This film is somewhat unusual in that it doesn’t seem to have any obvious police purpose, and brings together a seemingly random collection of events from the time.  Among the various things recorded three events stand out: the building of the Humber Bridge, the clearance of slum areas in Hull and the Hull prison riot of 1976.

 

Starting at the juncture of the River Ouse and the River Trent, and a mile or more wide for much of its length (about 8 miles at its head), the Humber has always been a great barrier to communication between Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.  From at least 1315 a small ferry has operated across it, which began to gradually expand as Hull grew in the nineteenth century.  This duly stopped operating on the same day the Humber Bridge was opened by the Queen on 24th June 1981.  British Rail had already closed its line to New Holland Pier Station in Lincolnshire on June 1st. 

 

The original plan for a bridge at its present location in Hessle goes back to 1928, but it wasn’t until the passing of the Humber Bridge Act in 1959 that the scheme took off, with construction finally getting underway in 1972, exactly 100 years after the idea of a tunnel was first mooted. As this film shows, this was a massive project: the geology and topography of the area favouring the construction of a suspension bridge, spanning just over 1400 meters, without supporting piers in mid-stream, so allowing for the passage of large ships upstream to Goole.

 

Its construction took eight years, using about half-a-million tonnes of concrete and 11,000 tonnes of steel wire – enough to circle the Earth. The film gives a good view of the scale of the construction and the dangers facing those building it – during construction one of the pillars collapsed, but amazingly only one worker was injured. For some seventeen years it was the longest single span suspension bridge in the world – currently (2009) it lies in fifth place, although it remains the longest bridge in the world that you can cross on foot. The Humber Bridge has both its supporters and its detractors. Those in support point to the more than 100,000 vehicles that use the bridge each week, and the positive effect it has had on trade and industry. The detractors cite the cost (toll of £2.70 in 2009) – the initial cost of £150m and maintenance has left a hefty debt.  There have been numerous protests from users concerning the charges, especially from the haulage industry, motorcyclists (it is the only toll bridge in the UK to charge them) and those needing to use it to receive medical treatment.

 

It is unclear which parts of Hull are shown in the scenes of derelict housing. Hull got heavily bombed during the Second World War resulting in some 90% of all buildings being damaged – see King George And Queen Visit Hull.  Hull City Council made up for this through building large estates to the north of the city, Orchard Park and Bransholme. But both of these were built mainly in the 1960s on previous farm land.  Unfortunately both of these estates have come under strong criticism for the quality of their housing – in 2009 some 20% of homes are still without central heating and/or a private bathroom – and have poor reputations. The high level of deprivation in Hull is reflected in the images in the film. On many social indicators Hull doesn’t fare well: it has the highest proportion of houses in the lowest council tax band in the country and the lowest level of GCSE results (2007, 2008).  But Hull is also noted for its friendliness – a factor that counts high for many in determining the quality of life.

 

The Hull Prison riot, which started on 31^st August 1976, was one of a succession of disturbances at prisons in the 1970s, with collective demonstrations in 1972. These came in the wake of the Mountbatten Inquiry of 1966 and the subsequent Radzinowicz Report of 1968, which followed some notorious escapes of high-profile prisoners. It has been argued that the implementation of this Enquiry and Report resulted in a heightened security culture in prisons, especially of category A prisoners, which fuelled protests. In the 1970s prisoners organized themselves into an action group called the Preservation of Rights for Prisoners (PROP).  Hull Prison, built in 1870 two miles east of Hull, was the first to be classed a maximum security dispersal prison in 1969. 

 

The Hull riot had been preceded by years of petitioning by prisoners and public appeals for an investigation of the prison regime. It began as a protest prompted by the beating of an inmate, Martin (Artie) Clifford, involving about a hundred prisoners. Many prisoners have claimed that they were set up by officers allowing them to congregate. It lasted for about four days (although some accounts give a different duration), during which time about two-thirds of the prison was wrecked – beginning with the destruction of cells, furniture and doors, and starting several fires, before moving onto the roof and ripping off slates, which were thrown at the firemen.  The anger among the prisoners was fuelled by beatings given to prisoners wanting to leave the riot area (many wanted to), and by the contents of the files held on inmates that the prisoners found. It was after having read these that prisoner Jake Prescott relates that, ‘everyone decided to begin demolishing the prison with their bare hands’ (Don’t Mark His Face, p.60). The prison was closed for almost a year and the cost of repair ran into millions of pounds.

 

According to an account given by prisoners involved themselves, published by the National Prisoners' Movement, apart from brutality by prison staff, they also cite as grievances the widespread and indiscriminate use of ‘Rule 43’ (allowing for solitary confinement), and slave labour conditions in the prison workshops. The official report into the riot, a Home Office internal enquiry which was conducted by the Chief Inspector of the Prison Service Gordon Fowler, didn’t go very far – it was described by the prisoners as a whitewash – although seven prison officers were successfully prosecuted and lost their jobs. In fact the approach at this time, prior to the 1986 riots, was to blame a small hardcore of troublemakers: in the aftermath of this riot specially trained squads (MUFTI) were introduced in 1978 to intervene to squash prison protests.  Hence, despite the granting of some concessions, prisoners in Hull reported that they were beaten as a result of the riot. The prison was downgraded to category B/C in 1985, for local remand prisoners. Local playwright Richard Bean wrote a play based on the riot, Up on Roof, with a production by Hull Truck Theatre Company in 2006.

 

The prisoners involved in the riot were dispersed around the country and tried through Board of Visitors. This dispersal made it difficult for the prisoners to mount a proper defence, and they were not allowed to call witnesses or conduct any cross-examination. As a result nearly all 500 charges against 185 prisoners were upheld, with severe punishments, including up to 720 days loss of remission – the prisoners give a detailed account of the riot, what led up to it and the aftermath in Don’t Mark His Face. This procedure was to change after it went to the Court of Appeal (see Stephen Livingston, References)

 

More widespread reform of the prison system didn’t come until Lord Woolf's report (1991) on the much longer riot at Strangeways in 1990.  Yet despite reforms, the prison system has many critics, covering all aspects of the criminal justice system, including those who call for an end to prisons altogether. The issues involved in the penal process strongly divide opinion, but as the rise in the prison population continues, these issues are as urgent as ever. At the time of writing (August 2009) there are over 84,000 inmates, with the Government looking to have a capacity of 96,000 by 2014 (Daily Mirror 07/08/2009).

 

 

Stephen Livingston, ‘The Changing Face of Prison Discipline’, in Elaine Player and Michael Jenkins (eds), Prisons after Woolf: Reform through Riot, Routledge, London, 1994.

Basil Reed (ed.), The Humberside Connection: How the Bridge Was Built, Home Publishing, Hull, 1981.

Don’t Mark His Face: the account of the Hull Prison riot (1976) and its brutal aftermath, an account by the prisoners themselves, National Prisoners' Movement, London, 1977.

PrisonReform.org : this lists all organisations related to prison, prison reform and penal reform (mainly within the United Kingdom)

 

 

Ravetz, Alison. Council housing and culture : the history of a social experiment, Routledge, London, 2001.

Coleman, Alice. Utopia on trial : vision and reality in planned housing. 2nd edn., Shipman, London, 1990.

N. Morris and D. Rothman, eds., The Oxford History of the Prison, Oxford, 1995.

M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Harmondsworth, London, 1977.