Having seen where the River Hull starts (s.p.b.) today the photo shows where it ends, this photo taken late in 2016 before the flood alleviation scheme started at Minerva pier/Nelson St. area. This section of Hull’s improved flood defenses is almost complete with the section in front of Minerva Pub now open to the public as are the famous Victorian public toilets. I am assured that about eight young trees are to be planted in the most effective way, these adding to the two semi-mature trees left in place by the scheme.
One interesting side to this scene is that historically the mouth of the River wasn’t always where we now see it. It is believed by some, (some more than others), that up to the 13th century the lower course of the River followed a different meandering course from the Wincolmlee area to exit at a point roughly where the Ice Rink is today (near Kingston Retail Park), that is west of the River’s current lower course. Two compelling pieces of evidence supporting this idea are that there is a record of Meaux Abbey acquiring land at ‘Wyk in Holdernesse’ in the early 13th century and, secondly, that even up to the 18th century a stream flowed into the Humber at a point near the present Ice Rink, this called Limehouse Creek. As the River Hull was the traditional boundary between Holderness and Harthill wapentakes Wyk in Holderness fits the hypothesis. There was a drainage channel exiting into the Humber where the mouth of the River Hull now is, dug on the orders of the lord of the manor of Sutton and the argument is that at some point, possibly 1253, the River broke through the watershed at the head of the drainage channel to henceforth follow the course of the drainage channel.
This would mean that the original site of Hull, on the east bank of Limehouse Creek (later) would have had to have been moved to the present site of the Old Towm on the west bank of Sayer Creek (earlier) – this not impossible but somewhat improbable.