Incidentally Bowen’s 18th century county map shows both keels and slopes amongst the single-masted vessels sailing the Estuary – but I struggle to remember which is which.
The cluster of masts in the centre of the picture shows the ‘old harbour’, the western bank of the lower River Hull near its mouth, where the staithes, jetties and warehouses had been clustered for three to four hundred years. Inland of these and running parallel to the River Hull was High Street (medieval name Hull Street) where, at the time of Bowen’s map most of the merchants still lived. Presumably Bowen’s map preceded the building of the new dock (later Queens Dock), although not by much time. The crowding of vessels in the ‘old harbour’ remained for decades a problem for ‘three-masters’ wishing to access the Dock, for some details on the building programme of the new dock see Gillett and MacMahon A History of Hull (Hull University Press, 1989, p.229).
Bowen’s illustration also shows clearly the south blockhouse of the Citadel immediately east of the lower River Hull, this built in the 1580s to improve Hull’s defences as demanded by Henry VIII after visiting Hull twice in 1541 during his ‘Northern Progress’. The initial bridging of the River in the 1500s meant that no longer could the River be a satisfactory eastern defence for the town. As stated on the illustration the south Blockhouse had a ’12 gun battery’. The wording below the illustration describes at the Citadel a deep trench, a castle and ‘several sluices so contrived that when the floodgates are pulled up they can drown the country for three or four miles round’. The reference to ‘a castle’ is potentially misleading.
The west tower of St. Mary, Lowgate shows clearly, this having been re-built in 1697 (s.p.b.s). The ‘walk through’ at the base of this tower seen today was a product of 19th century improvement, a compromise which avoided St Mary’s losing its west tower for a second time.
(to be continued)