At the Speed of a Bird

If you study a map of the United Kingdom you cannot overlook the Estuary of the River Humber, amongst the greatest of the nations's watercourses and responsible for draining around 20% of the land area of England. 

It is also represents the largest volume of fresh water flowing out to the North Sea.

In Roman times it was a main route for trading vessels and later the Vikings will have exploited its connections into the Trent and Ouse to reach far into the hinterland. A few years ago when walking the dogs I found a Silver Groat from the reign of Edward the Third (1327 to 1377) in the mud on a section of the north foreshore suggesting that its former owner may have lost it after making a foot crossing.

My wife's grandfather knew the way at low tide before deep water shipping channels and shifting sands made it impossible, if not foolhardy to attempt now. 

A bridge was an early political promise but prior to the construction of the World's longest suspension bridge in 1981 it was only by paddle steamer that the north and south banks of the Humber were linked. 

Otherwise the road trip was around 70 miles rather than about a mile as the seagull flew. My father actually lodged during the week away from the Lincolnshire family home during his appointment to Lloyds Bank in a town inland from Hull because of the time and cost that would be incurred for a daily commute over such a long distance and in the pre-motorway era. 

This watery physical barrier was a recognised disadvantage to achieve the objective of a unified and commercially strong Humberside region. 

In 1966 the Economic Planning Council for this part of the country discussed the possibility of a hovercraft or hydrofoil service between New Holland (which was the Steamer Pier) and the City of Hull.  

The iconic paddle steamers were quite a treat for all of their theatre and spectacle but their schedules were very much at the mercy of the tides and mud banks. My eldest sister had to be evacuated to a smaller boat after one of the steamers ran aground and got stuck downstream. 

The unsatisfactory situation called out for a bit of Entreprenurial spirit. 

Although little known, other than by those who used it, a Passenger and Parcel Service by Hovercraft began in 1968 from Corporation Pier in Hull to what was referred to as The Hoverport in the Royal Dock, Grimsby. 

Thanks to a bit of investigative work by a kind lady in Scotland some wonderful marketing documents about "Hoverlink" have surfaced and make for interesting reading as well as constituting a valuable historical record of the life and times of the region. 

Advertised as "The new exciting way to cross the Humber" the service was actually quite short lived. 

Two hovercrafts, the Mercury and Minerva plied the muddy waters five times a day weekly and with a reduced weekend service. The turnaround time between the destinations was about an hour implying around 30 minutes for a crossing. 

There may have been a gross miscalculation of potential users making the service unsustainable quite quickly after inauguration but another possibly unforeseen consequence of tackling the tidal Estuary was the wear and tear on the mechanics of a Hovercraft which caused damage and unreliability. 

This was in spite of the vessels being the latest type in the world and with the journey referred to as a "flight" and not a sailing. 

The fare was 24 Shillings for an adult  and 16 shillings for a child on a return flight basis and with a weekend cheap rate of 18 shillings and 9 shillings for the same respectively. 

After the demise of this very modern mode of transport, the Hovercraft only having been invented in 1958, it was back to a nice cup of tea in the Salon on the Paddle Steamers whilst enjoying the shortest route across the mighty Humber, well until that service ceased with the opening of the Humber Bridge.