Syd Young, Ferry Memories
My mum had an Auntie who owned the Welbeck Guest House in Cleethorpes. In the 1960s and early 70s, we’d go and stay occasionally on a weekend when there were no guests. Her husband, “Uncle George”, was a retired sailor and made wooden model boats, some of which he gave to us. To me as a child the house seemed a huge rambling affair with dingy passageways and stairways leading to hidden rooms and secret places, all full of ancient furniture smelling of dust and days of old. I loved it!
For these visits we sometimes took the ferry, as the drive round via Boothferry Bridge made the journey a very long one. These photos were taken on my Kodak Instamatic camera when I was 13.
After arriving at the ferry terminal in Hull we’d sit in my dad’s old Mk I Cortina and wait for our turn at Corporation Pier in the queue of cars before clanking over the metal ramp on to one of the three “Castles”. As soon as we’d been directed into our parking spot we’d get out of the car and head for the little saloon. If the weather was fine we’d stay on deck and watch the last of the cars being loaded aboard, then the ramp would be raised and shake into position. A hoot on the steam whistle would signal we were leaving, a vibration ran through the ship as the huge paddles began their revolutions, and the muddy water was churned up as we moved slowly away from the pontoon.
Once under way I’d head straight down the metal steps to the engine room and take in the sights, sounds and smells of the steam engines. They were a wonderful sight to behold; a beautiful machine hypnotically sliding and clanking with polished brass pistons smoothly moving back and forth and flywheels revolving steadily and surely. The occasional hiss of steam added to the rhythmic beat of the motion. I would spend most of the journey down there drinking it all in and I can still vividly recall it all to this day. Sometimes another ferry would be crossing back to Hull, so I’d go back on deck and stand at the rail and watch as it churned its way past us before going back into the ship’s bowels and the aroma of steam, coal and oil.
The journey lasted around 30 minutes or so and, all too soon, the note of the engines changed as we approached the pier at New Holland. I’d head up the stairs, climb back into the back of the car and once the ferry had docked, we’d drive across the ramp and continue our journey to the old house full of mystery, secret rooms and childhood adventures…
Beached!
I returned to the Paddle Steamer Lincoln Castle on 9th August 1985 when it was parked on the foreshore at Hessle. By this time she had been turned into a bar/restaurant by a Hull nightclub owner. The ferries were taken out of service when the Humber Bridge opened in 1981. Lincoln Castle was controversially broken up in September/October 2010, across the Humber in Grimsby, despite several attempts by local preservation societies to save her.
I stumbled across the Wingfield Castle, moored at Butler’s Wharf in London, in 1980.
Syd Young
All photographs are copyright Sydpix/Syd Young.
Thanks to Richard/Syd Young for his evocative story and photographs. Syd has been a regular contributor and supporter of Open Bridges and A River Full of Stories over the years, so we are particularly pleased to publish his story here.
You can read Ferry Part 1 from an 1848 edition of the London Illustrated News at this link.
Rich and Lou Duffy-Howard
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