Hull is located at the point where the River Hull (it starts in the Yorkshire Wolds) joins the River Humber, twenty miles from the sea. Hull, with a population of 300,000 is the third biggest port in England after Liverpool and London and is sometimes described as 'the Biggest fishing port in the world'. During World War Two Hull suffered some of Britain's heaviest wartime bombing and many new buildings were later constructed to replace the wartime damage. There are important ferry links to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam in Europe from Hull.

Hull was originally a little settlement called Wyke which belonged to the Cistercian abbey of Meaux near Beverley. In 1293 King Edward I purchased Wyke from the abbot of Meaux and built a town here which he renamed Kingston-upon-Hull. Today the name Kingston-upon-Hull is now more of an historic name and the place is known more commonly as Hull. King Edward had recognised Hull's potential importance as the site for a harbour and as a war base. In 1299 the King granted the town its first charter.

The harbour at Hull was developed by a merchant family called the De La Poles who abandoned an earlier haven development at Hedon to the east of Hull. Sir William De La Pole became Hull's first mayor in 1331. William's son Michael also became Mayor of Hull and later founded a Carthusian priory in the town.

Hull's strategic importance was recognised centuries after the reign of King Edward when in the English Civil War Hull was the first place to be openly hostile to King Charles I. The King was on his way to Hull from Beverley in in 1642 when the gates of the town wall were closed to him by the Governor of Hull called Sir John Holtham. The Parliamentarians had persuaded Holtham to side with them during a meeting at a house in Hull's Silver Street. The building where the meeting was held was Sir John's House - later to become the White Hart Inn.

THE OLD TOWN OF HULL

Medieval Hull was located west of the River Hull and on the north side of the Humber. It was bordered on its western flank by a moat served to protect this important war base from attack. This area of town is known as the Old Town. Here many of the streets and narrow alleys have medieval origins. The moat on the western side of the old town later became the site of Hull's Queens docks, which were built in 1778. Some of the docks were later filled in and became Queens Gardens.

Old streets in the 'Old Town' include Silver Street, Manor Street, Posterngate, Black Friar Gate, High Street and the Market Place. The most notable feature of medieval times is the church of Holy Trinity which dates from the fourteenth century. The church is notable for incorporating some of the earliest uses of brick. A brickyard was recorded in Hull as early as 1303 and it seems that the popularity of brick as a building material may have spread across the country from Hull. Inside the church we can see an effigy of William De La Pole, Hull's first mayor who died in 1366. The church of Holy Trinity underwent restoration in 1869.

The High Street in Hull was once the most important street in the town and is the home to Wilberforce House which was the birthplace of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Wilberforce was elected as a Member of Parliament at the age of twenty-one and later became known as 'The Nightingale of the House of Commons' because of his campaigning work. Wilberforce was the leading figure in the campaign to abolish the slave trade and his work resulted in The Abolition Act of 1833 which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. Wilberforce House is now a museum dedicated to the history of the slave trade.

Cottingham lies on the northern outskirts of Hull and was once a separate town. It was granted a weekly market in 1199 and an annual fair in 1200. The parish church dates from the fourteenth century.