Entirely marvellous actor Rachel Dale selects an inarguably fine water feature.

A question asked by Rosanne of HU17. The answer is surprisingly complex and as old as the hills.

There’s been a lot of weather lately, so we sent our lagoons correspondent Angus Young to report on how our city avoids (another) disaster.

If you happened to be in Hull or the surrounding area on 25 June 2007 you will almost certainly remember what you were doing that day. It was when exceptionally heavy and prolonged rainfall led to around 10,000 homes and businesses being flooded. Instead of the threat coming from swollen rivers or a Humber tidal surge, the low-lying city and its suburbs were flooded because the drains and various pumping stations couldn’t cope. As a member of a panel set up to investigate the causes of the flooding and make recommendations put it: “Hull lies on the bottom of a sink and no-one managed to pull the plug out that day.”

Building a bigger drainage system to prevent future similar surface water flooding was ruled out on cost grounds. After all, Yorkshire Water had only recently spent £200m constructing a new 10km long combined sewer and storm drainage tunnel under Hull which had taken over four years to complete. Big enough for a Mini to be driven along a section for a publicity stunt but seemingly not big enough to handle a month’s worth of rain which fell in less than 24 hours.

Instead, the idea of keeping as much surface water out of the drains as possible during a storm has been gradually turned into reality via a new series of huge storage lagoons ringing the city designed to hold rain falling on slightly higher ground from entering Hull’s drains. Once the worst of the weather is past, the stored water is slowly discharged into the system.

The first lagoons were built along Eppleworth Road near Cottingham. They can hold 30,000 cubic metres of water.

The Willerby and Derringham Flood Alleviation Scheme came next with four storage lagoons created immediately to the west of the A164 at Willerby and on land off Wold Road in West Hull. The total capacity here is 233,000 cubic metres.

The Cottingham and Orchard Park Flood Alleviation Scheme is even bigger. Featuring more storage sites in Eppleworth Road and a lagoon on land between the village and Orchard Park, it can hold 478,000 cubic metres of water.

Then there’s the Anlaby and East Ella Flood Alleviation Scheme which even boasts its own tunnel to funnel surface water from the hills above Tranby Croft and a new storage lagoon created at the site of the former Sydney Smith School in Hull which was demolished after being flooded in 2007. Here the capacity is 150,000 cubic metres.

Overall, the schemes to the west and north of Hull now provide added protection from flooding to over 16,000 homes and businesses. They have recently been joined by the Castlehill Aquagreen project to the east of the city which has been designed to reduce the risk of flooding to another 800 properties in Bransholme and Sutton. This scheme is capable of storing 15,000 cubic metres of water and also includes a fully automated pumping station to manage water levels on the flood-prone Holderness Drain.

Overall, the new storage capacity for surface water run-off around the edge of Hull is now 906,000 cubic metres. We’ve done our maths and concluded that’s the equivalent of 350 open air Olympic-sized swimming pools. (That’s nearly 6 million bathtubs full – Ed.)

Brexit fans might also want to note that all the schemes with the exception of Castle Hill received 50 per cent funding from the European Union worth around £30m. Lucky we got flooded before the 2016 referendum and not after it!

Angus Young

Hull Tour Guide Paul Schofield is out and about getting wet again, this time doing some digging for treasure.

Burnsy rolls his sleeves up and dives into a popular Kids Craft Club in North Hull.

The Dapper Snapper George Norris goes in search of the exact spot Keith Wade took a photo of his dad over 50 years ago. But can he find it?

Writer and teacher Chris Speck has a soft spot for a ghost sign on Chants Ave.

The city had a zoo, and elephants, and they needed washing. Our Urban Mythbuster Amy Thompson challenges the City Archivist Martin Taylor to prove it never happened.

8YO Jade asked this question, so we gave our office junior a ladder and and a tape measure and told him to go find out.

No, not Boothferry Park, the other, even older one. Our abandoned sports grounds correspondent Angus Young investigates.

It’s 25 years since Hull City Council briefly became the most cash-rich local authority in the country by selling a 55 per stake in its wholly-owned telephone company Kingston Communications. The resulting £255m windfall was subsequently spent on new heating and double glazing in 25,000 council properties, carrying out a citywide programme of repairs to schools as well as building a new one in the shape of Endeavour High, laying new pavements in Spring Bank and Anlaby Road and contributing  £5.4m towards the construction of The Deep. However, the biggest headline-grabbing item on the spending list was the £45m redevelopment of West Park featuring a new state-of-the-art sports stadium for Hull City and Hull FC to share.

City’s previous Boothferry Park had been built by its chairman and owner Harold Needler, who also ran a successful local construction business. As well as Boothferry Park, he was also responsible for most of the housing in Sutton Park while, after his death, his family-owned company has gone on to develop Kingswood. But who was responsible for building the club’s first-ever ground on Anlaby Road?

A surviving section of the old ground could soon be unearthed if the volunteer-run Hull City Supporters Trust manages to secure a Heritage Lottery grant to help create a new attraction in the shadow of what is now the MKM Stadium. One end of an original terrace currently lies partially buried by an overgrowth of bushes and trees with some steps and a supporting wall still just about visible. Opened in 1906, City played there until the Second World War. In that period, the record crowd was 32,000 for an FA Cup tie against Newcastle United.

City fan and author Nick Turner charts those far off days in his excellent book Now Tigers! The Early History of Hull City. He discovered the ground – or at least the main stands and terraces  – was the work of G.H.Carr, a builder whose business was based in Alexandra Road, off Beverley Road. The premises is still in use today as a motor repair garage. An advert featured in a 1908 match programme found by Nick describes the company as a “house & ship joiner, builder and contractor.”

He’s also come across recent information suggesting some of the building materials used might have come from the construction of Hull City Hall, which was being built at the same time. Either way, the surviving terrace is thought to be the oldest surviving Edwardian football structure of its kind in the country. The trust recently launched a £100,000 fund-raising campaign. The aim is to provide match-funding towards a potential Heritage Lottery grant.

The Anlaby Road ground continued to be used by City’s A-team and for junior fixtures until the 1960s when British Rail created a new service loop between the railway lines running to Selby and Scarborough, effectively slicing the old ground in two. The new railway line opened in 1965 and since then Mother Nature has gradually hidden what remains of the club’s original home.

Ironically, because the site is wedged between railway lines it was largely untouched during the construction of the new stadium back in 2001/2. With sufficient funding support, the lost terrace built by G.H. Carr over a century ago could soon have fans standing on it once again.

Angus Young