It is not just the disused rail lines that create an opportunity for a green corridor but also rail lines still in use. The best example in Hull is the ‘high-level’ created by the Hull-Barnsley Railway in the 1870s. This line looping around the northern edge of the town (then) was built on a man-made embankment to avoid the necessity for frequent level crossings. As the sides of the embankment are steep this has allowed Nature to take hold and flourish, this also helped by the need for the bottom of the embankment to be well fenced for security reasons. Although avoiding the necessity for level crossings the embanked line needed many bridges when crossing roads, river and drains. The embanked section started in the Gipsyville area before the bridged crossings of Boothferry and Anlaby Roads, then turning north-east to the bridged crossing of Spring Bank West and Perth Street West and arcing round eastwards over the bridged crossings of Chanterlands Avenue, Newland Avenue, Beverley Road and Barmston Drain. The rail bridge over the River Hull in the Sculcoates/Stoneferry areas is difficult to see clearly as it is in an industrial area but was built in the same arched-style as the famous Tyne Bridge. In east Hull there is/was a bridged crossing of Cleveland Street, Holderness Road and Holderness Drain but at Marfleet Lane the line is crossed by a flyover, this before a bridged crossing of Hedon Road, thus giving access to King George Dock (originally to Alexandra Dock).
The photo. above shows a section of Barmston Drain just north of Clough Road and alongside the municipal allotments site. The Beverley and Barmston Drain is another ‘green corridor’, not only through the town but also through the mostly arable farmed land to the north of Hull, east of Beverley and northwards along the R. Hull floodplain south of North Frodingham.
(to be continued)