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hi I'm whole history nerd and welcome to
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the very first episode of series 2 of
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the history of hull and in this series
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we're gonna be looking at perhaps one of
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holds most defining features its role as
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a port and it's long and complex history
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with the sea
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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once upon a time there wasn't a Kingston
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upon Hull there was a river undulating
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its way lazily to a meeting with the
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Humber its waters Brown with the
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sediments of the boulder clay of the
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worlds in the 11th century nobody lived
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here except a few farmers at the hamlet
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of might and just to the west of the
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river this farm first appears in the
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history books in 1086 as part of the
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property of the manor of North Farabee
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and the word white was instead used to
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describe the whole area of the junction
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between the river hull and the Humber
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estuary and it comes from the
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Scandinavian word week which means Creek
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now it's hard to find anywhere along the
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river hall where it looks like it would
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have done in the 11th or 12th century
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when hole first started out but this is
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about as close as we can get this is
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near Dunn's well just outside the city
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and even this has been changed because
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you can see along the sides there the
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ridges either side of the river are
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levees that were artificially built to
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try and stop it from flooding the
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surrounding areas which leads us in to a
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very important point about the
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surrounding area of hole basically it's
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a floodplain and in the Middle Ages the
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coastline of this area of Britain was
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very different from what we see today
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the Humber estuary for instance was vast
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and covered the huge swampy area that we
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now know as Holderness it was pretty
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much permanently underwater with just
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the occasional hill coming out of the
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surface there is some circumstantial
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evidence that the area where the river
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meets the Humber had been home to a kind
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of semi-permanent trading port a place
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where River vessels from York and
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Beverly would meet up and trade with
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larger seagoing vessels a system that
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may have gone on during the times
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leading up to and just after the Norman
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invasion
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but in the 12th century a group of
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Cistercian monks from fountains abbey
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moved into the northeast just north of
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Warren and built News Abbey like most
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medieval monastic groups they were very
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interested in making money with the land
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that they'd taken residence on and they
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were granted much of the area of the
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wieck between 1160 and 1200 in various
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deals that saw them gain sheep pasture
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fisheries and the Hamlet's of might in
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itself and as their network of drains
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began to unfold across Holderness
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turning acres of boggy floodplains
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arable land they needed a dock to sell
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their crops and their wool whilst there
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were ports at the new town of hadn't
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built a century earlier and Beverly on
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the back either of those were ideal for
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the monks you see like all good medieval
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monks and indeed all good Yorkshire folk
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they were all about saving the pennies
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and if they had to send their goods out
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by ahead and Beverly they had to pay
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duties they decided to make their own
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dock on the banks of the river hull
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presumably formalizing the old trading
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person turning it into a town he had the
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advantage of having deeper water access
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and in the drainage plans for Holderness
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there had been a created a deep drain
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called sayers Creek linking the river to
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the Humber that was perfect as a
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secondary landing for birds the town was
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born on this site
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east of the river hole and slightly west
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of sayers Creek and became known as Wike
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so this is the point where the river
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whole emptied into the Humber estuary
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and if you're confused right now you
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probably should be because this is the
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Locke of Albert Dock but trust me on
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this one
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the river hole wasn't always where you
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think it is the original River hole did
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indeed empty into the Humber right where
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I'm standing and at some point in the
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13th century one story says that there
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was an epic flood a massive storm that
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flooded all the way inland as far as
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Cottingham and when the waters receded
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the course of the hole had shifted from
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this
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to say is Creek the channel that the
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abbey of muted dug and that from then on
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became known as the river hole and this
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was known for a while as the old hole
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but referred to by most people by the
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name lime kiln Creek and it still ran
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from the river for the next few hundred
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years gradually silting up and becoming
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less and less important until finally it
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was buried during the construction of
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Albert Dock but you can still see the
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ship of where the river used to go
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because if you look on a map
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Waterhouse Lynn used to run alongside it
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for quite a long way and we think it
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joined up pretty much at high flags
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where the Scott Street bridges today
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there you go now you know the river hole
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wasn't always where you thought it was
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the early river traffic had mostly been
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fishing birds but by the late 12th
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century it was starting to trade in wool
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and one of the earliest mentions of this
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was that the wool contributed by a group
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of monasteries for the ransom of King
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Richard the first was collected at the
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port of Hull by the turn of the 13th
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century we know that wool was the
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leading export of white stocks and we
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also know from the twelve 20s that wine
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was a major import but until proper
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records began in 1275 little more was
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known about the town's trade by the
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1290s
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news a bee was experiencing some
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financial difficulties and so the new
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Abbot's who took over in 1286 started
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renting out vast areas of the land
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including the town of wieck been 1292
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King Edward the first stopped by the
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area and made a critical assessment of
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the area's ports in relation to his
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ongoing feud with the Scots Hedden was
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deemed too small with its key being fed
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by a narrow shallow creek that required
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constant dredging as trade ships were
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getting larger so that was unsuitable
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Ravens are odd bill perhaps unwisely on
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spurn point proved its failings by
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gradually falling into the sea over the
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next few years and by being accessible
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only by traversing the still marshy
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flood
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of south Holderness this part of wife
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was far and away the best choice in the
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region to establish a solid link in a
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supply chain from London to Scotland he
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acquired the town in 1293 and the name
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was changed to the Kings town upon Hull
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in a charter in 1299 and name it bears
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to this very day in these early days a
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key was a fairly simple affair if you
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had a straight stretch of river bank and
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deep enough water to more a ship there
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you had a key
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you could offload your stuff but it
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started to get very crowded so
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individual businesses would build their
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own jetties called stairs into this
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river itself and these were often built
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by merchants who earned property and
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warehouses all along here on the bank of
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the hole and they would create their own
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personal keys which was great it meant
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that more ships could more up but it did
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create something of a disaster for the
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Customs and Excise officers who had an
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absolute nightmare policing them
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smuggling was rife in those days and the
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city of hole also gained its own
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protection as well from attack
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this was the Middle Ages after all again
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town walls on the north west and south
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sides but nothing on the east because
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well this was where all the ships moored
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up we couldn't build a wall here so what
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they did do rather ingeniously here at
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the mouth of the river a huge colossal
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chin stretched from side to side wound
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in by a capstan and that will stop any
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enemy ships from sailing up the Humber
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ingenious very effective
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the medieval trade in wool in Europe was
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massive and whole had a big part to play
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in exporting it at points being the
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third largest exporter of well in the
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entire kingdom and it was becoming such
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a big thing that the Italian merchant
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guilds and families were starting to
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take notice and some of them even had
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offices and agents in the city but it
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also produced homegrown fortunes as well
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such as those of the della Paul brothers
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Richard and William William della Paul
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proved to be so successful in his
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merchant trade that he ended up lending
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Edward the third enormous sums of money
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to help fund Edwards numerous wars in
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France as did Richard this provided many
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perks for the brothers in 1330 they were
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given the manner of Myton and by 1332
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William della Paul had become the first
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law of mayor of whole representing whole
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in parliament the brothers dissolved
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their business partnership in 1331 as
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William became more involved with
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politics and working more closely with
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the King he helped head would acquire
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ships and supplies for wars against the
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Scots and the French and helped to
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manage the English wall company a
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company created specifically by the king
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to finance his Wars more directly from
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the wall trade the company collapsed
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because of smuggling however and between
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thirteen thirty-eight and thirteen 39
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the King had to borrow over a hundred
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thousand pounds from William in modern
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money that's over a hundred and fifty
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million a favor that William partially
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recovered by effectively extorting the
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estates of burst wick from the King
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which included lordship of holiness it's
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fair to say that this annoyed Edward but
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he wasn't yet in any position to deal
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with Williams boldness Williams rise
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continued as he became Baron of the
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Exchequer in 1339 in 1348 word saw his
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chance and he arrested William and his
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brother Richard for charges in relation
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to the collapse of the English wool
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company namely the charge of smuggling
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which the brothers may or may not have
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been guilty of we'll never really know
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they were medieval merchants and you
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know money profit but unfortunately
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before Edward could really apply his
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leverage war broke out again because it
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was punctuated by war was Edwards reign
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and he in need of the brothers immense
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skill at procuring money and ships for
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his war effort but when peace broke out
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again this time he got William and he
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arrested him and he let it be known to
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William that he was King and he could
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pardon him if he wanted to
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what could William offer him as an
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inducement for pardoning him mmm the
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manner of burst wick back perhaps oh and
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how about as a sweetener let him off all
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the rest of the money that he heard him
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William agreed and true to his word
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Edward pardoned him and it would unlike
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some of his predecessors wasn't a
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vindictive cruel man
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he was honourable and he was as good as
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his word he never pursued William again
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for the charges and they both remained
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if not friends then at least cordial the
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moral of the story however is if you're
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a wealthy merchant and you end up
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lending a lot of money to a king it's
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probably not a good idea to try and X
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dot property and titles out of him
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because you know he's still King and in
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the Middle Ages they could pretty much
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do as they wanted whether it was because
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of the collapse of the English wool
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company rules were tightened heavily in
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the port of Hull regarding exports to
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stem smuggling a whole series of new
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regulations were introduced in 1343 that
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included the following no wool was to be
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stored in any building that had any
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access to the Waterside all wool was to
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be publicly weird in front of officials
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who would then watch the wool being
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taken immediately to the ship and stood
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for transport and no ship was allowed to
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leave until it was completely full these
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new rules
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proved very successful at discouraging
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smuggling from hole pushing outwards
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towards small parts such as headin and
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therapy but wool wasn't to be the big
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export for much longer
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even though hole that once been the
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second biggest exporter of wool in the
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country after London the market started
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to shift in the 14th century towards a
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new big export cloth luckily due to
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existing trade routes and its already
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existing infrastructure as a port hull
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was able to switch from exporting wool
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to exporting cloth very very easily
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indeed in fact by the 13 90s it was only
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just behind London and Bristol as the
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leading exporter of cloth in the entire
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country it was also around the early
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15th century that we start to hear
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stories of whole having something of a
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piracy problem pirates for instance were
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raiding and attacking ships coming into
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the Humber estuary but we also generated
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a few Pirates of our own there's no
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reports of a ship called the L in that
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joined up with a small flotilla of ships
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from Yarmouth and Ipswich in harassing
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foreign merchants and around the Isle of
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Wight there's a wonderful story of an
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investigator from the crown who was sent
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to investigate it and embodied one of
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the pirate ships demanding to know where
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a hundred containers of cargo that had
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been stolen from a French merchant man
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we're only to confess to face with
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several dozen very heavily armored and
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heavily armed pirates who said nothing
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here may go away and he did he said no
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this that there's nothing here they
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didn't take much and it's not really our
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problem before getting in his real
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button running away classic pirates
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so looking at the old medieval maps and
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they even the Victorian maps you'll
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notice there's not really much going on
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on that side of the river on the east
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side of the river you'll find that all
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of the Stig's and all of the jetties
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were on the west then you might wonder
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if it was getting that busy with all the
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wool trade and the explosion of the
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cloth trade after it why there's not
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much on the east bank of the river well
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initially the city of Hall did approach
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John De Sutton who owned the land on
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that side of the river but he was a bit
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sore about things because the city of
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Hull had built a bridge over the river
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only yards away from his paying toll
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ferry which cost him a great deal of
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money so every time the city of Hall
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came to him and said we'd really look to
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expandin and buy some of that land on
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the east side he was just like nope tell
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it to the hand
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not interested sorry but there was a
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more pressing need to develop something
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on the east bank and it wasn't
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particularly because of building jetties
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but for defense if anything King Edward
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the thirds Wars had proved that there
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was a lot of animosity towards England
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on the continent particularly from
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France and it was entirely possible that
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a foreign invasion could be launched and
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a simple chain across the mouth of the
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river wasn't going to hold back an
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entire fleet of French warships so more
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was needed the city's circuit of walls
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had almost been completed by the end of
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the 14th century but this was still
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largely left undefended apart from that
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chain that we mentioned sir the king
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forced John de Sutton to gift him the
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land on the east bank of the river and
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he built whole castle not a lot of
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people know that whole had a castle they
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know that it had a Citadel but that came
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later whole castle was basically just
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three towers up here stretching from the
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Humber all the way up here to dry pool
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and they were connected by a wall that
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ran in between them and it was the
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perfect place to put cannons and cross
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Behrman and they could really help on
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any ship that got onto the river after
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several centuries of ruling the trough
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export industry that too began to
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decline in Tudor times with corn exports
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to other parts of England and led
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exports from Derbyshire and the
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Yorkshire Dales becoming the big export
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for the city it's at this time the whole
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attracted the Roth fly of Henry the 8th
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for reasons other than its seafaring
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trade in 1536 the last constable of
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Flamborough Sir Robert Constable was one
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of the leaders of a rebellion against
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Henry over his treatments of the
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Catholic Church a rebellion called the
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pilgrimage of grace that wandered around
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the north of England collecting rebels
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from places as far afield as Cumbria
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Henry however was not amused not a king
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to cow before barons like some of his
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predecessors he took the lands from the
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instigators families and executed the
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ringleaders Robert Constable was
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executed by being hung in Chains over
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the Beverly Gate in Hull in 1537 a
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martial law was imposed on the whole
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region
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in order to give holo reminder of the
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Kings long arm the old castle was
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upgraded into a new state-of-the-art
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Citadel a vaguely triangular fortress
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that was to be staffed only by soldiers
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loyal to the king supposedly it was to
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protect the port better from foreign
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invasion but there was certainly an
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element of putting in place a very
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visible reminder of the Kings Authority
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for the people of a whole to see I was
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in the 15th century that the streets of
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whole old whole here started to really
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take the form that we recognized today
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the twisting narrow cobbled streets the
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shops the warehouses the office
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buildings of merchants who's also in the
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16th century but a trade that would come
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to define whole in the 19th century
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started whaling whilst these days we
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understand how intelligence and
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emotional these magnificent creatures
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are and we were acutely aware of how
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we've driven them to the brink of
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extinction by hunting them none of that
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was on the mind of anyone in the 16th
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century whales were simply another
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resource to be exploited like lead
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cotton and fish and whole was fast
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becoming England's leading whaling port
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it was dangerous business
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in 1585 a whaling ship called the lion
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lost four members of its 10 strong crew
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before landing only half of its target
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catch another ship the Marie Rose lost
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six crew but the rewards were
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exceptional enough that there was never
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any shortage of crew signing up for a
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life of whaling there are records of pay
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from the 17th century that show an
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ordinary seaman called Jeremiah Gaskin
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earning 9 pounds and 10 shillings in
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1605 for a single trip that's almost
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three thousand pounds today and in 1626
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a sailor called John Monte and 18 pounds
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which was then over four thousand pounds
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for a voyage to Greenland these men must
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have been an early version of holes
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weekend millionaires the troll Amon who
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returned home to San Andrews dock after
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fishing trips in the waters around
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Iceland returning to port with huge
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amounts of cash compared to
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average working-class family buttholes
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venture into the whaling industry didn't
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pass unnoticed by other Giants in the
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field for example the Muscovy company a
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london-based company that had been
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granted a monopoly by Queen Elizabeth
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the first in 1577 over whaling were
00:22:03
particularly unhappy about whole
00:22:05
interfering in what they deemed their
00:22:07
exclusive right and they passed all
00:22:11
kinds of measures and lobbied Parliament
00:22:13
to try and get whole list whalers banned
00:22:16
from the coasts of Norway Iceland
00:22:18
Greenland and the Tartarus the north and
00:22:22
eastern coast of Russia and eventually
00:22:24
they succeeded and it did suppress hols
00:22:27
whaling industry for the next 150 years
00:22:30
but holding go down without a fight
00:22:32
there is a record of the Muscovy company
00:22:35
making a complaint that when they turned
00:22:38
up two whales head in Greenland which
00:22:40
was their their whaling colony their
00:22:42
fort was destroyed and several buildings
00:22:44
had been attacked with cannons and just
00:22:46
off the cursed were a fleet of whole and
00:22:49
York whaling ships all armed with
00:22:51
cannons briefly hunting whales the 16th
00:22:58
century also saw the birth or at least
00:23:00
the formalization of a long-standing
00:23:02
maritime organization Trinity House in
00:23:06
the 15th and 16th century merchants
00:23:09
began gathering together in guilds for
00:23:11
mutual assistance and representation
00:23:14
Trinity House was a guild of sailors
00:23:16
anders who operated the waters and port
00:23:18
of the city but it had its roots earlier
00:23:22
in a guild founded in the 14th century
00:23:24
by alderman Robert Marshall the guild of
00:23:27
the Holy Trinity holds main church this
00:23:31
organization had no particular link with
00:23:33
whole seafaring activities however but
00:23:36
by the mid 15th century it had joined
00:23:38
forces with a shipments guild acquired
00:23:40
the property that key became known as
00:23:42
Trinity House from an order of Carmelite
00:23:44
monks and began organizing and
00:23:46
coordinating holds increasingly busy key
00:23:49
side and ensuring that widows and
00:23:51
orphans were looked after and the
00:23:53
maritime interests were represented in
00:23:56
local
00:23:57
in 1541 Henry the eighth granted them a
00:24:00
charter that formalized Trinity houses
00:24:02
existence and Elizabeth the first gave
00:24:05
them the power to settle an arbitrary
00:24:06
disputes between seamen and coordinate
00:24:09
amongst whole shipping owners they
00:24:13
marked out deepwater routes in the
00:24:14
Humber with boys and charged a local of
00:24:16
Duty for their services known as prime
00:24:18
egde by the start of the 17th century
00:24:21
Trinity House was easily one of the most
00:24:24
powerful organizations in home
00:24:26
effectively controlling the waterways of
00:24:28
one of England's most important port
00:24:31
cities but by the late 17th and early
00:24:34
18th century Trinity House was having a
00:24:37
real struggle to keep order in the
00:24:39
increasing chaos of this incredibly busy
00:24:42
Harbor things were growing and they were
00:24:45
growing really quickly ships were
00:24:47
colliding into one another and in one
00:24:49
case a ship even collided with the
00:24:51
dolphin the capstan at the mouth of the
00:24:53
river that was used to guide ships into
00:24:55
the river and sank ships were being
00:24:58
forced to wear out in the Humber for
00:25:00
their turn for a place at the key side
00:25:03
something big was happening in Britain
00:25:05
something that would transform it
00:25:07
forever and in particular this port city
00:25:10
would never be the same again over the
00:25:13
next hundred years whole would grow far
00:25:16
far more than it ever had in the
00:25:18
previous eight hundred it would spill
00:25:20
outside of the city walls and spread
00:25:23
across the surrounding countryside the
00:25:26
Industrial Revolution was here and it
00:25:29
would change Britain forever but whilst
00:25:35
will be continuing the story of wholes
00:25:37
relationship to the Industrial
00:25:38
Revolution and the growth of its docks
00:25:40
in the next episodes what happened to
00:25:45
the old harbour what a bit today in the
00:25:48
21st century well as the size of ships
00:25:53
slowly started to outpace the ability of
00:25:55
the river hole to accommodate them the
00:25:57
only traffic up there were very small
00:26:00
ships and river barges often carrying
00:26:02
vegetable oil certainly towards the end
00:26:05
of the 20th century and the start of the
00:26:07
21st these river barges
00:26:10
these small ships that were carrying
00:26:11
vegetable oil were pretty much the only
00:26:14
traffic that the river saw as to what it
00:26:17
was like to navigate the river I had the
00:26:19
good fortune to talk to a master mariner
00:26:21
who used to actually pilot ships up the
00:26:24
river hole I'll let him explain what it
00:26:26
was like when I first started piloting
00:26:30
we still took ships up the river hole
00:26:32
there were always small small tankers
00:26:34
carrying vegetable oil prior to that
00:26:38
when I was sailing I was on a small
00:26:39
tanker as master going up there and I
00:26:43
used to do I used to do my own pilotage
00:26:45
into the river hole the entrance of the
00:26:49
river hole but then once I got turned
00:26:51
around the local pilot would come on
00:26:54
board because it just something I didn't
00:26:57
have the knowledge for plus the fact it
00:27:00
was really a two-person job
00:27:02
so what would happen was well what
00:27:07
happened was you'd take your ship up - I
00:27:10
used to do my own pilotage on these
00:27:12
ships and we used to go up and you'd
00:27:15
stand the tide off the river hole
00:27:16
usually just to the west side of the
00:27:18
entrance because you have a flow had to
00:27:21
going on a flood tide so you go on the
00:27:23
west side of the entrance and then you'd
00:27:27
get in touch with the bridge garrison
00:27:32
way bridge someway the new one you call
00:27:37
him up and say okay I'm here and I'm
00:27:39
waiting to come in and he would say to
00:27:42
you okay
00:27:44
you come in and I'll open the bridge and
00:27:47
I'd say to him okay you start to open
00:27:53
the bridge I'll come in and the reason
00:27:55
for this was well he didn't want to stop
00:27:59
the traffic for any length of time more
00:28:01
than was necessary and for me once she
00:28:06
went into the river hole he had nowhere
00:28:10
to go he had a strong tide pushing you
00:28:13
into the river and there was nowhere to
00:28:17
stop and even if he tried to stop all
00:28:20
what happened was he just probably slew
00:28:21
across the river
00:28:23
so it was a bit of a mind games thing to
00:28:26
start with usually he sorted something
00:28:29
out obviously so you get into the river
00:28:32
and providing the kids hadn't let the
00:28:37
ropes go on the barges near the entrance
00:28:39
which has happened and the barges would
00:28:41
be sort of strewn across the river
00:28:43
providing that hasn't happened you'd go
00:28:46
up until just before the entrance the
00:28:51
old entrance to Victoria dot from the
00:28:53
old harbour and just before dry pool
00:28:56
bridge you would start to Kent the ship
00:28:59
to starboard and push the bow into the
00:29:02
old lock entrance of Victoria Dock that
00:29:06
would then either stick in the mud or go
00:29:08
out of the tide anyway sometimes he just
00:29:10
pushed into the mud the stern would come
00:29:13
round and you'd go nicely alongside the
00:29:17
knuckle which in those days was just by
00:29:21
the grain silo that used to be there on
00:29:25
the east side of the river and there the
00:29:30
river pilot which was like a family
00:29:33
business
00:29:34
they weren't that they had other jobs I
00:29:37
think the one we used to get was a
00:29:39
builder and in his part-time he used to
00:29:44
be a river pilot so then we'd have to go
00:29:48
back Stern first and in in those ships
00:29:50
we didn't have you know ships nowadays
00:29:52
are very maneuverable with the bow
00:29:54
thrusts and things where we didn't have
00:29:55
that and what you'd normally do maybe if
00:29:58
you were going down a narrow channel
00:29:59
Stern first he's put an anchor down and
00:30:01
that would hold you bow but you couldn't
00:30:04
do that because the river hole is in the
00:30:06
middle of the city and all the gas
00:30:09
electricity telephone everything goes
00:30:12
along the bottom of the river hole so if
00:30:16
you had an anchor down you'd rip
00:30:18
pipelines and all sorts of so you had to
00:30:20
do it just by engine movements alone and
00:30:22
these people were brilliant at doing
00:30:23
that and this is why he couldn't do it
00:30:25
on your own because I had to stand in
00:30:28
the middle of the ship on the controls
00:30:29
and he was going from side to side and
00:30:32
you're going around 180 degree bends
00:30:34
through narrow bridges all Stanford
00:30:36
just by giving kicks a little bit on the
00:30:38
wheel and they used to be quite good
00:30:40
yeah so then we'd we'd go Stern first up
00:30:44
to whichever factory we were going to
00:30:48
with the vegetable oil vegetable oil
00:30:50
always came from Amsterdam and discharge
00:30:56
maybe we may have two or three different
00:30:58
places to discharge in the river so each
00:31:00
time the the river pilot would come on
00:31:03
and we'd go Stern first to the next one
00:31:06
for sailing we could we were lighter
00:31:10
obviously we didn't have any car going
00:31:12
so we could just push off lot earlier
00:31:15
and just sail normally up the rivers bow
00:31:19
first so it wasn't anything like it's
00:31:20
difficult so it's a good job for me
00:31:24
because I lived near Hull so so I could
00:31:27
go home for most nights whenever there
00:31:30
it's good join us next time where we'll
00:31:33
be taking a good long look at the docks
00:31:35
that surrounded the old town of Hull the
00:31:38
town docks if you've enjoyed this video
00:31:41
please don't forget to Like and
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subscribe to the channel if you've
00:31:45
really enjoyed it please consider
00:31:47
visiting my patreon or GoFundMe pages as
00:31:50
linked in the description below
00:31:52
[Music]
00:32:04
[Music]
00:32:28
[Music]
00:32:34
[Applause]
00:33:01
you
