Ferry Part 1

This is the first of our posts about the local ferries. The aim is to contribute to the Humber Ferry story with previously un-published or hard to come-by photographs and images. There are a number of authoritative books written about the ferries, a favourite being The Humber Ferries by Alun A. D’Orley, published in 1968. In his book Alun tells us that the main image below “shows the old landing place and also the new pier running out into the river. The pier was the creation of John Fowler, who was later to design the Forth Bridge and also to plan a Humber Tunnel.”

The illustrations have been photographed and reproduced from an original copy of the newspaper.

The article (re-published in full) speaks for itself.

It is a common remark that half the world knows nothing about the other half. This is true, not only of the world in general, but of all parts, and even infinitely small sections of it; true of England and of London, even of every street in London. The great works which the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway are carrying on furnish an apt illustration. Here is a great corporation, which holds docks, railways, ferries, and canals, silently prosecuting works extending across the middle of England, which are calculated to exert a positive national influence on commerce and public comfort, but there are few besides shrewd shareholders who know anything of the fact.

A bill has just passed the second reading in the House of Commons, for the purpose of enabling the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway to complete its projected improvements in the Humber Ferry, which it purchased two years ago; no one marks the progress of them, yet the work will entirely change the character of large river ferries. Forty years ago, rivers were crossed by dangerous small clumsy sailing-vessels; even the broadest ferries had no better accommodation: gradually steamers have supplanted the sailing-boats but they were difficult to reach and depart from. It was and is common, at present, first to attain the steamer by a boat, then cross the river, and then retake the boat to land on the other side. This is, even now, the case on the Humber at the large ferry opposite Hull. Men, women, cattle, and merchandise are subject to this inconvenience and delay. It is like a series of “breaks of gauge.” But the bill we have already alluded to proposes, by erection of piers of enormous length, to supersede this. Already, the railway has reached the ferry on the south side of the Humber; and, instead of all the personal discomfort which our Illustration graphically makes very clear, a pier upwards of 1500 feet long is extended into the river, and already in use; and an application is before Parliament to enable a corresponding accommodation to be erected on the northern side of the ferry. The Admiralty have approved of the plans; and, as if to prove their practicability beyond all cavil, piles to show the extent of the new works, have recently been fixed in the river; so that, when all the arrangements are completed, the passage of three miles across the Humber may be made in the shortest time and with the least trouble to the passenger. The most timid lady, instead of stumbling over wet stones, slipping over landing planks, getting in and out of boats, subject to damp shoes and their baneful consequences, will have merely to descend under cover into the saloon of a rapid steamer, and, after a journey of fifteen minutes, ascend again under covered steps on the opposite side of the river. Goods, cattle carriages, &c. will also benefit by the improvements.

But not only has the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway undertaken to improve the Humber Ferries, but they are constructing works at New Holland, opposite to Hull, of great extent, and calculated to afford immense accommodation for the local traffic, which is of a very large and mixed character. At present, there are little more than a few cottages and a way-side inn at New Holland, but we may expect that the new docks here will soon attract a much larger population around them.

The map shows that the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway begins at Manchester and terminates at Great Grimsby, at the mouth of the Humber. The bill was obtained in May, 1837, but the line was not opened to Sheffield until the 22nd of December, 1845. At Sheffield it unites with the Sheffield and Lincolnshire line (bill obtained August, 1846), which passes through Beighton, Worksop, and East Retford. At Retford, the main line proceeds through Gainsborough and Brigg to a terminus at the Great Grimsby Docks; while a branch, by aid of the loop line of the Great Northern at Saxelby, opens a communication to Lincoln, and from Lincoln, through Market Rasen, to the New Holland Ferries, opposite Hull, thus placing Lincolnshire in communication with all the great railway systems in the kingdom, and proceeds through Gainsborough to unite with the Great Grimsby Junction and the Grimsby Docks. In fact, this line is fed or intersected by as many as eleven different railways, with all of which it may be said to be an amicable neighbour. The portion of the line between Great Grimsby and New Holland was opened in the beginning of last month, with considerable éclat and festivity, at Great Grimsby especially; and this portion of the line passes near the hunting seat of Lord Yarborough, Brocklesby, and close to the ruins of Thornton College, which now only serves the purpose of a rendezvous for picnic parties.

Thornton College, before the dissolution of the monasteries, was one of the wealthiest of the Lincolnshire abbeys. It was founded in A.D. 1139, and canons distinguished by black gowns sought refuge and solitude within its walls: a few years afterwards the priory was raised to the rank of an Abbey. Henry the Eighth visited the abbot there A.D. 1541, and the hospitality he received induced him to spare the establishment at the general suppression, and to convert it into a college. In the reign of his boy-successor, the college was dissolved, and the property was exchanged with the Bishop of Lincoln. Our Illustration gives the principal features now remaining.

Of the old, miserable port of Great Grimsby we shall speak on a future occasion, when we describe the magnificent docks now in course of construction. For the present, we are content to let our artist depict the scene of the opening, whilst the locomotive is passing the old, battered Norman church of the town. The Company purchased the old docks at a cheap price, and the mere advent of the railway has increased the revenue of the Customs in four years fifteen-fold. The present docks are already overcrowded with shipping, which betokens somewhat the increase to be expected when the new docks are completed; this will be the case in about two years. Great Grimsby will then offer one of the largest, safest, and cheapest ports in England.

It has been well observed that “this is one of the termini from which there are legitimate expectations that a considerable import and export trade for the benefit of the railway will be derived. Tracing our course back, we find every important town and district on the direct road to the manufacturing districts intersected in such a manner that the clothing districts of Yorkshire, the hardware city of Sheffield, Manchester and its surrounding cotton villages, and Liverpool and the Mersey, in effect form the many branched termini for Lincolnshire produce. So that, whether the farmers of Lincolnshire are desirous of produce to those largely consuming districts, they will have, by these railways, drawing supplies of any kind from the manufacturing districts, or of sending their means of choice multiplied a hundred-fold, and be enabled to go as far in twenty-four hours as previously in as many days. Thus will great national and important local objects be combined, the Humber and the Mersey brought within six hours’ distance, the richest agricultural county united by an iron road to the richest manufacturing counties. Railways will tenfold increase the facilities for transporting lime and clay, street sweepings, woollen rags, artificial manures, and bones and guano; and, while they do this, will enable the farmer to reap in extended markets ample profits for his enterprise. In ten years’ time we shall expect a Report on agricultural progress in Lincolnshire as remarkable as that of Mr. Pusey in 1843.”

Reference:

D’Orley, Alun A. (1968). The Humber Ferries. Knaresborough. Nidd Valley Narrow Gauge Railways Limited.

Rich and Lou Duffy-Howard

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