Death on the River Hull – the Brewhouse Wrack ferry disaster
On a dark December day 170 years ago, an east Hull street was in mourning. At number 12, Hood Street, the Durr family was trying …
Mike Covell investigates Sweet Fanny Adams and other tall tales about Hull
From the headless boy of Barmston Drain, to the Polar Bear buried under High Street, Hull’s expert in all things paranormal debunks some classic myths and legends.
The 1801 Hull UFO revisited – with a Wokingham link
What was the strange, unexplained phenomenon seen above Hull in 1801: a rare weather event, or perhaps a UFO? The supernatural sighting was described in …
A deadly trek across the Great Silence of Russia’s White Sea
It is one of the most tragic tales of courage and endurance in the history of Hull. When the SS Sappho became trapped in ice, hundreds of miles from home, 23 men set out across the frozen surface of the White Sea.
10 of the most daring Hull prison escapes
Harry Ogle cut his throat while breaking out of a Humber Street jail but ran as far as river bank before he died. From that …
This flying car was invented in Hull
A century before the Wright Brothers achieved the first powered flight, a Hull man invented a flying car. Thomas Walker was so confident that his …
The meaning of From Hell, Hull and Halifax and why you would have feared all three
From Hell, Hull and Halifax, May The Good Lord Deliver Us. The famous line originates in the Beggars’ Litany, an old saying popular in the …
East Yorkshire had nuclear missiles powerful enough to destroy a city
RAF Catfoss is long forgotten. Today, the runway is home to an industrial estate and the old station houses make up a quiet hamlet. But …
Witches and black magic died hard in superstitious East Yorkshire
Some time in the middle years of the 19th century, an East Yorkshireman had grown sick and his horse had died. One night, when the afflicted fellow and his wife were sat …
A cannibal werewolf ‘lived on Read’s Island in the River Humber’
Look out Old Stinker: an obscure legend suggests Hull’s infamous werewolf may have a rival. The story goes that, many moons ago, a vagabond set …
The Bible in East Yorkshire dialect – God meead heaven an’ ath oot o’ nowt
If the Bible had been written in the East Riding, how would it read? In The Folk Speech of East Yorkshire, published in 1889, Hull …
The Hull man killed by his shaving brush
Hull man Joseph Taylor was enjoying a holiday in Scarborough when he cut himself while shaving. A few days later, he was dead … from …