Fact 80. Albert Dock was the first Western Dock.

As Trade increased, and vessels got larger there was already calls for dock space in Hull as early as the 1830's. Even when Railway Dock in 1846, and Victoria Dock in 1850 opening more space was still required. In an effort to start the ball rolling The Hull Corporation, North Eastern Railway Co. and Hull Trinity House formed the West Dock Company. They drew up plans for a dock 1000 yds long and 14 acres in area. The tactic worked and The Hull Dock Company also formulated a bid to be considered by Parliament. In 1861 an Act was passed favouring the Hull Dock Company bid. This was for a dock 2500 yds long

https://bwml.co.uk/hull-marina/

This picture shows Humber Dock on the right and Prices Dock in the top right. Railway Dock extension is behind the tall warehouse above the station. The station is the original Manor House Street Station that was the original terminus of the Hull and Selby Railway in 1840. Once Paragon Street was built this station became goods only. Albert Dock entrance lock can just be seen in the bottom left corner. The area with the small boats, just south of the station was known as 'Paraffin Creek'.

Construction started in 1862. The site engineer was J.C. Hawkshaw. The plan was for the southern wall, next to the Humber, to be constructed on reclaimed land and a series of cofferdams were built to enable that work to be undertaken in three stages. A foundation stone was laid on the more easily constructed north wall in 1864 by the Chairman of the Hull Dock Company, William Wright. The walls of the dock were built of sandstone brought from Horsforth, near Leeds. These were fixed by sand lime mortar sat on a 10 foot thick concrete foundation. The whole sitting on a strata of clay. To reach this level clay and sand had to be excavated. These levels caused problems during the construction with 'boils' being fairly frequent. This was when fresh water that had found it's way along the sand level from the Wolds aquifer burst through. Work was delayed a month in 1866 when a boil caused a breech of the southern wall and the excavation was flooded. In 1867 there was further problems with boils and this time the work was put back eight months. This difficulty also led to the length of the dock beeing reduced form 400' long to 320' and a width of 80'. On completion it was still one of the largest locks in the country. The depth in the dock was to be maintained between 29' at spring tides and 24'6" at neap tides.

www.greenporthull.co.uk

Showing the lock entrance and the turning basin inside the lock and the length of the dock looking west.

The dock machinery including the capstans and lock gates, were powered by hydraulics with the system using 3 boilers supplying steam to a 40 HP steam engine that supplied the pressure of 700 psi via an accumulator. The North Eastern Railway had to re-route their track when the dock was constructed by then laid at least a double track down both sides of the dock with a track passing over the lock entrance via a swing bridge that was also hydraulic. That seems to be have been removed but I'm not sure when. The cost of building was £556,479, of which about £111000 was for the excavations, and about the same for the dock walls and £88,600 for the lock, not including the gates and machinery.  It was officially opened in 1869 by the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward, (who became Edward VII) and Alexandra. And was called 'Albert Dock' in his honour.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/tugs/story-29729563-detail/story.html

Tug 'Salvage' assisting the Danish vessel 'Freesia', registered in Aarhus, through Albert Dock Lock in 1962.

In 1972 it was closed to traffic whilst it was altered to accommodate the Hull deep sea fishing fleet as they were to move from St. Andrew's Dock, a little further west. The move was completed by 1975 and officially re-opened in 1976 by  Rt. Hon. Frederick MP, Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. However soon afterwards the deep sea fishing declined rapidly after fishing grounds were lost following the Cod Wars.

http://chris-osm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/docks-and-footpaths.html

An unusual item is that there is a public right of way runs along the Humber bank by the dock. At the west end, near to the city centre, this has been led on a walkway over the warehouse. This gives good views of the dock and the Deep, Pier etc. The fact that the hydraulic swing bridge has been removed means access is over the lock gates that again is unusual. A little hidden gem for visitors to the City that is not much of a walk from the Marina area.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/body-found-in-albert-dock-in-hull/story-29808734-detail/story.html

The dock is very exposed to the wind, from just about any direction and  with it being comparatively narrow for larger modern ships it was always quite 'hairy' passing down it's length with any wind blowing. In recent times the dock has been used for laying offshore vessels during the downturn due to the oil price fall. Commercial shipping still uses the dock though.

In December 2013 a spring tide and tidal surge caused Cyclone Xaver an over topping of the Humber at Albert Dock and consequent flooding of the City Centre. The remedial work was brought forward two years and was completed in November 2015.

Fact 79. John Enderby Jackson, impresario.

John Enderby Jackson was born in Hull in 1827, Myton Gate. His father was a tallow chandler and soap manufacturer and as the business had been run by several generations, right back to south sea whalers on his mother's side, the Enderby's, he assumed that his son would follow in his footsteps. John went to Hull Grammar School and helped out when he could. The business supplied wax and tallow candles to one of the four theatres in Hull at the time, the Theatre Royal. Whilst lighting, adjusting and snuffing the candles in the theatre John was beguiled by the music.

Photo credit to Hull History Centre, via the bbc.co.uk

The Theatre Royal opened in 1810 midway down Humber Street, half way between Queens Street and Humber Dock, about where 'Fruit' is now, but I'm not sure what side of the street it was on. It must have been quite a prestigious theatre as it was granted a Royal Patent by Act of  Parliament. This meant that top London stars would be attracted to Hull. This is the reason for the title Theatre Royal. It burned down in 1859 and was rebuilt on the same site in 1865, but again burned down in 1869. A new theatre was built with the same name, on Anlaby Road, the same year.

His father forbade him from learning an instrument at first so John learned to read music and study composition etc. He remembered Paganini playing at the Theatre Royal in 1835 and was further resolved to take up music. he  would talk to the musicians in the orchestra pit as he carried out his chores. By the time he was 12 he was quite an accomplished player and by 15 he could read, arrange and compose small pieces for orchestras. He was also making contacts all mover the country.

John Enderby Jackson.

The coming of the railways proved to be the conduit for the growth of brass band competition and their growth. In 1847 the Leeds Temperance brass band won work for the season at Scarborough and after a visit to London and conversations with other John went round the railway companies asking for concessions for brass bands moving on the railways, which he managed to obtain. He became focused on bring music to the working people, and it was this he was honoured by Queen Victoria after he had organised the music for the visit of Her Majesty to Hull in 1853. In that year the first brass band competition was run in Manchester but in 1855 John organised one at the Zoological Gardens in Hull and 21 bands competed. In the next four years he arranged competitions in nearly twenty cities in England and also composed various test pieces to be played at them.

www.ibew.org.uk

The Davy Paxman Standard Iron works Band, 1890's

About this time he had married Elizabeth and they were living in Prospect Street, Hull. Next came the first National Brass Band Competition that he helped organise at Crystal Palace. He also assembled 12 teams of hand bell ringers to compete against each other to. On the first day 72 bands took part and on the second 98! John's fame spread from Yorkshire and Lancashire to the Midlands and bands were formed in many factories and mines. Having conquered Britain he traveled to Australia with his family on a three year tour. he was actually offered the job of managing the Melbourne Opera House but ill health brought him home. On return the family moved to Scarborough and their son, Edmund, was born. Unfortunately he was killed in WWI in 1918. After a rest after his return from the southern hemisphere John set about managing tours of plays and concert parties around the country. His 8 year old daughter acted as pianist on the concert party tour. He then composed music for his talented daughter, traveled abroad promoting music for workers and took up painting. He never failed to keep busy and died aged 76 in April 1903. He lies buried at the Manor Road Cemetery in Scarborough.

www.ibew.org.uk

The Hull Postmans Band 1910.

There can't be many people who have not heard of the Grimethorpe Colliery, Black Dyke Mills or the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Bands that have been famous throughout the land. Despite the loss of many colliery  and works bands over the last few decades, brass bands are a live and well and still extremely competitive with leagues and promotion and many competitions. It is still music for the people played by the people as can be seen in the photos above as I was struck by the mix of old and young in the bands. The Salvation Army Bands are always welcome to raise a tune and smarten your step. A name of another unsung hero from Hull that has made the world a little more cheerful for all of us. Remember him when you listen to the music of brass as we approach Christmas. 

Fact 78. Seven Sea started in Hull.

It had long been known by fishermen that cod liver oil was very good for the treatment of bone disease, rheumatism and malnutrition, but the oil of those days was very different to today's. It tasted ghastly, was a very dark colour and smelled of rotten fish, as basically that was what it was! After catching the fish the livers were placed in a barrel and left to rot until the oil separated. It wasn't until around 1850 that steam was applied to heat up the livers and this gave a higher yield and a 'cleaner' oil. It was still, what they would today call, a niche market.

In the 1890's nine out of ten children in the UK had rickets, a bone disease similar to osteoporosis in older people. This indicated that much more research was needed to find the cause. By the 1920's it was found that it was caused by a lack of vitamins A and D.

Classic signs of rickets.

The cod liver oil produced at the time was not largely of medicinal quality, and what there was came mainly from Norway. By the 1930's trawler owners in Hull were looking to get more value from their fishing and experimented with fitting their trawlers with steam boilers to render the livers down at sea, whilst they were still fresh and store the oil in tanks to be landed when landing their fish. This gave a better quality, colour and with a less fishy taste and smell. The oil was pumped to the Hull Fish Meal Company and it was largely used for adding to animal feed stuffs and for vetereniary oils, as well as oils used in things like steel rolling mills and tanneries to make leather, especially for furniture and chamois leather.

The enterprise that became Seven Seas was conceived by Owen Hellyer and Tom Boyd, both Hull trawler owners. Owen had a great understanding of business and was keen to learn about the chemistry and technology required. He was a keen sportsman, but shunned publicity. Tom was a forceful character building his fleet from nothing, and also a keen sportsman. Along with Ernest Dawson, who had worked for Isaac Spencer & Co. in Aberdeen who produced fish oil, they set up British Cod Liver Oil Producers. (Hull) Ltd. Initialy the company took over the oil facility of the Hull Fish Meal Co. on the south side of St. Andrew's Dock. There was always a plan to build a new factory, and originally this was to be just west of the north end of where the Humber Bridge is now. However it was finally built at Marfleet, hygiene and cleanliness was the by-word, and opened in 1935.

www.primelocation.com

The factory at Marfleet in it's final guise. 

'Solvitax' was the first trademark used, and it is still in use today for veterinary products. In 1936 Earnest Dawson returned home and Kenneth MacLennan joined the company from Lever Brothers where he had been working of vitamin technology. He also set the company down the advertising road by pushing to build a decorated float for the Lord Mayor of Hull's parade. The idea of a cod on a lorry playing 'A Life on the Ocean Wave' became a well known sight all over the country, and abroad.

www.seven-seas.com/en_GB/our-history.html

Advertising float for Seven Seas. It became known as 'King Cod'

At this time their main market was still non medical. It was Maclannan's plan to move into the higher quality field. It was he who came up with the brand name 'Seven Seas', and it was also his idea to put cod liver oil in capsules to make the oil easier to consume. The great expansion could have been halted by the coming of WWII as trawling was severely curtailed due to enemy action and the taking up of the trawlers by the Royal Navy. However the company were able to import oil from Iceland, and the Ministry of Food gave free cod liver oil to all children under 5 and pregnant and nursing mothers as a supplement to the rations. There were 400 hundred ladies involved in the bottling line. The bottles were returned from clinics and cleaned in Marfleet. Both of these ensured a good supply and market after the war was won, and the plant expanded by over 50% in 1948.

http://archivalmoments.ca/tag/wwii/

Cod Liver Oil being given to orphans of WWII. In fact the subsidy for cod liver oil did not cease in the UK until 1971 as the Government realised that the generation that the children of the war were the healthiest ever in the UK.

After the war the company's range extended further. As wealth increased around the world meat production increased and fish oil was added more to animal feed to cope. The company also started to hydrogenate the oil for use in margarine and normal fish oil was used for 50% of margarine. They also became involved in refining vegetable oils too, and soon realised that being known as the British Cod Liver Oil Co was a bit of a hindrance and the name was changed to the Marfleet Refining Company in 1955. The British Cod Liver Oil Co continued to be used for the supply of cod liver oils however.

The company invested in research and sort to itemise the beneficial components of fish oil in order to market them separately as well as combined. The factory was producing 50 to 60 tons of oil a day. By 1965 they were processing about 100 million livers each year and sold their products in around 100 countries. Research started to show that fish oils assisted in lowering cholesterol, and also supplied 'brain' lipids and they started to separate these out and market them as well as Vitamins A and D. However they could not prove that cod  liver oil was a medicine. This led them to start marketing into the health products business.

http://www.corganic.com/blog/industrial-production-of-cod-liver-oil

Time has moved on from rotting livers in a barrel and skimming the oil off the top!

In 1974 Imperial Foods bought the company and it changed from a cooperative company to 'big business'. However this did supply the capital to take advantage of the trend of health supplements etc and in 1982 the name Seven Seas was used to start the Seven Seas Health Care Ltd. supplying such products as vitamins, garlic oil, ginseng, wheatgerm and lecithin. Cod liver oil was still doing well in less developed markets. In 1996 Seven Seas was bought from Imperial by the German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck. They were able to take advantage of further research into Omega 3 and fatty acids for health benefits and  now supply a range of products from mineral supplements to joint care and everything in between.

The factory on Hedon Road closed in August 2015, and the remaining Sales and Marketing office was moved to Merck's head office in London. This was almost the last industry that could be connected with the once great deep sea fishing from Hull. On the other hand it could be said that every time the names Seven Seas is seen on the shelves it is a reminder of Hull and the company's roots.

Fact 77. Robinson Crusoe sailed from Hull!?

In actual fact Robinson Crusoe didn't sail from Hull as he is a fictional character! Even if he had been a real person his name would have been Robinson Kreutznaer son of a German immigrant settled in York and married a woman with the name Robinson! In the book (The books actual title is "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.),he is supposed to have left from Queen's Dock in Hull during 1651 for a short trip to London where upon a series of adventures culminated in him being stranded on a desert island. Furthermore he would have found very difficult to sail from Queen's Dock as it wasn't opened until 1778!!

This is the island where Alexander Selkirk was marooned. It was called Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Islands of Chile. It was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.

The story seems to be largely based on the life of Alexander Selkirk who was a Scottish sailor who was marooned on a deserted island in the South Pacific from 1704 to 1709 as he feared that the ship he was on was unseaworthy. Daniel Defoe would have read of these exploits and used them in his story.

Daniel Defoe was born around 1660 in London. His actual name was Daniel Foe until he added the De to sound more aristocratic. He became a merchant trader and did well for himself and had great ambitions. He seemed to have been often in debt having failed business ventures and political intrigues that saw him become a 'spy' for various groups. His always requiring more money maybe drove him to writing novels and having the story of Alexander Selkirk as a blue print would have sped up the process.

The Robinson Crusoe plaque is found on the north side of Queens's Gardens. The words below are quite hard to make out but look like ' Robinson Crusoe, most famous character in fiction, sailed from here September 1st 1651. Sole survivor from shipwreck he was cast upon a desert island where he spent 28 years, 2 months and 129 days. An example of resolution, fortitude and self reliance. 

Financed by public subscription, the plaque was unveiled on 21st May 1973.

'Had I the sense to return to Hull. I had been happy'.

Daniel Defoe probably did visit Hull as he published 'A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain'
which was published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. He probably id copy some of the details for the book from other writers but it is fairly certain that he visited Hull in the course of his business as a Merchant. Of Hull he wrote, 'From Beverley I came to Hull, distance 6 miles. If you would expect me to give an account of the city of Hamburg or Danzig or Rotterdam. or any of the second rate cities abroard, which are famed for their commerce, the town of Hull may be a specimen. The place is indeed not so large as those, but in proportion to the dimensions of it, i believe there is more business done in Hull than any town of its bigness in Europe'.

He also said of the trade and merchants of the town; ' Again they supply all these countries in return with foreign goods of all kinds, of which they trade to all parts of the known world; nor have the merchants of any port in Britain a fairer credit, or fairer character, than the merchants of Hull, as well for the justice of their dealings as the greatness of their substance or funds for trade'.

His description of the town is, 'The town is exceedingly close built, and should a fire ever be its fate, it might suffer deeply on that account; 'tis extraordinary populous, even to an inconvenience, having really no room to extend it self by buildings. There are but two churches, but one of them is very large, and there are two or three very large meeting-houses, and a market stored with an infinite plenty of all sorts of provisions'.

It is clear the Daniel Defoe had a soft spot for Hull through his commercial dealing with the merchants of the town, and so felt well able to pen the lines for Robinson Crusoe in his book, 'Had I the sense to return to Hull. I had been happy'.

Fact 76. Important port installations.

Little known but very rare in the UK the Old Trinity House buoy shed is one of only four similar building in the UK and the crane is one of only 14 examples surviving. Trinity House had been founded in 1369 and had become responsible for the safe navigation of the Humber in about 1512. In 1799 a specific buoy shed was built in the garden to the west of Trinity House. It's doors were positioned to open through the Old Town wall. All the buoys and chains etc were brought to this one place and it also became the repair workshop too. By 1839 a blacksmith's forge being installed to assist with the maintenance. In 1829 Princes Dock was completed and this meant that the buoy shed would now be next to the quay side. In 1841 the building was rebuilt to provide better facilities and more space to work on the new larger buoys and light floats.

By 1861 the number of buoys and floats and the amount of shipping on the Humber meant that there was much more work required to maintain the navigational marks and the buoy shed was very busy, watched over by a Buoy Master. In 1863 a crane was supplied by the Humber Bank Foundry. It was able to lift 4 tons and the jib was fitted to the wall of the shed. The winding drum and friction brake were fitted inside the shed. It may be that this crane was insufficient and in about 1865 it was replaced with the crane that is now by the new buoy shed. It may also have been fitted elsewhere and bought for the site second hand as the crane is thought to date from 1865.

A view of the River Hull aspect of the Trinity House Buoy Shed and crane from the west bank.

https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/519532506983494239/

Detail of a similar crane from a paper written by Sir William Fairburn the designer and holder of the patent. The base below the surface that holds around a third of the crane as counter weight in a circular pit can be seen in the upper photograph.

Sir William Fairburn was born in Scotland  1789, but moved to Manchester in 1813. He set up an iron foundry in 1816 and then moved on to making iron steam vessels. Being in Manchester did not make things easy for ship building. For a ship called the Minerva it had to be sent to Hull in pieces, constructed and then sailed to Rotterdam and up the Rhine. It then had to be taken to bits to get past the Rhine Falls and then to Lake Zurich. The ship building moved to London and the company started building railway locomotives, exporting them all over the world. He also invented the box girder whilst he was coming up with plans for bridging the Menai Strait in 1840's. He took out the patent for the tubular jib crane in 1850 and allowed them to built under licence. The one in Hull was designed to lift 10 tons and to swivel through 360 degrees. It had manual gearing and a brake and was later fitted with an electrical motor. When the workload for the buoy shed on Price's Dock side got too much for the size of the facility a tender was put out by the House Surveyor. They received an estimate of £6000 so they were told to proceed. The shed was to included a 10 tons crane so whether they reused their old one or bought from else where is not now known.

Detail of the Trinity House crest on the Buoy Shed. The Latin motto reads 'SPES SUPER SYDERA' and means 'Hope beyond the stars'.

The northern aspect of the shed with 

The plaque on the north aspect with the information regarding when the buoy shed was opened.

The building was used by Northern Divers. The company was started in 1963 and supplied underwater services to civil engineering projects, shipping and salvage work in land and coastal. They now have warehousing and offices on Sutton Fields Industrial Estate.

Garrison Side, the east bank of the River Hull below Drypool Bridge is designated as an area of development and an area of archaeological interest and is subject to a planning management plan by Hull City Council. The Buoy Shed and crane are Nationally and internationally important so should be preserved at all costs. For the citizen or visitor they make just another point of interest on a very fine walk up the River Hull from Sammy's Point/Pier to North Bridge.

Fact 75. Largest ships, on highest lake made in Hull.

Earle's Shipyard (See Fact 46) was responsible for the construction of the two largest vessel built for the highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca in Peru/Bolivia.

http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/lakemaps/Lake%20Titicaca.html

Showing the position of Lake Titicaca, along way from Hull!

By the late 1800's Peru had got heavily into International date due to wars and natural disaster.s Britain took over the Peruvian Railway system as payment of her debts. There were already some British built kit ships on the Lake, built in 1861 and reassembled in 1870 and 1872. These were only about 100' in length and needed augmenting by 1904. An increase in traffic on the Lake warranted a new ship that was to be twice the size at 220' and the order went to Earle's. The ship was constructed in Hull and all the parts marked. The engines and boilers were built but not fitted into the ship before also broken down and crated. Each crate could weigh no more that 12.5 cwt (0.63 tonnes) and have dimensions less that 10 ft wide and 11 ft high. She left Hull in he boxes in early 1905 having cost £22285. The parts were transported up 12500 ft to the lake by railway and reassembled. She was set to work by mid 1905. 220' long 1809 GRT.

http://www.nonesuchexpeditions.com/nonesuch-features/lake-titicaca-steamships/titicaca-steam-ships.htm

SS. Inca in Puno Bay 1967. She was later broken up and sold for scrap.

Tarde continued to increase and despite the World Depression and the start of motor vehicle transport in earnest trade on the Lake was still increasing to the degree where another vessel was required to keep up with the cargo offered. The railway company again turned to Earle's. The new ship was to be even bigger at 260' long, 950 DWT, 2200 GRT and have a speed of 14.5 kts. powered by four oil fired steam engines. It was to carry 66 1st Class and 20 2nd Class passengers, and 950 tons of cargo.

Construction started at the yard in Hull when the keel was laid in June 1930. As with the INCA the ship was fully assembled using nuts and bolts so that it could all be checked and then properly marked to assist in reassembly. Five months later it was loaded into a PSNCo ship 'La Paz' for transport to Mollendo where it was then taken by railway up to Puno on the Lake.

http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/images/OllantaSmale.jpg

William R. Smale. Earle's engineer in charge of the reconstruction in Peru at Lake Titicaca in 1931.

To ensure the parts were all put together correctly Earle's sent one of their best engineers with them. William Reginald Smale originated from the West Country but had joined Earle's as an apprentice, he later sailed as an engineer on some of Ellerman Wilson's vessels and during WWII was an essential member of the team that kept Hull going during the heavy bombings of the German Blitz. He had a tough job to do as not only were there no skilled labour for the job, there were no proper tools and there wasn't even a slipway to build the ship on. He set to with a will and soon had the slip completed and the first plate was laid 24th March 1931. He managed to improvise the heavy machinery by adapting that used by the railway company. His original orders were to wait for a group of workers from Britain to come and assist with the launch. However he was supremely confident in his workers and himself that he went ahead an launched on 18th November that same year. The launch party arrived with the ship in the water and it just been fitted out.

http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/images/OllantaAssemblyd.jpg

On the slip with the shell plating almost complete. (From William Smale's original photograph)

http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/images/OllantaAssemblyb.jpg

Nearing being ready for launching with the deck plating being close to completion. Note the numbering of the parts of steel work.  (From William Smale's original photograph)

http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/images/OllantaAssemblyh.jpg

SS Ollanta underway on Lake Titicaca soon after completion.  (From William Smale's original photograph)

http://www.kellstransportmuseum.com/Tit.html

Photo taken on the bridge in 2004

http://www.kellstransportmuseum.com/Tit.html

The dining room taken in 2004.

Although the Inca was broken up the Ollanta survives and still employed cruising the lake as although not used by the railways on scheduled runs she is chartered out for the use of tourists.

Ollanta's Earle's builders number was No.679. Only three other ships were built at the yard afterwards as it fell to the Depression. Soon after the yard closed almost all the equipment was sold and transported to Hong Kong for the Kowloon ship yard, including the hammerhead crane.

William Smales remained in Peru for some years working for the Peruvian Railways, before setting off with a Yorkshireman on a horse back adventure to sail home from the  Atlantic side of South America. He later worked in India on a major project before returning to Hull during it's hour of need in WWII. He also had a hand in the building of the Mulberry Harbour that helped secure the Normandy Landings and the end of the war in Europe. He died in the 1990's.

Hull has a great maritime history, not just deep sea trawlers, and these days not much is made of the port and the deeds of the past, or the future, but Hull developed and grew due the Humber and access to trade.

Fact 74. Hull Hydraulic Power Company.

In 1872 an Act of Parliament was granted for the construction of a public hydraulic power system. There were private hydraulic system in place working dock and railway equipment in Newcastle, Burtisland, Glasgow London and Swansea before this but only working for the one company. The initial system was to cover 60 acres and they were permitted to take a million gallons of water a day from the River Hull at a cost of £12 10s per 250,000 gallons per year to the Hull Corporation. The Hull Hydraulic Power Company opened for business in 1876. Their premises were on Marchell Street and still survive.

http://www.davidjessop.co.uk/morewincolmleearea.html

This photo from David Jessop's website was taken before the erection of a Blue Plaque. It clearly shows the holding water tank hat also allowed the mud to settle out of the water before being used.

In the building in the photo above there was space for 4 x 60HP engines, but only two were initially installed, and each could pump 130 gallons per minute at 700 psi. The roof water tank was fed by one of two centrifugal pumps lifting the water 35 ft from low tide level to the roof and along the 125 ft to the roof at a rate of 800 gals/min. There was a return line to act as an overflow and to assist in cleaning the tank. There were two Lancashire boilers to provide steam for the engines and pumps.

The system laid was a 6" cast iron main that went from Marchell Street, down Wincomlee, under the entrance to Queen's Dock entrance from the River Hull and terminating near the western side of the South Bridge that was near Blackfriar Gate now. (Between Myton Bridge and the Tidal Barrier). At a suitable distance along the main were isolation valves and also air cocks to be able to drain the system of air. At intervals also provided were 'T' pieces of 2", 3" and 4" for supply to customers. The initial length of the main was 1485 yards. At the Marchell Street site was also provision of two hydraulic accumulators. These were to be unlike the very tall hydraulic tower at Grimsby that was expensive to build but a weight on a piston. In Hull the piston in the system was 18" diameter and had a stroke of 20'. On top of this was placed a load of 57.5 tons of copper slag that provided a constant pressure of 610 lbs per square inch. Only one was installed initially and provision was made for another at the southern end of the line.

 

This is the hydraulic accumulator at Bristol Harbour that is still in operation. This one was installed in the 1920's.

By 1895 about half a million gallons were being pumped into the system each week and about 58 machines were being powered by the system including cranes and dock gates with machinery for ship building. The system reached it's zenith in the early 1900's extending to a pipeline length of 2.5 miles and used by around 140 machines. The system remained in operation right through until WWII when the severe bombing of Hull made it impossible to maintain the pipework intact and the company was wound up in 1947. This saw the retirement of Mt. F.J. Haswell who was the Manager and engineer and had worked for the Hull Hydraulic Power Co. since since 1904.

Hull City Council erected a Blue Plaque to mark the building that was the first public hydraulic power station in the UK in 1990.

There are still occasional reminders of the old system and Hull Hydraulic Power Company. If you look carefully on the streets you may still come across one of the system valve covers. The Hull system had been constructed and installed by the Hydraulic Engineering Company that was based in Chester. It's Managing Director, Edward Ellington, studied the system and used it as a blueprint for the many future systems that he and his company installed in the UK and abroad. There were other private hydraulic system installed at Albert Dock (1869) and Alexandra Dock (1885).

http://www.paul-gibson.com/streets-and-architecture/echoes.php

Valve cover of the original Hull Hydraulic Power Company on High Street.