The drying of the Hull Valley from the last Ice Age, 8,000 BC

The history of Hull and the area around it have been greatly influence by water. We are all aware of the importance of fishing to Hull and Hull's role in the import and export of goods to and from Europe through it's docks. We can consider the effects that water had on the development of housing such as the development of the Avenues in the late 1800s. We could consider the defence of Hull by flooding of the surrounding country side. We can discuss the effect of water on the poorer area of Witham where a high water table caused rooms to become damp and uncomfortable. We could talk about the diseases carried by the River Hull out of which years ago some citizens got their water and this causing a disparity of mortality between the Groves area and the areas west of the river which were supplied with spring water from the Wolds. We could talk about the flooding of the Old Town when tide and wind acted together and the attempts to stop the silting of the Old Harbour. There are so many ways in which water has affected Hull and it's development.

Hull Tidal Barrier is lowered when very high tides are expected. Opened 1980. (Photo Andy Beecroft. Wiki Commons)

The following account takes us back several thousand years before Hull (or Wyke) was ever 'thought of' so let us roll our minds back to 8,000 BC, the end of the last great ice age. Great sheets of ice covered northern Britain 3-4 kilometres thick which to us is nearly inconceivable as we never experience ice of such depth but grumble when the pavements become icy. The story I'm going to present is an over view of how this affected our region of East Yorkshire. It is a simple explanation of events as I'm not a geomorphologist nor a geologist and so with this caveat I'll present the simple 'picture' that I understand.

At the end of the last ices age glaciers and ice sheets had swept in from the north west and north east covering much of northern Britain. Erratics from Shap Fell near the Lake District testify to the movement of glaciers from the north east. One piece of Shap granite lies next to Seamer Railway Station near Scarborough. However, the full classification of the action of ice on the landscape is well beyond this explanation here as well as being well beyond me! Basically glaciations produces large U shaped valleys but large ice sheets may produce larger flatter expanses. Their melt water produces V shaped valleys. The last ice age ended about 8,000 years BC but what about the aftermath when the glaciers melted? This is where we still see the recognisable effects on the history of Hull and its hinterland.

U shaped glaciation valleys in the Lake District, Cumbria. (Geogorg)

The nature of our large historically flooded areas has meant the underlying soils in the southern part are of a loamy/clay nature but with areas of 'pure' clay. There is no underlying rock and this has meant that buildings were usually made of locally made brick and Beverley and Hull were known as Brick Towns. It is not unusual to dig up the odd medieval hand made brick in the garden. There is evidence of many clay pits in the area but these now have been turned into recreational areas for fishing, boating etc. Any stone used in building has to be transported from else where. Henry VIII took advantage of the destruction of the Abbeys when the stone of Meaux Abbey was transported to Hull to build part of the two block houses and 'castle' as the eastern defences of the town. Most of their construction was brick. The northern end (the Carrs) were more peaty in nature.

The blue areas are those influenced by long term standing water. They are loamy clays, peaty clay or clay soils. (Original map from the Cranfield Soil and Agricultural Institute Soilscape).

The retreating ice produced huge amounts of melt water and left behind lakes and meres. The latter are formed by residual ice forming shallow lakes broader than they are deep and exemplified by Hornsea mere just north east of Hull. There were other meres in East Yorkshire at Tickton and Leven but the subsequent draining of the Hull Valley drained them as well.

Hornea Mere (Wiki Commons)

Another very much larger lake called Lake Humber was formed by the water from the retreating glaciers. This was a huge area of water taking in part of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire but was trapped from draining by a geological fault and ice plug about where the Humber Bridge is now and high ground to the west and south. Lake Humber was about thirty meters deep, about 65 km long and 50 km wide in an approximate area between where York, Tadcaster, Ferrybridge, Gainsborough and Scunthorpe would be in the future. When Lake Humber eventually dried out it produced the Humberhead Levels. The coast was a different shape then but the recognisable one is shown for simplicity.

A drawing of the position Lake Humber and Hull Valley after the last ice age. Positions of later twn are shown. Y=York, T= Tadcaster, F=Ferrybridge, D= Doncaster, G = Gainsborough, S = Scunthorpe, G= Goole and H= Hull. (Drawing by Chris Coulson)

Around the Woodmancy, north of Hull, in what was the Hull Valley, the fields on either side of the road are lower than the road. In Cambridgeshire this is quite common because of the peat shrinkage and peat was common in the carrs, the northern area of the Hull Valley. A lot of East Yorkshire was very fen like following the last ice age and that's where the next part of our story takes us.

The Humberhead Levels (Photo Geogorg)

The break out of the Lake Humber through the Humber Gap did little to drain the land east of it and the Hull Valley remained flooded or wet for thousands of years. This was mainly due to the tides in the Humber flowing in and out of it and the flow of fresh water southwards from the powerful springs of the Yorkshire Wolds added to by the drainage from Holderness. The southern end of the Hull Valley formed salt mash through inundation of tidal sea water while the northern end of Hull Valley formed fresh water morasses of peat, alder and sedges called the 'carrs'.

Enter the Iron Age. In Britain this runs from about 800 BC to 100 AD. The dates differ with location. East Yorkshire and areas around the Humber have many examples of Iron Age activity and as the Hull Valley naturally drained the Iron Age people were attracted to the area for trade and for which they used boats.

Indeed Iron Age boats have been excavated in the area. By the Iron Age, Hull Valley was not quite as simplistically defined as illustrated in my sketch above but had many more small water ways so no doubt wooden boat would b important. Three or four of these have been found in the area. so the area no doubt had numerous iron age settlements.

The Hull Valley and surrounding area in the Iron Age.

(With permission of 'Past Hull and Around')

Iron age peoples presence could exemplified by the discovery, in a friends garden in the Avenues, of part of an Iron Age pot. One could romanticise that in drier parts of the year Iron Age people could come down from the lower Wolds and trek across to the Humber to trade The pot was dropped and broken and someone went to bed early! But we will really never know how it came to be there. I could have been my friends garden was a small dry settlement area in the iron age.

An Illustration of boat travel in the Hull Valley area in the Iron Age

(With permission of 'Past Hull and Around')

Early attempts at drainage where never recorded but it was in Medieval Ages that serious efforts in flood control were made in the southern salt marsh part of Hull Valley. Sutton, Anlaby and Hessle built banks to protect their individual hamlets but eventually joined them along the Humber bank. Although Edward I appointed Commissioners to oversee mending of the original flimsy turf banks these were active after the banks had been breached, a rather reactive rather than proactive action. A problem arose that if the banks kept sea water out they also prevented the fresh water draining south. New drainage channels with simple sluices had to be built in an attempt to solve this problem. While much of this land was still subject to fresh water flooding the slightly raised areas of Sutton and Wawne produced valuable pastures which were much in demand. Not much was done to drain the more northern carrs, which were rather inhospitable places, save for fishing, reed gathering, wild fouling and probably contracting Malaria. Indeed when the Romans came into what is now East Yorkshire they never went near them.

The Hull Valley and its natural drainage prior to 1000 AD. The Lambwarth stream was a tributary of The Old Fleet at its northern end. (Drawing by Chris Coulson)

Enter the Monarch and the Monks! In 1150 Cistercian Monks were granted land on which to set up an abbey. Meaux Abbey land was granted by William le Gros as penance for not going on a Crusade. The Abbot of Rievaulx Abbey came to oversee this gift of land and chose the spot for the new Meaux Abbey. William le Gross tried to get it moved as he wanted to put some cattle there but the good Abbot held his ground! This land was on slightly higher ground near Wawne in the centre of Hull Valley and the monks did two things - obtain more land and dig water channels, mainly east west, so apparently not for drainage, but to link to the river Hull for trading. Some of the land they held was around the entrance to the River Hull at Myton and King Edward I exchanged this land with Meaux Abbey in 1293 for more productive land near Pocklington. Edward I recognised the value of the area, then called Wyk, as a port and renamed the town Kingstown upon Hull. Meanwhile the Monks at Meaux Abbey were not idle!

Hull Valley water ways in the Middle Ages. The Julian Dyke brought drinking water into Hull. (Drawing by Chris Coulson)

To take advantage of Hull and the Humber for trading the monks at Meaux Abbey had to reach it through the flooded Hull Valley. They dug many channels in and around the abbey but primarily east/west to reach the river essentially via Ash Dyke which was fed by water from the Monkdyke and the Eschedyke. The spelling of dike or dyke is not consistent.

The junction of the Monkdyke and the Eschedyke. (Photo Chris Coulson)

The Eschedyke, which was dug by the Monks, joined the river Hull via the Ashdyke but the Monk Dyke took water from the Lambwarth Stream to increase the flow of water. These channels were important in reaching the River Hull. The Foredyke, dug between 1221 and 1235, connected the Lambwarth Stream to the River Hull and caused more water from the Lambwarth to flow to the west to the extent that its contribution to the Old Fleet, of which it was a tributary, declined, eventually causing the Old Fleet to dwindle in importance. On Google earth and although dried up the Ashdyke can be traced crossing fields towards River Hull. The same is true for the Old Fleet as it entered the Humber but much of this stream route has been lost under buildings in east Hull.

The Meaux abbey's monks penchant for digging channels and diverting water frequently brought them into conflict with their neighbours eithr because they flooded their neighbours land or removed their neighbours water supply. Much time and money was spent on litigation over these matters. However, once on the River Hull they could easily reach Hull to trade their wool and buy supplies.

Overlay of Google Map showing features and main water courses of Meaux Abbey site. (Chris Coulson. After surveys by Chris Coulson and Gill Webster)

Of course the depth of water in Hull Valley varied from a few inches at the edges to several feet and indeed depths varied through the year and from year to year. Shallow areas could be drained to useful land more easily than deeper areas. South in the valley, to the west of the town of Hull, an early drainage scheme was initiated in 1172 and Setting Dyke, and the Hundolf Channel (where Princes' Avenue is now) were dug to drain what is now the area of Newlands. This area was much more easily drained than the carrs and the land more suitable to pasture development for cows. The nearness of Hull, about two miles to the east, provided a ready market for milk and butter and stimulated land development here.

Setting dyke across the top of this drawing was dug in 1172 and represents an early attempt at draining part of the Marine Marsh. The map represents land organisation at a much later date. (Map by John Binham Cooper courtesy of his sister)

The land which was being drained in the lower salt marsh area of the Hull Valley was becoming valuable as pastures but the process was slow. The carrs to the north were left out of the process and their improvement was initially left to individual land owners to find a solution to their problems. Bigger drainage schemes in the 1700s eventually started to drain the carrs.

The 17 and 1800s saw more drains developed and the drainage more rationalised. D=Driffield, B=Beverely, He=Hessle. (Drawing byChris Coulson)

The water supply for Hull's people from the River Hull was a problem as the river is tidal and water, at times, was brought and sold by boats from further up the river where it was less saline. Given the river is tidal for a considerable way up stream it was only on the ebb of tides that the water was anything like portable. Even today the abstraction plant at Top Hill Low, towards Driffield, has a sill to prevent salt water entering the part of the river from which drinking water is still abstracted. In 1401/2 a channel called the Julian dyke was dug from the fresh water springs in Anlaby to the town to solve the drinking water problem of the growing population. This west to east channel, however, was not without it's problems as it disturbed the north to south drains and also the people of Anlaby complained that they were now getting less water. Bitter exchanges and actions were sometimes generated by the Julian Dyke. It was so badly maintained at times that occasionally Hull had 'no swete (sweet) water'.

Part of the Old Harbour -- badly silted up. (Photo Chris Coulson)

Else where in the Hull Valley pasture land developed and to control the water flow and safeguard the banks of the channels some sort of control was needed. By 1532 the Statute of Sewers was enacted which gave powers to Commissioners to oversee the situation with jurisdiction through the Court of Sewers. These were a legal entity with similar powers to the Quarter Session Courts. This more centralised overview helped organise the flow of water towards the Humber. The Court of Sewers operated to balance the needs of the various parties for fresh water and drainage. One small but important sluice gate, the Gold Dyke Stock, (18'' square) became contentious as it controlled much of the drainage from the carrs and this drainage had detractors and supporters. Land owners in the northern end of the Hull Valley wanted them drained but other people (poorer) who used them in their flooded state as a resource wanted them to remain. The Lord of the Manor, following the Norman conquest, owned the rights to the land so the use of the carrs for the poorer people was restricted.(see 'Leconfield Castle' on https://candp9.wixsite.com/website ). Not opening the Gold Dyke Stock in winter caused flooding above it but opening it could also cause flooding below it and in dry summers keeping it closed restricted water to the valuable pastures below it. The Court of Sewers found themselves in a cleft stick over this as the sluice was deemed to be 'old' and so they had a duty to maintain it and presumably the situation rather than change it.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the changes that made most difference to the drainage of the area were: The creation of drainage authorities e.g. Holderness Drainage (1764-1930); straightening drains; making them deeper; cleaning them; keeping waterways free of weeds; the installation of wind pumps and later motor driven pumps to control water levels; dredging parts of the River Hull and the removal of several fords which, although allowing the passage of people and carts across the river, restricted the flow of water south.

The Holderness drain (see above) was opened in 1772 and was the first large drain in the Hull Valley. Initially there were two, the Lowland and the Upland Holderness drains. The Lowland drain emptied at Marfleet but both were joined and emptied at Marfleet. To the north east of Hull it provided water for the Foredyke Stream.

An example of a straitened and rerouted drain was the Foredyke Stream. Originally in the 13th century when dug by the Monks this ran approximately east to west from the Lambwarth stream to the River Hull. Centuries after it had been originally dug its course was altered north/south and lengthened and it entered the River Hull on its east side a few yards above North Bridge.

Part of the current rural Foredyke Stream (Photo Africa Gomez. Wiki Commons)

The bridge built across this stream at the junction of New Cleveland St and Holderness Road is the very interesting Fero-cement bridge, the first one built in England in 1902. The Foredyke Stream and the river Hull had the unforeseen spin-off of 'locking' in an area of poor housing and low income which became known as the Groves, a slum area. The low life expectancy is testimony to these poor conditions.

The fero-cement bridge at New Cleveland Street, Hull, which once spanned the Fordyke Stream. (Wiki Commons).

Any scheme to put drainage water directly into the Humber as apposed to the River Hull was resisted as it would take water away from the River Hull. As the town was developing into an important port the flow of water down the river was needed for removing silt out of the Haven (the original harbour) and so the powers that controlled shipping resisted any schemes that took water away from the River Hull. However, dredging the River Hull its self and diverting water to it to clear the silt lead to problems when the banks of the Old Harbour where undermined by the flow of water. Many tons of chalk had to be dumped into it to reduce the River Hull's scouring effect and prevent adjacent buildings falling into the river!

The Old Harbour at half tide. The silting is obvious (Photo Chris Coulson)

The fact that more land was being brought into pasture and crops was reflected in the increasing price of land and this in turn stimulated the idea that drainage was important and profitable. Land owners became aware that land which was still too wet for agriculture could be brought into production and in 1763 a drainage act of parliament was passed allowing some land in Hull Valley to be rested from the control of the Court of Sewers and put into the hands of the Holderness Drainage (authority). They produced a scheme for a drain to empty at Marfleet but again the need to scour the Old Harbour was resurrected and the scheme failed. The building of the Town Dock in 1778 (Queens Dock, Queens Gardens) made it more important for the Old Harbour to be kept navigable to allow ships into this new dock. The plan for the Holderness drain emptying into the Humbr at Marfleet caved in and the drain entered the River Hull at Stoneferry.

However, about this time permission was granted for more docks to be built in Hull and these eventually lead to ships being able to avoid the River Hull and the River Hull and come into port via the Humber Dock (1809), then into Junction Dock (Princess Dock 1829) and Queens Dock (1779). This reduced the importance of the scouring of old harbour and this in turn lead to fewer objections to drainage outlets entering the Humber at Marfleet and permission was given for this in 1832. A problem here was that at high tide drainage of the Holdernes Dyke couldn't occur. In the second phase of the Holderness Drainage development the west leg of the Holderness drain (the Lowland Holderness drain) was developed and passed under the upland drain at the Great Culvert. This drain emptied at Marfleet.

In 1880 Alexander Dock was built and a problem that developed there was the accumulation of mud from the Humber. It was agreed that the dock could pump water from the Holderness drain into the dock to clear the mud. This was a very satisfactory solution for both sides and large steam pumps were installed for this. This certainly made the management of the outflow of the new Holderness Drain at Marfleet easier.

By 1885 several major canals had been dug to drain the Hull Valley under authorities other than Holderness Drainage. The meres at Tickton and Leven had gone and the carrs were more productive. However, it must be remembered that the major waterways did have many side branches leading from the surrounding land rather like our arteries and capillaries. The installation of field drains by farmers eager to make their land more productive stimulated this. There are one or two large open drains still to be seen, eg Barmston drain, but many have disappeared from sight in the deep drainage schemes of the 1960s when they were culvetted underground. Such was the fate of one of our earliest drains, Setting Dyke (1172), whose course can be seen behind Victoria Avenue and along Queens Road in Hull in the form of a long grassed over area .

And so it goes. Through the millennia from wetness to dryness, from fetid marshlands to productive farms, from time consuming travel over water to roads with cars we have much to thank our predecessors for.

Chris Coulson

March 2019