Humber

With its clouded brown waters at first glance the Humber Estuary could ignorantly be considered to be a dirty and unappealing waterway & landscape.

Having all of my life lived not more than 5 miles from the banks of the mighty Humber I can confirm first hand that the region is uncelebrated by many of its local inhabitants and certainly anyone further afield.

Compared to some of the wider worlds estuaries and waterways the Humber is overlooked as a place of natural beauty, an image reinforced in part by a life time of TV tour operators advertisements which encourage and reinforce images of Mediterranean & tropical climates with blue and clear waters, hot sun and warm sea breezes as the only places of value, images & environments which are in stark contrast to the environment and landscape of the Humber and its surroundings. Yet different isn’t less or bad, different is unique, different is interesting as best sums the Humber landscape.

Eager to re-discover this place where I am from and live still, I continue my exploration of my local region, casting off prejudice and ignorance of the places we call home, instead seeing the abundance we have right here on our own doorstep.

The Humber region in recent history it is fair to reason is one of the most downtrodden areas in Britain, a place which unjustly has suffered and taken a pasting from our national media & Press who all too eagerly award derogatory titles to this place & its people.

Neglected for generations by the British Government which has failed to share centralised wealth of London and the South, the Humber’s fishing industry a casualty of globalisation, as with all industry in the region including production & manufacture.

The people of this land, when featured in the media spotlight, on the rare occasions this does happen are predominantly cast in tasteless fly on the wall documentaries which thrive on exploitation of the poor and vulnerable, the unfortunate of Modern society, failed by the system with little opportunity and education as a consequence of social injustice, filmed & edited, as they are governed, only in mocking snobbery from eyes & minds of self-appointed ivory towers which seek to reinforce their long standing prejudice, regional accents ridiculed, local culture rejected, local history forgotten, reinforced by an education system that grinds out regional differences instead of embracing them as a part of the unique tapestry of humanity which they add to.

Yet as I walk this place with eyes, mind and heart open I am rewarded. Sure there are bad parts and areas of improvement as is true of all places, none perfect in any part of the World. Yet still looking deeper I am fulfilled by the streets of the Cities, the rustic towns, the country roads, the banks of the Humber industrial & natural, the river heads, the people and the history, ancient is this landscape varied its history far reaching, modest and fierce, rough and ready, honest a place and its people, a real place with texture and contrast that sits waiting to be re discovered and praised for what it is and what it was until it changes for ever with the impending threat of climate change, the sea its predicted will raise and swell and engulf this land once more, without behavioural change the clock is ticking.

As I explore & consider this place in more depth I see in a new light that The Humber is so much more than at first perceived, The Humber a rugged gem which offers a unique landscape abundant with wildlife, beauty & rich human history which spans back to the last Ice Age. The region occupied first for millennia by prehistoric indigenous Ancient Britain’s to the later influx of migration over the last 2700 years of near history including the arrival of ancient Celtic tribes through to the age of Modern Man as Romans & Anglo Saxons, Vikings and Normans have all visited and occupied the region resulting in the emergence of civilisation as we now know it both here and on a global scale.

For this project I aim to capture the raw beauty of the natural Humber landscape, along with the important & vital role the Humber plays in industry, imports and exports, as one of the United Kingdom’s major ports.

Reinventing the view of the Humber and its brown waters, instead seeing that the water is not brown from pollution but from the glacial clay that the region of Holderness is made from. The region slowly eroded with each tide and year after year reduced & taken back by the unrelenting North Sea as each day at high tide the sea waves crash against the brown clay of the low lying glacial drift cliffs of the North sea coast. In the resulting wash out the brown clay then swirls and clouds the once clear sea water which then surges in and out of the Humber with every tide, depositing mud flats across the estuary and creating the brown mix of water. Along the banks of the Humber the thick brown muddy clay clings and is exposed at low tide.

This landscape, the seascape of the Humber region which if climate predictions and models prove correct will soon be reclaimed by the sea entirely as global seawaters rise and the beauty & history of the region will be resigned to the history books, never remembered as anything more than an eyesore, a port of function and industry, remembered for the mega project of the concrete Humber bridge, the bridge reported by the national press as “the bridge from nowhere to nowhere”.

When the Humber is so much more and offers a vast area of raw un-gentrified landscapes to explore for anyone with a taste for travel, be that from the local region or further afield to visit. I see that with a little invention and creative investment this place could thrive once more, thankfully the wheels are now in motion to achieve economic industrial growth with new investment from Siemens and other businesses bringing manufacture back to the region, but still it could be more, away from manufacture this place could be a tourism hub of leisurely water travel celebrating the regions sailing and sea fairing heritage using the natural landscape & far reaching waterways as it once was, seeing its beauty instead of further polluting & destroying what remains.

The Humber is and has been a gateway River from Europe into Northern England for millennia. The Humber with its 8 major tributaries the Rivers; Ouse, Hull, Derwent, Wharfe, Aire, Don, Trent and Ancholme link the Humber and North Sea as far south as Stoke on Trent and North via the Ouse and Derwent to York and North Yorkshire, the Pennines and the lake district. At one time long ago before sea levels rose to today’s levels perhaps the Humber was linked to Europe’s large rivers? Across the North Sea bed to the River Elbe latin named Albis Fluvius.

Ancient sailing vessels have been found along the banks of the Humber and around the region which date back over four thousands of years, long before the Romans entered Britain.

Evidence of human occupation of the Humber and its surrounding lands can be found in abundant resources of archaeology all around the region.

Before Modern Man altered and drained the surrounding low lands I Imagine a landscape with the Humber its beating heart, once perhaps a great river instead of the Estuary it is today, which swelled and burst its banks at high tide, creating a huge area of Marshland abundant with wildlife, rich mud flatlands which would dry thick as the high tides of the Humber retreated, creating a fertile bountiful landscape for wildlife & early man to thrive. The only means of traveling this fertile marshland would be by boat which would explain the timber craft found around the region from which the regions pre historic tribe(s) developed skilled craftsmanship and seamanship to build huge Oak hollowed boats and advanced timber panelled craft far more advanced than Modern History indicates of these people.

Some 2000 years ago; The Romans on their invasion and conquest of ancient Britain encountered the Humber which they titled Abus Fluvius; The Humber stood defiantly in the way of the Roman Empires march and no doubt initially caused a headache for the Roman Army to pass safely en mass, crossing the thick muddy cold brown water & unforgiving currents of the Humber would have been a harsh encounter for a Roman solider, no doubt making them feel isolated and a million miles away from the warm clear waters of the Mediterranean, add to that the defensive indigenous Britons North & South of the Humber I imagine the task was a perilous one.

The Humber is a natural border, the brown waters formed the frontier of Roman conquest for a significant period of time as the landscape held back Rome’s advance, the conquest of Britain taking decades to achieve.

Yet the progress of Rome could not be stopped, at least not at the Humber and eventually a passing place across the River was founded at the East Yorkshire town of Brough. Once named Petuaria a Roman stronghold was made there, no doubt built over the ancient Britons existing infrastructure as they either fled or subjugated to Roman occupation. The Roman invaders strengthening their position at the Humber it could be assumed then, that the Romans commandeered the water craft of the indigenous boat faring population and sailed the Humber at Petuaria up the River Ouse, pushing further North & discovering the confluence of the River Ouse & River Foss, the merging of these two rivers the ideal stronghold & next frontier position for the Roman conquest of Briton to continue.

Controlling the Humber would have been a key strategic position to supress the indigenous population’s resistance to occupation & allow Rome to advance North. Occupying the Humber provided stability for the Romans and gained them control of ancient trade routes extending the length and breadth of the land. These trade routes which were far reaching extending in all directions including further North into wild country & likely out to the North Sea & Europe. Britain at the time not as history would write a land of savages waiting to be civilised but a land inhabited with a thriving sophisticated culture with entirely different principles to that of Rome. The conquered Humber will have provided security for Romans in the occupied south, whilst enabling further expansion of the Empire as supply routes and movement of people, including transport of Roman goods and soldiers along the water allowed Rome to strengthen their position & push North; Rome establishing the fort town of Eboracum (modern day York) as their next Northern stronghold.

Eboracum on the banks of the Ouse and gateway to the Humber another place first occupied by the indigenous Britons both then and for some 8,000 years prior, until the Romans fortified this place, perhaps living side by side with the native peoples in a secure base or camp which enabled the Empire to further control the use of rivers and waterways of the indigenous population, restricting and controlling these natural trade routes and tightening the grip of the empire on the free living Britons destined for hundreds of years of Roman occupation. The indigenous peoples way of life changed as never before, freemen turned slaves, as the Romans dug in and changed Britain forever, comparable to the occupation of the Americas & Australia by the Europeans some 1500 years later. The Romans remained at Brough crossing and controlling the Humber region for over 100 years and remained in Britain for over 400 years transforming Britain forever and moulding it towards the place it is today.

During the centuries of occupation The Romans undoubtedly also mixed in with the local population, the soldiers & citizens of Rome who occupied this land spent years away from home on tour of Briton settling and meeting with the locals over the centuries that followed, until perhaps Briton became more of home to them than that of Rome. Given the sheer size & duration of the Roman empire maybe the Roman occupiers of this land had never even been to Rome, one cannot imagine any settled established Roman citizen wanting the leave the culture and prosperity of their home land and head to wild Briton, the end of the Earth, unless Briton offered a promise of something they didn’t already have; safety from political enemies, a place to be exiled to after power shifts, maybe these new Roman occupiers of the Humber had themselves been slaves or low standing, Freeman status the reward for settling & occupying the hostile land of Briton & Northumberland at the edge of the world.

Famously and legendarily the mystery of the Legion of the 9th those Spanish Romans who went missing pushing north from the Humber & Eboracum, did they suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the indigenous Britons or perhaps more likely after years posted in Briton their hearts & minds were captured by the place, the land North of the Humber a place where they could live free beyond the laws bureaucracy and tyranny of Rome to live the life of natural man. Did they desert Rome and the cause instead upturning and settling with the local population, beyond from the reach Rome?

The Humber regions tribe where recorded by the Romans as been named the Parisi who were noted for being great sea navigators & warriors. Although little was recorded by the Romans about the Parisi there is historical evidence which links this Tribe of Celts with the Parisi of Gaul in modern day France with suggestions that the Parisi arrived in the region some 700 years before the Romans. Perhaps this tribe of exploring Celts equally invaded the land of the indigenous Ancient Britons who leave behind an array of ancient architecture and evidence of a highly complex society which existed long before the arrival of the Celts and the Romans. Although more likely with common cultures the two simply merged together becoming one and the same, 700 years and huge areas of land to grow & thrive will have provided enough time and resources for this merging to happen as a natural progression of humanity instead of an occupation based on violence & force.

There are arrays of Archaeological sites which can be found throughout the Humber region. The findings of these sites and artefacts left behind by the indigenous ancient Britons & Parisi indicate a complex, Creative Natured, skilful and highly evolved littoral society who lived sustainably and harmoniously with the land, waters and natural environment. Experts of Astronomy, navigation, boat building, agriculture, sustainable construction, stone craft, pottery, Art and later metallurgy but above all knowledge and understanding of the cycles of the natural world, in common with other indigenous cultures the world over all of which possess the same skill set, a skill set not highly regarded in the times of Modern Man but sophisticated and highly intelligent still. People who live with contribute and promote the ecosystem of their places & the wider world instead of destroying their environments as “we” Modern Man who for all of our education and self-adoration have lost sight of our most basic need; to survive. Our reliance on the planet, local environments & ecosystems, these places the givers of life, environments which we have evolved from, which without their specific conditions, those that fulfil our needs, if altered beyond sustainable levels will perish and we will follow, yet their end will be the start of a new era, the land and the planet will continue without us, yet we cannot continue without it. Perhaps we should learn more lessons from these ancient peoples to ensure our own survival into the future.

Undoubtedly more evidence still lay undiscovered waiting to be found?

The Romans & Celts weren’t the only occupiers of the Humber region as along the River of Time other European cultures navigated the Humber and colonised the land.

A whole millennia later the Humber played host to The battle of Stamford Bridge in the year 1066 that most pivotal point in British History prelude to the Battle of Hastings and all that followed, when the Vikings once again navigated the Humber, 300 hundreds ships sailed an estimated 9000 men from the North Sea into the Humber Estuary and along the River Ouse to York ready for a fight for the land and the Kingdom. The invading force lead by Harold Hardrada and his brother Tostig initially succeeded, securing York after the battle of Fulford, the invasion ultimately failed as King Harold Godwinson, to the invading armies surprise had marched his army from London to attack the invading party at Stamford Bridge.

Of the 300 ships that sailed the Humber eager for battle only days before, for rule & resources of this rich land, only a reported 24 ships made the lonely return journey down the Ouse to the Humber and back out to the North Sea as an estimated 8000 of the invading force including its leaders were killed either in battle or fleeing afterwards.

This event the precursor to the battle of Hastings where Britain would be transformed forever forming the foundations of Modern Britain.

When I walk the many trails and public footpaths of the Humber I take in its immediate beauty, the big landscape with huge far reaching Northern skies, I imagine the place in the past and its history, all those before my time who have influenced and driven the way forward to today. I imagine the fleet of 300 Viking ships sailing the waters and making stops along the Humber as the tides dictate whilst preparing for battle. A child witnesses the fleet from the banks of the Humber in fear and awe as the 300 boats sail by packed with Viking warriors, then days later seeing only 20 or so ships leave the land with blood stained battle hardened warriors heads down in mourning of their comrades and lost spoils retreating the same Humber waterway they only weeks earlier sailed en force.

I imagine Roman Soldiers walking across the Humber on make shift plank ways at low tide these super trained and blooded battle hardened soldiers who have walked the length and breadth of Europe in a time of strong cultural differences, in a time of wonder the ultimate adventure, now at the edge of the known world marching North as the tribes of the indigenous Britons harrow the Roman soldiers with wild customs, bright face paint, warrior dances and spirit ritual as the two cultures collide. The organized and collective methods of the Roman war machine always proving victorious against wild free living unprepared native peoples, as the Romans continued to March North with each footstep heading further and further from Rome, further and further into wild country until they meet a landscape and population so wild, so fierce, so defiant, in conditions and terrain so rugged the landscapes alone defeat the Roman advance, the landscapes which nullify the superior force and tactics of the Roman War Machine, Rome’s power made meaningless for a short time allowing the indigenous peoples to overcome the impending threat of Rome for some decades.

Long before Rome existed I imagine a tribe of ancient humanity standing at the foot of the Ice Wall which extends to the North Pole, a huge glacier retreating from the land exposing new earth, wet and rich as the ice retreats North, the land thaws and drains, glacial lakes & rivers fill & flow and nature quickly advances on the new land as life flourishes, for the ancient people a paradise, a sanctuary of life, as they advance North in the summer and migrate south in the winter, living free for thousands of years as they have for hundreds of thousands of years before then. Only now in the times of Modern Man since the arrival of Rome & for 2000 years after have the people North of the Humber known bondage & slavery, yet our hearts and spirits are still those of humanity & of the natural world, their memory lives in all of us, deep in the heart.

I imagine a time closer to now but still generations ago, a vision of the Humber Estuary filled with sailing ships, commerce and the promise of adventure at that time Tudor ships and wooden vessels of all shapes and sizes sail the waters as global expansion boomed to life as global trade emerges and the industrial age begins. The port town and fort of Kingston Upon Hull with its brick wall and Citadel meeting the banks of the Humber. A time when the Humber was frequented by sea fairing people from all around Britain and the World who drawn together by sea travel & the premise of new wealth sail the Humber to trade in Hull & surrounding wealthy Yorkshire & Lincolnshire cities and towns, taking shelter from the North sea before heading to and from London to Newcastle, Scotland and beyond, the Humber a connective hub on the global expansion of humanity in harsh inhuman times. The Humber a hive of bustling activity in a time of human social evolution when free living as native man ends and “civilised man” emerges, as the slave trade and slave triangle is thought of and enacted, as goods and wealth from this deplorable commerce flow down the banks of the Humber to the heartless few controlling Hungry gentry who feast and grow fat & rich from Human suffering. The fruit of their endeavours reaped from thousands of miles away as the arrival of tobacco, molasses & black treacle, Cocoa and other goods reach Britain from the New World, the bounty of the new frontier, farmed from these most ill-gotten means, first sold as exotic novelties and then to be essential commodities to the already repressed working classes of Britain and wider Europe, wealth generated by trading goods produced by one group of enslaved humans then sold to another group of enslaved humans.

I picture whaling vessels & fishing fleets setting sail for Northern waters at first in Tudor ships and then later on an industrial scale in the early 1800’s & onwards as the noble and glorious sea life of great whales, polar bears, seal and great fish, these magnificent apparitions of life in the Northern Circle which were so ruthlessly industrially culled without compassion or sustainability, greed and suffering extended by mankind to all beings on the planet. The Northern tribes of the Arctic pushed from their own way of life, ambassadors to these tribes visit the Humber to witness the leviathan which stripped them bare of the resources that had sustained them for millennia, the manifestation of darkness that had gripped the heart of mankind turning us away from our own humanity.

Decades later I imagine a Humber filled with a precession of steam ships arriving from old Europe filled with working families needed to establish & reinforce, occupy & extract the resources of the New World. These migrants promised a better deal than their own lands afford them with the promise & privilege of land ownership and freedom in exchange for occupying the land of the New World in the same fashion as the Roman conquest of Britain only 1600 years earlier.

In the age of Discovery, discovery of Lands already known & inhabited, not empty and waiting to be found but occupied and lived by the Indigenous tribes of humanity with complex social & cultural structure, occupied by nature, the land of the New World & re titled Americas, as with Australia, another act of darkness is exacted on these free living souls, a darkness which now grips all lands emanating from the desires of the few. Christianity and Goodness of the Lord the cornerstone philosophy of the western civilised conquerors of humanity & nature, religious zeal, words and beliefs so easily spoken yet not so easily enacted. As the ethical messages of Christianity are ignored and instead reasoned for justification of conquest & mistreatment of Indigenous people the world over, the ultimate hypocrisy and injustice, the ripples of which are still felt now hundreds of years later as recognition and balance has never been restored, generational wealth and generational poverty.

Skipping forward to the mid 20th Century my minds eye imagines the dark nights of WW2 when Humber skies invaded by a new conqueror; The Nazi’s as Bombers filled with technology & death enact Hitler’s lightning war. Pilots guided by the moonlight reflected from the Humber waters below, the Nazis new warfare, in the darkest hours of humanity became the next invading force to raid the Humber, another conquest of hypocrisy, this time the good of the people the reason for violent oppression of all people. Planes loaded with a payload of destruction destined for the ports of Liverpool and Hull which away from London are the most bombed English cities.

Carnage and destruction followed the Nazis from the Bombs dropped on the people to the battlefields and death camps of Europe, as a blanket of darkness emerged over the world once again by this would be Empire, Hitlers Third Reich. The island nation of Britain & its people, as with vast Russia, forming a natural barrier to the conquering Nazi’s, bravery, nature & human ingenuity combined to fight this ruthless foe. The New World created only century’s earlier ensuring resistance to these most inhuman would be emperors is possible as the supply chain of the New World arms & feeds the Allied Powers to ensure resistance is possible.

All of this History and more, global history reflected in this place; The Humber and my journey of discovery has only begun.

I have many miles before me to re discover, as I celebrate this place as it is now and with an eye to its natural beauty & history, good or bad, discovering truth; of knowledge, of first-hand experience, witnessing the places we call home in our time of Modern Man the result of time and all those before now.

As always the starting point to breaking the darkness begins at home, realising the beauty and potential on our own doorsteps, hoping that we emerge once more as nature intended, we, humanity guardians of one another & our places and eco systems, blessed with intelligence and awareness. We need to adapt our talents once again back to the places & eco systems which allow both us and nature around us to thrive.

Our Human intelligence, our creative ingenuity if applied with careful thought & goodness, respect, to our landscapes, environments & one another can enhance our places instead of being a force of darkness & destruction. To do this first we need to see what we have in abundance all around us to allow us to change as change we must, we need to change now and become forces of light and life, guardians of nature, reflecting this to our landscapes and places for the betterment of all life before it’s too late and the natural world changes at our hands for the worse?

Certainly change which will be for humanities suffering, removing us from the landscape, as a consequence allowing nature to thrive once more in our absence, yet there is another way, which will we choose?