driffield navigation guide

In about 1765 John Smeaton was consulted on making the upper Hull
navigable, for keels to reach Great Driffield. His ideas were enlarged
by John Grundy, who recommended a longer artificial section, from
Frodingham Beck to Driffield. The local merchants accepted Grundy's
plans and the Act passed in 1767. The whole navigation was completed in
1770, the canal being 5 miles long from Fisholme on Frodingham Beck to
Driffield and the river section three quarters of a mile from
Emmotland, the juction with the Hull already navigable. There were 4
timbered floored locks all on the canal section, large enough for craft
61' x 14'6''. In the early years the navigation was not very
successful, the Hull River needing improvement and a certain amount of
dredging was done in the 1780s. On the canal stretch the lowest lock at
Snakeholme was rebuilt as a staircase pair in 1776 so that vessels
could use it over a wider range of tide height. Trade was increasing so
there were ideas for further improvement. In 1796 William Chapman was
called in to make plans and estimates and in 1801 an act was passed.

Keel Caroline, a Humber keel, on the Driffield Navigation

Scows The scows on the river move fast even in the lightest of breezes.

This also set up a fresh administrative body of commissioners
for the new navigation, working alongside the old navigation
commissioners. Chapman was made engineer and works were completed by
1805. Hull Bridge, about 1 mile upsteam of Beverley Beck, was raised,
and a new lock was built at Struncheonhill below Emmotland, at the tail
of a new cut avoiding a big bend on the river. Struncheon Hill,
probably first a single lock, was soon made into a staircase pair. The
last work was the navigation to Corps Landing on the Hull not finished
until 1811. The new navigation started at Aike Beck 3 miles above Hull
Bridge. In 1817 a steam passenger packet started to run between
Driffield and Hull but was not too successful. Steady prosperity was
the keynote of Driffield history in the 1800s, wheat traffic being
important, there is still a working flour mill in Driffield. In 1846
the railway came to Driffield and, to keep traffic, the navigation cut
tolls and in the 1850s began to consider improvements. Edward Welsh
made a report in 1855 but fear of flooding caused the scheme to be
withdrawn. A steam keel was put on, probably in the 1860s and lasted
into the 1900s, and coal traffic kept up while grain fell. In the
twentieth centery all traffic fell away, the last keel came to
Driffield in 1945 and to Brigham in 1948.

Riverhead River head was once a hive of activity.

The canal fell into disuse and disrepair and the commissioners
became inquarate due to death or old age (1960). The result is that the
navigation is effectively blocked in several places by locks which do
not work and bridges which do not open, despite the fact that many
stretches of the navigation have never stopped being used on a regular
basis by pleasure craft of all types; the Brigham scow has been
designed especially to cope with the high banks of this waterway and
they do look magnificent when in full sail.

Hull Bridge Hull Bridge in days gone by.

The Hull has been navigable for a long time, and since the
fourteenth century has been a free navigation. Previously the
Archbishops of York had charged tolls. In the seventeenth century the
Hull was navigated to Wansford below Driffield. There were other
navigable tributaries, the Arram Beck just above Beverley near
Leconfield, and the Old Howe and Earl's Dyke above Frodingham, the last
two in 1800 incorporated into the Beverley and Barmston Drain. By the
early nineteenth century traffic on the Hull within the port of Hull
became congested with deep sea vessels as well as river craft. It was
relieved by dock construction, though most in the centre of Hull have
been filled (Queen Dock gardens), or closed (Princess Dock shopping
centre). There still remains Humber Dock and Railway Dock which has
been turned into a marina.

Written by Michael Askin, 12 April 1996