Hessle FORESHORE Tour

Welcome to the Humber History Audio Tour.

We’re here on the banks of the Humber Estuary. It’s from the water in front of you that the foundations of our amazing region were built and continue to thrive from today.

Over thousands of years, the sixty-kilometre waterway has been a place of celebration, tragedy, historic firsts and the home to some of the UK’s most important industries.

Can you hear that? The sound of waves lapping against the shoreline in the shadow of the most famous structure Hull and the East Riding has ever known? But long before the Humber Bridge, there’s a rich heritage to explore.

Let’s take a step back in time…

The estuary itself was formed after the last ice age. Before being the recognisable Humber of today, the area was covered by what’s known as: ‘Lake Humber’.

At that time, water would flow from a glacier sat across the York area and flow into Lake Humber which took in areas including Goole and Doncaster, as well as spreading east over where the estuary sits today.

It would drain down the Ancholme Valley near where South Ferriby is today, in a southerly direction with North Sea ice blocking the path east.

As global temperatures increased, the east to west flow reversed as a result of the glacier melting and the water began to flow eastwards. Around the arrival of the Bronze Age, between 2100 and 700 BC, rising sea levels started to bring seawater up the estuary to create the early formation of what we see before us today.

Hundreds of years later, the dawn of the Iron Age saw an increase in use of the water. As you look out, you would’ve been able to see men rowing large boats made of hollowed out trees – like the famous Hasholme Boat that was discovered back in 1984 in a former inlet near Holme on Spalding Moor.

The boat, which today can be seen at the Hull and East Riding Museum, was moving timber and meat when it sank. It measured an incredible 41 feet – which is 12.5 in today’s money – and was made of one large oak tree.

But crossing the Humber hasn’t always been a mission completed by boat. It’s thought the Romans may have crossed between Winteringham and Brough, possibly via a ford, on their way along Ermine Street, around seven miles west of here – just beyond the bend in the river you can see to your right.

Around that time, the flow of water would have been slower than it is today as the estuary would have been wider.

More recently, Hull businessman Graham Boanas became the first man in more than a millennium to cross the Humber on foot.

The four-hour walk in the summer of 2005 saw him wade through waist-deep mud and navigate challenging currents to cross between Broomfleet and Whitton. And if that’s not impressive enough, he then did it again, but fully submerged, as part of a race against James May for BBC’s Top Gear - a race he won.

It can be said, we’re not afraid of a challenge, us lot!

The Humber is central to the story of our nation and promises to continue to be so for a long time to come. And now it’s time to start our next chapter.

With support from local businesses, plans for Lagoon Hull are now taking shape. The six-mile causeway, which includes a road out in the Humber, will stretch from where we are now at Hessle Foreshore. A nature zone - which will create a safe space for the Humber’s wetland habitats to flourish - will be built into the estuary from here, which will give space for the area’s native birds, bees, flora, fauna and everything in between to thrive.

In east Hull, it will finish at the docks on the other side of the city.

The structure, which will include a road to ease traffic on the A63 by providing direct access to the Port of Hull and the east, will create development opportunities along the bank near St Andrew’s Quay and the Lord Line building. This will make space for new shops and eateries along the waterfront. More investment, more jobs, more opportunities!

Lagoon Hull is all about making Hull a city where people love to live and want to visit by building on our history alongside the water to create a brighter future.

Speaking of history…

1066 is one of the most significant years in the history of our island. There’s not a school history textbook without a chapter on the Battle of Hastings and the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which came just three weeks before. 

If you had stood on this spot, looking out across the water in September that year, you would have seen a fleet of 300 Viking ships passing from east to west as they made their way towards the River Ouse and York.

After occupying the city, the Viking invaders clashed with King Harold of England at Stamford Bridge – a fight the English would go on to win. But, on heading south to Hastings, they came up against more invading forces - this time in the shape of the Normans led by William the Conqueror.

The historical significance of our estuary is huge and building a new legacy is exactly what Lagoon Hull is all about. If you would like to know more about the plans for the estuary and discover exactly what the project will achieve, visit lagoon.co.uk/support where you can also join the wave of support to add your name to our growing list of supporters.

If you have time, pop down to Hull Marina for part two of our Humber History Audio Tour where you can learn more about Lagoon Hull and hear tales of how a Hull dock was the starting point for of one of the world’s most famous fictional voyages and relive one of the Humber’s darkest days.

For all that and more, we’ll see you there!

With special thanks to:

Dr Robb Robinson, Blaydes Maritime Centre, University of Hull

Howard Young, Engine7 Audio Production, Pace Communications

Voiced by:

Dan Kemp, Anita Pace, Hannah Robinson, Steve West and Howard Young

Hull Marina TOUR

Welcome to the Humber History Audio Tour.

We’re a community built on water. When what is now the Old Town was first built it possibly lay between two channels of the River Hull which flowed into the Humber, one of which is thought to have silted up. Much later, after the construction of the Town Docks, the Old Town was an Island once more and even today, much of the Old Town is a peninsula lying between surrounded by water on three sides, the waters of the marina, the Humber and the River Hull.

For as long as Hull has existed, we’ve lived as one. And plans for the Humber region’s future will see us become closer to the water than we ever have done before.

Lagoon Hull is a transformative project designed to make Hull a place where people love to live and want to visit. It promises to unlock the amazing potential of our waterfront by creating bars, restaurants and shopping areas alongside the water, as well as exciting new living spaces.

As an amazing way to improve our region for everyone, it will also create powerful flood prevention by acting as a barrier against rising tides. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s also a relief road taking traffic between Hessle and the Port of Hull. So there will be less traffic through the city centre. Phew!

Picture the scene… while the estuary continues to flow, the water within the six-mile stretch of the Lagoon will become non-tidal. This means we can have watersports like rowing and kayaking there! It’ll also stabilise the levels of the lower River Hull to make it accessible all day long for the likes of water buses - up to Beverley and beyond. Sounds good, right?

Join the wave of support by clicking the link in the description and let’s make this a reality!

Our seafaring history is a special part of who we are and it lives on. The Hull: Yorkshire’s Maritime City project is aiming to tie together our amazing heritage by showing off the likes of the Arctic Corsair, Spurn Lightship and North End Shipyard as one joined-up visitor experience across the city.

It promises to tell tales of our 800 years at one with the water.

Today’s backdrop was the scene of one of the Humber’s most deadly incidents one-hundred-and-one years ago.

On the 24th of August 1921, the huge R38 airship, having been unable to proceed on its journey from Howden to Pulham airship base in Norfolk due to fog, returned via the Humber. But, with thousands watching on from the shore to see the impressive beast in flight, tragedy struck.

While performing high-speed turns to woo the crowds, stress on its long fuselage caused the 213 metre ship to snap in two.

While half floated safely into the river, the front section was rocked by two large explosions and burst into flames right here, just off Victoria Pier. The loud bangs blew out windows in the city. Despite the efforts of locals who scrambled onto boats to help out, 44 of the crew lost their lives.

This wasn’t the first tragedy on the Humber.

84 years earlier, more than 20 people were killed in the Humber Dock as the Union Steam Packet passenger ship’s boiler burst. According to local reports at the time, wooden planks and even bodies were thrown up into the air as the boat sunk.

One man reportedly landed on the roof of a house - such was the force of the explosion. Bodies and debris littered the water just in front of where the lock gates stand now. Around 150 people were onboard at the time of the disaster.

Looking back towards the city, you will know the story of Queens Gardens and how it was transformed from a busy city centre dock, opened in the 1770s, into the green space it is today.

If the dock’s walls could talk, they would tell amazing stories of bravery on the high seas, but did you know that Hull also has a significant place in fictional history?

Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe was first published in 1719, telling the tale of the English seaman who was left shipwrecked for 28 years - all after setting sail from Hull. Defoe would have had Crusoe depart from the Old Harbour which was located at the mouth of the River Hull, just where The Deep is now.

The character is widely believed to have been based on Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk who lived on an uninhabited island west of Chile for five years after he was voluntarily marooned.

And truth can sometimes emanate or even surpass the bounds of fiction. Over 80 years after Defoe’s book – around 1802 - Hull man, John Jewitt, set sail from Queen’s Dock on a ship bound for the Pacific Ocean via Cape Horn.

After arriving off what we now know as Vancouver Island, most of the crew were killed by a local tribe. Jewitt and another sailor spent nearly three years as slaves but eventually escaped.

Until the recent work in Queens Gardens got underway, a plaque there commemorated the sailor. It’s currently in storage with Hull City Council and is set to be relocated once the renovation of the gardens is finished.

More than two decades later, the Tranby – a Hull-built brig - set sail from the same place carrying some of the first settlers of Western Australia. 

All of those aboard were from the East Riding and North Lincolnshire. They named the farmhouse they built there Tranby House, which is one of the oldest buildings in Western Australia today. The vessel was probably built in Walton’s Shipyard, which is to be part of the new Yorkshire Maritime City project.

Projects telling the stories of Hull’s past will soon sit alongside the transformative vision for Hull’s future which centre around the Lagoon.

Building on our fantastic tourist attractions, making Hull an exciting destination to live and visit is at the centre of the plans. Picture boarding a water bus right here and heading up the River Hull on a family day out to Beverley, a booze cruise to Driffield or a water taxi along the Lagoon to Hessle. The possibilities are endless.

Until the Humber Bridge opened in 1981, the Humber Ferry took passengers between here and New Holland, across the estuary from St Andrew’s Quay. The old ticket office opposite Corporation Pier, now known as Victoria Pier, is still in use and looking as good as ever. Can you see the blue clock, which welcomed passengers from the south bank? It continues to keep time today.

Records dating back to the Domesday Book in 1066 show a boat was operated between Brough and Winteringham even then. For more than 600 years, a wind-powered ferry also ran between Hessle and Barton after being granted a royal charter in 1316. We assumed passenger ferries taking punters around our area were a thing of the past. But maybe not.

If you have time, head on down to Hessle Foreshore for the other part of our Humber History Audio Tour where you can learn more about Lagoon Hull and hear tales of how the Humber was a gateway to one of English history’s most famous battles and a modern story of fighting against the tide.

Thank you for listening. Remember, you can add your name to the list of supporters for Lagoon Hull by visiting lagoon.co.uk/support