The Humber Ferry was a ferry service on the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

between

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

and New Holland in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

which operated until the completion of the Humber Bridge in 1981.

History

1975 PS Lincoln Castle at New Holland Pier

The Norse-derived names of

North Ferriby North Ferriby is a village and civil parish in the Haltemprice area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. History Humber Estuary "The archaeology of the intertidal wetlands of the Humber Estuary is of international importance, and include ...

and

South Ferriby South Ferriby is a village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary and west from the Humber Bridge. North Ferriby is directly opposite on the Estuary's north bank. Village population was 651 in ...

suggest a ferry between them across the

Humber Gap The Humber Gap is a term for the geographic gap between the roughly north–south running line of hills formed by the Yorkshire Wolds and the Lincolnshire Wolds, formed by the west–east running Humber Estuary. In the geological past the gap ...

. The first record of a ferry across the Humber dates from 1315 when the Warden and Burgesses of Hull were granted a charter by

King Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to th ...

to run a ferry between Hull and Barton in Lincolnshire. Pedestrians were halfpenny each, horses one penny and a cart with two horses twopence. The Corporation of Hull purchased the leases for £3,000 in 1796 (£ in 2015) and both were relet in 1815. In 1826 a new service started by the New Holland Proprietors between Hull and New Holland. In 1832 they launched a paddle steamer called ''Magna Charta''. In his ''A Picturesque Tour to Thornton Monastery'', John Greenwood writing in 1835 records that the steam packet leaves Hull at seven, a quarter past eleven and four o’clock, and leaves New Holland at nine, two and seven o’clock in the evening. In 1845 the

Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway The Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway was an early British railway company which existed between 1845 and 1847 with the intention of providing rail services between Grimsby, New Holland and Gainsborough in the county of Lincolnshire. ...

bought out the ferry services for £10,000 (£ in 2015). The Barton upon Humber service was withdrawn in 1851. The railway company built a new pier at New Holland some in length with the railway station, allowing direct connection with the ferry service.

New Holland Pier railway station New Holland Pier railway station is a former railway terminus in North Lincolnshire, England. It stood at the seaward end of the New Holland Pier, which juts northwards into the River Humber at the village of New Holland. Its purpose was to e ...

opened on 1 March 1848. The management transferred to the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

in 1948 and on 1 January 1959 management of transferred to

Associated Humber Lines Associated Humber Lines (AHL) was created in 1935 to manage the services of various railway controlled shipping lines including port activities in the Humber area of the United Kingdom. The ownership of the respective vessels did not transfer to A ...

. The Hull to New Holland ferry service finished on 24 June 1981 with the opening of the Humber Bridge.

Ships

This list is not complete. There was an additional ship introduced in the 1970s which was diesel powered, '' DEPV Farringford''. She was previously used as a ferry between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. The vessels operated by the Humber Ferry service – all paddle steamers to cope with the shallow shifting sands of the Humber – were:

References

{{authority control Ferry transport in England Humber Transport in Kingston upon Hull Transport in Lincolnshire