The Humber is a large

tidal estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

on the east coast of

Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. It is formed at Trent Falls,

Faxfleet Faxfleet is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Brough, and at the start of the Humber, on the north bank, where the River Ouse and the River Trent meet. With Yokefleet and Bellasize, Fax ...

, by the confluence of the

tidal river A tidal river is a river whose flow and level are influenced by tides. A section of a larger river affected by the tides is a tidal reach, but it may sometimes be considered a tidal river if it has been given a separate name. Generally, tidal ri ...

s Ouse and

Trent Trent may refer to: Places Italy * Trento in northern Italy, site of the Council of Trent United Kingdom * Trent, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Germany * Trent, Germany, a municipality on the island of Rügen United States * Trent, California, ...

. From there to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

, it forms part of the boundary between the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

on the north bank and

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Bar ...

on the south bank. Although the Humber is an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

from the point at which it is formed, many maps show it as the River Humber. Below Trent Falls, the Humber passes the junction with the

Market Weighton Canal The Market Weighton Canal ran from the Humber Estuary to its terminus near Market Weighton. It gained its Act of Parliament in 1772 and opened in 1782. The closest to Market Weighton was abandoned in 1900 and the right of navigation through ...

on the north shore, the confluence of the

River Ancholme The River Ancholme is a river in Lincolnshire, England, and a tributary of the Humber. It rises at Ancholme Head, a spring just north of the village of Ingham and immediately west of the Roman Road, Ermine Street. It flows east and then north ...

on the south shore; between

North Ferriby North Ferriby is a village and civil parish in the Haltemprice area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. History Humber Estuary "The archaeology of the intertidal wetlands of the Humber Estuary is of international importance, and include ...

and

South Ferriby South Ferriby is a village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary and west from the Humber Bridge. North Ferriby is directly opposite on the Estuary's north bank. Village population was 651 in ...

and under the Humber Bridge; between

Barton-upon-Humber Barton-upon-Humber () or Barton is a town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 11,066. It is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at the southern end of the Humber Bridge. It is ...

on the south bank and

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

on the north bank (where the River Hull joins), then meets the

between Cleethorpes on the Lincolnshire side and the long and thin headland of

Spurn Head Spurn is a narrow sand tidal island located off the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It was a spit with a semi-permanent con ...

to the north. Ports on the Humber include the

Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally cond ...

, the

Port of Grimsby The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The ''Grimsby Haven Company'' began dock development in the late 170 ...

and the

Port of Immingham The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest ...

; there are lesser ports at New Holland and

North Killingholme Haven North Killingholme Haven is a water outlet on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the civil parish of North Killingholme, to the north-west of the Port of Immingham. The area was used at the beginning of the 20th century for clay extraction ...

. The estuary is navigable for the largest of deep-sea vessels. Inland connections for smaller craft are extensive but handle only a quarter of the goods traffic handled in the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

History

Although it is now an

, the Humber had a much longer freshwater course during the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

, extending across what was the dry bed of the

. The Humber features regularly in medieval British literature. In the

Welsh Triads The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...

, the Humber is one of the three principal rivers of Britain (together with

the Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

and the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

) and is continually mentioned throughout the

Brut y Brenhinedd ''Brut y Brenhinedd'' ("Chronicle of the Kings") is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptat ...

as a boundary between the southern kingdom (

Lloegyr Lloegyr is the medieval Welsh name for a region of Britain ('' Prydain''). The exact borders are unknown, but some modern scholars hypothesize it ran south and east of a line extending from the Humber Estuary to the Severn Estuary, exclusive o ...

) and various northern kingdoms. In

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

's 12th-century chronicle (), the Humber is named for "

Humber the Hun Humber the Hun was a legendary king of so-called "Huns" who, according to Gafridian legend, invaded the British Isles in about the 12th century BC. His people successfully conquered Scotia but he himself was drowned during his campaign against S ...

", an invader who drowned there during battle in the earliest days of the chronicle. The Humber remained an important boundary throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, separating

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

from the southern kingdoms. The name ''Northumbria'' derives from the Anglo-Saxon language, Anglo-Saxon (plural) = "the people north of the Humber". The Humber is recorded with the abbreviation ''Fl. Abi'' (The Abus river, grc, Ἄβος) in Ptolemy's Geography (Ptolemy), Geographia, discharging into the German Ocean (the

) south of Ocelum Promontorium (Spurn Head). Ptolemy also gives the Celts, Iron Age tribes of the area as the Coritani south of the Humber and the Parisi (Yorkshire), Parisi to the north. In the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, the eponymous protagonist leaves England on a ship departing from The Humber. On 23 August 1921, the British airship R38-class airship, R38 crashed into the estuary near Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew on board. From 1974 to 1996, the areas now known as the

and North East Lincolnshire constituted the county of Humberside. The Humber, from 1996, forms a boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire (to the north) and North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, to the south.

Crossings

The estuary's only modern crossing is the Humber Bridge, which was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world from its construction in 1981 until 1998. It is now the List of longest suspension bridge spans, eleventh longest. Before the bridge was built, a series of paddle steamers operated from the Corporation Pier railway station at the Victoria Pier, Kingston upon Hull, Victoria Pier in Hull to the New Holland Pier railway station, railway pier in New Holland. Steam ferries started in 1841, and in 1848 were purchased by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. They, and their successors, ran the ferry until the bridge opened in 1981. Railway passenger and car traffic continued to use the pier until the end of ferry operations. The line of the bridge is similar to an ancient ferry route from Hessle to Barton upon Humber, which is noted in the ''Domesday Book'' and in a charter of 1281. The ferry was recorded as still operating in 1856, into the railway era. The Humber was then across.

Defences

The Humber Forts were built in the mouth of the river for the First World War. Planned in 1914, their construction started in 1915 and they were not completed until 1919. A coastal battery at Easington, ''Fort Goodwin'' or ''Kilnsea Battery'', faced the Bull Sands Fort. They were also garrisoned during the Second World War, and were finally abandoned for military use in 1956. Fort Paull is further upstream, a Napoleonic-era emplacement replaced in the early 20th century by ''Stallingborough Battery'' opposite Sunk Island.

Crossing on foot

Graham Boanas, a Hull man, is believed to be the first man to succeed in wading across the Humber since Roman Britain, ancient Roman times. The feat, in August 2005, was attempted to raise cash and awareness for the medical research charity, DebRA. He started his trek on the north bank at Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire, Brough; four hours later, he emerged on the south bank at Whitton, North Lincolnshire, Whitton. He is tall and took advantage of a very low tide. He replicated this achievement on the television programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' (Series 10 Episode 6) when he beat James May who drove an Alfa Romeo 159 around the inland part of the estuary in a race without using the Humber Bridge.

Crossing by swimming

On Saturday 26 August 1911, Alice Maud Boyall became the first woman to swim the Humber. Boyall, then aged 19 and living in Hull, was the Yorkshire swimming champion. She crossed the Humber from Hull to New Holland Pier swimming the distance in 50 minutes, 6 minutes slower than the existing men's record. Since 2011 Warners Health have organised the 'Warners Health Humber Charity Business Swim'. Twelve swimmers from companies across the Yorkshire region train and swim in an ellipse from the south bank to the north bank of the river under the Humber Bridge over a total distance of approximately . Since then, an organised group crossing at the Humber Bridge has become an annual event, with a small number of pre-selected swimmers crossing in a 'pod' which remains close together, in aid of Humber Rescue. In 2019 competitive open water swimmer Richard Royal became the first person to attempt and complete a two-way swim across the river, beginning and finishing at Hessle foreshore, with Barton on the south bank as the mid-way point, covering a total of 4,085 m. Royal holds the record for the fastest one-way swim across the Humber (35 minutes 11 seconds) and the fastest two-way swim (1 hour, 13 minutes, 46 seconds). He raised over £900 for Humber Rescue, who provided safety support during the swim. Hull and Humber Estuary 2013-03

Etymologies

Most European hydronyms are Celtic languages, Celtic in origin and numerous Celtic or Pre-Celtic derivations for ''Humber'' have been suggested. The name ''Humber'' may be a Common Brittonic, Brittonic formation containing ''-[a]mb-ṛ'', a variant of the element ''*amb'' meaning "moisture", with the prefix ''*hu-'' meaning "good, well" (c.f. Welsh language, Welsh ''hy-'', in ''Hywel'', etc). The first element may also be ''*hū-'', with connotations of "seethe, boil, soak", of which a variant forms the name of the adjoining River Hull. The estuary appears in some Latin language, Latin sources as (A name used by Edmund Spenser in ''The Faerie Queene''). This is possibly a Latinisation of the Celtic form (Welsh Language, Welsh for river mouth or estuary) but is erroneously given as a name for both the Humber and River Ouse, Yorkshire, The Ouse as one continuous watercourse. Both and may record an older Indo-European languages, Indo-European word for water or river, (as in the 'Five Rivers' of the Punjab). An alternative derivation may be from the Latin verb meaning "to hide, to conceal". The successive name ''Humbre''/''Humbri''/''Umbri'' may continue the meaning via the Latin verb also meaning "to cover with shadows".

Ecology

Many fish live in and also migrate along the Humber when returning from the sea to their spawning grounds in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. Salmon, Sole (fish), sole, cod, eel, flounder, plaice, sprat, lamprey and sand goby have all been caught within the estuary. The Humber is also a good place for over-wintering birds and is a good breeding ground for bitterns, marsh harriers, little terns and avocets. It forms part of the Severn-Trent flyway, a route used by bird migration, migratory birds to cross Great Britain. In 2019 the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the University of Hull re-introduced the Oyster, river oyster into the Humber after a sixty-year absence.

References

External links

River Humber Ferries
��Private web site about the Steam era ferries
www.humber.com
��Associated British Ports, Humber group. Includes daily details of major shipping movements
www.humberpacketboats.co.uk
��Extensive private web site about history of river trading in Humber and tributaries. * * {{Authority control Humber, Humber drainage basin, Estuaries of England Landforms of the North Sea Ramsar sites in England River navigations in the United Kingdom Rivers of Lincolnshire Rivers of the East Riding of Yorkshire Natural regions of England