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 waterway on the East Coast of Northern England.
The Humber is an estuary formed at Trent Falls,
Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River
Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the
boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the North bank and
North Lincolnshire on the South bank. Because the Humber is an estuary from the point
at which it is formed, it is not correct to refer to it as the River Humber or (definitely not) the Humber River.
Below Trent Falls, the Humber passes the junction with the Market Weighton
Canal on the north shore, the confluence of the River Ancholme on the south shore;
between North Ferriby and South Ferriby and under
the Humber Bridge; between Barton-upon-Humber
on the south bank and Kingston upon Hull on the North bank (where the
River Hull joins), then meets the North Sea between
Cleethorpes on the Lincolnshire side and the long and thin (but rapidly changing) headland
of Spurn Head to the North.
Ports on the Humber estuary include Hull,
Grimsby, Immingham and New Holland and Killingholme.
History
In the Anglo-Saxon period, it was a major boundary, separating Northumbria from the southern kingdoms. Indeed, the name Northumbria simply means 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 of Norse origin meaning a third part). Since the late eleventh century, Lindsey had been one of the Parts of Lincolnshire.
The estuary's single crossing is the Humber Bridge which was once the largest
suspension bridge in the world. Now it is the fourth largest.
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.
Etymology
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).
Medieval legend, as recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum
Britanniae, claims the river was named after Humber the Hun who, on trying to
invade, drowned there.
See also
External links
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