Recently found a new route. Starting at the eastern end of Victoria Dock Village and followed an often done before wide surfaced path north towards Hedon Road. Benefits from a linear embankment on the west side and large warehouses behind security fence the other. The embankment is rich in wild plants and shrubs. Instead of turning left at the end and walking back through Victoria Dock Village I turned right which brings you to the main entrance to Siemens-Gamesa site where the North Sea wind turbines are manufactured; see above a turbine blade awaiting transport (also behind the old hydraulic water tower/tank which powered the lock gates to Alexandra Dock). The surfaced path along the top of an embankment that once was the northern edge of Alexandra Dock is shielded from Hedon Road by shrubs and young trees. The Siemens site is huge, this once being the site of the Dock built by the Hull, Barnsley and South Yorkshire Railway in the 1870s, mainly designed to export coal. This, like Victoria and Queens is an infilled dock, largely because as the size of mercantile shipping increased so larger dock areas were needed, especially the locks. Also, in the case of Alexandra Dock decline in the export of coal trade; that said, King George Dock now imports coal for transport by rail to Drax power station, a power station that sits on top of coal seams of the ex-West Yorkshire Coalfield.
At the eastern end of the path a footbridge crosses the outflow of Holderness Drain which exits to the Humber between the Siemens site and King George Dock. Here a public right of way follows the western side of King George Dock to the Humber bank, at which point I turned back.
If nothing else this walk emphasises the significance of the Siemens works to Hull’s economy and status. At a time when other large in-City firms are wanting to relocate to Melton industrial site, Hull, apparently the fifth poorest town in Britain and ignored by Northern Powerhouse initiatives, needs all the friends it can get.