A bit of block paving, some raised brick planters, a few sculptures with an information board explaining what they represent, benches, clump bushes and sturdy foliage. It is amazing what can be achieved with urban furniture and shaped bricks to soften up a river frontage that for the past half a millenia has provided the wealth through shipping, trawling, trade and commerce for the City and Port Town of Hull.
The long derelict docklands of former timber yards, rail sidings, cattle reception station and leper hospital are now a large housing estate with the frontage properties having conservatory or leggy balcony outlooks onto the mud brown Humber. In the halcyon days of ship borne freight and the fishing industry the same outlook would have been an anxious one for families of the seafarers out in the wind whipped shoreline awaiting first sight of those returning, if at all, from the waters around Iceland or all points of the global shipping routes.
A wide pathway and thick ,squat tidal defence walls have stabilised the land where prone to shifting and overwashing by the waters of an estuary draining one fifth of England although with such a statistic I have the misguided optimism of King Canute.
On a high tide, above average, the pathway is wet and streaked from the every seventh wave surge. I have often wondered if the water is brackish freshwater or salt but have not dared risk tasting it out of curiosity.
As the houses give way to the eastern docks the sea wall stands on your left hand side if heading out of the City. To the right is a stone dressed slope, about forty five degree gradient and 3 metres vertical equivalent. This is a bit more sobering to walk along and many casual pedestrians will probably turn back at the end of the beautified path.
At low tide the slope slips away into a muddy morass which stretches out some 100 metres to the residual deeper channels which run fast with the current. Out of the mud are the broken and shattered rib bones of the former quays and jetties. These are huge timbers, baulks of dense but saturated English hardwoods punctured through with bolts and fixings to give an indication of what role they may have played individually and also as part of a much larger industrial structure.
There is an outer ring of piers which have partially collapsed but will have formed a sheltered inlet to receive timber, bricks and all manner of imports from Europe and beyond. These have corrugated sheet metal buildings built off them just about resisting the pressures of the driving weather but on each walk past there seems to be more of the far shore visible through holes and breaches.
At high tide the same bare bones are less intimidating to look at and give an impression of possible renovation and restoration for some renewed economic use but the deep set decay is beyond remission.
There are a couple of lock gates to cross. Modern metal mesh walkways, functional onto the active dock basins just inland. The rattle of steel on steel is a distraction from the sheer drop on the outer side at low tide and it is necessary to pick a spot someway ahead and upwards to avoid that queasy fear of heights feeling.
A very sharp left turn along the path gives no warning of walkers or cyclists beyond and a few times there have been awkward moments of ' you go first, no. you go first, sorry,' and similar examples of clumsy dances with strangers. This corner leads around the mighty edifice of the Holderness Drain which discharges the run-off from the agricultural hinterlands as well as dead dogs, supermarket trolleys and on occasion, human remains.
The car park and viewpoint for the Rotterdam Ferry Terminal is reached. A few anglers wait optimistically but seem to just enjoy the open air and signs of hustle and bustle from alternate loadings and unloadings of lorries, trailers and visitors. It feels like the end of the line on foot unless in possession of a boarding pass. It is for me and I turn around and retrace my steps.
From the different approach and angle, a variation in light and shade the same features look almost beautiful.
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