Views of the Humber 13.

Above a somewhat unusual angle not showing Trent Falls but the end of the scarp slope of the Lincolnshire Wolds and the plantation (woodland) through which the A1077 snakes down the steep gradient into the village of South Ferriby, the ex-cement works just off screen upper-centre right (s.p.b.). The structures in the distance are part of the skyline of Scunthorpe.
This is going to be my final blog of this sequence. Of course, ‘views’ doesn’t just mean landscape views, it can also mean attitudes/opinions of (although the ‘of’ above should then be replaced with ‘on/about’). One oft repeated observation is that the Humber waters are ‘mucky’, ie not clear water. Given that chrystal-clear water is not necessarily common in Nature (one example in the Humberside region being the upper course of the River Hull, south of Driffield) the reason for the muckiness is the volume of silt carried in suspension on both ebb and flow tides, most of this originating alone the Holderness coast with a lesser volume carried into the Estuary by the Rivers Trent and Ouse and to a lesser extent still by the Rivers Ancholme, Hull, East Halton Beck, Foulness (Market Weighton Canal) and Freshney. It is this volume of silt which has resulted in the large mudflats, mostly visible at low tide, and which has led to the Estuary being considered treacherous to navigation.
Another ‘view’ is that the Estuary, stretching up to 40 miles inland, has been a hindrance to north/south navigation. The story of the many Humber crossing ferries since the Bronze Age partly refutes this attitude but they all could encounter great hazards. The opposite opinion is also valid, the The Humber Estuary has been a transport highway and by penetrating inland has enabled shipping of past-times to access a vast network of navigable rivers.
Finally, the Humber Bridge has transformed the accessibility of the north and south banks for good or for ill depending on your VIEW!