The stories of the Humber Bridge, from construction through to the Queen’s official opening in 1981, have been captured in a new project, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Background
Hidden Histories of the Humber Bridge has focussed on sharing the impact of building the iconic, Grade 1 listed structure and its place within communities across the Humber region. The ultimate goal is to create a travelling exhibition and online archive working with volunteers from Absolutely Cultured. The volunteers have talked to residents, architects, engineers, labourers and management to capture experiences and feelings about the bridge.
What are Hidden Histories?
Hidden histories are a collection of personal memories from members of the public with the bridge as a backdrop or reference point. We have sought recollections that demonstrate a clear human connection to the Humber Bridge and they should be the types of stories that can’t be found in the public domain.
Story collection
We conducted several story collection events across East Riding, Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Our volunteers from Absolutely Cultured reached out to the local community with a great response.
Permanent exhibition at the Humber Bridge Visitors Centre
As well as creating a touring exhibition, we have created a permanent exhibition in our visitors centre which details the timeline of the construction. We received multiple stories from this as the exhibition served as a memory jogger for a lot of people that came to visit.
Stories
Click on the videos below to hear a couple of the stories!
Touring Exhibition
On the back of receiving such great stories and also rifling through the Humber Bridge archive, we created a touring exhibition. All of the content selection came from our volunteers. We are touring the exhibition throughout the local community on both sides of the Humber Estuary and also in schools.
Please click here to view our digital archive.