More on Sammy's Point and slipway. Is this a coincidence or wishful thinking?

Sammy's point in Hull is known to many people but equally many people don't know of it and it's history. Once a maritime marsh land swept by the Humber's tides and inundated by the fresh water draining off the Yorkshire Wolds it was a place difficult to inhabit let alone farm. Only on the knolls of very slightly higher land was it possible for settlements to survive but these were quite often flooded.

However, by the reign of Edward II (1284-1327), some minimal drainage efforts had resulted in the establishment of Kingstown-upon-Hull, (Previously Wyke) Hull being the river whose name seems to have come form either Scandinavian or Saxon words. It is said that the residents of Hull could probably have seen the camp fires of the Scots on the Wolds after the Scots victory over Edward II at the battle of Byland. Henry VIIIs (1493- 1547) interest in Hull's strategic position probably stemmed from his problems with the French and Scots and the possibility of them forming an alliance against him.

A port of growing importance in the middle ages, largely due to its export of wool from its hinterlands, Hull had amassed a sizeable armoury which was one reason that Charles I (1600-1649) took such an interest in the town and from which he was also excluded (see 'King Charles I and Hull' in this blog). Given Hull's access to the north sea, its seafaring tradition and its armoury it seemed logical to the King that the town should be defended a bit better. Permission for the walls to be built had been given by Edward II in the fourteenth century though a moat had provided a defence since the town was formed. The wall however, only provided a defence on three sides, that is the south, west and north sides, the east side was, it was thought, was protected by the River Hull. Henry VIII thought that more defences were needed along the east bank of the River Hull and so ordered the building of a north and south block house with walls joining them to a central 'castle'. The south block house was at the entrance road to the Deep (Aquarium), the castle was where the Post Office collection depot is on St Peters Street and the north block house near the current north bridge. Built of Tudor brick with some stone from Meaux Abbey the southern block house is currently (March/April 2019) being excavated and can be visited on Thursdays between 10-12 until the dig is finished, some time in April this year.

Hollar's plan of Hull (1640) showing the north and south block house and the 'castle' between them. Pub. Hull CC 1973

Age, decay and an explosion resulted in the Citadel being built in its place in the 168os which incorporated the south block house and the castle. Covering an area of 29 acres and costing in the end over £100,000 (well above estimate -nothing changes!) but by 1848 it was not used by the military and in 1863 the Citadel was sold and demolished and the site cleared for industrial use in 1864. Enter Martin Samuelson, ship builder and entrepreneur. His involvement with Hull can be found else where in this blog. But perhaps at this juncture it may be germane to ask if do we really rid our selves of history when we develop an area?

The 1882 Peck's map shows a 'Patent Slip' on Samuelson's land and a lithograph of Hull of about the same period by a Frank N Pellingells shows a ship under construction on a slipway in his yard. Samuelson's yard was not the only ship yard but probably it was the only one constructing iron ships in these early years. A Google Earth down load of the same area shows The Deep, the Business Centre buildings and car parks. What is striking when the Peck map and the Google Earth image map are orientated with respect to north is the similarity in position of the Business Centre buildings on 'Sammy's Point' to the slipway shown on the Peck map.

Part of Pecks 1882 plan of Hull showing Samuelsons yard and slip way. (Personal copy. Chris Coulson)

To investigate this further I initially measured the distance of the slipway from the south west corner of Sammy's Point to the slipway on both the Peck 1882 map and the Google Earth down load. Two things could confound this measurement the errors involved in such a small measurement and the possible differences in the extent of Sammy's Point from 1882 to 2019. Taking similar measurements from the top of the slipway and the centre of northern end of business centre buildings but using the south east corner of the Minster (Holly Trinity Church, a better fixed point) gave very encouraging and similar results. From Pecks map the slip to the Minster was 1176 feet and using the Google Earth image it was 1151 feet. That was 25 feet difference.

Google Earth down load of the Deep on Sammy's Point.

The next question was what was the slipways orientation from the Pecks map, Google earth download and on the ground measurements (ground truth)? My self (CC) and Gill Webster (GW), on a windy day, went to obtain some initial compass bearings. However, using a compass on this site especially against buildings is fraught with the magnetic influences of the buildings themselves. This could be due to magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in cables, machinery and office equipment, One of us (GW) had the compass turn 90 degrees over a space of yards when holding it against the wall. I returned few days later with a sighting (marching) compass to repeat the measurements. This meant you could 'sight' along walls without getting too near them.

Martin Samuelson'd ship yard. Detail from

a poster (Hull Ferens Art Gallery. Published 2002)

The compass bearings are shown below.

The 1882 Peck map the slip is 340° North (that is 20° west of magnetic north)

Google Earth business buildings are 340° North

Ground truth the buildings was 341° North (average of 3 readings)

No account has been taken in the figures above for any variation of magnetic from true north between 1882 and the present.

The Business Centre building next to The Deep on Sammy's Point. (Photo Chris Coulson)

So it would seem the buildings and the old slip are very closely aligned and the slip and buildings are with in 25 ft as measured from the Minster.

Looking over the rails at the Humber at the southern end of the buildings there are substantial jointed wooden posts driven into the mud about 3 yards to the east of the south east corner of the business buildings. These could be taken as the remains of the south end of the patent slip of Pecks 1882 map of Hull.

Substantial timbers in line with the Business Centre buildings on Sammy's Point (Photo Chris Coulson)

But what does this mean -- if anything?

Frequently I have found that developments are affected by what was previously there. Many of our rural churches are build on and influenced by previous pagan churches. Roads frequently follow the alignment of earlier roads e.g. Ermine Street through Lincolnshire. But what about 'The Deep?

I may be on thin ice here as there could be people around who could have been involved with the development of Sammy's point and know more but when the building occurred I was living in Africa and in the 1950s and earlier Sammy's Point was a mysterious and distant place. It seems to me that faced with a cleared industrial site a level area such as that provided by a ship building yard slipway may have been an attractive starting point for buildings. Car parks and service roads would have been sensibly aligned with them.

Any Ideas?