Potholed history of the ten foot

It must be a feature common only to the city of Hull.

I refer to the phenomena of the ten foot roadway or as it is referred to with alternate affection and detestation, just a ten foot.

If I happen to mention it in even casual conversation or in a report or correspondence to an out of towner, usually someone of an expensive legal educated background, then there is always a long pregnant pause before a sheepish voice requests clarification of what it comprises. It is, as they say, what it says on the tin. It is a roadway and it is ten feet wide. I know because I have been a bit of a sad sap and have actually measured them.

The housing stock in Hull has a very high proportion of terraced properties, long regimented blocks with some consisting of perhaps thirty or more dwellings. This was part of the huge expansion of the suburban areas in the period between the two world wars. It was a time of increasing affluence and living standards.

The suburbs were away from the belching industrial operations and less likely to be shrouded in the usual Hull odours from fish processing, tanneries, cocoa and yeast production.

Car ownership was increasing slowly and although low numbers of private cars kept the streets nicely clear and safe for access and children at play, a perceived and attractive selling point for the speculative builders in that era was the ability to park a private car or a works van in sight on the back garden.

The homes, which had all mod cons such as indoor toilets, electric light and heating still required service access for the coal merchant and tradesmen and a cut through the back garden from the ten foot was always preferred to what could be a very long walk around the block.

Under fairly light use the ten foot could sustain an unmade clay based surface or with the better ones being concreted or tarmac dressed. The aggregated rights of way and use over the ten foot demanded reasonable behaviour to prevent obstruction and inconvenience of passage.

As car ownership increased the surfaces inevitably became churned up or damaged. A few good citizens would take on the informal duty of carrying out patching repairs for ruts and potholes. The soot and ash residues from the common use of open fires were ideal for an impromptu repair.

The owners of end terraced houses with elevations flush to the ten foots would express understandable concerns over echoing noise and vibration from unsociable use as well as a risk of splashing and spraying of accumulated surface water up their walls from passing traffic.

In the larger suburban areas of  West Hull the ten foots became a paradise for thieves, pilferers and opportunists, a veritable network of escape routes along which to transport ill gotten goods from garden grown soft fruits to the whole contents of a shed.

The increase in private cars led to an equivalent demand for parking facilities and this heralded the proliferation in the numbers of garages and in particular the cheaper timber and asbestos structures. This was in the prime era of that wonder cement bonded material and well before the expressing of concerns on health grounds.

Soon the ten foots appeared scruffy and home to every form of construction and style of garages, sheds, aviaries, pigeon lofts, summerhouses and play houses.

By the 1970's cars were rarely driven to be parked at the rear of the houses and many ten foots fell into a deteriorated state.

After heavy or persistent rain there were always large pools and ponds to be negotiated by brave souls. I am not however aware of any cases of persons being found face down in such a potentially watery grave. Neighbourhood awareness has led in recent years to the positioning of lockable gates at the entrances to the ten foots. This has had a remarkable deterrent effect on crime levels but quite a bonanza for locksmiths in the provision of multiple keys for all those entitled to use the road.

A high proportion of Hull's resident population has therefore grown up with the ten foot.

Many scarred knees will have been caused by the rift valley of concrete road sections or loose based gravels and tarmac. Many shiny new birthday bicycles will have been left with mangled wheels or frames from frequent jumps and wheelies. No doubt a few babies were thrown out of prams and buggies by uneven ground. Some of these infants may actually have been conceived in the darker shadowy parts of the shanty town of structures.

The ten foot does have some competition on a national basis from the likes of ginnels, snickets, a cut, alley ways, passages and lanes but is intrinsically part of the Hull culture and language.

It will survive long in the pages of urban folklore of which there is a great richness from that north east City