Bridge to better days

The reigning Monarchs of England should know better than to schedule a visit to Hull during the month of July.

In that month in 1642 Charles 1st gave up his siege of the City after some 3 months of attempts to get hold of the reserves of ammuntion which will have served him and his Royalist supporters in their struggle to resist the Parliamentarians.

The City was a walled fortress at that time and could hold out under attack for many months. Charles had underestimated the resolve of its good citizens and soon gave up and concentrated his eventually futille efforts elsewhere in the country.

The part played by Hull in the early stages of the English Civil War, whilst critical, has long been relegated to a short introductory paragraphs in the history of the country. I have a sneaking suspicion that the ancestors of the ruling classes today still have it in for the City for daring to snub the Monarch. The short form name for the City has long since surpassed the grander title of Kingstown Upon Hull as though an insult, a four letter word.

In July 1981 a similar Royal snub took place but this has never to this day been revealed to the nation apart from a brief article in a school magazine of that time.

The engagement diary of Elizabeth the Second had an entry pencilled in for the 17th of the month.

This was to mark a fantastic British engineering feat by the official opening of the Humber Bridge, then the longest single span suspension bridge in the world (now relegated to about 5th).

The region was anticipating a great day of civic pride, not a day too soon, as the construction of the bridge had been a very prominent project in full view of the taxpayers for the previous 9 years. The manufacturers of union jack bunting had been working overtime and all manner of souvenirs from postcards to Doulton mugs were available free to dignatories but at full retail price to the main population.

The scene was set at the row of futuristic Toll booths for the Royal ceremony and with a large grandstand erected close to the similarly futuristic control room and adminstrative block. As the bridge was actually opened for traffic in the June the official area had been set up on the day before the arrival of the Queen.

As a sign of more innocent times there was little or no security on the roadway approach to the Toll booths on the 16th July.

This allowed a small group of sixth form students to overcome their teenage self consciousness and carry out their plot to steal the glory for the honour of opening the Humber Bridge.

Three of the group formed the advanced party, Dave Huzzard, whose name will be changed to Ted Huzzard to protect his identity wore his or his father's dress suit with trainers but less cumberbund. At booth number 1 at the cordoned off official area one of the students in the raiding party attached the end of a length of bunting to the building and walked across to hold the stretched line of flags taut. The third student officiously handed over a pair of round ended scissors to Dave, the Master of Ceremonies and with a few semi anarchistic words the deed was done.

The group skipped off nonchalantly ,very pleased with themselves but prepared in body and spirit for any backlash from the authorities. Transportation to the Colonies  had been a sanction in their minds for a treasonable act of this nature.

No one who witnessed the strange chain of events could really be bothered to raise any challenge. It may have been the case that the students were just one more group with the same intention who had visited the Bridge that very day.