Stumped by silt but soon to be expunged to fruition, according to our dry dock progress correspondent Angus Young.

After literally getting stuck in the mud, the ambitious project to create a new permanent berth for the Arctic Corsair is back up and running. Approval for a much-delayed marine licence required to remove silt from the River Hull means the former sidewinder trawler is now scheduled to be dry-docked at the North End shipyard in April 2026.

Around 3,500 cubic metres of silt will be removed from the banks of the river, allowing the installation of a new 50-tonne dock gate and the creation of a sufficiently clear navigational path for the 693-tonne vessel to be manoeuvred into its new berth. Separate licensing approval is still needed from the Environment Agency covering the disposal of the extracted silt. While this is not expected to be a problem, it will involve the design of a temporary silt treatment compound at the site.

Historically, dredged river silt was taken into the Humber where it was dumped but recent legislation now requires land-based disposal for contaminated material. Under the plans, water will be drained from the extracted silt and returned to the river. The remaining material will eventually be sent to landfill.

The potentially tricky task of slotting the trawler into the dry dock has been pencilled in for next April because that’s when the next ideal tide for the job is forecast. As the vessel’s engines no longer work, it will have to be towed into place by tugs. Two practice runs using other similar-sized ships are also being planned beforehand to test whether all the calculations and angles required for the last leg of the Corsair’s final journey are correct.

As well as the new gates, the dry dock will also house a series of supporting blocks which the trawler will eventually stand on. Both the gate and the blocks have already been constructed and are currently in storage awaiting installation.

Once safely in the dock, the remaining fit-out works onboard the Corsair will take place. When they are completed, the first visitors are expected to be welcomed in late 2026. As well as the ship, a new visitor centre has been built at the shipyard while three new large concrete support columns at the site await the return of a restored 18-ton Scotch Derrick Crane which once stood next to the dock.

Gillian Osgerby, interim assistant director for major projects and infrastructure at Hull City Council, said: “Water infiltration was a big issue on the vessel when it was previously berthed on the river but that won’t be a problem here. Being berthed in a dry dock will allow people to see the full size of the Corsair for the first time as well as helping conserve it for at least another 100 years. I am confident it is going to be something very special, not just for Hull but the whole region.”

Angus Young

Boss of Humber Street Gallery Marianne finds her namesake on a wander down a familiar thoroughfare.

You’ve got the script for the words but what to do with your body? Dani, from Middle Child, explains how she helps on that score.

It stops the Old Town from flooding, but how? Our marine impediment correspondent Angus Young dives in.

After the one on the Thames, Hull’s Tidal Barrier is the largest flood barrier in the UK. It’s not a surprising fact because after London, Hull is also the second largest UK city most at risk from being inundated by flooding.

Completed in 1980 at a cost of £4.3m, the barrier has certainly proved to be value for money having protected the city from flooding ever since. The giant structure’s finest hour to date came in December 2013 when it stood firm during a record storm surge on the Humber and kept everyone dry.

When a high tide is predicted, the barrier’s 212-tonne steel gate is lowered into the River Hull to prevent water from the estuary entering the low-lying River Hull Valley. Steel plays an important part in the  structure because each of its two distinctive concrete towers also feature steel support columns. At the time, the 34 metre-long steel used for the columns was the longest ever rolled by British Steel.

The gate is powered by motors and is typically deployed using a hydraulics system 30 minutes before an expected high tide. In the event of a mechanical failure, it can actually be hand-cranked in position although this is never thought to have happened during a real-life incident.

When required to thwart a high tide, the gate moves from its normal stationary horizontal position and rotates 90 degrees before being lowered and locking into a sill built into the river bed. This movement has been likened to an up-and-over garage door. When locked into place, five sluice gates in the barrier control water flows into the river.

As with any machine of a certain age, the barrier needs regular maintenance. Last year specialist civil engineers carried out a major structural survey, inspecting 92 separate locations on the steel gate for signs of corrosion along with 260 welds and bolts. They also took concrete samples from 12 different parts of the two main towers for further examination. The results from tests on both the steelwork and concrete will be used to plan future maintenance work.

When it was built, the barrier was typically lowered around once a year but more recently that frequency has significantly increased reflecting rising tides on the Humber. Sometimes it is lowered once a month. Another recent change has seen the barrier being used to reduce the risk of flooding upriver in the River Hull Valley. This has seen it lowered at low tide to keep water from the estuary out of the River Hull to ease flood-inundated land north of the city.

As you would expect, Professor Stuart McLelland, of the Energy and Environment Institute at the University of Hull, is a big fan. He said: “The tidal surge barrier is an impressive structure and an elegant engineering achievement to help the city and the wide region  live with the water that surrounds us. If it wasn’t there, those of use living and working in Hull would regularly get wet, or worse.”

Angus Young

Want to know if your great-great-grandad really was a bank robber? Amy Thompson outlines how you can discover such things at Fred Moore Library.

Hull Tour Guide Paul Schofield takes us back over 100 years to learn of a remarkable but little-remembered tragedy.

Ally-mai has been back in Central Library to sift through her best fantasy picks.

Look up and you’ll spot them, along with some fine architecture, reports our chimerical sculpture correspondent Angus Young.

There are plenty of lion sculptures dotted around the city centre but only two have wings. Perched on brick pillars beneath a distinctive roof turret topped by an ornamental weather vane, a pair of stone griffins overlook the junction of Ferensway and Anlaby Road. They’ve been there for 123 years, standing upright as if keeping guard over the building beneath them – Regent House.

The stylish landmark was designed by architect John Dosser to provide new premises for Turner & Drinkwater, one of Hull’s most respected photographic businesses. The company remained there until the early 1970s. Apart from its splendid griffins, Dosser’s building is also worth a long look because it includes a neat design trick.

At first glance, it appears to be three separate properties but architectural details are carried through each one to unite the overall design. Not surprisingly, it was awarded Grade II listed building status in 1994. Historic England’s official listing says: “The external exuberance of the architectural design and detailing of the surviving portion of the 1902 Regent House, designed to appear as three separate properties, is clearly of special interest as a good example of an Edwardian commercial building.”

Pleasingly, the original shopfront at No.26 Anlaby Road can now be seen after it was exposed and restored during refurbishment in 2015.

Dossor’s handiwork can also be seen just across the same junction in the shape of the former Kinemacolour Picture Palace which opened in 1910. Later known as the Regent Cinema, it’s now a pub trading under the name G.W. Horner ‘s.

Born in Hull, Dossor was the son of a sea captain who became commodore of the Ellerman Wilson shipping line. Instead of a nautical career, he decided to be an architect. He was an articled pupil with East Yorkshire’s  largest practice Smith & Brodrick and later spent a year as an assistant to noted Hull architect Alfred Gelder before starting his own independent practice in 1898.

His initial work involved designing pubs but the Regent House commission really cemented his reputation as one the city’s up and coming architectural talents. By then he had already designed St. Augustine’s Parish Church Hall which still stands at the junction of Princes Avenue and Queens Road and he would go on to design several notable private houses in the Avenues, including a distinctive terrace of mock Tudor-fronted properties in Victoria Avenue.

In 1907 Dosser set up a new partnership  known as Wellsted Dossor & Wellsted, designing a new school and parish hall for St. Mary’s Church in Sculcoates Lane. The firm was also responsible for more new housing in the Avenues, including a terrace of four homes in Richmond Street complete with leaded windows, overhanging eaves and cast-iron ventilators in a Garden Village-style design. Dossor’s touch is also in evidence in Newland Park where he designed at least seven properties in what is still regarded as Hull’s poshest street.

In 1932 Dossor became Lord Mayor of Hull having already become an alderman and a magistrate. At the time he was living at 135 Westbourne Avenue, ironically not one of his own designs but still with many internal features he had added over the years.

Despite his residential back catalogue, I still think Regent House is his finest work. Don’t forget to give his  grifins an appreciative wave the next time you pass by.

Angus Young

For Pride Month, Dr. Robb Robinson of the University of Hull tells the story of probably the coolest person to have ever lived on Anlaby Road.

Our humorous illustrations correspondent Angus Young draws our attention to yet another little-known but highly-influential figure.

The ridiculously-talented Hull-based Gareth Sleightholme (aka Hesir) is probably the city’s best-known current comic book illustrator. His inky fingers are behind three recent Maritime Tales comic books produced as part of the Hull Maritime project as well as his own popular sci-fi comics However, we’re sure Gareth will concede he’s still got some way to go to match the prodigious output of Ern Shaw.

Born in Bean Street in Hull in 1891, Ern spent a lifetime creating colourful cartoon characters and bringing smiles to generations of readers until his death in 1986. His first artistic success came at the age of 12 when he received a prize of five shillings as the winner of a drawing competition organised by the Hull Times newspaper after submitting a sketch of the newly-completed Guildhall.

However, a boyhood ambition to become a train driver ended shortly after leaving school when he spent a week in a railway shed cleaning engines. Returning home every night covered in grease and oil prompted a re-think and he spent the next seven years working in a draper’s shop in Hessle Road. At the same time, young Ern enrolled in a correspondence course in drawing with the Press Art School in London to learn the techniques from professional artists. It would be the only formal artistic training he ever received.

When the First World War began in 1914 he joined the Royal Medical Corps and would later illustrate a regular magazine produced by a military hospital in Reading where he was based. Some of his drawings of operations being performed there were published in the medical journal The Lancet. After the war he initially worked as an illustrator in London before returning to Hull where he started to make a living by drawing and submitting cartoons to local and regional newspapers.

Over the following decades he produced thousands of drawings and developed a speciality in capturing the funny side of life at the city’s three professional sports clubs – Hull City, Hull FC and Hull KR. Many new players felt they had not ‘arrived’ until Ern had featured them in one of his cartoons. A press box regular, his artwork also regularly featured in match day programmes.

Away from sport, he created long-running cartoon strips for several national magazines featuring animal characters and came up with his own family of mischievous pixies called Tiny, Mac, Toodles, Mick and Twanky known as Dingbats who appeared in annuals, colouring books and games. His first Dingbats annual published in the 1950s sold over 100,000 copies.

Other illustrated comic books included The Daily Deeds of Sammy the Scout and The Jolly Gnomes Annual while, keen to pass on his knowledge as a cartoonist, he also wrote an instructional book called How To Become A Successful Cartoonist, A Guide To Aspiring Artists with a foreword supplied by Percy Bradshaw, his old friend and principal of the Press Art School.

Ern’s incredible output extended to puzzles, card and magic games, jigsaws, greeting cards, board games and advertising but it wasn’t until 1967 at the age of 76 that he staged his first solo exhibition – at the Darby and Joan Hall in Cottingham.

In 1974 he appeared on the TV game show Quick On The Draw hosted by Bob Monkhouse and a year later was invited as a guest of honour to the Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles where he was given a special behind-the-scenes tour. “I had always admired Walt Disney’s work. Well, they don’t come much better or bigger than that,” he said after returning home.

By then, he was officially acknowledged as the country’s oldest working cartoonist and was made an honorary life member of the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain.

He died aged 95 having worked as a freelance cartoonist for over 70 years. In that time, it’s estimated around 25,000 of his cartoons were published in newspapers and magazines. A posthumous exhibition of his work was staged in Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery in 2010, titled “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” – a phrase borrowed from Percy Bradshaw’s foreword in Ern’s own 1946 book giving tips and advice to aspiring cartoonists.

Angus Young