The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is part of Free
To Hull and Back
So much to see of Hull, with its great port, fishing history, historic showdown with Charles I, and two highly impressive public loos.
From the collection of:
Overview
With his usual droll presentation, Michael Clegg gives a historical tour of Hull, focusing on its seafaring history and relationship to the monarchy. As Clegg embarks on a lazy boat ride along the River Hull, we get to see the remnants of Hull’s grand history as well as how busy it still is in 1983. As well as visiting various museums, Clegg gets the lowdown on Hull’s famous pilot boats, and to explore the Plotting Parlour in Hull’s oldest pub.
Much in Hull remains as it was in this film, including the Victorian North Bridge House, the 18th century Pease Warehouses, among the earliest surviving in Britain, and the Whalebone pub. So too the public loos in Nelson Street, while the historic toilets beneath the statue of King William were closed for many years, re-opening for City of Culture in 2017 (the goldfish story is half true: they died from lack of air). It is unclear what happened to the mural of Hull’s fishing history, or those on YOPs who painted it. By 1981 the Youth Opportunity Programme (followed in 1983 by YTS) was taking a million 16 and 17-year-olds off the unemployment figures, with less than a third finding jobs. Many saw it as cheap labour.
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