Today’s photo. is of the west front of St. Giles’ church Marfleet, built in a neo-Geometric style in 1884 and was/is the third church built for the community of Marfleet on this or a nearby site. Close to the east of this church is a lower section of Holderness Drain, a ‘green corridor’ in east Hull. I am not as familiar with Holderness Drain as I am Barmston Drain but assume there must be sections of the Drain with public rights of way alongside and that in summer sections of the Drain bank-side are over-necessarily flailed as with Barmston Drain (s.p.b.s).
As discussed in a blog earlier this year (or maybe late last year, I should check) it is not easy to identify which public body is responsible for maintaining the banks of a river, drain or canal. In the case of Barmston and Holderness Drains it may be the Environment Agency or the local drainage board.
Holderness Drain was ‘cut’ in 1832. Unlike the earlier Barmston Drain (s.p.b.s) it flowed out directly into the Humber Estuary thus making it more efficient in exiting potential flood water from the carr-lands of the north R. Hull flood-plain. The reason why this choice was now possible was that with the opening to shipping of Humber Dock (excavated 1809) and Junction Dock (now Prince’s Dock, Marina, excavated 1829) ships could now move to and from Queen’s Dock without having to pass through the Old Dock (west bank of lower River Hull) so ebb-tide scouring was less crucial (s.p.b.s). The 1832 Holderness Drain crossed over an earlier Holderness Drain, sometimes called the ‘Holderness Upland Drain’, by a culvert in fields now to the east of North Bransholme.
(this section on Green Corridors – Hull to be concluded next time).