Having a look round Hull (a very small part of it)

Sorry about the pause in blogging, it is just that when ever we come home we are so busy that I don't get time to publish it.

I left you having come down the Trent and the Humber and arriving in Hull Marina. We decided that, even though we were tired, we would have an evening out in Town.

In the Marina is a replica of HMS Pickle. The original was launched in 1799 and was bought a year later as a Baltic tposial schooner. It was later bought to act as a tender for Lord Hugh Seymour on the Jamaica Stationed RN fleet when it was called Sting. It was changed to Pickle when the Admiralty finally agreed with the purchase. Her claim to fame was that the original vessel was at the Battle of Trafalgar and was chosen as the vessel to race home with Admiral Collingwood's dispatches with the news of the victory and the death of Nelson. They arrived in Falmouth on 4th November 1805, and the Battle of Trafalgar had been on 21st October. Just happens to be my birthday. My Dad wanted to call me Horatio! This replica was built in 1995 as the 'Alevtina and Tuy' and the name changed later. It was for sale in 2008 for £350000.

I just thought I would put another photo of our berth, but this time show the bell post (on the left). This was rung when the bridge over the lock pit was going to be opened for the passage of a ship. The idea was to alert those nearby so they could shake a leg and get across first. Even to a few years ago there was always an excuse for being late for work as either the numerous level crossings then were shut, or the bridge across the River Hull were open for ships. The river Hull divided the east and west of the city so if a ship was navigating chaos would be brought as one by one the bridges would be lifted for it.

One of the Art Installations of the Look Up series for the City of Culture called The City Speaks. There is a post on the west side of the Marina that translates what you speak into the station into words on the Tidal Barrier at the other end of Humber Street. You can see the word 'HOLD' which was the first part of Holderness. There is no great sign or anything to show it is there though. There is a slight delay while any swear words are filtered out along with and slanderous or unsavoury words etc. 

With your back to the City Speaks post you look over the Marina again. On the left is the 'Spider T' that is a Humber sloop that was a class of trading vessel that sailed the coasts as well as the rivers and canals of the region. It was saved by Mal Nicholson and was based at Keadby for a long time. Mal bought the the 'Pickle' in 2014 and he set up the HMS or Historic Motor and Sail. We went to the Minerva pub on the front for our tea and a couple of beers.

We progressed down Humber Street, that was the wholesale Fruit and Vegetable market area for a long time.  It is now in the process of change and there are now three art galleries, a brewery a distillery, restaurants, museums for Club Culture and dinosaurs etc. One new venture is a roof top bar on the Humber Street Gallery. As with most things new in Hull you can't really imagine it as what is there to see from the roof of an old vegetable warehouse! Well there is the dual carriageway and the Premier Inn, but in one direction is the view of the River Hull and the Deep and the Old Oberon pub. It was in there that I learned much of my piloting lore. After the tide inevitably several pilots would adjourn here. Our Pilot Office was just up the road. By listening to their stories and yarns you could learn a lot of what not to do, and if you still did it, how to get out of Jail!

The view down towards the marina and the end of Humber Street is more rewarding as you can see how cafe culture has come to Hull. The rusty oblong by the Pickle is the box that you have to talk into to light up the tidal barrier. Helen and I kept tittering to ourselves about being at a roof top bar, in Hull. In conversation with others there, they were also pinching themselves. I had another first here, a gin and tonic with cucumber slices! It was very pleasant too.

This is very City of Culture year as where the connection from Humber Dock (Marina) to Junction Dock (now Princes Dock) was is a dual carriageway, but once over that you are walking along the side of the old dock that is largely now taken by a shopping centre on stilts. The dock side is lined with cafes and pubs etc, again when the weathe is nice, you can eat and drink outside. At the moment there is also an exhibition of the Travel Photography Awards. In the background is an original warehouse, now converted to an Italian Restaurant.

Back over the main road and on the way back to the boat is the Spurn Light Vessel in the north of the dock. She was built in Goole for the Humber Conservancy Board, who were the navigational guardians of the Humber. She was used as the Spurn Light Ship No.12 on the Spurn station east of Spurn Point. In WWII she was used at Grimsby Middle to mark the boom defence and then later as the Humber Light Ship about 12' off Spurn Point. Her last place was as the Bull Light Ship which is due south of Spurn Point. She stayed there, painted red form 1959 to 1975 when she was decommissioned. In 1983 Hull City Council bought her and she is open to the public in the summer weekends.

Our evening had taken us no further from 'Holderness' than 400yds so you can see Hull is a walking town as you don't have to go far to see plenty. More later., but I did sleep well that night!