Broomfleet

Beeches Farm, Faxfleet

There is a forgotten land between Goole and Hull, south of the M62 motorway and north of the point where the rivers Trent and Ouse conjoin to become the muddy River Humber. In past centuries, the area was always prone to flooding - until ingenious men created dikes and embankments to ensure that the fields, farmsteads and remote hamlets remain largely dry. 

You approach the area via single track roads that weave across the rich arable landscape. In former times,  there would have been more hedgerows, more woodland and more people making a living from the land. But now it seems that only large scale farming makes profit and the fields have become like open prairies. Only the vestiges of the old days remain. Before cars, perhaps the best way to travel to and from this watery world would have been by boat - east to Hull and west to Goole though of course most inhabitants would have been so wrapped up in day to day living that they probably rarely left Yokefleet, Faxfleet, Laxton, Blacktoft or Broomfleet.

Broomfleet - when I was a young lad my parents would occasionally take us there to see Auntie Mary, Bruce and Uncle Bill Coombe who was the headmaster of the little village primary school. Like the village's  "Old Red Lion" pub it is forever closed now. I recall Sunday teatimes there. On several occasions, Uncle Bill   gave us "indoor fireworks" displays which filled my brothers and I with awe. He also tricked us with stuff he'd bought from Dinsdale's Joke Shop in Hull - plastic dog poo, whoopee cushions, fart powder and so on. He was just a big kid at heart and for that we liked him enormously. You never knew what you'd get with Uncle Bill. Until yesterday, I hadn't been by that old schoolhouse in forty five years.

The old school and schoolhouse, Broomfleet

Across the September stubble to Low Metham Grange

A channel of the River Humber at Weighton Lock

Ploughing near Broomfleet with the twin towers of the Humber Bridge in the distance.

Holy Trinity and Old St Clement's Church at Blacktoft

After this pleasant diversion, in which I walked for two hours, I travelled on to Hull to watch Hull City absolutely thrash Millwall 4-1 at the KC Stadium. A great performance and a great day, later capped in my local pub with fifty third birthday celebrations for Ian the taxman. Cheers.