opened in 2002 and designed by the architect Terry Farrell. It houses thousands of sea creatures including seven species of shark. The building itself has a sharklike appearance.
The Deep is situated on a location historically called ‘Sammy’s Point’ named from a shipyard of the 1850s founded by a Martin Samuelson. It stands within the old defended area of Hull called Garrisonside that once included Hull Castle.
Close by, the River Hull is crossed by Hull Millennium Bridge, a lifting footbridge that opened in 2001 enabling pedestrians to reach The Deep and also allowing small craft to pass through on the River Hull through the operation of a lifting mechanism.
Briefly, we will now make an excursion exploring the Humber riverside east of the River Hull, beyond The Deep. First, we enter the pleasant modern 1980s riverside housing estates of a ‘dockland village’ in the Victoria Park area. The park itself is on the north side of the housing near the A63 and occupies the site of Hull’s Victoria Dock that operated from 1850 to 1970.
Somewhat east from here past a Siemens factory that makes turbine blades is Alexandra Dock. Still in operation, this dock was established in 1885 by Hull and Barnsley Railway Company for coal shipment and extended in 1899. Next and also in operation is King George Dock of 1914, built by Sir Benjamin Baker. Near its entrance is the jetty for the P&O ferry service to Rotterdam.
Beyond here we reach the eastern outskirts of the city’s riverside area where streams called Old Fleet and Hedon Haven meet the Humber south west of the town of Hedon. Between the two streams is Saltend Chemicals Park, an industrial setting similar to what you might find in parts of Teesside. Further along, leaving the city of Hull behind, the Humber shoreline bends southwards, where we find the village of Paull, home to the pentagonal shaped Fort Paull, a former gun battery of the 1860s on the site of earlier forts of the Napoleonic War and Civil War eras.
Now, we return to the old heart of the city on the west side of the River Hull where immediately behind the Hull Millennium pedestrian bridge is the Hull Tidal Surge Barrier of 1980, also simply known as Hull Tidal Gate.
This gate can be lowered to prevent tidal surges from the Humber estuary flowing up into the River Hull and causing flooding in areas close to the little river.
Near the western end of Hull Millennium Bridge, Humber Street meets Hull High Street. These two streets have a history going back to medieval times but here they are just roads passing beneath the A63 near modern developments. Close by is the Fruit Market multi-storey car park next to Blackfriargate and to its south is an open-air theatre and cultural venue on the site of a dry dock.
Overhead, nearby, the A63 crosses the River Hull by Myton Swing Bridge. Myton-Gate was the name of a street in Hull that led to a now long-lost village or settlement of medieval times called Myton, situated somewhere near the mouth of the River Hull. Like Myton-on-Swale near Boroughbridge (where the Swale joins the Ure), Myton derives from ‘myðe-tun’ (‘myth-tun’) meaning ‘settlement at a river mouth or confluence’.
Hull High Street
Passing beneath the A63, the south end of Hull’s High Street is bordered on its west side by a wall with a series of arches commemorating the names of forgotten lanes that once exited here like ‘Grimsby Lane’ and ‘Nags Head Entry’. A little further along, past the adjoining Liberty Lane and Church Lane Staith, Hull’s High Street really begins to reveal its charm and character.
Think of a High Street and you will picture a wide, busy street with modern shopfronts bustling with crowds of people. However, Hull High Street, once the most important street in the town is quiet, narrow, cobbled, shop-less and historic, following a medieval course and lined with brick buildings that include the occasional little pub, museum or historic house.
As we enter the narrow street we encounter a brick house with red-painted doors, ornate lamps and a winch overhanging its upper floor that sets the scene. Then there are two little pubs either side of the street near Scale Lane.
On the east side, Scale Lane Staith heads down to the remarkable apostrophe-shaped, Scale Lane Swing Bridge of 2013. Situated on the River Hull and forming what resembles a giant pinball machine flipper, it allows pedestrians to remain on the bridge while still in motion. Scale Lane itself has a much earlier history, named from the family of a Richard Skayl, who lived in Hull in the 1340s.
Further along the High Street is another pub Ye Olde Black Boy and opposite are the Danish Buildings of 1858 built in brick and stone, a reminder of Hull’s many continental links. Further along, Bishop Lane joins the High Street on the west side.
Bishop Lane was first mentioned in 1342 and the Archbishops of York once held property here. Opposite the entrance to Bishop Lane is another building of brick and stone dated 1899 that was once home to the Pacific Club, a meeting place for grain and oil seed merchants. Close by is a covered passageway called Bishop Lane Staith that leads down towards the River Hull.
A little further along the High Street is another pub on the west side of the street and nearby is Maister House which dates from 1744. This is a property of the National Trust but is tenanted and not usually open to visitors. The entrance hall is very occasionally open to the public.
The house is described by the Trust as “a rare surviving reminder of the thriving trade that the city enjoyed in Georgian times”. The house was built for a Hull merchant called Henry Maister by the architect Joseph Page after a fire had destroyed Maister’s earlier home. The house, built in Palladian style, is especially noted for its opulent interior.
Opposite Maister House is the one time Corn Exchange building built in 1856 by the architects Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln, as noted by the plaque on the wall. The Corn Exchange reopened as the Museum of Commerce and Transport in 1925 and still includes the words ‘Commercial Museum’ above the old door.
The Museums Quarter entrance is just one door along from this building around the corner where High Street meets Chapel Lane and Chapel Lane Staith. Chapel Lane, on the west side of the High Street, is another narrow street of much character and like Bishop Lane and Scale Lane to the south, it links High Street to Lowgate (the Low Street) which runs parallel to the west of the High Street.
The entrance to the Hull and East Riding Museum in this ‘Museum Quarter’ of Hull is found in Chapel Lane Staith. This museum features displays covering the history and archaeology of the region.
Nelson Mandela Gardens here in the Museum Quarter grounds host a bust of the Indian nationalist and civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), that was unveiled in 2018. The name of the gardens and commemoration of Gandhi reflect Hull’s historic associations with freedom and civil rights, going back to the anti-slavery campaigns of William Wilberforce.
The museum grounds also include a mosaic sculpture of a ‘Larkin Toad’ by Sue Kershaw, a remaining sculpture of one of a number created for a Philip Larkin festival in 2010. The Coventry-born Oxford-educated poet and novelist, Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was the Hull University Librarian from 1955 until his death. His poems include Toads a metaphor for the frustrating drudge of having to work rather than live by your wits. It begins:
Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?
Close by and also part of the Museums Quarter is the entrance to the Streetlife Museum that includes galleries featuring bicycles, railways, street life and rare motorcars from the past.
As we continue north along Hull’s red-built High Street we next encounter the Oriel Chambers, now part of the University of Hull and home to the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation.
Next door, the highlight of the street is the beautiful Wilberforce House said to date from about 1590 but which seems to have been remodelled or rebuilt around 1660. The house is of interest in its own right but is principally famed as the birthplace of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (1759-1833).
Wilberforce, the son of a wealthy Hull merchant, was elected as a Member of Parliament for Hull at the age of twenty-one. Later, he would come to be known as ‘The Nightingale of the House of Commons’ because of his campaigning work. He was the leading figure in the campaign to abolish the slave trade and his restless work resulted in The Abolition Act of 1833 which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
Wilberforce House is now a museum dedicated to the history of the slave trade and features a statue of Wilberforce himself in the museum courtyard. It is the work of W.D Keyworth Junior and dates from 1883.
Beyond Wilberforce House as the High Street approaches Alfred Gelder Street is a large former warehouse historically connected to the Pease family and on a neighbouring wall is a plaque marking the site of Pease’s Bank, the first bank to be founded in Yorkshire.
Just beyond here, the sudden appearance of traffic in Alfred Gelder Street at this northern end of the High Street comes as a bit of surprise after the quiet journey along the narrow cobbled High Street.
In fact the little High Street continues beyond the northern side of Alfred Gelder Street. The main features of note at this far northern end of the High Street are Blaydes House of 1740 (now the University of Hull’s Maritime History Institute) and the Old Dock Office (of 1810) where High Street becomes Dock Office Row to the rear of Hull College. This may seem a long way from the dock until we remember that the neighbouring Queens Gardens were once Hull’s original dock and were connected to the River Hull here.
The entrance to the old Queens Dock is still there on the River Hull and alongside is the old North Dock, a former shipyard that will become the permanent home of the Arctic Corsair, a deep sea trawler of 1960. Close by is Hull’s North Bridge carrying the A165 road across the River Hull. The Arctic Corsair is currently undergoing restoration at Hull’s Alexandra Dock on the banks of the Humber to the east of the old town but will serve as a museum.
Heading back along Dock Office Row towards the High Street and Alfred Gelder Street we may notice a lane to the west on the south side of the college called ‘North Walls’ that are a reminder of the town walls that once surrounded Hull.
Alfred Gelder Street itself crosses the River Hull as Clarence Street at the nearby Drypool Bridge, named from a small inlet of the Hull on the eastern bank of the river. Alfred Gelder (1855-1941) was an architect and Liberal politician who played a major role in the transformation and improvement of Hull City Centre.
A new road built through Hull’s centre at his instigation came to be named after him. It crossed the Hull by a new bridge at Dry Pool. Gelder was an East Riding man, from the village of North Cave, west of Hull about half way towards the town of Howden.
Heading west, away from the river and passing the busy traffic of Alfred Gelder Street, we pass Crown Chambers and the curve of the Maritime Buildings, an office building built by Gelder’s architectural firm. Here, the impressive eastern front end of Hull’s Guildhall comes into view at the meeting of Alfred Gelder Street and Lowgate.
Outside the front of the Guildhall is a statue of Charles Henry Wilson, 1st Baron Nunburnholme facing the neighbouring court house. He was an MP for Hull as well as being a shipowner in the town and was the head of a steamship company.
The statue stands in an island at the centre of this broad triangular road junction that is bordered on its north side by the City Hotel public house and on its south side by the large modern red brick combined courthouse that both overlook neighbouring Lowgate.
From here Lowgate takes us north towards Queens Gardens (the site of the Hull’s first dock) and Hull College, where we find Hull’s great 90 feet high monument to William Wilberforce.
Hull Guildhall and Hull Minster
The Guildhall is one of Hull’s most extraordinary buildings and a home to Hull City Council. From the junction of Lowgate and Alfred Gelder Street looking towards its front, the Guildhall is impressive enough and features a huge portico with four grand columns and a pediment.
However, the eye could initially, just as easily be drawn to the huge neighbouring ‘Edwardian Imperial’ General Post Office Building (1908-1909) in Alfred Gelder Street that is just across the road from the Guildhall. It is only when you enter this particular part of Alfred Gelder Street that the scale and length of the Guildhall comes into force.
It is an extraordinary long Italian style civic building of some thirty-three bays and decorated with grand statutory that shows that the city of Hull really wanted to make a statement.
There had been a Guildhall at Hull as far back as the fourteenth century but it was located on the south side of Hull Market Place. A new building replaced this at the north end of the market place in the seventeenth century but this too was demolished at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
This in turn was replaced by another lost Town Hall of 1866 that was designed by the Hull-born Cuthbert Brodrick. He had also designed the Town Hall at Leeds in 1821 and is principally famed for shaping the architecture of Leeds.
His Town Hall in his home-town of Hull was rather short-lived as when Hull was granted city status in 1897 the city fathers as they now were, had ambitions for a much larger building that would not be Brodrick’s work.
Designed by Sir Edwin Cooper and erected to the west between 1907 and 1914 the new town hall was soon renamed the Guildhall and this is the Guildhall we see today.
Although Brodrick’s earlier Town Hall was sadly demolished parts of it were salvaged and reused in the erection of a First World War Memorial at Brantingham village about 10 miles west of Hull.
Returning to the front end of the Guildhall we will now head south along the neighbouring street of Lowgate. Firstly we encounter the Old General Post Office building (the City Exchange) that stands opposite the Guildhall and stretches around the corner into Lowgate.
On the Alfred Gelder Street side of this building is a plaque marking the site of the Manor House of Sir William De La Pole, Hull’s first mayor. This was also the site of Suffolk Palace, built by Sir Michael De La Pole, the Earl of Suffolk, that was seized by the crown in 1504 and later became known as the King’s Manor.
As we have already noted Lowgate runs parallel to High Street which is further to the east. Here, as we look south, the Lowgate part of the Old General Post Office building is on the right and the modern combined court buildings are on the left.
Just outside Old General Post Office building are two telephone boxes or kiosks that are both listed as historic features. They were officially painted cream rather than red, an attribute that is unique to Hull.
Local councils originally managed and maintained phone lines when they first came to be installed in Britain in Victorian times but they were later taken over by the Post Office and then later still by British Telecom. In Hull, however, the council set up its own company to maintain phone lines and install phone boxes, so Hull’s telephone service was never managed by the Post Office who traditionally painted British phone box kiosks bright red.
Kingston Communications (later KCOM) who managed Hull’s telephone service painted the Hull kiosks a cream colour and they became such a distinct feature of Hull that those that still remain in this age of mobile phones, are now protected as listed buildings. KCOM still provide phone lines and broadband to Hull.
Other than the old General Post Office and court building, another notable feature of Lowgate is St Mary’s church of around 1400 with a rebuilt tower of 1697. It is on the corner of Lowgate and the narrow Chapel Lane that connects Lowgate to High Street. Further south, Lowgate is joined on its east side by Bishop Lane, again linking to High Street. On its west side Lowgate is joined by Bowlalley Lane linked to Manor Street and a street called Land of Green Ginger.
The Italianate building of 1866 on the corner of Bishop Lane and Lowgate was built by William Botterill for the Hull Exchange Company and is topped by the figure of Britannia. To the south Lowgate is joined from the east by Scale Lane, connecting to High Street and on its west side by Silver Street. Half way along Silver Street on the north side is Ye Olde White Hart Inn.
Continuing south from Lowgate past Scale Lane and Silver Street, Lowgate becomes Market Place. In truth this is another street rather than a market square. At first there isn’t much of interest but beyond its meeting with Liberty Lane we find the Indoor Trinity Market and eastern end of Hull Minster.
Beyond Hull Minster at the very south end of Market Place just before it reaches the A63, we find the slightly incongruously located King William III, a gilded equestrian statue by Peter Scheemakers. It dates from 1734, about the same time as a similar statue was being built in Bristol by J. Michael Rysbrack.
The statue is on an island in the middle of a road opposite a multi-storey park. It shares a traffic island with an entrance to ornate underground Victorian urinals known locally as the ‘King Billy Toilets’ (another listed building). The urinals are apparently famed for goldfish that live or once lived in the cisterns. Across the A63 to the south, Market Place becomes Queen Street, heading towards the Humber waterfront and mouth of the River Hull.
The eastern end of Holy Trinity or Hull Minster as it is known, faces out onto the Market Place street near King William’s statue and is bordered by two narrow streets on its north and south sides respectively called, North Church Side and South Church Side with Trinity Square situated at their western end facing the minster.
Along North Church Side is situated an old pub of some character called Corn Exchange and nearby is Hull Market Hall with its tall bell tower. The Market Hall dating from 1904 was built by Henry Baines.
South Church Side on the south flank of the minster is joined on its south side by a narrow street called Vicar Lane that leads towards the A63 and along this lane we get a nice framed view of the minster and its stonework. South Church Side and North Church Side both terminate at the pedestrianised King Street in Trinity Square.
Holy Trinity Church or Hull Minster is supposedly the largest parish church in England in terms of area, although the same claim is made by Beverley Minster. It is certainly a huge, impressive and unusual church. Despite its formidable size what we see has only been the parish church for Hull since 1661 and began life as a chapel of ease to its mother church of All Saints in the village of Hessle to the west of Hull.
Dating from the fourteenth century, Hull Minster is notable for incorporating some of the earliest uses of brick. Although the church underwent some restoration in the Victorian era, the brickwork we see today is primarily of medieval origin.
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner noted that the transepts and lowest stage of the crossing tower are of brick and that this is “the earliest major case of the use of brick in England.”
A brickyard was recorded in Hull as early as 1303 and it seems that the popularity of brick as a building material may have spread across the country from Hull. Brick is certainly an important traditional material used in many of the elegant villages of lowland Yorkshire.
Inside the church is an effigy of William De La Pole, Hull’s first mayor who died in 1366. Trinity Square, at the west end of the minster is a quiet spot to admire the stonework and beautiful window tracery at the minster’s western end.
Bordering the square at the western end of South Church Side is the Old Grammar School, dating from 1583 when Queen Elizabeth I was still on the throne. Built of brick, its former pupils have included William Wilberforce and Andrew Marvell, whose statue stands nearby. It is now an occasional museum called ‘Hands on History’.
Next door to the Old Grammar School is the former ‘Fish Street Day School’ of 1871. It is near the corner of South Church Side and the part of neighbouring Fish Street called ‘Grammar School Yard’. It is extraordinary to think that this became a school more than a century and a half ago while its neighbour became a school some three centuries and a decade earlier.
Andrew Marvell whose statue stands outside the old Grammar School was a poet, politician and satirist who was born at the village of Winestead near Patrington in the Holderness area of the East Riding to the south east of Hull. Marvell (1621-1678), who commenced his education at the Hull Grammar School, was later educated at Trinity College, Cambridge.
On the opposite corner of the square from the two former schools and the marvellous Marvell statue we find the meeting of the streets of North Church Side, Trinity House Lane, Posterngate and King Street.
Trinity House Lane is the location for the Trinity House building itself, dating from 1753. Here is the entrance to Trinity House, with a grand pediment of 1759 above the door and next door just to its right are the more classical features of the smaller Trinity House Offices of 1844.
Trinity House Lane is just off North Church Side near Holy Trinity church but the Trinity House building also stretches along the neighbouring street of Posterngate. The present Trinity House is an eighteenth century structure but has a deep-rooted history going back to medieval times. It has been located on this particular site since 1467.
From around the twelfth century, the parishioners of the early Holy Trinity Church at Wyke (as Hull was then called), grouped together to support each other in times of difficulty.
This charitable body became an organised religious guild by the fourteenth century. Its official foundation as a guild was in 1369, during the reign of Edward III. Guild members then consisted of forty-nine men and women who pledged to support each other and to meet annually on the day of Holy Trinity in Holy Trinity Church.
By the middle of the following century it was specifically a guild of mariners. A deed of agreement in 1456 between the Hull Shipmasters and Vicar of Hessle pledged to provide an altar in Holy Trinity church for the support of distressed seamen. Charters during the reigns of Henry VIII; Edward VI; Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; James I; Charles I and Charles II confirmed the activities of the guild, whose responsibilities included piloting ships into the port of Hull.
In 1621 a Thomas Ferres who had purchased the crown lands that had belonged to the Carmelite friary of Hull before the dissolution of the monasteries, gave these lands to the guild as a source of income. Today, the guild still manages a number of farms within the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The charitable work of the Trinity House guild continues to this day and it is now known as the Guild of Masters, Pilots and Seamen of the Trinity House of Kingston upon Hull. Its work includes administering almshouses which it has done since the fifteenth century.
Trinity House is still home to the guild and its meetings. It is also a museum for the guild’s artefacts and documents. Part of this museum is dedicated to the Whitby-born Captain James Cook (1728-1779) whose explorations were in part financed by Hull’s Trinity House.
Posterngate, which recalls an old entrance to the town walls, leads west to Princes Dock Street and the Princes Quay shopping centre on the site of the Junction Dock. Posterngate is joined on its south side, about three quarters of the way along the street, by Dagger Lane, first recorded as ‘Daggard Lane’ in the fourteenth century. It was the place where daggers were once made.
We now continue our exploration of Hull’s streets by heading northward along Trinity House Lane starting at the public house called The Kingston near Hull Minster’s North Church Side. After passing Trinity House itself on the left, a little further along to the right is a building called Corporation Chambers and then at the end of the street is a a pub with marble-like columns at its entrance.
Trinity House Lane end at the junction with Silver Street (to the east) and Whitefriargate (to the west) with the street straight ahead to the north having the unusual name ‘Land of Green Ginger’.
Whitefriargate which leads west towards Princes Quay recalls the Carmelite friary that was once situated here in medieval times. About a quarter of a way along this street is joined from the north by the narrow Parliament Street that features a row of Georgian town houses linked to Alfred Gelder Street to the north.
Back at the north end of Trinity House Lane, the entrance to Silver Street is situated to the east and straight ahead is the entrance to Land of Green Ginger.
As with all such curious unexplained names, there are some interesting theories for its origins including an idea that it was named from a junior member of a family called Lindgroen (Lindgroen Jonger) who lived in Hull during the early nineteenth century.
In fact there are much earlier references to this street-name as there is mention of the ‘Land of Greneginger’ in Hull in 1651. In 1655 it is specifically referred to as ‘the waste ground called the land of Greene Ginger’.
As a word ‘green-ginger’ is recorded as early as 1463 and the street-name may well indeed be medieval but its origin remains unexplained or as the plaque on a nearby wall states, a ‘mystery’.
The plaque which features on a building at the north end of the street describes Land of Green Ginger as “one of the oldest street names in the country” and notes that it was also the name of a novel by Winifred Holtby (1898-1935). Holtby, who was born at Rudston in the East Riding (and is best known for the novel South Riding) was no doubt familiar with the Hull street-name.
Near the north end of the street, Land of Green Ginger meets with the adjoining Manor Street and another street with a curious name – Bowlalley Lane – that leads east to Lowgate. Manor Street leads north towards Alfred Gelder Street and the Guildhall.
Heading west along Alfred Gelder Street we approach the modern town centre of Hull. At the western end of Alfred Gelder Street and the western end of Queens Gardens, that occupy the old dock, is an impressive three-domed triangular Victorian building of 1867-71, that is situated alongside Carr Lane and Queen Victoria Square.
Designed by Christopher Wray, this was once the Hull Dock Offices, the headquarters of Hull Dock Company and now home to the Hull Maritime Museum. In the neighbouring square that bears her name is a statue of Queen Victoria dating from 1903.
Just opposite Queen Victoria Square to the south across Carr Lane is the Ferens Art Gallery of 1927. It is named from its founder and benefactor, the Hull politician and businessman Thomas Ferens (1847-1930) who was born at East Thickley near Shildon in County Durham. East Thickley, was incidentally the birthplace of a politician of earlier times, John Lilburne, founder of the seventeenth century Levellers political movement. Indeed Ferens himself might be described as something of a ‘Leveller’.
After working for the Stockton and Darlington Railway at Shildon and later for an engineering company in Stockton-on-Tees Ferens moved to Hull to work as a clerk for the town’s renowned company of Reckitt and Sons, who manufactured household goods.
Ferens progressed through the company ranks to become its joint Chairman and in 1933 the company launched the famed Dettol brand of disinfectant. Ferens was a Liberal politician and MP for Hull from 1908 to 1918 and was a campaigner for Women’s suffrage. Significantly, he was the founder of Hull’s University College. The University of Hull still recalls his name in their motto : ‘Lampada Ferens’ (carrying the light of learning).
Further along Carr Lane just west of Queen Victoria Square is Hull’s City Hall, a civic building built in Baroque style between 1903-09 as a concert hall and still a performance venue.
The Pedestrianised King Edward Street that leads north west from Victoria Square and Paragon Street that heads west from the square near Carr Lane, encompass the heart of the principal shopping areas of Hull City centre that we might call the ‘new town’.
To their west, just beyond the busy A165 Ferens Way, is Hull’s Paragon Railway station, parts of which, like the neighbouring hotel, were built by the railway architect, G.T Andrews in the 1840s. To the north and also beyond Ferens Way is the indoor St Stephen’s Shopping Centre of 2007.
Cottingham to Kirk Ella
The village of Cottingham lies on the north western outskirts of Hull and retains a feeling of separateness from the neighbouring city. It was granted a weekly market in 1199 and an annual fair in 1200.
The parish church at Cottingham is dedicated to St Mary and dates from the fourteenth century. It has been described as the little sister of Hull’s Holy Trinity church, though it is by no means a small church.
South of Cottingham, across the low-lying lands of Haltemprice Farm and also adjoining the western outskirts of Hull are the old villages of Willerby, Anlaby, Kirk Ella and West Ella. These villages have grown together and like Hessle on the banks of the Humber across the fields to the south, have just about merged with the outskirts of Hull.
Haltemprice is a name that comes from the Old French ‘haute emprise’ meaning ‘great enterprise. It was the site of an Augustinian priory established in 1324 but all traces of this had disappeared by the eighteenth century.
As with so many places in the East Riding, Willerby and Anlaby both have Viking names that include the suffix ‘by’. Willerby means Willard’s farm or village, while Anlaby belonged to someone called Anlaf. Both places belonged to the parish of Kirk Ella in medieval times, where the church (the ‘Kirk’ of its name) dates from 1450 and is dedicated to St Andrew.
Early spellings of the place-name ‘Ella’ include ‘Aluelay’ around 1070 and is thought to be Anglo-Saxon meaning ‘Aelfa’s clearing’. There were two places called Aluelay, one being the settlement with the church (Kirk Ella) and the other the settlement just to its west now called West Ella.
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