David Parkin celebrates the culture of Hull and has an arresting experience at the cricket

I DEFINITELY need to get out more.

Why, you ask?

Well I’ve just had one of the best days out of my life…in Hull.

Yes Hull.

I suppose I’ve only got myself to blame.

Invited to a lunch a few months ago at the offices of Chameleon Business Interiors overlooking the choppy Humber Estuary, I asked the assembled Hull business owners how plans for their city being UK Capital of Culture 2017 were going.

Most admitted that they hadn’t been particularly engaged by it and said that many of the council-funded developments wouldn’t even be completed by the end of 2017.

Shaun Watts, chairman of Chameleon and a non-executive director of Welcome to Yorkshire, suggested that rather than moan, they should all get involved doing their bit to help promote their Capital of Culture city.

So a plan was hatched for each business person to invite a contact from outside Hull to join them on a ‘Cultural Tour’ of the place next year.

But of course a practice run would be needed.

Now, before you assume that cultural tour is a posh description of a pub crawl, I have to advise you that there was plenty of culture and history on the way, as well as the odd pub.

And an eclectic and fun group of business people gathered for the trip with the local representation including Nic Marshall, who runs call centre business ResQ, Ken Sturdy of office technology business IT@Spectrum, Dominic Ward of law firm Andrew Jackson and Neil Fisher of building services company Airco.

Guests ranged from Fred Normandale, a fisherman with four trawlers in Scarborough to Paul Lancaster of Harrogate-based developer 4urban and the Big V himself, Sir Gary Verity.

Starting with bacon sandwiches beside the marina (full of smart sailing and motor yachts), we were joined by local historian Dr Robb Robinson of the University of Hull.

I don’t remember many of my lecturers being so engaging.

To call Robb an enthusiast for his native Hull is an understatement.

Fascinating facts and anecdotes tumbled from his lips as we strolled through the cobbled streets of Hull’s Old Town, calling in at some of its inviting hostelries.

Kingston-upon-Hull, to give it its proper name, was actually named Kings-town upon Hull in 1299 by King Edward I but it blotted its royal copy book in the English Civil War when it refused entry to Charles I.

They’ve been pretty bolshie ever since at that end of the M62.

Robb told us that many centuries ago the town was built on waterways, like an English Venice. But probably without the Japanese tourists.

Robb has written a book called ‘Far Horizons: From Hull to the ends of the Earth’ about the influence of people from Hull across the globe – from building ports in North America to the first prime minister of New Zealand.

Did you know that Britain’s richest ever businessman was born in Hull?

The man who became Sir John Ellerman was a low profile figure, the son of a German corn merchant, born on Anlaby Road in Hull in 1862, his father died when he was nine-years-old leaving him a legacy of £600.

He became a humble accountant (have you ever seen those two words together before?) and invested in a struggling shipping company, later selling it to American tycoon JP Morgan.

Ellerman, who lived a low profile life in London, bought the Hull-based Wilson Line, then the largest privately-owned shipping fleet in the world and invested in coal mines and breweries.

With the approach of World War One, he started to invest in the media, acquiring major stakes in The Times, Daily Mail, Financial Times, Illustrated London News and Tatler.

Historians believe this move was spurred by his concerns that his father’s German origins would be held against him if a war broke out.

When Sir John Ellerman died in 1933 he left over £36m in his will, the equivalent of many billions of pounds today.

Robb said his death duties on his estate represented 40% of the total death duties in Britain that year.

Then it was on to another hostelry and time to take in some of the magnificent 17th century buildings as well as William Wilberforce’s home.

We then boarded a vintage 1949 Bedford OB bus from East Yorkshire Motor Services to take us down the road to Beverley.

Arriving outside beautiful Beverley Minster, the largest church in Britain, we were met by its vicar, Reverend Jeremy Fletcher.

It probably helped that on the trip we had Paul Mitchell of The Harris Partnership, the architect, and Dominic Gibbons of Wykeland, the developer of the nearby Flemingate retail and leisure destination.

Rev Fletcher was both interesting and entertaining and I reckon our churches might be busier if there were more clergy like him.

I’m sure I detected a glint in his eye as he explained that the town was named after the burial place of a Saint John of Beverley who was laid to rest in a clearing in a forest (leah in Old English) populated by beavers.

We walked through the majestic Minster, which because of its similar design to Westminster Abbey, was used for filming the wedding and coronation in the current ITV series Victoria.

My guest Stuart Clarke, a fellow founder of Media Yorkshire and the man behind Leeds Digital Festival, took a picture of me in the Minster near the spot where the coronation of the young queen was filmed.

And no, I won’t be running a caption competition.

Then up 101 spiral steps to the top of the Minster to marvel at breathtaking views out of the circular stained glass windows and the huge twisted tree trunks used to help support the roof by those incredible craftsmen and builders centuries ago.

Rev Fletcher said that one of the tree trunks had been carbon dated and would have been a sapling in 907 AD.

Then it was off up the picturesque cobbled streets of Beverley for a quick pitstop at Nellies, officially the White Horse Inn, but known far and wide by the name of one of its former landladies.

A sign on the door said no dogs (other than guide dogs), cats, monkeys ferrets or fruit bats were allowed in.

I’m glad I left mine at home.

I meant the dog, not the fruit bat.

He’s away in Madagascar on an outreach programme.

From Nellies it was along the inner ring road, which certainly impressed Sir Gary, to Cerrutis 2. Housed next to Beverley station, it is the sister restaurant to 40-year-old Hull family-run seafood institution Cerrutis.

Lunch was billed as fish and chips but that was the biggest understatement since Gary Verity said he might do something for cycling in Yorkshire.

Platters groaning with plump prawns, crab cakes and goujons were brought out for our party of cultural tourists.

Then it was back on the bus to head out into the glorious sun-drenched East Yorkshire countryside to a couple of rural pubs before we wended our way back to Hull marina where 1884 Wine and Tapas Bar had laid out a veritable feast of food and wine which we enjoyed while watching performances at the annual Freedom Festival.

The highlight was Clash of Drums, a spectacular collision of percussion and pyrotechnics by French ‘pyro musicians Les Commandos Percu and Basque company Deabru Beltzak.

By this point our party was quite exhausted by the breadth and depth of culture we had taken on board during the previous 12 hours and words were exchanged with a burly local who clearly objected to our celebration of his home city and antecedents.

Emboldened perhaps by the fine Rioja, I admonished him for swearing in front of children.

Narrowing his eyes, he fixed me with a steely glare, clenched his fists and said: “Yes, you’re right, I’m sorry” and walked off.

Leaving me to toast the friendliness, the hospitality, the history and the future, of regal Kingston-upon-Hull.

Should you wish to follow in the footsteps of this cultural tour, or explore other cities, then drop me a line.

:::

“WHAT are you writing about in your blog tomorrow?” said a slightly nervous looking Geoff Thomas, corporate finance director with Leeds accountants Brown Butler.

We were sitting beside each other in the stands at Headingley last Thursday as guests of Richard Larking, Jonathan Crew and David Reed at the One Day International between England and Pakistan.

This entertaining trio are from Progeny Corporate Law, a relatively new player on the Yorkshire legal scene and part of Progeny Group, which also has private law and wealth management arms.

Richard, looking tanned after returning from some warm weather training in Puerto Banus (he said the high altitude runs were challenging, but not as much as the foam parties), is a Sheffield Wednesday fan and was keen to engage me in conversation about why my team, Derby County, had sold our “best” player on the final day of the transfer window.

Given he was my host I politely side-stepped this discussion, but hopefully all will become apparent at the end of the season.

Play started at Headingley at 2pm and went on under the floodlights until 10pm, during which time drink was served and I found myself taking a photograph of the sunset over the Western Terrace and uploading it to social media complete with a caption suggesting Constable couldn’t have painted it better.

It was probably helpful the local constabulary were not in attendance.

Going back to Geoff’s opening question, I explained to him that as I had an early start to Hull the following morning, I had already written the content of last week’s blog.

He seemed slightly crestfallen that a mention wouldn’t be forthcoming and I can only think that his breakdancing in the stand was to ensure he would appear this week.

Have a great weekend.

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