Unlike some other maps of the time Scott’s navigational chart of the Humber Estuary, 1734, highlights churches but does not show them all by a standard symbol, some variations cross-reference with other evidence and Marfleet church is shown by the symbol above (enlarged). Drypool church is shown and none for Southcoates (s.p.b.s). The above symbol must show the first Marfleet church as per 1734, about 60 years before being demolished/replaced. Scott’s symbol shows a curious structure with a cone-shaped steeple over a narrow west tower.
This earliest church certainly had navigational significance Scott showing a navigational line to it for vessels navigating the channel between ‘Hebles Canch’ and ‘Skitter Ness’ (two mud-flats in the Humber probably visible at low tide but a danger to shipping when sailing up-Estuary on a flow tide). It is also recorded that Marfleet church figured in the 18th century Humber Pilot’s Examination (Storey, A. Hull Trinity House History of Pilotage and Navigational Aids of the River Humber, 1512-1908 (1971, 5 and 125). This paragraph is taken from Clarke, R. Landmarks and Beacons, churches of the Humber Estuary as aids to navigation, Section 3 of this website.
Finally for this section on Marfleet the building of King George Dock. Further dock accommodation had been needed for years and the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, 1894, threatened some of the trade of the Hull-Barnsley railway (Alexandra Dock). King George (V) Dock was excavated and constructed between 1906 and 1913 being jointly funded by the Hull-Barnsley Railway Co. and the North Eastern Railway Co., the latter often criticised for having a near monopoly on Hull’s national and inter-national trade. Ken MacMahon gives considerable attention to these matters in his History of Hull pages 403 – 410 as well as the famous/infamous Hull Docker’s Strike of 1893.
With more access to early O.S. maps it would be interesting to plot the expansion of residential accommodation before the building of the post-War estates (s.p.b.)