Humber hovercraft: 'The futuristic transport that once connected Hull and Grimsby can inspire greater connectedness today'

Locals campaigned for decades for a road route across the Humber Estuary, seeing the water as a barrier to trade, development and connectedness between the two banks of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

But even when a crossing was finally approved with the Humber Bridge Act of 1959, it would be another 13 years before work actually started – and then a further nine until the bridge eventually opened in 1981 after a mammoth construction project. In the meantime, there were two options: cross the water by ferry or drive all the way to Goole to follow a route by road.

In 1969, a third alternative across the estuary emerged. For a brief period, hovercraft services would take people back and forth on an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land and water. Now, this rather unusual mode of transport is the focus of a new book. The Humber Hovercraft features stories of ingenuity and innovation, archive images, and memories from local people.

“The finished publication is not a traditional history book,” explains Paul Drury-Bradey, who has curated its content. “Instead, it is a deep dive on the untold story of the hovercraft that connected Grimsby and Hull at the end of the 1960s. “It's interesting, in some ways, because the hovercraft connected the two places in about 20 minutes. Today, the journey is an hour. Call that progress?”

The book includes never-published letters from harbourmasters, as well as evidence of difficult negotiations with local authorities, tickets, timetables and recollections that capture “the determination and pioneering spirit of local people in the Humber region at the time”, Paul says.

It was shaped, of course, by big ideas from the 1960s but is the result of a creative heritage project which was run by 43-year-old Paul last year. It saw him work with specialist archives and libraries around the county, as well as running creative workshops, exhibitions and heritage talks to capture and share what locals have to say – not only their memories of the hovercraft but also their thoughts on connectedness and community.

It was those concepts that inspired Paul, who works as a media and communications officer at the University of York as well as running freelance community arts projects. He was born in Scunthorpe in the year that the Humber Bridge opened and grew up in Barton-upon-Humber. "There’s a family story about the first long walk I did being over the bridge,” he says.

“My nana’s side of the family were all from around Withernsea and my grandad’s side of the family was all from Winteringham – Scunthorpe, Barton way. So I’ve always felt this bit of a divide and been really interested in the things that connect us as people and as families. When you live in a place with a massive river that goes through it, I think it becomes really important in terms of your identity. So I was interested in that personal history.”

Modern day politics inspired him too. “The last government were always chatting about levelling up and there was this political agenda about how to make places with economic challenges, like Hull and Grimsby, better. I live and work around here and I’m not in politics but I’m often thinking how do you grow the economy in these places and make where we live better. One of the big issues is that you can’t get around. There were often festivals and events happening but the big problem for people was there was no way of connecting them.”

Paul, who today lives in Scarborough, had heard of the Humber hovercraft and set about researching more about the transport. “I’d read about the hovercraft and it seemed to me to be so fantastical, that it was hard to believe it actually did exist,” he says. “It harks back to a time when people were really optimistic about their towns and where they lived. People were pioneering and entrepreneurial and giving new ideas a go…I wanted to learn more about it.”

The hovercraft took people across the Humber quicker than the ferries that were in operation at the time and offered a direct route between the docks in Grimsby and Hull. But there were also challenges – and the hovercraft only operated for a single year. “The Humber is very choppy and it’s prone to silting up,” Paul explains. “Because it’s such an industrial working river, there was a lot of debris in the water...and the hovercraft suffered with punctures.”

"The harbourmasters, people who ran the docks, were not entirely happy that a brand new technology was using it either,” Paul adds. “It was unusual, it was different and it was taking up space that other more traditional ships could be using. They weren’t as welcoming as they could be.”

Paul is now taking the hovercraft project on tour, with interactive talks at festivals in the region. He hopes people will think more about how communities are connected. “The Humber hovercraft is part of history. By sharing people’s memories and stories, I want to give it a life and energy of its own,” he says. “When I decided to do this, I wanted communities in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire to be able to be better connected and that’s the ultimate goal. And to shine a light on that when people are better connected, amazing things can happen. People can grow, economies can grow…

"It would be nice to think that this project could inspire people to think about the way people can get connected and grow businesses and grow ideas in different ways. It doesn’t have to be a hovercraft - but you never know, it might be.”

- The book is available at humberhovercraft.myshopify.com. Paul’s next talk is on May 31, as part of York Festival of Ideas.