Last week we were delighted to collect an amazing big file of historical photographs of the River Hull for Open Bridges: A River Full Of Stories. Thanks to Angus Young of the Hull Daily Mail who has contributed the Mail’s archive of River Hull photos to the project. The pictures range from the turn of the 19th century to the 1980s. Some were filed by the Hull Daily Mail as far back as the 1940s and some have not or rarely been published since. It was exciting to open the box and find scenes of the river showing it packed with working barges, aerial scenes taken from high buildings, and people at work on the River to illustrate the fascinating stories we’ve heard at the memory sharing sessions to life. We have spent the week photographing them and tidying them up ready to use for the project. We’re looking forward to using them to illustrate the River Hull stories we have gathered during the memory sharing sessions, but here are a few just to get started.
All photographs from the Hull Daily Mail used with permission. We’ll credit the original photographer where we can.
The idea for A River Full Of Stories came about when many of the 2000 visitors to the Open Bridges exhibition inside Scale Lane Bridge told us fascinating tales of their lives working on and around the river. We’ve been collecting stories throughout July – September 2018 and are now preparing the River Full Of Stories film, exhibition and book. We’ll keep the website blog up to date with stories and memories as we go along.
Rich & Lou Duffy-Howard
Open Bridges made history when for the first time all 13 of the bridges over the River Hull in the UK’s City of Culture 2017 raised, swung or closed simultaneously splitting the city of Hull in two at 20:17 hours on 22nd September 2017. Historic vessels sailed down the River to be met by 21st century tugs.
Open Bridges is an independent Hull/East Yorkshire based project.