TALK 7: Barge Crowded Waters

The story of Humber keels, sloops, rivers, and canals: their crucial role in making Hull Yorkshire’s Maritime City. Good inland links are vital to a port. They provide the means of taking goods to and from the country’s interior. Amongst Hull’s greatest maritime assets over many centuries were its wealth of waterway connections with inland towns and growing industrial areas across Yorkshire and even much further afield by way of the network of rivers flowing into the Humber.

The barges which conveyed cargoes along these waters were the heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) of their age and remained of key importance from the port’s very origins until almost the end of the twentieth century. They were once a ubiquitous part of maritime life and, as Larkin tells us in his poem ‘Here’, they crowded Hull’s Old Harbour, as well as many waterfronts from this port to Goole, Leeds, Nottingham, Sowerby Bridge, Sheffield, York and beyond. Those whose lives and livelihoods were tied up with the barges formed a unique part of the maritime story of Hull and the East Riding. They put a lot of the Yorkshire into our rightful claim to be Yorkshire’s Maritime City. Robb Robinson’s lecture will seek to outline and analyse some key dimensions of our inland waterway connections.

Timings & Tours

Monday 09 September:

1330

Location & directions

Wrecking Ball Music and Books, 15 Whitefriargate, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU1 2ER

Booking information

Pre-booking requirement:

Pre-booking not required

Accessibility details

Please note that the lecture room is located up a flight of Stairs

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