River Hull - Lee Patrick Wilson

My first project River Hull is a personal exploration of the River that divides the City of Hull into two halves East & West and flows into the heartland of East Yorkshire. Like the majority of residents of the City of Hull I interact with the river on a daily basis by means of crossing one of the spanning bridges, yet could only visualise a brown murky waterway and wanted to discover for myself what life on the River was all about and what defined the character of the river.

Upon exploring the River Hull from source in the Yorkshire Wolds to outlet onto the Humber estuary, along with the adjacent Driffield Canal, I discovered that this 22 mile waterway offers more than meets the eye, steeped with rich human history which reveals more than a story of geography, a journey of global human development can be found along the river, which flows through land & time in a relatively uncelebrated, undervalued yet beautiful & historically influential part of the world.

The River Hull springs to life from underground chalk streams of the Wold Valley carving a route of crystal clear spring water until it meets the muddy glacial clay of the Holderness Region and the River Hull Valley where the water turns a cloudy brown colour as that of the Humber, at that point the river becomes tidal with the river flowing into the Humber Estuary and out to the North Sea.

When I walk the banks of the River Hull I imagine the generations of people before me walking the banks & sailing the waterway which flows like time itself through the ages, countless journeys made along the ancient waterway. Pre historic man exploring the region from distant lands on the first oak logboats tens of thousands of years ago, flowing with the River as it cuts through the wild untamed landscape of the past, providing access to an otherwise unexplored, inaccessible region. These early explorers settling on the banks of the life giving river, living a simple life, using the river to sustain themselves with water to drink, clean, travel and fish. The flow of the river and time continuing until agriculture develops and the population increases, ancient cultures are established, tribes are formed and for thousands of years the River is celebrated and its human & natural occupants live in harmony and sustainably with the environment forming a vast prehistoric sustainable trading network across Britain into Europe and the wider world.

Until the arrival of modern man where our connection to the natural world begins to loosen; Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans whom have all undoubtedly journeyed the River Hull make a lasting mark on the way we live. A medieval King stood on its banks, Cistercian monks utilised the river for trade, ungentrified people lived along the river banks forming fisheries & villages. The Gentry keen to grow wealth via the land they are granted construct watermills and canals which offshoot the river linking more and more places. Countless trading journeys are made up and down the river connecting rural agricultural produce of Yorkshire including livestock, wool, crops, produce & people via the market towns of Driffield & Beverley, Meaux Abbey, Wawne & Sutton along the River to the port town of Kingston upon Hull to be distributed up and down the Humber and its contributories and out to the North Sea, transporting goods in sailing ships along the East Coast South to London and Europe and building the foundations for the wealth of the nation. Until the World at War WW2 and enemy planes with the city of Hull in black out are guided by the reflection of moonlight onto the Humber Estuary & the River Hull bombard the City on the River destroying its buildings and habitants.

Logboats become timber boats, oars are switched for sails, sailing boats become sailing ships, sailing ships become metal superliners with motors exchanged for sails, rivers are navigated then seas, then oceans until the previously discovered ancient world is re explored and re discover by the new world. With the arrival of the motor age, roads & motorways are built to replace the river, air travel replaces sea and progression of technology all to quickly allows us to forget the important role of Rivers throughout our human development and survival as we become further detached from the natural world that we all inevitably rely on to exist.

Yet we are still drawn to the river, to fish, for pleasure, to walk the banks, to sail, our connection to waterways lies deep inside our inner human psyche and in visiting and re-exploring and re-discovering the Rivers and waterways where we live, we can rekindle that connection to the earth and the natural world whilst also enabling us to look into the past of all Humanity and reflect on how we live now and what we are doing to our planet, our home and for future generations to follow.