This talk was about how the River Hull valley was made habitable by improvements to drainage made over several centuries. The speaker was Ian Reid, emeritus professor at Loughborough University and formally chair of the River Hull Valley Drainage Heritage Group.

Ian described how an “accidental” river with no valley formed when the boulder clay, deposited over Holderness during the last ice age, cut off the outflows from the Wolds east to the North Sea. The water then turned to slowly flow south with minimal gradient to the river Humber through 200 square kilometres of boggy land. This land was only good for wild fowling, fishing, and maybe Summer grazing when water levels dropped.

It was the Monasteries at Meaux and Watton who first made an impact. Ian said they dug dykes so that they could ship their wool to Hull. The dykes were not made for land drainage. By the 1500’s the banks of the River Hull had also been improved near the town.

In 1764 the Holderness Drainage Act sponsored by the land owners to the east of the river allowed them to raise the banks on their side of the river and engage John Grundy to design a system of dykes to drain their land.

The west bank still flooded.  Ian described how another Act of Parliament to combat this led to the construction of the Beverley and Barmston low level drain, which ran in culverts under some River Hull tributaries. Other innovations were added such as diverting some water to the sea at Barmston. By 1820 the drainage of the Hull valley was essentially complete.

Since then banks have been raised and pumping stations erected and improved over time, with work continuing to this day.

Despite this, Ian considers that there is a nightmare waiting to happen. Climate change seems to be bringing more rain, higher sea levels, and more storm surges. Most of Hull sits below high tide level and would never be allowed to be built today.  Maybe sometime in the future the works will be overwhelmed and the River Hull valley will return to its boggy uninhabitable state.

Gillian Bapty gave the vote of thanks for an informative and thought-provoking talk.