If you now turn and look across the river you get a good view across to East Yorkshire. Barton ferry, mentioned in the Doomsday Book, sailed between Barton and Hessle until the 1850’s. It was one of the several ferries crossing the Humber. At very low tide you can just make out the wooden supports of the old jetty which was later used by the Coastguard station. A freight service operated between Barton Haven and the Horsewash in Hull until the 1950’s. Hessle with its church and shipbuilding yard, can be seen from here. The river is tidal at Barton and at low tide, in autumn and winter particularly, the mud supplies rich feeding for wading birds.

Walk back along the bank towards the Humber Bridge.
Wheel chair users turn left down the ramp into the car park and then at the bottom turn right through the car park and into the country park area. Turn left once at the pond side and continue to walk south
advance to pick up rest of route.

Walk along the grassy path with the approach road to the bridge on your right until you reach the pathway and then turn right. On your left you will see a pond which was originally formed when clay was extracted for the brick and tile works. If you had walked just past the tile yard you would have seen a new one of these pits being dug out as clay is extracted for the working tile yard. Nature has re-colonised the pond, particularly with reed-mace and reeds. A variety of birds can be seen including most commonly mallards, moorhens and coots.

As you walk along this road look to your left and you will see the Tower of Hewson’s Mill. This is the only remaining mill tower of the three which formerly worked along Waterside Road. It was built in 1813 for Messrs Cook and Sutton and was used to grind grain. The cap and sails were removed in the 1920’s. There were four windows on each floor and it was whitewashed on the inside and tarred on the outside.

At the end of Humber Road follow the road round to the left into Dam Road. This was formerly the site of a dam which provided water for a mill at the head of the Haven.

Continue along Dam Road to the end and turn right. If you look to the left across the road you will see the railway station. This was opened by the London North Eastern Railway in 1855 though trains had actually reached Barton in 1849. It was formerly a very busy place with a lot of freight and passenger traffic. In 1901 fourteen trains left Barton each weekday and 4 on Sundays. The station buildings were all demolished in 1973. There were plans at one time to continue the railway line to Scunthorpe via Wintringham but this was never started. There is still a service to Grimsby and Cleethorpes and these link with the bus service to Hull and Scunthorpe.

Now turn around and walk back along Waterside Road. In the 19^th and early 20^th century the Waterside was a self-sufficient, tightly-knit community with its own shops, schools, church and Methodist Chapel, inns and industries. Many of its inhabitants rarely ventured into central Barton but instead used the railway and ferry to visit Hull. Its industries included brick and tile making , a rope works, a chemical works, malt kilns, shipbuilding and repairs, a gas works and a whiting manufacture. The area has become somewhat run-down though there are hopes that a revival of its fortunes is underway.

Notice over the haven the building which was part of the rope works. This was used as the loading point for the barges along with some packing. As can be seen the haven was navigable up to this point. In fact it was navigable far further into Barton than this centuries ago.

There was once boat landings along the banks of Barton Haven all the way down Waterside. It has to be remembered that the embankment you now see has been a fairly recent addition o the landscape and was designed to stop the flooding of the property when there were exceptionally high tides. Barton clearly had a great port in the medieval period and although it declined somewhat in the 16^th and 17^th centuries a revival of its fortunes took place in the 18^th and 19^th centuries when goods, including bricks, tiles, whiting, chalk, gravel, sugar beet, fertiliser from the Farmers Company Works on Chemical lane, barley, coal, rope and hemp, were transferred to and from sloops, keels, coasters and London sprite-sail barges. These traded with inland, coastal and continental ports via the River Humber. Many of the sailors who manned these boats lived in the houses and streets which lined the Waterside. Most of this river trading finally ceased with the outbreak of the second world war but a market boat continued to journey from Barton Haven to Hull until the late 1950’s.

A little further down Waterside Road is Waterside House which was originally known as Waterside Inn and dates from 1715. During its heyday from about 1723 to 1835, the inn must have been a most important and prestigious establishment with three mail coaches using the Inn. The Royal mail coach to London ran daily from here. In 1821, when a steam ferry commenced running between Hull and Barton, the Inn had stabling for 100 horses.

The mail coaches stopped running when the New Holland Ferry and rail connection opened in 1849. The Inn became a ferry office and was later converted to a public house much frequented by boatmen using the waterside. Since 1960 the building has been a private house.

You can now walk down the north side of these houses into the car park and you have completed the circular walk and have seen some of the history of Barton as a busy river port.

Whilst I hope you have found this virtual tour interesting it can never replace seeing the places "live". We hope that you may find the time to visit the town and experience its history. Please visit the EVENTS page for information about the dates and times of the active life of the town.