The Legend of Gassy Jack

 Anyone hailing from my home city of Hull, Yorkshire and having the nickname “Gassy Jack” just appeals to my inquisitive nature. His story is a fascinating one indeed and worthy of mention to a wider audience.

Actual name, John Deighton, this Gassy Jack character was born in Hull in 1830 and spent a good part of his adult life in what is now modern day Canada, the part still retaining the Imperial connection as British Columbia.

Consistent with many of the male population of that era in Kingston Upon Hull (to give its full name) which was and remains a major seaport, it was largely predestined that a life and livelihood with some connection to seafaring would be the case. The city was in the 19^th Century and well before that the base for a fleet of merchant vessels carrying all manner of goods and passengers globally and also the largest whaling and trawling operation in the UK battling into Arctic and Baltic waters.

John Deighton and his brothers took to the waters and Tom and Richard became apprenticed on British ships which was a significant commitment of their best years. Jack however was something of a free agent which gave him a degree of choice over where he would eventually work. The California Gold Rush saw a huge demand for shipping for the transport of good and supplies as well as those seeking to make their fortune from prospecting. 

In 1850 the sea journey from New York to San Francisco (pre Panama Canal) involved a passage of Cape Horn and took up to 160 days. Deighton signed up to work on American ships and one of his first postings was on the Clipper, Invincible which when fully rigged and with favourable winds and tides could cut the time to 115 days. As a 21 year old Third Officer on the crew he also sailed on the pan- Pacific route to Hong Kong in the Far East. After a brief return to England, which would be his last time on home soil, he settled in the Americas.

Seduced by a chance to get rich quick , Deighton joined the thousands in the Gold Rush to California and worked a staked claim for the next 6 years. Fickle as prospecting is by nature, the news of a gold strike much farther north in the New Caledonia Territory saw many optimists make the journey to what was known as the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.

It was wild and untamed country and the harsh climate in the winters took its toll on the prospectors but Deighton obviously a resolute and determined individual stayed on for 5 years. It was a great endeavour and although others did find gold this was not to be a source of wealth for him. New Caledonia was now the Colony of British Columbia.

He soon returned to what he knew best, shipping, and served as a well respected pilot for local steamships and paddle steamers on the supply lines on the Fraser River which were ever more in demand as hordes of miners and their tag-along families arrived. 

By 1864, a life of constant activity took its toll on his health and suffering from swollen legs and feet Deighton was forced to pursue other lines of work on shore.

Until 1867, he ran a bar called the Globe Saloon in New Westminster in British Columbia. It was a town and area that had benefitted from the prosperous years of yet another discovery of the yellow precious metal in the Cariboo Gold Rush.

The prospecting fever attracted all sorts of charlatans, fraudsters and conmen and in 1867 when Deighton went out of town on a short vacation to take the hot springs for his ill health near Harrison Lake, he entrusted his saloon to an old shipmate, an American. On July 4 a contemporary account is that the friend invested Deighton's hard earned cash and reputation in powder, rockets and fire-crackers for what must have been a glorious display on the Glorious fourth, and there was even whiskey on the house that day. Deighton came home to find his business ruined.

Deighton who knew the liquor business well  sought to open another bar on the south side of Burrat Inlet. This was on the recommendation of an old seafaring acquaintance who himself had a similar establishment in that area. It became named after his ill fated former bar, the Globe Saloon.

The set back to his livelihood and income meant that he had to start over from scratch and he arrived in Burrat with little more than $6 to his name, a few simple pieces of furniture, his native wife (whose name has been lost to the years), and a yellow dog.

The new bar was built by idle sawmill workers in exchange for all the whiskey they could drink in one sitting (the nearest drinking hole was 25 miles away). The saloon was described as a makeshift structure - a 12' by 24' board-and-batten shack.

Deighton himself, although no stranger to starting up in adverse situations did express some of his own concerns and fears. In a letter to an acquaintance he stated that it was "A lonesome place when I came here first, surrounded by Indians. I care not to look outdoors after dark. There was a friend of mine about a mile distant found with his head cut in two. The Indian was caught and hanged."

His regular clientele were mainly sailors and workers from the nearby sawmill. When business dwindled there, Deighton tried to diversify his interests by attempting to acquire 20 waterfront acres near Moody's Mill and build a new saloon there. The local native peoples protested and with the Governor taking the side of the indigenous population Deighton had no option but to persist with the Globe Saloon.

Rapid expansion of the region meant that the bar was demolished when the township of Granville was established but Deighton stayed in the area, now as an established entrepreneur and businessman and bought a nearby lot for $135 at the south-west corner of Carrall and Water Streets, where he built a residence.

This establishment was quite grand in comparison with previous shacks and sheds comprising a two-storey building with a bar-room, billiard room, several bedrooms upstairs, and facing Water Street, a verandah shaded by a maple tree. It was more than a saloon - it was called Deighton Hotel.

 Deighton's native wife died shortly after but before she died she arranged for Deighton to marry her 12-year-old niece Quahail-ya, also known as Madeline or Matrine. In 1871 she gave birth to Richard Mason Deighton. He was described as "a chubby little Indian boy with a very broad face who used to play around Gastown. He was such a dear little fellow, and they nicknamed him the Earl of Granville." 

It was in the same year that the Colony of British Columbia became a province of the Dominion of Canada.. During this period the Gastown settlement was attracting a diverse range of races, nationalities and religions. This inevitably led to friction between the communities and a number of robberies, fights and stabbings. 

Deighton, now known as Gassy Jack, as a concerned citizen and to protect his own vested interests was one of  petitioners of the Governor for better police protection. The outcome was the appointment in 1871 of a police constable who would be billeted in a government owned cottage called the Court House next to the Deighton Hotel. Behind it stood the jail consisting of two log cells without locks on the doors. Gastown was becoming established as a proper and permanent town.

Jack's brother Tom Deighton after his own life at sea accompanied by his wife took over the business in 1873, an advertisement in the local press reporting "large and comfortable parlors, single and double bedrooms, extensive dining rooms under the experienced management of Mrs. Tom Deighton . Jack , perhaps indicating his first love, returned to working a steamship that plied the Fraser River this time as a Captain of the steamer Onward.

However, this was to be a short lived return to ships as after a reputed family quarrel a few months later, Jack was forced to resume management of the saloon and operated it until he became ill. 

Legend has it that Jack's mastiff dog began to howl on the night of May 29, 1875. Jack hearing it howl said "You son of a bitch! There's something going to happen." Captain John Deighton- Gassy Jack of Gastown- was ,after a very full life ,only 44 years old when he died that night.

He was buried at the Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia. For his services to the town a monument was erected.

You may still be wondering where the nickname Gassy Jack came from. It was not because of an intestinal or gastric health affliction but because of his talkative nature and his penchant for storytelling.

Those lucky enough to hear him talk were evidently enthralled by “desperate adventures and hairbreadth escapes from Sydney docks, Yankee road agents, Mexican bandits, grizzly bears, etc

He was succeeded by his son, Richard but he died before Jack's meagre estate (about $300) was assessed. Quahail-ya , his second wife, returned to the North Shore and re-married. She died August 10, 1948, aged 90

The Deighton House was later burned down in June 1886 in the Great Vancouver Fire. An eyewitness account is that"One huge flame, a hundred feet long, burst from the Deighton Hotel, leaped Maple Tree Square, and swallowed up the buildings"

In honour of Jack Deighton, the Gassy Jack statue stands in Maple Tree Square, in Gastown.

A fitting tribute is that "At some future day when Vancouver becomes the emporium of the Pacific shores the name of the first permanent settler will be sought out by historians and given a name as great as that for which many thousands have ventured limbs, lives and fortunes. Yet the already-locally famous Gassy Jack never sought for fame, nor had he the least atom of hero about him."

That is definetly a character trait of someone from Hull

Tesla Tales

I have just said a fond farewell to my Tesla Model 3 at the end of a wonderful 3 years and just under 75000 miles. I could certainly fill a few blogs with my experience of driving full electric but here's just one..

 As a cyclist I have become well accustomed to being on the receiving end of abuse and lame comments from motorists. 

You know the themes- "get off and milk it", "hey, your wheel's going round", "look its Eddy Merckx?". 

Of course I have dismissed such comments without a second thought particularly in most traffic environments  I have been able to just leave vehicles and their frustrated owners stuck in the midst of a logjam. The motivation behind the shameful and anti-social behaviour of this minority can be attributable to many things although at its core, I firmly feel, is a deep rooted jealousy of the relative freedom and health benefits of riding a bike as opposed to being a prisoner in a box on four wheels (or even three). 

So, you can understand my sense of confusion and disbelief in that I am now attracting the same sort of verbal mud slinging in driving about in my latest car. 

If I mention that it is a Tesla and it is fully electric then you might yourself find a polarising of your own feelings towards the enigmatic but self-publicising Founder of the company or the dilemma that a move away from the internal combustion engine must be inevitable for the good of the planet and yet perhaps too much for us to think about in practical and economic terms for a few more years. 

My own decision to go for a Tesla was quite easy.  

I was just spending too much on the once perceived wonder fuel that is diesel and not a little concerned about the effect of the polluting particulates that choke our streets and all of those unwittingly inhaling them. 

There are obvious cost saving benefits. Just the other day my business workload took me to York, Scarborough and Whitby before a return to base in Hull. The 188 miles on a mixture of roads and variable amounts of traffic used just £4.68 worth of electricity. 

Add to that the hugely pleasurable experience of a very smooth and quiet ride, exhilarating acceleration when required and a great sound system and you have an all round performer of style and eco-credentials. 

These sentiments are as far away as possible from the driver of a big red Jaguar saloon who, on passing me in the opposite direction in slow moving traffic shouted out "Shiiiiiiiiiiittttttttt" at me and the Tesla. 

If I had not been so shocked at this verbal assault then I might have responded with "dinosaur" or "gas guzzler" but all I could manage was a good laugh a bit further down the street. 

Why was the driver so minded? 

The Jag could have been his dream car only attained after many years of hard work and saving up or even re-assembled tirelessly from a salvaged body shell and components. He could himself have been the target of attention by environmental activists over the polluting characteristics of the V6 engine under the bonnet and was just venting his wrath on the zero emissions of the Tesla. 

Increasing costs of fossil fuels, Road Fund Tax, Insurance and maintenance may have sounded for that driver the death knell of Jag ownership. His exclamation could well have been a lament. 

I hold my hand up to being enthralled by the sound of a throaty exhaust tone and sensation of tyres biting down into the tarmac when  an owner in the past of a capable vehicle but I recognise that such things are just not sustainable or acceptable. 

Yes, I am fortunate to be in a position to lease a Tesla but it just makes good business and ethical sense.

There are some great aspects of ownership of the make and model but I get the most buzz from the reactions of the younger generation who wave and jump about in an excited frenzy when they catch sight of the Tesla. 

Their unconditional expressions are borne out of a knowledge and appreciation of helping the environment, the need to fast track technologies and embrace quite revolutionary innovation rather than being bit of a cross between a cave man and a machine smashing Luddite.

Just to let you know that I have leased another Model 3 so perhaps further writing may follow.

Dunk

 All I said in my blog of yesterday, entitled "Dunk" was that a Jaffa Cake, that three layered treat comprising a Genoese sponge layer, orange jelly filling and dark chocolate top, was disqualified from being considered as a serious item to dunk because of its ambiguous and contentious status.

In that simple statement I seem to have whipped up a storm in a tea cup and a few persons have come at me with both biscuit barrels blazing.

I had not realised the depth of emotions that a Jaffa Cake envokes amongst the wider public.

I can only apologise for my seeming lack of understanding and appreciation for what has, after all, been part of the British lifestyle since it appeared from the McVities factory way back in 1927.

Surprisingly, and no doubt someone lost their employment status for it, the original mega-bakers failed to Trademark the name Jaffa Cake which explains why you can purchase said item from multiple retail outlets and get some tangible variance in quality of ingredients and taste.

In the dour and visualised as black and white inter war years , a time of social and economic depression, the sudden arrival of a taste of exotica must have been pretty welcome.

Of course the name Jaffa is derived from the Mediterranean Port of the same name synonymous with the growing and supply of Orange fruit.

For decades the Jaffa Cake maintained its position quietly and unassumingly in the top echelons of baked goods but then in 1991 it came into the gun sights of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and in their attempts to place on it the maximum possible rate of Value Added Tax, at that time recently increased from 8% to 15% and currently at a whopping 20%.

The Revenue policy and classifications levied a zero rate on biscuits and cakes as in very British pragmatism, borne out of the tradition of a tea break in everyday life , such items are necessities and not luxuries.

However, a coating of chocolate on a biscuit does make it a luxury therefore attracting the top rate but a similar coating on a cake does not. In the eyes of the men from the Excise, a Jaffa Cake was a biscuit for their revenue generating purposes.

McVities went all out to prove the opposite argument for  one of their best sellers also perhaps fearing that HM Customs and Excise would, if successful in this instance, go after other items from their production line.

The defence worked on the following pretences.

The product's name was regarded as a minor consideration. The ingredients were regarded as similar to those of a cake, producing from a thin cake-like batter rather than the thick dough of a biscuit. The product's texture was regarded as being that of a sponge cake. The product hardens when stale, in the manner of a cake. A substantial part of the Jaffa Cake, in terms of bulk and texture, is sponge.

The Revenue stood by their initial opinion in that ,in size, the Jaffa Cake is more like a biscuit than a cake.The product was generally displayed for sale alongside other biscuits, rather than with cakes. The product is presented as a snack and eaten with the fingers, like a biscuit, rather than with a fork as a cake might be.

To complicate matters the Tribunal overseeing the legal action also considered that children would eat Jaffa Cakes in "a few mouthfuls", in the manner of a sweet.

In the face of considerable pressure from the State it was the ruling of the VAT Tribunal that indeed a Jaffa Cake was a cake and in being covered in chocolate was not therefore at all subject to VAT.

The decision was clear and should have resulted in a National Day of Celebration although more likely to have been with a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake. A recent ruling by the Irish Government did re-introduce the element of ambiguity and contentiousness by applying a 13.5% VAT rate but tempered from the full prevailing 23% rate on the basis of a 12% moisture content.

Like the filling in a Jaffa Cake in the hot sweaty hands of a devotee the controversy may just run and run.

The tale of John, Dick and 3 Harry's (1929)

It's always a temptation amongst young boys to wander about on industrial and building sites out of normal working hours, throw a few things, take some memento's and perhaps damage stuff. I did it when young and am sure that many others have done it as well. 

I am not implying anything more than these generally harmless activities and pranks where the four boys of this story are concerned but they just happened to be in and around the Fish Market on St Andrew's Quay in Kingston Upon Hull when it burnt to the ground in August 1929. 

Far from being in the frame for arson the efforts of the boys (plus one other un-named youth) were truly valiant and heroic. 

The building, a vast covered area of some 3.85 acres or about the size of two football pitches, had only been completed and open for business for a matter of days. It was seen as a major development to keep Hull as a major fishing port and commercial market with 270 Merchants operating out of small offices around the market floor where, upon the landing by deep sea trawlers of their catches of plaice, soles, halibut,cod, whiting and hake there would be frenetic activity by an army of Clerks, Barrow-Men and Packers. 

The boxes of fish, freshly excavated from their iced surroundings in the holds of the trawlers would be sold to the Merchants who with equally frenetic activity on thousands of telephone lines made sure that their customers were catered for and that the awaiting railway carriages could be loaded quickly and efficiently to take the purchases to their destinations nationwide. 

Just prior to the outbreak of the devastating fire a flotilla of Trawlers had arrived and were moored pending unloading. The heat and spread of the fire must have been most fierce as 7 steam trawlers suffered major damage to their superstructures with masts, wheelhouses and cabins burned away notwithstanding the loss of valuable deck gear, ropes and lifeboats. 

The ships were the Norman, St Alexandra, Lord Deramore, Dairycoates, Frobisher, Ohm and Marconi, the latter pair belonging to the company Ross. 

H128 Ohm renamed in 1946 as shown

The spread of fire was witnessed by our famous five (plus the other one) who were spurred into action.

At some great personal risk the 3 Harry's and John went on board Frobisher and rescued a cat from the blistering and scorched cabin. They also helped to run out the fire hoses which were connected to a Donkey Engine in the Fish Meal Works. Where boxes were burning on the quayside the boys threw them into the dock. 

Watchmen on the trawlers found themselves in a dire predicament and peril from the advancing wall of fire. Some of them hung on ropes over the sides of the ships just above the waterline and at least one of them had to have overnight hospitalisation for exhaustion. 

In a separate but no less courageous action ,Dick and the other, un-named youth took a rowing boat and made efforts to rescue the exhausted escapees being able to take several ashore. The LNER Firetug was also in action. 

In the light of day the true extent of the disaster was apparent. 

As well as the damaged trawlers there had been the loss of 150 railway wagons of an expensive covered and braking type and hundreds of packing boxes, barrels, wheel barrows and weighing scales.

The livelihoods of the merchants had been ruined as many operated out of the premises. Upon arriving to sift through the still smouldering ashes of the building it was evident that business records and amounts of cash had been lost from the effect of the intense heat causing stronghold safes to burst open and spill their contents. It was reported that only one safe remained locked in the whole building and some £200 was undamaged. 

A site worth witnessing will have been the hordes of rats running about having been driven out of their nesting places by the fire. 

A saving grace was that the large catches of Icelandic and Faroes fish in the ice packed holds of the stricken trawlers had not been affected by the fire or smoke and Food Inspectors deemed them to be in excellent and saleable condition. 

However, the implications of the fire were hugely serious for Hull not just in the thousands of pounds of lost trade but with competing Ports in Grimsby and Fleetwood benefiting and taking the advantage until normal service could be resumed.

Nationally a shortage of fresh fish drove up the prices in that year. 

The unemployment and business interruption figures were not known but hundreds depended upon the Fish Market for their incomes. 

I have not been able to find out any further news about the brave youths- the three Harry's- Young, Duffield and Hepton, John Harper, Dick Campbell and the other. No doubt they may still have descendants in the local area some 91 years after that memorable event.

There is good footage of the aftermath of the fire on the Pathe News Website- 

It made the Pathe Newsreel

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/250-000-fire-disaster/query/St+Andrews+Dock

Happy Birthday Donald

This is a favourite of mine and pays homage to our wonderful parents. I thought it should have another airing today which will have been the 88th birthday of my Father, Donald, who is so very much missed, 

According to official Government guidance there is a critical time in any car journey taken by parents and children when everything kicks off and what could be a nice day out deteriorates into a big rumpus. A Survey of motorists has suggested that at precisely two hours and thirty seven minutes any children become agitated and begin to ask that question that crosses successive generations "are we nearly there yet?".

Within fourteen minutes of this sign of boredom chances are that arguments start to break out.

I am disappointed and a little bit disillusioned when I see a car full of children but none of them are actually looking out to see or apparently show an interest in where they are on their journey.

It is a case of heads down with hand held video game or slightly raised up but only at the TV screen set in the rear of the front head restraints.

Granted, when I was a nipper the most sophisticated piece of in car entertainment was an I-Spy book, Travel Mastermind, suppressing being sick or squabbling with my brothers and sisters whilst we sat stuck to the black vinyl seats of the family VW by the back of our bare legs and becoming increasingly hot , frazzled and irritable.

Otherwise, to wile away the miles of a long trip such as to our annual summer holiday in Scotland, Northumberland or Norfolk it was a case of watching the world go by out of the window if you had baggsied a seat to take advantage of it.

In the days before compulsory seat belts for back seat passengers it was easier to stand up behind the driver or front passenger and view from there.

I developed a great interests in the sights on the open road and this persists even today.

There were the landmarks that signalled our imminent arrival at a regular holiday venue.

Crossing the iconic Tyne Bridge in Newcastle meant that in just over an hour the distant turrets and towers of Bamburgh Castle would be in view and in a few more minutes after that we would be running through the loose, hot sand of the dunes onto the vast, wave lapped beach that seemed to stretch to the very edge of the known world, at least that in the perception of a 10 year old.

We would collectively count down the miles to the border with Scotland, always greatly anticipated but never failing to disappoint being marked only by a large blue and white thistle sign rather than a crossing into a strange, mist swirling, mountainous wonderland of lochs, glens and warlike kilt clad pipers.

It appears that Scotland is more of a frame of mind to a 10 year old than a momentous and deeply felt experience, at least for us children of half Scottish origin. My Father, an authentic Scot but born in Croydon was always a bit dewey eyed and emotional when safely reunited with his Kinsfolk for those two weeks of the year, give or take long distance travelling time.

I could be a bit of a nuisance in that I would always announce the obvious landmark or feature even though evidently visible and appreciated by all the occupants of the family car. I recall getting a slap on the leg by my parents, deservedly so in hindsight for my persistent chanting of "it's a dam", "it's a dam", "it's a dam" after seeing a dam somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. It had been signposted for miles but I could not contain my excitement at the thought of seeing it. Not that I really knew what a dam was for. On my return some 30 or so years later I could just not see what all the fuss was about. My own children saw it as a grassy bank holding back an expanse of cold and faintly rusty coloured water. That was all.

I did become quite an expert on geographical phenomena and even more so after really taking to my senior school lessons in that subject. On the journeys to or through the more interesting parts of the British Isles I could easily identify a burial mound as opposed to just a grassy knoll, an ox bow lake rather than a pond, a scree slope from just a pile of loose rocks, granite precipices from chalky downs, a dry valley from a wet one and so on.

The majority of my fond memories have one thing in common. They were all part of the build up to a great family holiday. Conversely, when the fortnight was over and that was almost in the blink of an eye or so it seemed, there were those landmarks that signalled, as Mother always said, that we would soon be "back to normal", ie home life, school and all that went with those sorts of things.

These included flat, boring landscapes only broken by the looming presence of the power station cooling towers or the pit head winding gear near Doncaster. Then there was the reddening skyline above the huge British Steel Works at Scunthorpe as we came to within 10 miles of our home town and soon, on the farther horizon the white painted post windmill at Wrawby.

The drive up the slightly elevated and winding estate road to our house was depressing for those of us still awake even after melting into the plastic of the uncooled car interior.

We children then dopily went to check that our bedrooms had not been ransacked or pillaged by unknown imagined persons. We had no thoughts whatsoever to offer our exhausted parents any help in unloading the car of the detritus of two weeks under canvas or in a small caravan with five kids.

Now that I am a father myself I can appreciate that the anticipation and excitement of travel as felt by children is simply reversed in the grown ups.

Whilst the journey to and arrival at a holiday venue is undoubtedly exciting it does not mean a rest from the chores and responsibilities for adults.

Indeed it invariably means that it is the same work but made harder and more challenging in a different and unfamiliar environment.

The coming into view of the Doncaster wastelands and the intrusive industrial processes that made that part of the country the powerhouse that it was in the 1970's must have been a welcome sight and with it the promise of a slightly easier existence for our parents.

They hid their hopes of a brief respite and return to normality from us at the time and it is only really now that I am able to appreciate that particularly skilful trait of practical and effective parenting. Margaret and Donald, my heroes.

Ferry Tales

This is one of an issue of 48 scenes around the UK produced as cigarette cards by Gallaher Limited in    1938 under the theme of "Coastwise" and depicting my adopted home city. Reproduced from the public domain resources of New York Public Library.

The Hull Shipbuilder and the Revolutionary Poster Boy

 History can throw up some interesting connections.

One of the most unlikely to come to my attention is a link between the City of Hull, East Yorkshire, UK and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Marxist Revolutionary, although perhaps better recognised as the face most likely to stare back at you from a 'T' shirt sported by many a student and activist.

I would say many people, and embarrassingly myself included, do not have a good practical comprehension of his background and significance to the political map in South America. I have never studied that period in history nor yet seen the quite recent movies of his earlier Motorcycle Diaries and the two part dramatisation of his life and times.

Hull has in its own history being known to mix-it in a revolutionary way, for example in refusing entry to Charles II reputed to have been the catalyst for the beginning of the English Civil War. Hull has passionately defended its rights and liberties and even to the present day a strong socialist allegiance and sympathy is to be found in its Members of Parliament and local Councillors..

Another thing that the Port excelled in and sadly has not managed to hold on to is the building of ships and it is this particular maritime activity that brought about the coming together of 'Che' and 'Ull'.

Earles Shipbuilding and Engineering Company was founded as a family enterprise in 1853 with its works in Victoria Dock, on the very eastern fringe of the Old Town, now a large genteel riverside housing estate.  Up to the demise of the business in the depression of the 1930's around 700 vessels were built ranging from Royal Navy Cruisers to trawlers, coastal water freighters to luxury steam yachts including commissions by Tsar Alexander VI in 1873 and 1874 , the Khedive of Egypt and the Duke of Marlborough.

The company earned a reputation for excellence in engineering and naval architecture and the order book thrived through the last half of the 19th Century. Their championing of the triple expansion steam engine, and its upscaling to a commercial application giving class leading efficiency in power and fuel consumption, proved a sensible economic choice for such operators as the Wilson Line arguably from the late 1800's the largest shipping concern in the world.

This major customer came to purchase Earles in 1900 when the Joint Stock Company went into liquidation after labour and cash flow problems.

In new ownership and with a more passenger and freight orientated outlook the world markets were open to be exploited. In 1904 the Peruvian Railway Corporation placed an order for a Steam Ship to operate not on the ocean routes of the Pacific Coast but across the landlocked Lake Titicaca, lying at an altitude of 12,500 feet or more than two miles above sea level.

British built vessels from yards on the Thames and Clyde did already operate on the main crossing routes but these were of a smaller tramp steamer size whereas the subsequently made in Hull  Inca at 220 feet long was considerably larger and able to carry bulk cargo and passengers in greater quantities.

The logistics of the commission required a special process and after initial construction on the banks of the River Humber the ship was then taken to pieces and the marked sections carefully packed to such a system that no part of the dismantled ship weighed more than 12 tons and the largest wooden case was no larger in dimension that ten feet by eleven. For an all in contract price of £22,285 (1905)  the oversized self assembly kit of parts were shipped in this 'knock-down' state to South America and then hauled by rail some 200 miles inland and uphill to the shores of Lake Titicaca. The subsequently re-assembled Steamer marked a new era in the Peruvian economy centred on the Lake.

By way of after sales service a replacement hull from Hull was sent out for attachment in the late 1920's and Inca continued as a major haulier for a further decade. Trade across the lake between settlements and inhabited islands as well as between Peru and neighbouring Bolivia was increasing and by the 1930's the ageing fleet was struggling to cope. Inca and its success resulted in a repeat order to Earles Shipbuilders in 1930 and the keel of Ollanta was laid down in Hull in the early summer months. Some 40 feet longer than her sister vessel, Ollanta was the latest thing in steamship travel taking 66 First Class Passengers and 20 Second Class with dining room, smoking rooms and promenade decks in addition to a deadweight capacity for 950 tons of cargo.

After a five month build in Hull the same dismantling and packing took place as with Inca and after a long sea and onward train journey the boxed kit arrived at Puno on the western side of the Lake.

A problem not seemingly encountered when the Inca was re-assembled in 1905 was evident to the Earles engineers accompanying the crated up Ollanta in that the local labour lacked suitable skills and experience for such a task.

A slipway had to be built from scratch and old railway equipment was cannibalised to make heavy machinery. Ingenuity and enterprise in conjunction with innovative engineering application saw Ollanta in full service by November 1931 only 8 months after the crates had been opened .

It was during the service of Ollanta that 'Che', when a student, took passage and my tortuous link is at last explained.

Inca was eventually scrapped in the 1990's although it was reported that this had been a hasty decision and the ship was actually in good lake-worthy condition.

Ollanta is still to be seen on Lake Titicaca although now in a more tourist income generating roll having been recently refurbished for genteel cruising rather than general haulage. The Yard Build Plate number for Ollanta at 679 indicated only a short remaining period of activity for Earles Shipbuilding in Hull before falling to the global depression.

As a contractural condition of the winding up order in 1933 no shipbuilding could take place on the Humber Bank site for a period of 60 years. Much of the equipment and the distinctive Earles Crane was sold off and ended up in Kowloon which saw emerging economies take over as the main source of new build ships which appears to have been maintained to the present day.

Other yards on the Humber frontage have in more recent years produced smaller specialist vessels and the latest demand has been driven to service the offshore turbine industry.

The halcyon years of maritime engineering excellence in the City may seem a very distant memory similarly the link between a Hull built steamer and Che Guevara but nevertheless, in the same fashion a viable future in renewable energy represents an undeniable wind of change.

Bounty from Hull

 Shipbuilding and Repairing was one of the oldest and most important local industries in Hull with documented yards, staithes and docks along the course of the tidal River Hull from 1427. Not an unusual industrial process for a port town but able to thrive over many others because of the availability of oak from the hinterland and the trade with Europe for Baltic mast spars (big tree trunks) and good quality sail cloth.

Some of the dry dock basins survive today but only just. The river corridor has been identified for large scale redevelopment along the lines of a casino complex and combined commercial, retail and residential blocks. As with most ambitious and speculative projects in  recessionary times there is a prolonged stay of execution for the inevitable infilling and destruction of these architectural features.

Most of the activity was around the west bank of the river running parallel to the historic Old Town and High Street. Early hand drawn maps of this location, even before the construction of the dock basins, clearly show symbolic ships hulls on the mud as a statement of intent for the merchants and entrepreneurs of the time. The subsequent permanent sites included North Bridge Yard, Number One Dry Dock, the South End Graving Dock and the most well known being Blaydes Shipyard.

It was in the yard of Benjamin Blaydes that he commissioned, for his own fleet , a small hardy collier ship in the name of Bethia in 1784. The vessel was just 2 inches short of 91 feet long and with a beam of  24'4". Cost to build was recorded at £1950 , roughly £195,000 in current monies. A short time after launch and sea trials the stocky Bethia, fully expected to ply her trade around the coastal waters of the UK was purchased by The Royal Navy at an enhanced price of £2600 turning Mr Blaydes a tidy profit.

The ship was renamed The Bounty and the rest is history or at least the Hollywood version of events, perhaps a waste of paradise. My often dormant but lingering interest in Hull's maritime heritage and in particular taking the wrapper off The Bounty story was sparked by an advertisement by a US based yacht agency.

The 1961 built replica of The Bounty or should it be just Bounty, is on the market for US$4.6m . The ship was custom made for the 1962 epic Mutiny on The...... film and has been well preserved and almost fully rebuilt on a regular basis. The replica was built on the original Admiralty Archive blueprints but as a concession for the equipment and logistics of movie making the dimensions were scaled up to 180 feet long and with a 32 foot beam. The reason, the cameras needed considerable space for operation and action shots.

In 1790 the original Bounty was torched by the mutineers upon reaching landfall on Pitcairn Island. For authenticity this was the full intention of the Director, Lewis Milestone but it appears that Marlon Brando kicked up such a fuss that the ship was spared this fate. I have yet to see this version of the film to determine if a balsa wood model filled with lighter fluid was substituted in the closing scenes or whether a very early and bright around the edges form of CGI was used.

I have not seen what the co-stars Trevor Howard and Richard Harris had to say on the subject. What is on offer for the amount of US$4.6m? The true Bounty was pretty small and a full crew was only 44 officers and men. The replica, a real party boat can accommodate 150 revellers on deck or 49 berthed sleepovers. The luxury package caters for only 12 passengers. There is 100,000 square feet of sail in full trim but I cannot really see the guests mucking in by climbing the rigging. Fletcher Christian would certainly have welcomed the modern concession of twin diesel engines.

Otherwise, it is all there. 3 masted, spanker boom, topgallant and other nautical equipment I am not sure about. The ship is in regular use and has just completed its 2011 tour of UK waters, Belgium and Scandinavia before returning to its US base but why not a quick visit to Hull?

Ironically, the replica Bounty will have crossed the latitude of the Humber a few times in its summer excursions and there would be a tremendous interest in even a short layover given the origins of the legend. I cannot promise any serious expressions of interest to purchase the vessel amongst the proud citizens of Hull but the queues on the quayside ready to mount the gang plank would be guaranteed.

When it comes to remembering the maritime heritage of the city this sort of thing really floats our boat.

I wrote this a few years ago but had to air it again with the news that The Bounty replica foundered and sank in the natural phenomena and disaster that was Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Fatalities were recorded.

Grassed up 1724

I often look out from my office window, which is directly onto the Humber Estuary, in a daydreaming state imagining the river users over the Millenia. 

On its shores have been excavated Prehistoric Boats made out of a whole tree trunk.

The Romans used Brough Inlet as a staging post for troops and supplies to serve their North of England campaign.

Other Invaders and marauders from Europe will have used it as back door into the hinterland of England

There has been a maritime trade for imports and exports for centuries including goods and in the tide of some 2.2 million immigrants who were landed at Hull before making their onward epic journey to the New World and all points west..

I came across a paragraph in a newspaper archive from October 1724 which highlighted a particular practice which I admit I had not really thought about on my very doorstep. 

It reads as follows;

Whereas eighteen Felons Convict were lately ship'd off on board a Sloop in the River Humber, in order to be transported to His Majesty's Dominions in America but have since made their escape from on board the said Sloop on the shore of Essex and there is all possible cause of suspicion that the said escape has happened through the connivances of some person or persons instructed with the care of their transportation. 

In order of the discovering and punishing of the authors and abettors of this wicked practice that the like may the better be prevented for the future and that the offenders may be seized and brought to justice His Majesty is graciously pleased to promise his pardon to any one or two of the Felons who will surrender him or themselves and make discovery thereof in such a manner that the said offender or offenders may be brought to justice and punished according to his or their demerits.

The Penny Falls

Michael Farron was amongst some 600 Navvies working on excavating the basin and lock pit opening for the new Albert Dock in Hull 1868. 

The men and boys of the workforce were some 21 feet below what would become the level of the quayside. In his own words Farron described that as his spade struck a large stone it suddenly burst open and hundreds of coins cascaded out into the mud. 

There was an understandable scramble to retrieve and claim some of this hoard of coins evidently concealed in the hollowed out innards of the stone. This action was to be expected as a welcome windfall for the Navvies whose daily rate was at or below subsistence level. 

There was a general wider distribution of the coins amongst those present and a few were sold on for trifling sums. The coins were described as being in good condition and with their markings clearly discernible. Farron himself took a few of them thinking that they were of no value. 

The news of the hoard soon came to the attention of Treasury Officials in London and a raid was made to recover the items. 

Out of the alleged hundreds of pieces only a very small proportion were recovered in the initial operation and these were already spread over a wide area. There was a slow drip feed of coins over the ensuing decades from donations from local holders, private collectors or through auction sales. 

The Hull Museum on Albion Street catalogued 19 pieces in 1927 thought to have come from the hoard although in the devastating world war two bombing of that very grand porticoed building most of the collection was strewn about in the rubble and damaged or lost. 

It was well into the twentieth century that resources were dedicated to studying the hoard. 

The location of the find had at one time been one of the openings of the delta of the River Hull. It had been sealed off in the reign of Edward the First in the fourteenth century so that a single deeper water and navigable river channel could be formed to promote Kingston Upon Hull as a Port and a fortified base for naval vessels on what was a front line with Europe. 

Specialists called to investigate the hoard included historians, numismatists, metallurgists and laboratory based scientists. Understandably there was a wide range of opinions. 

An initial analysis was that the coins were Demi-Sterlings from John the Blind (1309-1347) who had fought and died at the Battle of Crecy and prior to that had been a Count of Luxembourg and Titular King of Poland. The Luxembourg State Museum were consulted. This line of enquiry was inconclusive as the coins could not be matched up to any of that era that had otherwise been in common circulation on the continent. 

Other scrutiny of the markings on some of the coins revealed lettering of "Edwardensisrex" , a London reference and clear depiction of a head and 3 painted crowns although there was an inconsistency in the lettering including a Lombardic "n". 

This led to speculation that the coins were Ha'penny issue from the reign of Edward the First which tied in with the location factor. However there was a further hypothesis that the hoard was possibly from the reign of Edward the Third who had issued Kingston Upon Hull with a Regal Issue of coinage in the 1300's. 

A series of Laboratory based tests on weight and metal content showed a poorly quality of materials and in the method of their striking. Coins of the 1300's were of a hammered type. Most revealing was the combination of a very low silver content ,traces of a silver wash onto an inferior and debased copper metal and a higher proportion of lead. This latter observation of lead was not unusual as it was a constituent in the refining of silver but not at such an elevated level. 

Gradually the consensus amongst those investigating the hoard was that it was in fact the output of a local forger. 

Farran and his contemporaries had, back in 1868, doubted that the coins has been freshly planted as a hoax given the circumstances and lack of opportunity for a perpetrator to access the building site of the Albert Dock and conceal the hollowed out stone and its stash. 

The scientific analysis was consistent with the Medieval period and so the forger, whether intentionally hiding his work or having disposed of them into the river in a panic had been from the 1300's. 

The latter explanation is more plausible as the coins because of their poor quality would have to be mixed in with legal coinage and circulated in an area of larger population than the still rather parochial Kingston Upon Hull of that era. This would have meant the coins reaching London or sent to the Continent where political, social and commercial upheaval would present a greater opportunity for subtle distribution for illicit profit into the economy. 

Continental coins of that period did have a lower silver content than English coins and so the baser material might be more readily accepted without question. 

The idea of a Hull based forger of the Medieval period is quite intriguing and particularly the chain of events that led to their eventual discovery during construction of the Albert Dock in 1868. 

I just hope that the individual was not attached to the stone either by accident or as an early example of local gang warfare over the lucrative crime of coin forging.

Press Gang Deadlines in Hull

 A life at sea in the 18th and 19th Centuries was the chosen career of only a few. 

To the majority it was a necessity to head for the high seas to support a family and dependants or to escape the squalor and deprivations of a shore based existence. 

Saying that the turnover of personnel was huge and a startling statistic from the era was that out of the hundreds of thousands of fatalities whilst in the service of the Royal Navy the vast majority of these were not from actual conflict but from diseases such as malaria, dysentery and those of a sexually transmitted type. 

In the interests of keeping up the numbers for the vital maritime service the power of Impressment was available. 

Not a common word in the modern vocabulary it meant the collection by force of unwilling recruits for the navy and the army. 

In its more common manifestation of the Press Gang it was a most hated and violently resisted practice and in my home city, the Port of Kingston Upon Hull in Yorkshire, England there was often bloodshed and rioting of its townspeople against its use. 

The legitimately operating Press Gangs were based in vessels anchored in the Humber Estuary known as the Inner and Outer Guard. One of these positions was just off the Old Garrison and the other at Whitebooth Roads. 

From here the Press Gangs were able to intercept merchant ships as they approached what they expected to be the safety of the harbour after many weeks, months and more on the High Seas. This was particularly cruel as many of the returning crew members would be within sight of their home Port and the welcome prospect of a reunion with loved ones who may have been witness to the very events from the shore. 

Perhaps the most common perception of the Press Gangs was of a land based contingent preying on individual seamen who may have been separated from their peers or were worse for wear from drink or other forms of stupor. 

In Hull the main Press Gang was of 12 men and an Officer. They were regularly involved in scuffles on Church Lane and in Humber Street in the Dockside areas which invariably ended in bloodshed. There were reports of sailors being dragged from stage coaches on the Beverley Road or a hunting ground which yielded forth a good quota of unfortunates was amongst those leaving the popular public houses of Ships Glory and Labour in Vain. 

In the early 19th Century a seaman crossing North Bridge was accosted by a Press Gang but wriggled out of his jacket and was then pursued. 

Workers at the Old Dock Basin saw his plight and joined in on the side of the seaman. Being outnumbered by the public the Press Gang ran down Lowgate and headed for their base on Humber Street. Such was the venom of the mob that the premises were wrecked and furnishings thrown out into the street and into the river. 

This type of public reaction was common where the actions of Impressment were seen or rumoured to be about to take place. 

A good proportion of the massed rank mobs were women which was understandable in that their menfolk, whether husbands, lovers, sons or brothers were at risk from being spirited away to the far reaches of the Empire, likely as not never to be seen again. 

Examples of mob action were common.

In 1798 a Naval Lieutenant and his Gang were attacked by a crowd and the Militia had to be called out to enact a rescue. 

In 1803 a mob chased a Gang to the Ships Glory pub and proceeded to tear the place apart. 

A spy gathering information for the Press Gang on the Beverley Road was spotted by a group of women who were working haymaking in a meadow. They challenged him .His fate is not known. 

It was not just seamen who were in peril of being forcibly requisitioned into the Royal Navy. A Shipwright in 1815 was seized as he left the Dockyard. In desperation he jumped into Humber Dock but was followed in by two of his pursuers. A fight ensued in the murky water before the civilian was rescued by onlookers who had found a rowing boat. 

One of the most violent conflicts was not on the shore within the Old Town of Hull but just out on the Humber. The two Guard Ships, the Nonesuch and Redoubt approached and attempted to board the Blenheim, a whaler on its return to Hull from Arctic waters. The crew of the Blenheim were tough, seasoned seafarers and put up a stiff resistance using the tools of their trade, knives and harpoons. 

The Blenheim was also fired upon but got through the Old Harbour Entrance and was run ashore. The Press Gang boarders closed in but two of their number were killed in the fight. One of the Blenheim crew had his hand on the bulwark when struck by a cutlass. He thereafter became known around the Port as Three Fingered Jack. 

The battle drew a large crowd who were partisan in their support for the Whaling Crew. The outcome was that the Captain of The Blenheim was sent to York Assizes Court but was acquitted of all charges and returned to Hull to a heroes welcome. 

The era of the Press Gangs became well established in the history and folklore of Hull although was not the most auspicious for its violence and as a cause of aggravation to its hard working people.

Burton Constable - population 60000

The Radio One Big Weekend at the end of May 2107 was held in the grounds of the Elizabethan Mansion at Burton Constable, some 8 or so miles to the north-east of the regional city of Hull.

It was a good choice for an event of that scale and national importance in terms of having lots of space and little chance of complaints about the noise as there are no real neighbours to the picturesque and landmark Hall.

On the downside the perceived remoteness of the rural area, narrow roads and somewhat of a pinch point on routes in and out of the venue called for a clever and customised transport scheme by the organisers.

The 50,000 crowd over the two days were taken there by 170 buses and coaches running a shuttle service from Park and Ride facilities and principal interchanges. In the course of some 625 trips what was, in effect, the population of a medium sized town were taken into and out of the music festival proving that the planning and logistics worked.

Many of the tens of thousands of visitors who were seeing Burton Constable for the first time will have remarked about its isolation in the open countryside of East Yorkshire.

The settlement actually peaked in or around the 13th Century when records showed a Manor House, 15 Cottages, 21 persons eligible to farm a measure of land called a bovate, and a windmill.

The place was deserted however by around 1488 with many similar hamlets suffering the same outcome arising from uneconomic conditions, the enclosure of land for sheep farming or as a consequence of the devastation wreaked by the Black Death even after its main outbreak in the century before.

Other bits of land became emparked whereby a Lord of the Manor could seize lands for his own use, as in creating a landscape for his own country house.

In May 2017 Burton Constable comprised the mansion, outbuildings, some Estate Cottages, a caravan and timber lodge park, lake and the usual ancillary functions for a sizeable landed environment.

Things could have been so much different.

In 1945 the esteemed team of Edwin Lutyens and Patrick Abercrombie proposed construction of a completely new satellite town in order to relieve the pressures on the bomb damaged housing stock and infrastructure of Kingston Upon Hull.

Their 1945 Plan selected as a suitable location the sleepy Burton Constable for what would be major town with a population of some 60,000 people, therefore quite close to the numbers bussed in for just one weekend of live music.

The New Town would sprawl within a radius of five and a half miles and swallow up the small villages of Withernwick, West Newton, Ellerby and Marton in its land grab bid.

This type of urban development had been pioneered in the guise of the Garden Village Movement in the inter war era and would go on in the post war and more modern eras to include the likes of Cumbernauld, Skelmersdale and Harlow.

Burton Constable was proposed because of its proximity to the Hull to Hornsea railway line operated at that time by LNER, the low lying geography of the district and the availability of wide open spaces with low levels of anticipated compulsory purchase or demolition and clearance of existing housing and other buildings.

The large population was to be distributed within 8 neighbourhoods of varying density from around 50 persons per acre down to 20 per acre. These would be arranged around a Central Area with good public transport links, wide carriageways and good provision of foot and cycle paths. The town would be relatively self sufficient in shopping and business facilities, banks and offices, hotels, entertainment and recreational amenities, technical schools, colleges and health establishments although, presumably the greater proportion of those of working age would have to  commute to Hull and the wider region for employment opportunities.

The Lutyens and Abercrombie Plan of 1945 was held to be worthy of the citizens of Hull following their heroism and stoicism in the wartime bombing that had only ceased months before and the Chairman of the Reconstruction Committee, Alderman Schultz predicted a rise from the ashes, Phoenix-like if the proposals could be brought about following the usual discussion, consultation, amendments and counter proposals that such an important process would demand.

In crude terms the idea of a New Town for Hull went for a Burton or rather, it didn't.

The Generation Game

We take for granted that with the flick of a switch, turn of a thermostat, dial up on a shower and in fact anything relying on a power supply will, well, just bring forth light, heat, hot water and facilitate all manner of creature comforts.

These things relate to our own domestic environments and lifestyles.

So, upscale everything to a commercial and industrial scale and reliability, dependability and economy are paramount to keep machines and processes operational.

In the Victorian era the inspired inventors of that time sought to establish a system of power very much like that of the National Grid today. It was an ambitious idea.

In the late 19th century, what was termed a hydraulic network might have been used in a factory, with a central steam engine or water turbine driving a pump and with a system of high-pressure pipes transmitting power to various machines. This was very much on a small scale.

In fact the  idea of a large public hydraulic power network was suggested as early as 1812. William Armstrong began installing systems in England from the 1840s, using low-pressure water, but a breakthrough occurred in 1850 with the introduction of the hydraulic accumulator, which allowed much higher pressures to be used.

The first public hydraulic network under an 1872 Act of Parliament was in the port and city of Hull, in Yorkshire, England.

A provision of the Act was that  a million gallons of water a day from the River Hull could be used at a cost of £12 10s per 250,000 gallons per year to the Hull Corporation. In this way it was also the first public utility in Hull.

With legislation in place the Hull Hydraulic Power Company began operation in 1876 from a purpose built power station on Machell Street just a few yards away from the tidal River Hull as it runs along a north to south axis before spilling out into the Humber Estuary.

In technical terms it was a major civil engineering feat. The pumping station, a low brick building with a large cast iron roof tank, ancillary buildings including a hydraulic accumulator and a large chimney stack was the steam powered engine room for a network of interconnected pipes under the city.

Machell Street- today

The six inch diameter pipes ran for some two and a half miles to serve plant and machinery in the thriving Freight and Timber Docks. In this way the infrastructure of the Port could be operated on demand and this included the distinctive dock cranes, heavy lock gates to and from the estuary and the heavy machinery which was associated with ships and shipbuilding.

Anyone who has lived around the river will be familiar with its languid, brown passage even in full flow when draining the East Yorkshire hinterland. The roof tank, manufactured by Stacey Davis and Co from their Phoenix Foundry in Derby, allowed the mud and silt to settle out of the huge volume of water so that it would not enter into the power plant.

By 1895, pumps rated at 250 hp , a major output for the Victorian era, took in some 500,000 imperial gallons of water into the system each week. The accumulator boosted working pressure to 700 psi. At a suitable distance along the main pipework were isolation valves and also air cocks to be able to drain the system of air.

Customers were able to access the system from 'T' pieces of 2", 3" and 4" from the main pipework. In this way some 58 machines of diverse type and location came to be powered by the system.

There were other private hydraulic systems installed at Hull's Albert Dock in 1869 and Alexandra Dock in 1885.The success of such systems led to them being installed in places as far away as Antwerp in Belgium, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

The Machell Street plant operated continuously from 1876 and it was only after damage inflicted on the pipework and infrastructure in the severe bombing of Hull in the second world war that prohibitive repair costs led to the company being wound up in 1947.

Hull City Council erected a Blue Plaque in 1990 to mark the historic significance of the Machell Street premises as the first public hydraulic power station in the UK.

                            The building is in some use today for storage, workshops and tyre fitting.

Sods Law

 Sourced from the digital site of the New York Public Library is this interesting reference to a Turf Maze which existed just to the East of my home city of Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire. 

As the name suggests it is a form of labyrinth of simple shallow excavation and yet the best documented and even fewer surviving examples today depict complex geometric and symbolic shapes. 

The record of the Hull Turf Maze comes from a publication entitled "The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashion and Politics". The date of the issue was April 1815 which in terms of context was just a couple of months before the pivotal Battle of Waterloo on mainland Europe.

The contributor is only initialled but evidently it was quite an honour to have a submission or article accepted as he or she is quite star-struck in their tone of writing. 

The Hull Turf Maze was called "Walls of Troy" which will have hearkened from the famous Ancient City whose defences were designed to thwart and confuse attacking forces. 

The location was only identified as being some four miles east of Hull and nestled close to the bank of the River Humber. In 1815 the area will have been perceived as quite lonely and remote amongst agricultural land and tracts being reclaimed from the boggy estuary. There will have been a few dispersed farmsteads and workers cottages and an early fortification at Paull to defend the approach to Hull against the then threat of the navy of Napoleon. 

The Maze was described as a duodecagon some forty feet in diameter. 

Within these parameters were twelve circumscribed grass walks each of a path thirteen to fourteen inches wide and dug out to a depth of six inches. The correspondent made it 320 ordinary paces to negotiate. 

They were a popular feature of village fairs and festivities from the 17th Century onwards although earlier Medieval versions are thought to have served a religious purpose to simulate the tortuous route of a Pilgrimage or if crawled on hands and knees as a form of penalty for sins. 

As a living natural thing many mazes if not regularly tended and maintained just disappeared or just fell out of fashion under the depopulation of the countryside with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and Urbanisation. 

It is not therefore surprising that to the present day only 8 turf mazes have survived in England and even fewer in Europe or wider afield. 

One notable Turf Maze is at Alkborough on the edge the Lincolnshire Wolds overlooking the convergence of the Rivers Trent, Ouse and Derwent. As the crow flies this is just 20 or so  miles from the likely Hull location in the Marfleet and Paull area. 

Julians Bower is meticulously kept and well worth a visit to appreciate the workmanship and symbolism. As with many such Mazes there are fabled tales of their origins. Julians Bower has a legendary link to a Knight who formed it as a Pennance for his involvement in the murder of Thomas a Becket in 1170 but it is actually thought to date from around 1670. 

Julians Bower at Alkborough, Lincolnshire 

The Hull maze has an even more hazy provenance although the 19th Century contributor claimed to have met a passing countryman who claimed credit for it. 

The illustration below may be the closest representation of the Hull Maze

Unfortunately Walls of Troy was either neglected and reclaimed by nature or intentionally destroyed under the plough some time in the mid 1800's.