FROM THE ROMANS UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY, crossing the River Humber had been beset with difficulties.

Check out the time line below for a fascinating look at the different ways people have got across that great stretch of water.  

The Romans
First century AD: Ermine Street, the Roman road which connects London to York, crosses the Humber between Wintringham and Petuaria (now Brough), using a combination of ford and ferry. The Romans call the crossing: ‘transitus maximus’.

10th century

King Canute establishes a crossing between North and South Ferriby.

Domesday Book

The Domesday Book, is compiled following the Norman Conquest and records Barton as having 'a ferry of four pounds'. 

1316

King Edward II grants a charter to the warden and burgesses of Hull to operate a ferry between Hull and Lincolnshire. The costs are half a penny for pedestrians, 1d for equestrians and for a horse and cart, 2d.

1688

The charges for the Humber ferry are set out as follows:

‘Stranger Barton to Hull in Hull boats 6d. Returned to the Barton Ferryman 4d. Inhabitants of Hull pay nothing to the Barton ferryman. Freeman of Hull pay 6d for a mane and a horse in the Hull boat and the inhabitants [of Hull] pay 8d. If a stranger be carried from Barton to Hull in the Hull boat, he pays 1 shilling the whole of which goes to the Barton ferryman. If an inhabitant or freeman goes in the hoy, he pays 4d, if in the horseboat without a horse, two pence. If a stranger and a horse are carried from Barton to Hull, he pays 4d, a penny of which is paid to the Barton ferryman, but if he goes from Hull to Barton in the hoy, he pays 4p all of which is kept by the Hull ferryman. Mayor of Hull, BB Thompson, G Uppleby, lessee of the Barton Ferry’

1725

Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) crosses the Humber from Barton to Hull. He’s not impressed and writes:

‘There are seven good towns of the sea coast, but I include not Barton, which sands on the Humber, as one of them, being a straggling mean town, noted for nothing but an old-fashioned dangerous passage; a ferry over the Humber to Hull, where, in an open boat, in which we had about fifteen horses and ten or twelve cows mingled with about seventeen or eighteen passengers, we were about four hours tossed about in the Humber before we could get into Hull.’

1831 – The Ferry Wars
James ‘Jimmy’ Acland, the editor of the Hull-based newssheet, Portfolio, starts a campaign against the high ferry charges to cross the Humber. The ferry is being leased by the company that runs the coaches from London to Hull. The company pays the Hull Corporation £800 a year to retain their monopoly on the crossing.

However, Acland discovers that the ancient ferry charter granted by King Edward states that no pedestrian should be charged more than a half penny. So Acland encourages people to turn up at the ferry – aptly named the Royal Charter – and demand their half pence crossing,

They ferry operators refuse to accept the fare.

Acland then sets up a rival ferry – and name it The Public Opinion - and charges the half a pence set out in the original charter. Although he has to increase prices to 4d, he still manages to undercut the Royal Charter.

Events take a nasty turn. The operators of the Royal Charter erect barricades to stop The Public Opinion from landing. Acland retaliates and turns up with some local ‘muscle’ to remove the barriers. On another journey, the boats collide and the Royal Charter is towed in. Warrants are issued to stop Acland’s renegade ferry.

1832

Barton’s dominance of the ferry trade is challenged when a rival route from New Holland to Hull opens up. The ferry makes use of the more reliable steam power.

1846
More than 70,000 passengers use the New Holland to Hull route ferry route.

1854

The new steam ferry operating from New Holland is bought by the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway.

1855

The Hull Chamber of Commerce discuss plans for a Humber Rail Bridge. Nothing comes of the discussions.

1860s

Proposals for a ‘lofty viaduct, about a mile and a half in length,’ between Barton and Hessle are included in the Hull, Lancashire and Midland Counties Railways Scheme. It is hoped that financial support will come from Hull. [Funding always seems to have been an issue! SMcI.] The funding doesn’t materialise. A similar fate befalls the 1867 rail bridge plans.

1872

The Hull, South and West Junction Railway project proposes to link Hull with the MSL at Brigg via a tunnel at Barton. Plans for the £340,000 tunnel are drawn up by John Fowler. Around 10,000 petitioners support the campaign for a railway tunnel under the Humber – the petition is presented to Parliament.

1873

The tunnel proposals are submitted to Parliament and approved by a House of Commons Select Committee. However, a House of Lords committee rejects the plans by just one vote.

1882-3

With tunnel projects killed off, attention turns to building a bridge.

The Hull and Lincoln Railway propose a 5,900ft long, multi-span rail bridge linking Barton and Hessle. The cost of the bridge is estimated at £532,000. However, there is strong opposition in Parliament from Goole merchants and ship owners, who argue that the 36-span bridge will impede shipping and interfere with their trade. Once again plans for a Humber Bridge fail.

1914-1918

The Humber ferries – Killingholme, Brocklesby and Cleethorpes are converted for use as seaplane carriers in the First World War.

Post World War 1
In a period of post-war expansion plans to build a bridge across the Humber gathered support once more.

1922

The normally hostile Grimsby Chamber of Commerce and Shipping comes on board to press for a Humber Bridge.

1929

The Hull Corporation commission Sir Douglas Fox and Partners to ‘advise upon the most suitable economic method and geographical position for transport communication between the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire in the vicinity of Hull’.

1930

The published report favours a bridge between Barton and Hessle. The Ministry of Transport promises a 75 per cent grant towards the project. The rest of the bill is to be picked up by councils in the area – with the bulk falling upon the Hull Corporation.

A bill is presented to Parliament by Transport Minister, Herbert Morrison MP (Peter Mandelson’s grandfather).

Shipping interests object yet again. An expert is brought in to show that a bridge will not damage shipping.

However, the promised financial backing is cancelled because the economic downturn and financial problems of the early 1930s.

1931

The Labour Government falls and so do plans for a Humber Bridge.

The following decades see yet more calls for a crossing, but civil servants and Government ministers argue that such a bridge would only be of local importance and not national importance and therefore couldn’t be supported.

Nonetheless, designs for a bridge are regularly updated. The building of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco inspires the first suggestion of a suspension bridge to cross the Humber

1933

For just 35p single or 60p return, the Humber Air Ferry service takes passengers from Grimsby’s Old Market to Hull’s Paragon Square in just 35 minutes. With three return services a day, passengers are picked up by chauffeur-driven car in Grimsby and taken to Waltham (Lincolnshire Aero Club’s airstrip) for the 15-minute flight to Hedon. Another car drives passengers from there to the centre of Hull.

Post 1945

With great pressure on the public purse to deal with food and fuel shortages, Clement Atlee’s Labour Government rules out spending £6 million on building the Humber Bridge. Plans are shelved.

1951

Barton councillors press MPs to convene a meeting to speed up building the bridge. The calls come following complaints about numerous cancellations of the New Holland to Hull ferries caused by the continual silting up of the Humber.

1953

The Scunthorpe Chamber of Trade states that a new bridge would ease the pressure on Keadby Bridge.

1958

Cleethorpes Councillor, Frank Broddle, sounds caution and claims the bridge will be: ‘The last nail in the coffin of Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

1957

Plans are announced for a helicopter service to cross the river. Nothing comes of the plans.  

1959

The Hull Corporation persuades neighbouring councils to support the establishment of a Bridge Board. The board will have the power to build a bridge, issue bonds to raise money and to collect tolls. The Humber Bridge Act of 1959 is passed and the Hull-dominated Bridge Board is thus born. The board comprises 22 members and Alderman Fred Holmes is the first chairman of the Bridge Board.

1964

Labour wins the 1964 General Election with a majority of just five.

1966

In the Hull North by-election campaign, Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle, promises that the bridge will be built. At a campaign meeting, she promises the people of Hull: ‘You will have your Humber Bridge’.

Kevin Macnamara MP is duly elected for Hull North on 27 January 1966, thus helping to protect Labour’s wafer-thin majority.

Mr Macnamara would hold the seat until his retirement from the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election.

October 1966

Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, goes to the country and Labour wins the General Election by a landslide.

1967

Louth’s Tory MP (at the time the constituency includes much of Cleethorpes), Sir Cyril Osborne, suggests that a concrete tube be laid on the bed of the Humber. He claims this will be cheaper and quicker to do than build a bridge.

1969

17 February: The Humber gets its own hovercraft service – the journey from Grimsby’s Royal Dock to the Minerva Pier in Hull takes just 20 minutes at a cost of £1 each way. Dogged by technical difficulties, the service is withdrawn at the end of October.

Meanwhile, the 1969 Humberside Feasibility study predicts that the population of the area will grow to three million and there will be a new south bank city with a 750,000 population.

Economics Minister, Peter Shore, announces that the Humber Bridge will go ahead. He says: ‘Regardless of what happens in a few years time, the linking of both banks of the estuary will have profound repercussions on the area and any planning decisions taken.

1971

May: The final ‘off’ for the Humber Bridge is announced by the new Tory Government under Prime Minister, Edward Heath. The Bridge Board approach the Conservative Government about funding the building project and are offered a 75 per cent loan by to cover the estimated £26 million construction costs of the bridge. The board borrows the remaining 25 per cent costs on the commercial markets. The repayment period is to be 60 years. However, there will be a 13-year grace period where nothing will have to be paid back.

1972

July: Construction work finally begins.

1973

Humberside councillor, Bernard Ingam, managing director of Grimsby-based Humber Tugs, says that the bridge will be ‘a white elephant’.

1974

The Hessle tower is completed.

1975

13 November: The ‘bottoming out’ of the Barton tower takes place. At the special ceremony to mark the event, a time capsule containing a £1 note, a 50p piece and other items is buried.

Progress on the Barton tower gets delayed thanks to steel shortages caused by Conservative Prime Minster, Edward Heath’s three-day week. Soaring inflation and interest rates causes the costs to spiral ever upwards.

1976

Working round the clock, the Barton tower is completed in just 10 months.

1978

Overseeing engineers, Freeman Fox and Partners issue warnings about slow progress and withhold payments to their contractors – British Bridge Builders. The case goes to court. BBB finally agree to increase productivity.

1980

21 March: One of the four huge gantries used to lift the roadway into place, breaks free from and falls hundreds of feet on to the suspended roadway below. Five people are injured.

1981

Construction work is completed.

24 June: The first traffic crosses the bridge

17 July: The Humber Bridge is officially opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister states: ‘The building of the Humber Bridge – the longest single span in the world – in an outstanding achievement of British engineering skill. I send my congratulations on this achievement and my best wishes for the successful operation of the bridge. It will, I am sure, be of great value to the economy and society of the whole region.’

However, by the time of completion, the optimism of the 1960s is long gone – replaced by mass unemployment and recession. The anticipated growth of the area never happens. There was to be no new south bank city.

In 1971, it was estimated that 31,000 vehicles a day would use the bridge. By the time of the opening in 1981, the estimate of the number of vehicles was cut sharply to 4,000-10,000, raising serious questions about the viability of the bridge.

The final capital costs amounted to £97.2 million. With added loan charges, the cost to construct the Humber Bridge had reached £138.1 million on opening.

The number of vehicles that had been hoped to use the bridge never materialised, so when the tolls were finally brought in, they had to be much higher than originally planned. The tolls have ever thus been condemned for being far too high.

1988

The debt reaches £300 million.

1997

Labour wins general election and the newly elected MPs being thier campaign to have the debt reduced.

1998

Labour MPs are successful and £64 million in debt is written off. In addition, the interest rate is reduced to 7.75 per cent and the remaining debt rescheduled – the first serious attempt to tackle the debt problem.

Over the next few years, all MPs for the area continue to campaign to have tolls reduced. It is likened to a huge game of pass the parcel, with no one taking responsibility for reducing the tolls.

The high level of the tolls is brought to the fore by the reorganisation of cancer services meaning more people have to travel to Hull for treatment.

2004

Brigg and Goole MP, Ian Cawsey, is drawn for a Private Members Bill. He introduces the Humber Bridge Bill as a way of getting toll reductions for hospital patients.

2005

The General Election kills Ian’s bill. After the General Election, Shona McIsaac MP, is drawn for a Private Members Bill – she adopts Ian’s bill and reintroduces it.

2006

Lack of Parliamentary time means Shona’s bill does not received a second reading.

Undeterred, MPs continue to campaign on the issue.

2007

The Government agree another interest rate reduction on the remaining debt – bringing the interest down to 4.25 per cent.

2008

North Lincolnshire Council commission a study into the impact of tolls on the economy of the area. The study reveals what everyone has been saying: that the tolls act as a barrier to economic growth. MPs and councillors agree to work together to press the Government to reduce the tolls.

2009

23 January: The Humber Bridge Board announces that an inquiry will take place into their request to increase tolls. The inquiry is set to take place at Willerby Manor Hotel, starting on 3 January 2009.

23 February: The Bridge Board states that they will give people a voucher for their return southbound journey over the bridge if they attend the public inquiry.

24 February: Late-night debate on Humber Bridge tolls takes place in the House of Commons. Ministers agree to meet MPs following the public inquiry, set to take place from 3-6 March 2009.

31 July: Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, overturns the public inquiry inspector's recommendation to increase the tolls.

26 August 2009: The Bridge Board threaten legal action over the minister's decsion to reject the toll increase. They claim they are not raising enough money via the tolls.

8 October 2009: Tory Theresa Villiers states that the Conservatives could not commit to lowering or scrapping the toll due to the state of public finances.

http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/news/Anger-Tories-Humber-Bridge-toll-policy/article-1400084-detail/article.html

26 October: A cross-party delegation of MPs, council and business leaders meet Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, to lobby him to reduce the toll. The minister received a 10,000 strong petition backing the campaign to lower Humber Bridge tolls. He states that the Humber Bridge is one of the biggest issues in his in-tray and that the campaign is a 'special case'. He promises to get Department of Transport officials to examine the research commissioned by the four councils.

12 November: MPs again meet the minister to urge action.