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Humberside
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Humberside was a non-metropolitan county of England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of two halves either side of the Humber estuary, created using part of the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey. The county council's headquarters were County Hall at Beverley, inherited from the East Riding, and its largest settlement and only city Kingston upon Hull. The county stretched from Wold Newton in its northern tip, to a different Wold Newton at its most southern point.
It bordered North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south.
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Humberside was a non-metropolitan county of England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of two halves either side of the Humber estuary, created using part of the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey. The county council's headquarters were County Hall at Beverley, inherited from the East Riding, and its largest settlement and only city Kingston upon Hull. The county stretched from Wold Newton in its northern tip, to a different Wold Newton at its most southern point.
It bordered North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south. It faced east towards the North Sea. In local government terms it was abolished on 1 April 1996, with four unitary authorities being formed: North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, Kingston upon Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire. The name has continued in use as a geographic term and in names of institutions such as Humberside Police.
Formation
It was created by the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974. It covered the former county boroughs of Grimsby and Kingston upon Hull. From Lindsey it incorporated the boroughs of Cleethorpes, Scunthorpe the urban districts of Barton-upon-Humber and Brigg, and the rural districts of Glanford Brigg, Grimsby and Isle of Axholme. From the East Riding it took the boroughs of Beverley, Bridlington, Hedon the urban districts of Driffield, Haltemprice, Hornsea and Withernsea, and the rural districts of Beverley, Bridlington (part), Driffield, Holderness, Howden, Pocklington. From the West Riding it took both the borough of Goole and the rural district of Goole.
In the Redcliffe-Maud Report no directly-analogous area had been proposed, with the part north of the Humber constituting of one unitary authority, and the part south of it constituting another. The White Paper as proposed did not include a cross-Humber authority, either, with the northern part forming an "East Yorkshire" area and the southern area forming a Lincolnshire area. Humberside finally emerged in the Local Government Bill as introduced to Parliament, which also gave it its name for the first time.
Paul Bryan, the MP for Howden moved an amendment to the Bill that would have created a county of East Yorkshire, covering the rural area of northern Humberside along with Selby and York (and also Flaxton Rural District), leaving a Humberside including Haltemprice, Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Goole, whilst Cleethorpes and Grimsby Rural District would have been kept in Lincolnshire. The amendment was rejected by the House.
At this time, there was very little connecting its two parts, aside from ferries and a circuitous journey via Goole (a road journey from Grimsby to Beverley, the headquarters, being something just under 100 miles). It was promised by the government that the Humber Bridge would make it a more viable unit. By 1975 the bridge was planned to open in 1977. It finally opened on 24 June 1981, providing a permanent link between North and South (and cutting the journey from Grimsby to Beverley to a mere 30 or so miles), but did not secure Humberside's future.
Districts
The county was divided into nine non-metropolitan districts:
Coat of arms
Humberside County Council held a competition to design a coat of arms for the new county. The winning design was by a Mr E H Cook from Thorngumbald and letters patent granting the arms were issued by the College of Arms on 28 July 1976.
The shield was an heraldic map of the county: at the top was a gold ducal coronet from the arms of the city of Hull between two white Yorkshire roses, while at the bottom of the shield were two gold fleurs-de-lis representing Lincolnshire. Across the centre of the shield was a blue and silver wave for the River Humber.
The crest was a blue eagle taken from the East Riding County Council arms rising phoenix-like from flames, suggesting a new authority emerging from the ashes of the old. The eagle's wings bore gold droplets standing for North Sea Oil and held a sword in the beak for the Scunthorpe steel industry.
The supporters on either side were: a silver dolphin bearing a terrestrial globe and supporting an anchor for world-wide trade; and Ceres goddess of harvest, for the county's agriculture. They stood upon a compartment depicting the countryside and coastline of Humberside.
The blazon or technical description of the arms was:
Per fess Sable and Gules on a Fess wavy Argent between in chief a Coronet Or between two Roses Argent barbed and seeded proper and in base two Fleurs de Lis Or a Bar wavy Azure and for a Crest on a Wreath Or and Gules rising from Flames proper a demi-Eagle Azure Goutté d'Or armed also Gold holding in the beak a Sword point downwards proper hilt and pommel Or.
And for Supporters on the dexter a Dolphin Argent finned Or charged on the shoulder with a Terrestrial Globe Azure the land masses Or supporting an Anchor proper and on the sinister a Female Figure habited representing Ceres with Cornucopia all proper upon a Compartment per pale Water barry wavy Azure and Argent and a Grassy Field proper.
The motto was United we Flourish.
On the abolition of the county council in 1996 the arms became obsolete. However, the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service continue to use a version of the shield as their badge.
Abolition
Humberside was not well-loved, and to quote James Cran (MP for Beverley), "almost the day after the decision was announced, a campaign began to have Humberside abolished". North Wolds Borough Council changed its name to East Yorkshire Borough Council, likely to emphasise this, and Beverley Borough Council formally included 'East Yorkshire' in its name. According to Cran there was a campaign in 1987 to get Humberside County Council to change its name to something like 'East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire'.
This attitude was reported as less common in the port towns of the county - The Times noted that Hull and Grimsby "regard the advantages of unification as an exciting prospect".
The Royal Mail adopted North Humberside and South Humberside as postal counties.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England advised the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, in 1982 that "a review of the Humberside county boundary [was] warranted". The Local Government Boundary Commission reviewed the existence of Humberside from 1985 to 1988, but found that "that Humberside County Council could not be shown to have failed". The Secretary of State for the Environment called for a further review in 1989, which ultimately resulted in a proposal made in November 1990, to transfer the four districts south of the Humber to the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire (which would have left the remaining part north of the Humber free to change its name to include Yorkshire). A report prepared for the LGBC in 1990 indicated that 63% of respondents thought that the creation of Humberside was "bad", 14% that it was "good")
However, before this could be implemented, a general local government review for England was announced. This was being conducted with an eye to creating unitary authorities, and Humberside was one of the areas that the Commission was expecting "early wins" in, and was in the first tranche of reviews. The Commission recommended it and its districts be abolished and replaced with four unitary authorities, which the government accepted. The Order to do so was debated in the House of Commons on 28 February 1995, and in the House of Lords on 6 March 1995, and came into effect on 1 April 1996.
This resulted in four successor unitary authorities:
There was some debate as to the fate of the Goole area (historically part of the West Riding). The Secretary of State (John Gummer) originally proposed that Goole should be "incorporated in Selby of North Yorkshire", but ultimately it was decided to associate it with the rest of North Humberside.
There were also questions raised as to whether the boundaries of Hull should be expanded from their present boundaries (which had been set many decades ago and not altered, despite continuous urbanisation outside these borders in the former urban district of Haltemprice).
Michael Brown the Conservative MP for Brigg and Cleethorpes, was particularly vociferous in support of the Order, saying 'I want to see the word "Humberside" expunged from the English language' in the debate regarding its abolition.
There were to be heard few voices in its defence. Elliot Morley, Labour MP for Glanford and Scunthorpe claimed that 'young people who were born in Humberside and have an affinity with Humberside identify with it', although he agreed that the council was a 'flawed idea'.
The office of Lord Lieutenant of Humberside was also abolished. The Yorkshire part became the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire (which includes Hull); the Lincolnshire part reverted to Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes.
The name 'Humberside' is a traditional name for the area surrounding the Humber and despite the abolition of the administrative area, the term 'Humberside' has not fallen out of use as a general geographic designation. There is still a Humberside Police, a Humberside Airport (roughly halfway between Scunthorpe and Grimsby), a Humberside Fire Service and BBC Radio Humberside (founded in 1971). A plan to merge the police forces of Yorkshire including Humberside Police, to become Greater Yorkshire Police in 2006 was cancelled despite a Home Office desire that it go ahead.
The whole of the area once covered by the former non-metropolitan county of Humberside, including the Lincolnshire parts, is part of the government office region of Yorkshire and the Humber (originally Yorkshire and Humberside).
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