With Autumn well upon us, we thought it might be time to answer this question, which was asked by an anonymous person at this year’s Freedom Festival.

A seriously fascinating chat between Burnsy and geophysicist, glaciologist, former leader of the British Antarctic Expedition and ex-vice chancellor of the University of Hull, David Drewry.

Lou reckons O’Rileys music venue on Beverley Road is an underrated gem in the city. And who are we to argue?

All libraries are special, but Burnsy went to the Boulevard to find out what makes the Western a bit more exceptional.

Some would more readily claim it’s the colour of chocolate, but our cub reporter Angus Young is rather more prosaic than poetic.

In my early days as a cub reporter (last week, then? ed) in East Yorkshire I would go out on assignments with a veteran Scottish photographer called Rab McKenzie. One day as we drove through the countryside, Rab gestured at the surrounding landscape. “See all that?” he said with a flourish. “It’s all glacial shit!”

The sediment created by North Sea tides crashing into the cliffs washes down the coast, sweeps around Spurn Point and ends up in the Humber to create what we can see today – an expanse of gravy-coloured muddy water sat on a bed of sticky clay rather than Barbados-style blue.

Despite their appearance at low tide, the mudbanks of the Humber – and the River Hull for that matter – are constantly changing. Each tide carries over 1,500 tonnes of sediment with it. Overall, it’s estimated that up to 1.2 million tonnes of sediment may be present in the estuary at any one time. Today, they provide rich feeding grounds for birds with the Humber now supports an internationally important number of breeding bittern, marsh harrier, avocet and little tern. 

Historically, this readily accessible supply of clay also helped establish brick-making as one of the region’s earliest industries. Approximately  five million bricks were used to build Hull’s town walls which were said to be the largest brick-built construction in the country in medieval times. Similarly, Hull Minister lays claim to being one of the earliest examples of a largely brick-built church in England and was originally constructed on a raft of oak logs because of Hull’s notoriously sponge-like ground conditions.

Rab’s rather fruity description of Ice Age debris would have probably been appreciated by  the founder members of the Hull Geological Society who quickly formed their own Boulder Committee. Between 1894 and 1905, committee members embarked on regular field trips to record the locations of thousands of so-called “erratic” glacial boulders left scattered across East Yorkshire by melting glaciers. Reports were made to meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and other regional boulder committees set up by nearby societies. In each case, the type and age of each rock was identified in an attempt to retrace the paths of the glaciers as they changed the landscape around them.

Hull has no natural outcrops of rock. Instead, the nearest solid exposed rock is chalk which is best seen on the Yorkshire Wolds and, in particular, at Flamborough Head. The clear water in the Gypsey Race, Europe’s most northerly chalk stream running from Wharram-le-Street to Bridlington, provides a striking contrast to the brown stuff flowing further south.

Angus Young

Florence of HU7 asks a perfectly reasonable question, here. But the answer is slightly more complicated than you may have thought.

Chronicler of Hull for many years, Dr. Alec Gill, shows us one of his beautiful photos of decades past and discusses what is different now. This is Boulevard in 1978.

Teacher and writer Chris Speck picks a prince and adds an old granny’s tale just for the fun of it.

The second part of our exclusive chat with the legend Paul Jackson sees him in an even more uncompromising mode. He tell Burnsy about his struggles with the Adelphi Club, the tough times and the triumphs and reveals how he recently discovered that half of a major pop act had played the club before they became famous.

Thrones on the throne? Bog standard question, so Hull Tour Guide Paul Schofield is at your convenience and privy to the answer.