Scarborough and Hull

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The short rail journey between York and Scarborough was through mostly wide and flat terrain, though both city and town are hilly. Scarborough is delightful, the first sea bathing resort in the UK, in the 1770’s. Architecture is Georgian and Victorian as well as more recent, and seems to be a thriving seaside resort still. It helped having a lovely bright sunny afternoon for our visit. Two sandy beaches are north and south of a high headland which had the castle on it. We didn't go up to it, but it apparently has 3000 years of history attached to it. The harbour is busy with pleasure craft and fishing boats and there are buoys and flags out to sea that suggest shellfish nets. There are grand looking hotels on the high cliffs, donkeys on the beach, and plenty of family style activities around. There is a bracing wind, which would be unpleasant if the sun wasn't shining.

Most people up north seem to be friendly and chatty, no wonder they think that southerners are unfriendly.



Hull

We then took the train journey onto to Hull, which for me so far has been the highlight of the trip. Next year Hull will be the city of culture, so at the moment there are building works everywhere.

Hull has a much bigger place in the UK's history than I had realised. It is the UK's third largest port, after London and Liverpool, was bombed more than any other city after London, and has a vision of town planning that seems to surpass most other cities.

It quite possibly was the beginning of the civil war as the city refused entry to Charles l in 1642 when he wanted to collect their arsenal of weapons to use against his parliament.

In mediaeval times Hull was a walled city with a cobbled high street of merchants’ houses which backed onto the river Hull. When the docks were dug in the 1700’s, much of the walls were covered over, and some land was reclaimed from the Humber. Where the walls were have been marked out as red brick pavement so the original town boundary can still be seen. The mediaeval high street is still there, with its historic buildings, and staiths (alleys) down to the river Hull. These staiths are marked by ruts on the cobbles, and the walls of the houses, by the carts that once brought cargo from ships to the merchants’ houses.

The docks were filled in in the 1930’s, one is now a shipping mall (what else?) and the other is a delightful ten-acre park, with one end having abundant flowers and a fountain that changes colour at night, and the north eastern end having a peace park overlooked by the William Wilberforce statue and memorial stones to former inhabitants who died on 09/11. Poignant that we went there on the 15th anniversary of this date, and there were fresh flowers and tributes there.

We had a guided walk and the guide was so informative and knowledgeable that I feel as if I now know Hull intimately. He explained why there are large models of moths dotted around the town; (they are to celebrate Amy Johnson, one of Hull's famous daughters - she flew in a Moth. The artworks will be sold off next year for charity.) The mosaic toad in the museum quarter is to celebrate Philip Larkin, a famous son of Hull (he wrote two poems about toads. There were more last year, a whole trail of them - they have been sold for charity now.) He showed us the fish trail - an artist has done an alphabetical trail of fish on pavements throughout the town. Such inspiring ideas. The guide listed Hull's other claims to fame, the shop the Bounty was built here; Venn of the Venn diagrams was born here, and he explained why the telephone boxes were cream - Hull has always had its own independent telephone system and had never had red ones. What a town!

It has always been famous for its fishing industry and a guided tour of a sidewinder trawler moored in the mud on the Hull was fascinating.

The William Wilberforce museum I will need to revisit, it would be easy to spend all day there, in spite of its harrowing features of the transatlantic slave trade as well modern slavery. Trying to fit it in with the Streetlife museum, the Hull and East Riding museum and the Maritime museum (set in the splendid building that was the old dock office), was probably too ambitious. Jane gave up after two museums, but I'm a sucker for history.

The buildings here rival those of London, with the added advantage of not being too crowded together.And where there are modern buildings the surroundings seem to have been considered. Opposite the Trinity Church is a 1970s building of angled smoky glass which reflects the church to great effect.

The building works have yet to be completed and there are a lot of empty shops which hopefully will be filled for next year. I would certainly like to come back, see the changes and do more sightseeing, as well as doing a pub crawl of the fascinating hidden gems of independent pubs and cafes that the guide showed us. One old coaching inn had the smallest window in the world in its front wall. It was for the stable lad to peep through and run out to meet coaches as they arrived. There is a plaque commemorating it but the window is so narrow one could easily miss it, one inch wide next to a stone brick, but fully glazed and you can see inside. This four-hour guided walk (in four separate hour-long sections for those who wanted to dip in and out) was free, as were all the museums.

Hull - I shall be back.

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