Manor Farm, Woodmansey, East Riding of Yorkshire

The first day of our four here was earmarked for Hull city; we spent some time messing about on the internet seeking park and ride facilities and in the end opted for those suggested in our Rough Guide, the car park for the St Stephan’s Shopping Centre with a system whereby one pays for the time used rather than having to future guess the time required to enjoy the urban attractions.

The woman behind the counter at Burger King who handed over mid-morning sustenance gave us directions into the city, because one could easily take the wrong exit and end up wandering away from one’s destinations in these tangles of levels and exits. This was all confirmed when we spotted the Information kiosk at the transport interchange, when a delightful otherwise-retired chap offered a plethora of travel advice for this city he so loves.

We soon found ourselves near the Town Hall and the adjacent Ferens Art Gallery, after doing a little shopping; fashion and cosmetics the order of the day. The Gallery proved to be a real delight with a magnificent collection of works by European masters, portraiture, marine painting, and modern and contemporary British art, but not so massive that one simply shuts off with overload.

Amongst the collection I found the following treasures to add to my bank of art appreciation:

-       There were a couple of works by Henry Herbert La Thangue, an Englishman who studied and was inspired by French artists. Chris was familiar with this name, I was not. I shall look out for more of his work in future.

-          The second was not so much the work, but the story of the artist. The painting “The Return from Inkerman” is a rather grand depiction of soldiers returning from the Crimean War, but the more interesting facts related to the artist, Lady Elizabeth Butler, who never actually saw military action, although she was the wife of a soldier. The work was completed in 1877, twenty three years after the actual event, and after the recreation of historic battles by hiring platoons of soldiers in authentic uniform. Butler challenged the conventions of the day by choosing war scenes, a subject then considered unsuitable for women artists. She became the most successful “war” artist of the period and her work was purchased by Queen Victoria. I thought that rather interesting.

The gallery also had a fascinating exhibition titled “Skin” with work by Freud, Mueck and Tunick, and each with great merit. Australian Mueck’s sculptures are eerily realistic work reminiscent of that by Patricia Piccinini we saw when we were touring Australia. I found Piccinini’s work more realistic and acceptable, but Mueck’s is larger than life and his brilliance of installing the hair on his subjects is quite incredible. His “Wild Man” is particularly confronting; his work should always be inspected when the opportunity arises, and there will be no standard response from the viewer. This work should be for adult eyes only; I can imagine it provoking nightmares in my more sensitive grandchildren.

 Freud’s work was very much a matter of déjà vu, and the US photographer Spencer Tunick was familiar too although not this particular series of work. He is that odd ball who commissions great crowds of everyday people to paint their naked bodies in prescribed colours and pose en masse in well-known spots for his marvellous grand photographs. The collage of naked bodies seem sexless, but still amazingly provocative. In July 2016 he called for 3,200 Hull residents to shed their clothes and paint themselves blue in the name of art. The roads in the city centre were closed between midnight and 10 am as the participants who came in all shapes, size and age posed in locations that reflected Hull’s maritime history. The photos are incredible and the short documentary about the filming of the installations was equally entertaining. Unsurprisingly, photos are not allowed to be taken in this part of the gallery.

It was well after midday by the time we emerged from the gallery and found ourselves a bench in the sunshine in front of the Town Hall, a grand building on the edge of Queen Victoria Square. The volunteer in the information centre had told us to watch out for Victoria sitting on a couple of toilets; it turned out that the public toilets are situated directly below the grand statue of the 19^th century monarch. As we ate our lunch, a crowd of turquoise shirted folk gathered around us, volunteers to welcome visitors to their city, the 2017 City of Culture, and they are unashamedly proud of their home. Isn’t that wonderful!

Following the advice of now three guides, the last one of these a polo shirted advocate, we headed down pedestrianized Whitefriargate, carefully making our way around the archaeological work at the top of the street.

Beverley Gate had been buried until 1986, when the site was excavated as part of the city centre pedestrianisation scheme. In 1989 the remains of the north part of the gate and guard houses were presented as a permanent display in an amphitheatre.

It was right here in 1642 that Hull found itself in a strategically important position with both Charles I and Parliament wishing to have control of the town. The Irish rebellion of 1641 had left London’s arsenal severely depleted and Hull found itself with the largest store of arms and ammunition in the country.

On 23 April 1642, Charles I and his escort arrived at Hull, but found themselves barred at Beverley Gate. The gate had remained shut on the orders of Hull’s governor, Sir John Hotham, following parliament’s wishes that Hull’s arsenal should not be delivered up to the King without their authority. This act of defiance was one of the key events which led to the outbreak of the Civil War later that year.

We continued on through the busy streets to the Minster, known as the Holy Trinity Church until just two months ago. This parish church was mostly built in the 14^th century. Today we found at least half of it filled with scaffolding, undergoing major restoration, and apart from a small corner left for the purpose it was built, there were two exhibitions and a large space for cakes and tea being sold in a manner one might find the Women’s Institute selling tea and cakes at an A&P Show. 

The first of the exhibitions was particularly off, an installation by Annabel McCourt, titled “The Electric Fence”, four corner “posts” with rows of pseudo electric wires strung around them. The interpretative panel explains that this “was inspired by everyday experience of people facing hate crime around the world and the dark horrors that have resulted throughout history”. Second thoughts have managed to incorporate LGBT freedoms into this as well, and quite frankly I thought it a great big waste of space and hardly appropriate here, but then some may argue that this is the very place.

More to our taste was an extensive exhibition all about the Fishermen’s Mission founded in 1881 by Ebenezer Joseph Mather to provide practical, emotional and spiritual care to fishermen and their families. The exhibition tells of many instances and examples of assistance to these mariners, all very admirable. But there was also much about the vessels that were requisitioned by the government throughout the past century to take part in the two World Wars as well as that in the Falklands. Many lives have been lost over the same period, through the dangers of the industry itself and during the times of conflict.

 I was also fascinated to learn about the “Cod Wars”, a time that Chris does recall, although I do not.  During the 1950s and 1960s Britain consumed 430,000 tons of cod per annum, which at this rate would soon wipe the species out and put paid to the livelihoods of both British and Icelandic fishermen. In 1958 Iceland decided to take steps to protect their fishing industry by extending their Exclusive Economic Zone from four miles to twelve miles, however Britain chose to ignore the new zone and carried on doing what it had always done, sending warships to protect their fishing fleets. The response was one of retaliation with Icelandic patrol boats firing across the bows of the trawlers. Britain countered by threatening to sink the Icelandic vessels. (Isn’t this sounding like Trump versus Korean Kim?) Eventually Britain backed down and accepted the twelve mile limit.

Fourteen years later, Iceland extended the EEZ to fifty miles and the same little drama was played out. The parties arrived at a solution; the British trawlers could fish within a specified area (within the fifty mile zone), however they were limited to an annual catch of 130,000 tons of cod. The agreement was valid for up to two years.

Three years later, Iceland increased the EEZ limit from fifty miles to two hundred miles. This led to some intense heated confrontations as Britain, as well as other European nations vented their anger. The Royal Navy was involved in fifty five ramming confrontations of Icelandic boats during this period, in order to protect the British trawlers from gunfire and warp cutting. An agreement was reached in May 1976 to resolve the Cod War disputes, and I don’t remember any of this! 

The outcome was that a maximum of twenty four British trawlers were allowed to fish within the new EEZ along as their catch was limited to 30,000 tons. Iceland achieved its overall aim, the cod population has been saved from extinction, and the already declining British fisheries were hit hard, with thousands of skilled fishermen and people in related trades being put out of work.

Interestingly in 2012 the British government offered a multimillion-pound compensation deal and apology to fishermen who lost their livelihoods in the 1970s. More than thirty five years after the workers lost their jobs, the £1,000 compensation offered to 2,000 fishermen was criticised for being insufficient and excessively delayed.

From the church, we wandered down through the old town toward the River Hull, within view of the confluence with the River Humber, and then walked up on to the rather special footbridge which was one of the spots the blue nudes were photographed. The Scale Lane swing bridge which took six years to construct, costing almost seven million pounds was opened in 2013. At the time of opening, it was the only bridge in the United Kingdom where pedestrians can stay on the bridge as it opens. We stood for some time on the bridge, the river flowing low within the steep muddy banks and large barges manoeuvring about in a mysterious way, or at least mysterious to we landlubbers.

Not far away is the Museum Quarter, all free to the visitor, consisting of Wilberforce House, the Hull and East Riding Museum, Streetlife and the Arctic Corsair trawler. This afternoon we only had time for Wilberforce House where one can learn all about one of Hull’s favourite sons and the work and wonders he achieved during his life.

William Wilberforce was born in Hull in 1759 and died in London in 1833, only after being a Member of Parliament for Hull from 1780 to 1784, and then member for Yorkshire from 1754 to 1812. According to the memorial outside the House, England owes to him the reformation of manners and the world owes to him the abolition of Slavery. Certainly the second is true and well celebrated here and in the museums on the subject of slavery in Liverpool and Bristol, although I already knew that long before I came to England. He is one of those people we become familiar with from primary school years on. 

While Wilberforce certainly succeeded in his crusade against African slavery, it still goes on today, and just this year two men in Nottingham, just across the county from here, were jailed for trafficking eighteen Poles. This is apparently only a drop in the bucket of what goes on in front of our very eyes.

The museum is situated in one of the oldest buildings in Hull, built around 1660 and home to William Wilberforce. There is a mass of information throughout two floors of the extensive house and today there were plenty of other visitors with the same curiosity as us.

It was soon clear we were not going to see everything on our list so we headed back to the multi-story car park and headed home, calling at several pubs on the way trying to find out who might be showing the final All Black v Lions test on Saturday morning. We are still none the wiser.