The Hull Nine Yards

You must think that I have just either;

1) taken out a membership or Patrons status with Hull Museums,
2) resumed my love/hate affair with the Readers Digest Book of Knowledge,
3) found my old text books on Local Studies from my secondary education , or
4) finally accepted that I am an old, boring fart in reminiscing mood, teary eyed and all that,
    given the content of my blogs over the last couple of weeks.

I admit that there is a bit of an antiquated theme going on but I do not make any excuses for finding an interest and relevance in things historic and particularly so where they relate to my home City and local area.

I have come to realise in my amateurish research that this part of Britain, Gods own Country, Yorkshire has been the very cradle of civilisation.

Our Bronze Age ancestors were skilled and adventurous in their crafts and outlook. They could whittle a mean prehistoric figure and simultaneously manufacture an ocean going boat that could expand their known territory beyond the horizon, the Hull wide world.

In the Roman period the conquerors and the resident Parisi Tribe were cultured and educated and left behind the trappings of a wealthy lifestyle including Villa sites and mosaic pavements.

The area was also a front line in the battle against subsequent invaders from Scandinavia who eventually settled and assimilated into the population. Ginger hair and all that.

In the early middle ages a powerful Monastic Order ruled the area and developed the maritime trade from the Port of Wyke, subsequently to become Kingston Upon Hull in the 13th Century under Royal Charter from King Edward 1st.

The commercial value of the region was funnelled through the Humber making fortunes for merchants and landowners.

Hull had a fortified central area at the time of the English Civil War and the confidence to tell King Charles to take a hike when he turned up, mob handed at the town gates demanding ammunition and supplies for his campaign against the Parliamentarians.

Expansion of the urban area was rapid in Georgian times and the industrialised Victorian period. Exports from Hull established the city as a world beater. Major manufacturers were household names. The shipping heritage included large commercial fleets in passenger and freight trade as well as the hazardous pursuit to find and catch, initially, whales then seafish in huge quantities in home fishing grounds and in the Arctic and Scandinavian waters.

The docks were full to capacity for a century or more and it was possible to cross the large lock controlled basins from deck to deck. Old maps show wide expanses of thin black lines crossing the city to the docks or arranged in large holding sidings. The 24 hour passage of rail freight paralysed the city in the constant operation of road crossing gates, reputed to be for the equivalent of around 15 hours in a day before the investment in civil engineering to create the flyovers for the main traffic routes.

The dock basins have largely survived and remain in business although as a pale version in terms of capacity and activity. Some basins are heavily silted up and fortified by discarded shopping trolleys and bicycle frames pending the next hyped speculation for development by the bullshit baffles brains brigade.

The refocus from trade to mainly leisure, recreation and service industries has been painful in human terms with a decimation of the traditional workforce. At the moment the city is waiting on the next wave of industrialists to make the right choice to establish a renewable energy centre of excellence on the eastern docklands. Hull is ready to take up its place at the forefront of enterprise and endeavour in a brave new world. History just keeps on repeating itself, as I do........