How Green Is Hull Fair?

With the rides now safely away from Walton Street for another year, our environmental carnival correspondent Angus Young looks at how sustainable the event is.

The ‘I think It’s Meant To Be Kylie Minogue’ ride at Hull Fair.

We all know it’s colourful, noisy and designed to empty your wallet faster than a gang of pickpockets in Dickensian London. But how environmentally-friendly is Hull Fair?

Well, the latest terms and conditions for operators produced by Hull City Council covering this year’s event are big on recycling and reducing waste. Catering stalls are not allowed to use plastic, trays and cutlery; dry refuse such as glass, metals and plastics must be recycled separately from general waste while anyone spotted pouring waste fat and oil down a drain risks a £300 fine.

However, there is no monitoring or enforcement in place to curb any potentially harmful emissions being thrown into the night air above Walton Street.

Some hydraulics at Hull Fair, yesterday.

Travelling fairs rely heavily on diesel-powered generators to power rides and stalls and Hull Fair traditionally billed as Europe’s biggest travelling funfair – is no exception. In 2019 an in-depth report on the environmental impact of diesel use at outdoor events in the UK painted a grim picture. Describing it as a “public health emergency”, the report estimated the annual emissions from generators at events was the equivalent of adding 220,000 diesel-powered cars to the roads every day.

Putting it another way, the report suggesting offsetting the annual emission of 1.2 million tonnes from generators would require the planting of a forest four times the size of Birmingham every year.

Of course, change can happen if you put your mind to it as the organisers of the Humber Street Sesh proved two years ago when they switched from using diesel to hydro-treated vegetable oil, supplied at a discounted rate by local firm J.R. Rix & Sons. They oil powered all the stages, bars and lighting and reduced the Sesh’s carbon footprint by 90 per cent.

What Hull Fair’s carbon footprint is anyone’s guess without any specific quality monitoring in place. The only recorded measurement is taken 500 metres away along Anlaby Road by a nitrogen dioxide monitoring unit which is part of a citywide network designed to keep tabs of vehicle emissions. Even then, it only provides monthly data which is eventually published.

A diesel generator at Hull Fair, yesterday.

In a statement, the council said: “Air quality is rigorously monitored throughout Hull, via more than 150 monitoring stations around the city, which provide a monthly update on levels of Oxides of Nitrogen. Every year, we use this data to create a publicly available report which is robustly reviewed by DEFRA, to assess whether there is more the council can do to improve air quality. We also have our own Air Quality Strategy; another public document setting out our plans to continue making improvements.

“Generally, air quality in Hull is good, with only one area of the city exceeding the nationally set Air Quality Standards.  That’s an area around the A63, and the current works by Highways England include a requirement for them to reduce concentrations to below the set levels. Base measurements are not carried out before or during Hull Fair, due to the continuous monitoring already ongoing.”

Angus Young

Was King Henry VIII’s Wife Bagging Off When They Visited Hull In 1541?

This is what we want! A bit of spicy 16th Century gossip, courtesy of our royal affairs correspondent Angus Young. Off with his head!

Catherine Howard and Henry VIII

It’s a question historians have been puzzling over for centuries. Did they or didn’t they? To this day, opinion remains divided over whether King Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard was having a secret affair with her husband’s confidant Thomas Culpeper as they headed to Hull in the autumn of 1541.

Until then, the 50-year-old monarch had never been further north than Boston in  Lincolnshire. However, in June that year Henry and his relatively new teenage bride embarked on a four-month journey to the North of England, known as a Royal Progress. The travelling party included half of the Privy Council and an entourage of 4,000 horsemen, soldiers and  servants which stretched over a mile. Henry’s intention was to remind the North of his power, having previously crushed a rebellion protesting at his dissolution of the monasteries.

The Progress ultimately headed for York but not before a visit to Hull with Henry and Catherine staying at Wressle Castle near Howden before another overnight stop at Leconfield Castle near Beverley. From Leconfield, Henry and his court travelled to Hull and stayed at the Manor House which he happened to own. While in the town, Henry approved plans for new defensive fortifications and came up with his own proposals to re-design the Manor House.

Henry VIII and Catherine Howard approaching York.

After going to York, Henry returned to Hull in late September to force the resignation of the newly-elected Mayor and oversee the election of his own preferred choice for the post, Sir John Elland. During this second visit it’s thought Catherine stayed either in Wressle or Leconfield while Henry was accompanied by his Privy Councillors, including Culpeper. By then, whispers about an illicit relationship between the Queen and Culpeper were starting to circulate.

The Royal party returned to Hampton Court on October 24. Just over a week later the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer delivered a note to Henry suggesting Catherine was not the virgin bride he thought she was having slept with Francis Dereham, another royal courtier. The king refused to believe it but ordered a secret investigation to discover the truth. Dereham was arrested, confessed and then implicated Culpeper.

Executions of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham.

The man who was at Henry’s side in Hull just a month earlier admitted an intention to marry Catherine after the death of the king. For her part, Catherine admitted having secret meetings with Culpeper during the Progress but denied adultery. Most historians now believe the pair didn’t actually do the dirty deed but would have done so given the chance.

On December 1 Culpeper and Dereham pleaded guilty to treason. Ten days later Culpeper was beheaded before Dereham was hung, drawn and quartered in a double execution at Tyburn. Their heads were subsequently placed on spikes on London Bridge. Two months later Catherine passed under the same bridge as she was taken by boat to the Tower of London and a date with the executioner’s axe.

As Sid James said later in Carry on Henry: “Cor blimey!”

Angus Young