Welcome

Welcome to Historic North Ferriby website.

Please note that this website contains many images and articles that are have been gratefully received by the project team. This information and images remain the copyright of their respective owners.

Historic North Ferriby nestles between the last slopes of the Yorkshire Wolds and the wide reaches of the river Humber. Nine miles from the busy centre of Hull this separate village affords, from its highest point, unrivalled panoramic views over the surrounding farmland and the river to the Humber Bridge and the northern sweep of the Lincolnshire Wolds. The Humber has had a fundamental influence on North Ferriby. From the presence of Bronze Age boats found in its silted banks, the arrival of the Vikings in the ninth century, its naming in the Domesday survey, the nineteenth century jetties (built to accommodate the barges working the clay pits and brickyards which then lay near the riverbank) the river has allowed the carrying of goods and passengers to the Lincolnshire shore.

The village was historically a farming community but in the late eighteenth century a number of wealthy merchants from Hull created small estates in the surrounds of the village, building large houses and gardens for themselves and cottages for some of the people working for them.

Communications with Hull improved considerably with the turnpiking of the Ferriby High Road, and this became the main East-West axis replacing the previous route of Swanland Hill. However, this was not the only change to give shape to the village, for following the enclosure of land, in 1840 the railway opened its line into Hull and this became an incentive to even more people to leave Hull and settle in North Ferriby.

The community developed, mainly around High Street and Low Street, and new farmhouses were built, but after the enclosure of the farmland a large proportion of the Parish was bought up to form one large estate. It remained as such until 1910 when some of the land was sold for building and the village started to expand, with development clustered about the railway, and the population grew from 648 in 1911 to 1489 in 1931.

Following World War II and the 1950s' development boom a considerable expansion of the village took place across the pasture lands of the old farms and some of the estates of the large houses this has continued until the present day, raising the population in excess of 4000.

The increasing use of the main East-West route from Hull through the village brought problems as the volume of mechanised traffic increased and this was only solved by the building of the A63 bypass which was opened in 1961. This relieved the village of all heavy traffic except for farm machinery, service buses and goods vehicles serving the village shops.

The expansion of the village population during the last century has been matched by the contraction of farming and the decline of employment opportunities in the village. Today, most villagers who are employed work outside the village, commuting to Hull, Brough and beyond.