Go Back to the Main Page Fifty "Facts" about Hull which are true/not true

  1. All/most/some pubs in the Old Town are linked with the River Hull/Old Harbour/Holy Trinity Church, for the purposes of smuggling
  2. King Billy gets off his horse and goes for a drink in the King Billy pub when he hears Holy Trinity Church clock strike midnight (this is true). King Billy gets off his horse and goes for a drink in the pub when the clock strikes 13 (this isn't true).
  3. The sculptor of King Billy committed suicide when he realised he'd left off the stirrups (King William is depicted as a Roman Emperor, who didn't wear stirrups)
  4. Holy Trinity Church is the largest parish church in Britain (a meaningless statement, but one which most people repeat - one needs to define whether what is meant by "largest" - by area, size, volume, size of parish....)
  5. King Billy - a regular at the pub named after himThe Land of Green Ginger is where.... (choose your own favourite explanation and defend it against all-comers)
  6. Hull is a small fishing village at the end of a railway siding
  7. You need a passport to go from East Hull to West Hull or vice-versa. Although why anyone should feel the need to go to East Hull is beyond me, you only have to come back again
  8. Hull = Hessle Road = The Fishing Industry
  9. The plotting chamber in the Olde White Harte is where...... (sorry this is so utterly boring I can't bear to finish the sentence)
  10. The Old Town has been renovated/refurbished/restored (it's actually been almost totally destroyed and a cardboard cut-out put in its place)
  11. The Marina is anything to do with the people of Hull (well do you know anyone with a yacht?)
  12. Holy Trinity Church is built on foundations of sacks of wool
  13. Hull is called Hull
  14. We have the only white telephone boxes in the country (actually I'm cheating, that is true)
  15. The Docks/Queens Dock/Queens Gardens was the first dock built in Britain
  16. The Humber Bridge is the longest..... (I'm probably cheating again, but not for very long)
  17. There was ever a place called East Yorkshire (no, don't stir that up again.....)
  18. Hull people chose willingly to live in multi-storey blocks of flats
  19. Hull gas lots of famous writers, musicians, poets, pop groups, actors - and all of them knew Philip Larkin/The Housemartins/Maureen Lipman - or are Philip Larkin/The Housemartins/Maureen Lipman
  20. The Fishermen's Memorial statue was holding a fish in his hand
  21. The Amy Johnson statue is ugly/doesn't look like her/and anyway is modern so we don't like it
  22. Robinson Crusoe ser sail from Hull (surely this must be true, isn't there a statue of him in Queens Gardens?)
  23. Hull has two rugby teams and if you support one of them I-don't-know-which-one-I-know-nothing-about-this-sort-of-thing you can't eat bacon?
  24. The local newspaper is called the Hull Daily Mail
  25. No-one except academics can write local history
  26. Hull has a Labour Party
  27. The pub The Black Boy in High Street (which of course has/has not a secret tunnel linking it with the Old Harbour/Holy Trinity Church for the purposes of smuggling) is so named.....whichever story you're told its probably not the reason (and it's definitely nothing to do with black slaves/slavery)
  28. Wilberforce Monument was built on foundations of cotton wool (I don't understand this one myself)
  29. East Hull is "the Christian side of the river"
  30. Reckit and Colman's built Garden Village
  31. The Civil War started in Hull
  32. Greater Hull includes the natural suburbs of Bilton, Anlaby, Willerby, Kirkella
  33. The streets of Hull are paved with FISH!
  34. Princes Quay is a REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTRE
  35. Any ghost story associated with a pub - eg: The Oberon (not true but good for business
  36. The "Ghost Estate" Beverley High Road
  37. Wincolmlee is anything to do with an old woman "winking and lying"
  38. Hull's seed crushing industry/paint making businesses were developed as a direct result of the whaling industry
  39. Beware of the date given for the last whaling voyage of Hull's last whaling ship
  40. Prefabs last 10 years
  41. Joseph Rank was born in The Mill pub
  42. The Oberon Pub, Queen Street, dates back to Shakespeare's times (this must be true it's on the Marina Heritage Trail audio cassette)
  43. The railway lines ran to the former M.S. and L.Railway Station in Nelson Street (former Humber Ferry booking office)
  44. Bransholme is in East Hull
  45. Hull is a city of cyclists (so where's the network of cycle paths?)
  46. The new Victoria Dock Estate is a maritime village
  47. 'Halfpenny bridge' was demolished in the 1930s
  48. The Guildhall is called the Town Hall (look at the entrance gates)
  49. Mary Pickford sits on top of The Tower (cinema)
  50. Hull is a Great Yorkshire City

Compiled by Christopher Ketchell

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