Off Topic A question re Humber Ferries

Why did they go to New Holland and not Grimsby?

 

Dunno, Dutch, but maybe cos it's the narrowest crossing point (from Hull)?

Interesting quezzy, though.

 

There was a rail link at New Holland and the Ferries were actually under British Rail. Hull Pier is/was the only railway station cum booking office in the country which was no where near a railway line.
Also New Holland had a long jetty stretching out to the deep water.
Grimsby is a lot further down river.

 

Because New Holland is almost direct opposite and you could pick rail links up to Barton, Scunthorpe and Grimsby depending on where you were heading. My Dad was in the Merchant Navy and we used to get the ferry over and train to see him when in Grimsby docks for a few days. Also getting to Grimsby would have quadrupled the journey time and would have needed the assistance of the Humber Pilot every trip due to the shifting banks on the Humber.

 

Aye, I pondered that, or something to do with the sand banks.

I can't help thinking it would have been cheaper to send the ferry to Grimsby, rather than the road and rail.

Maybe, it's more central, for Scunthorpe or a journey south?

 

My first City away trip was catching the Ferry at Hull Pier, across to New Holland and then the train direct to Scunthorpe. I remember huge queues of City fans down Queen Street waiting for the Ferry. 1965/66 Old Show Ground, City won 4-2.

 

Went over on the ferry to see us play Grimsby. Had some great times on them just on daft day trips too.

 

My best memory of the Ferries was me and a mate discovering that the bar on them was open from a.m. opening time thru to p.m. closing time. This was at the time when pubs had separate mid-day and evening openings.
You could cast off from Minerva Pier (with a return) and stay in the bar until you got off the last time the boat berthed at the Hull side. Mind you, if you got it wrong you might be stranded at New Holland all night.......

 

one crossing i did on the mid-70s got stuck on a sandbank for a few hours. can't remember the standard crossing time (20min? 30min?), but we that one took almost 4 hours. by the time we landed at new holland it was time to come back. that kind of thing would have happened all the time if ferry had gone to grimsby.

 

Just found this:
http://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk...s_and_leisure/history_of_ferries_in_hull.aspx

 

I remember one time being in a pub quiz in Hull, one of the questions was how long did the old ferries used to take to get to New Holland. Behind us was a group of young scrotes playing the quiz, we could overhear them....."You've been to Amsterdam Joe.......how long did the new ones take, about 15 hours......the old ones must have taken about 20 hours....put that....". When the quizmaster announced 25 minutes average, the young whipper snappers complained, we had to explain that New Holland was over the river and not where Amsterdam was.

 

Because that's where the pier was?

 

I always remember my Dad telling me that once when he was home on leave from the Army (must have been mid to late 50's I think), he got a ferry across for a night game and on his way back discovered that there was no connecting train and had to walk the 5 miles home to Barton.

 

Charon should have the definitive answer!

 

A pal’s dad was one of the skippers; I seem to remember him on the Wingfield and the Tattershall in the mid to late 1950’s. We used to have trips quite often; we went on the bridge and looked through the powerful binoculars, checked out the radar and marvelled at the helmsman on the huge wheel. We used to go and sit in the captain’s cabin which was a small quite comfortable arrangement on which the bridge sat. I also remember being shown down among the engines, (when they were running), and to see the stokers at the boilers, not much health and safety then but this was all great fun for 10 to 12 year olds. There were obviously also quite a few trips to Cleethorps to watch City v Grimsby.

 

Good British Rail marketing.

 

British Railways was shortened to British Rail in 1969. Did the Doctor have a hand in it?

 

Unless my memory is playing tricks (possible) wasn't there a hovercraft service to Grimsby in the 60's or early 70's?

Can't remember where they departed from but pretty sure the service ran for a while.