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As you will read elsewhere on the site, there are many stories of the dangers of
the Humber, and of the shifting sandbanks, where, among others, Henry Kirke White was stranded. Greater danger is caused because the sandbanks and the river bed are constantly in a state of change, and what
was a safe deep water channel one month, may well not be so the next. Perhaps the best impression of this can be gained from the A1077 above South Ferriby on the Barton Road.
The most dramatic example of the constantly-changing river is Read’s Island, and
the channel to the south between the ‘mainland’ and the island. Where that channel is now were once brickworks and cottages, but these were swept away by the unforgiving water.
One sandbank though - known as Old Warp, is believed to be the origin of Read’s
Island. Whether this creation was just part of the pattern described, or the new cut of the River Ancholme playing its part, or even the sinking of a French vessel cannot be certainly stated, but by the early
part of the 19th century, the island was coming into existence and grass was observed growing there.
Quite soon after this, the Read Brothers began using the island, and reclaiming
further land from the Humber by building mud walls, behind which further mud was deposited.
They also dug a fresh-water well. By the time of the 1861 census the family of William Foster lived on the island in a small wooden cottage.
The banks needed constant attention, and Mr Frost told me of the time he was
employed to deposit rocks from barges to help protect the island.
(Mr Frost wrote many of his experiences in and around Winteringham in exercise books and loaned them to me during the 1970s ... how valuable they would be for us!)
A brick house was built, which had its own wind-powered generator, with farm outbuildings for the grazing animals kept there.
With the island being on the ‘outside bend’ of the river, ships, boats and barges
navigating the tricky channels more often than not came very close to Read’s Island, sometimes to the north of it, and occasionally to the south.
A recent deer count has noted 43 of the animals on the island.
Lagoons have also been dug to attract wildlife and the island is now home to many pairs of avocets. (Information from Harry Wells, and Mr Mouncey, river warden).
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