Humber
|
River Hull tidal barrier. Situated at the end of the River Hull where it meets the Humber. |
For other uses, see Humber (disambiguation).The
Humber is a large tidal
estuary forming part of the boundary between northern and southern
England. It starts at
Faxfleet and the Trent Falls at the confluence of the
River Ouse and the
River Trent; it then passes the junction with the
Market Weighton Canal on the north shore, the junction with the
River Ancholme on the south shore; past
North Ferriby and
South Ferriby, under the
Humber Bridge and past
Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and
Kingston upon Hull on the North bank, where the
River Hull joins, then into the
North Sea between
Cleethorpes and
Spurn Head.
Ports on the Humber estuary include
Hull,
Grimsby,
Immingham and
New Holland.
In the
Anglo-Saxon period, it was a major boundary, separating
Northumbria from the southern kingdoms. Indeed the name
Northumbria simply indicates the area
North of the
Humber. It currently forms the boundary between the
East Riding of Yorkshire, to the north and
North and
North East Lincolnshire, to the south.
From
1974 to
1996 the area now known as East Riding, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire constituted
Humberside and for hundreds of years before that, The Humber lay between Lindsey and The East Riding of Yorkshire. ("East Riding" is derived from "East Thriding", and likewise with the other ridings; "thriding" is an old word meaning a third part). Since the late
eleventh century, Lindsey had been one of the Parts of Lincolnshire.
In August,
2005, Graham Boanas, a Hull man, became the first person to successfully wade across the Humber since
Roman times. The trek started on the North bank at
Boothferry, 4 hours later, he made it across onto the South bank at
Whitton. The feat was attempted to raise cash and awareness for the medical research charity,
DebRA.
Two fortifications were built in the mouth of the river in 1914, the
Humber Forts.
Fort Paull is further upstream.
When the sea level was lower in the
Ice Age, the Humber was a freshwater river that could have flowed up to 30 miles or more according to sea level before it reached the sea or joined the
Wash River.
The Humber was once known as the
Abus, for example in
Edmund Spenser's
Faerie Queene.
Its name is recorded in
Anglo-Saxon times as
Humbre (Anglo-Saxon
dative) and
Humbri (Latin
genitive). As its name recurs in the
Humber Brook near
Humber Court in
Herefordshire or
Worcestershire, the word
humbr- may be a word that meant "river" or similar in an aboriginal language that was spoken in
England before the
Celts came (compare
Tardebigge).
*
Rivers of the United Kingdom*
North Wall (Humberside)*
Flickr photo pool for the Humber Estuary
