It’s basically worth watching this film just to see Burnsy dancing, but you can also learn about another great service offered by Hull Libraries.

With the legendary children’s author herself visiting Hull soon, Ally-mai runs through her favourite options for similar reads.

How the city pioneered animal welfare is outlined by our equine transportation correspondent Angus Young.

Trade between the UK and Russia is currently in limbo thanks to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the history of trading between the countries stretches back centuries with the ports of Hull and St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea playing a pivotal part in that story.

Back in 1802, four out of every five ships arriving in Hull that year were from St. Petersburg mainly carrying hemp, flax and iron. In the opposite direction, exports shipped from Hull included cotton-twist made in Lancashire, textiles, pottery, lead and horses.

Thoroughbred horse-racing in Russia first developed in the late 18th century with an eye on copying the already established English model. As a result, English bloodstock and horse-dealers were in big demand. In the 1780s between 200 and 300 English horses were shipped to St Petersburg every year, most of them from Hull.

Such was their value, shipping merchants in Hull specially adapted their vessels to ensure the horses arrived in a healthy condition after their sea journey to Russia.  In each ship, entire holds were converted with horses being placed in separate roped-off spaces running along each side of the vessel with a central passageway between them for their grooms. Each horse was tethered to a feeding trough fixed to the side of the ship and provided with hay, straw and fresh water stored in casks which were re-filled with salt water once emptied to act as ballast. Each stall was levelled with a mixture of shingle and sand to mimic a traditional stable and, crucially, was laid out to provide enough space for the horse to be able to lie down and get back up again.

This so-called ‘Hull system’ of transporting horses eventually became the focus of a House of Lords debate in 1855 at the height of the Crimean War when it was favourably compared to the shipment of cavalry horses by the government. Under the military method, horses were stood on wooden platforms between decks and wedged between a series of pillars, posts and rails as well as being held upright by slings. There was no space for an animal to lie down. 

In the debate, the Earl of Albemarle urged ministers to adopt the Hull system after highlighting the shocking deaths of around 100 horses belonging to one cavalry regiment  during and immediately after one journey by sea to the Crimea. In doing so, he quoted veteran Yorkshire horse-dealer Thomas Kirby who had spent over 50 years exporting horses from Hull to St Petersburg. Kirby’s first trip to Russia was in 1791 as a 21-year-old when he took over a string of horses to sell on behalf of a Market Weighton brewer in what he described as a “speculative venture”. His later clients included the Russian royal family.

In a letter, Kirby said: “I know the way that the government has of shipping the transport horses is shocking. I was myself in the habit of going with horses to St. Petersburg both in wartime and peace, and never had but one horse die on board and mostly landed them as well or better  than when they were shipped.”

The Earl of Albemarle added: “ I would venture to say that nothing like that number of casualties has occurred in the whole horse trade of Hull in the last 50 years.”

The lords supported his motion, calling on the government to make greater use of larger steam ships to carry horses instead of relying on smaller less adaptable sailing ships. However, before the vote, the Earl glumly noted he had been informed by the war minister that the current transportation system used since the Napoleonic Wars “was to be continued without the adoption of improvements suggested by modern experience”.

The Hull system remained in place for private horse-trading but would not become part of the cavalry’s way of doing things.

Angus Young

Hull Tour Guide Paul Schofield gets all aviatory in East Park.

In the last of her tutorials, manga artist Abbie Rial helps you find your way of working.

With the latest sculpture trail arriving soon in Hull and East Yorkshire, Burnsy asks Clare Huby what we can expect from A Mischief Of Rats.

The fascinating tale of the water supply that never was is uncovered by our unrealised reservoir correspondent Angus Young.

Despite the signs marking the city boundary, Hull City Council still owns some parcels of land just across the border in the East Riding. The fields off Priory Road as you enter Cottingham and the former Hedon aerodrome site beyond Saltend are both owned by the council. But back in 1932 Hull’s landowning interests extended 50 miles away to the North York Moors.

The land in question was in the Upper Farndale valley, north of Kirkbymoorside, and covered nearly 5,000 acres. At the time it was acquired by Hull Corporation – the forerunner to today’s city council – as part of an ambitious plan to build a huge reservoir to create a reliable supply of fresh water to the city’s industrial sector as well as its expanding population via a very long pipeline.

As well as meeting the obvious demand, there was an element of science behind the idea. The proposal envisaged mixing the soft water of the Moors with the hard water extracted closer to Hull to produce water with less minerals in it. One of the potential benefits promoted at the time was that softer water would make soap lather more easily.

Another was job creation. Corporation officials estimated the construction of the reservoir and a series of weirs and aqueducts would provide enough work for up to 600 unemployed labourers from the city. A third advantage – as promoted by Hull – was the avoidance of any sizeable village or settlement being “drowned” by the scheme. Instead, the relatively remote nature of the land with its scattered farmsteads meant a reservoir would not swamp a significant population. Overall, around 100 people lived there.

Existing farmers in the area became tenants of the Corporation as it secured the necessary parliamentary approval and started drawing up designs for a 1,900ft-long dam standing 130ft high, capable of holding back six thousand million gallons of water in a two and a half mile-long lake. However, the Corporation still needed to fund the estimated £2.1m cost and the start of the Second World War then effectively put things on hold.

When the conflict ended in 1945 Hull applied for extensions to previous permissions, including borrowing powers, to keep the idea alive.

In 1954 the city gave approval for a planned nature reserve on some of the land, partly as a response to problems being caused by people picking wild daffodils in large numbers. However, the council reserved the right to terminate the agreement with six months’ notice.

By 1970 the North York Moors was an established National Park while public opinion was turning against the idea of creating a reservoir in the middle of it.

Then a new parliamentary bill seeking to confirm an updated reservoir scheme costing £8m and incorporating  modern technology as an integral part of future water supply planning in Yorkshire controversially collapsed when an all-party select committee voted against it. The committee chairman Sir Samuel Knox-Cunningham used this casting vote to veto the scheme, having previously ruled that several committee members were ineligible to vote having previously publicly expressed support for it. At a stroke, 38 years of reservoir planning by successive Hull council officials had come to an abrupt end.

Hull eventually transferred the land to the Yorkshire Water Authority when it was created in 1974. Later, following the privatisation of the water industry, the 26 tenants in Farndale were allowed to buy their farms from the new-look company Yorkshire Water.

Angus Young

Amy Thompson pops to Waudby Library to uncover all there is to know about these regular events.

Dave Windass of Humber Street Gallery returns to look at another place where you can enjoy public art.

Crime writer and music aficionado Nick Quantrill tells the sad tale of one of the greats.