In 2024, Hull Maritime awarded 10 small grants to community groups and organisations in Hull and, for the first time, the wider East Riding.
These grants funded projects that engaged people in various ways with our maritime story. This is the third round of funding that Hull Maritime has offered, reaching a wide range of communities, and supporting many diverse and creative projects. Here are the highlights and achievements.
Our 2024 Community Grant Scheme Projects:
- BAMEEN worked with community members from Sub-Saharan Africa to produce fish-based recipes related to their heritage, telling the stories of Hull's migrants through cooking and culture. The project used locally-sourced seafood and opened up discussions about the food we eat and where it comes from.
- Dance in Company delivered seated dance sessions for a range of community groups around Hull, providing inclusive and accessible movement sessions celebrating Hull's heritage with maritime music and reminiscent favourites.
- Groundwork Hull has worked with residents and workers past and present from the Hedon Road Docks area, collecting stories and images which will be used to design and create information boards for a pocket park on a section of the Holderness Drain.
- Hedon Viewfinders explored the maritime stories of Paull, gathering community stories and photographs about the shrimping industry, boat building, lighthouses, and maritime safety. The project involved photo walks, a maritime craft day with a local primary school and an exhibition of the project’s findings.
- Hull Community Theatre with the May Geslins created a theatre piece, Time and Tide: Songs and Sketches from Holderness, Hull and the Humber. The project involved community research and reminiscence sessions and the development of these ideas into a production celebrating lesser-known maritime stories and songs from the region. They performed Time and Tide at various venues across Hull and the East Riding.
- Hull Fostering Community Hub ran various maritime themed activities including seafood tasting, dressing up and arts and crafts, open to looked after children and their carers in Hull and the wider region.
- Petuaria ReVisited for a community archaeology project which volunteers were able to get involved with. The project expanded on historic research around the important role Roman Brough (Petuaria Parisorum) played in the region's maritime history.
- Pocklington and District Local History Group researched Pocklington's connections with the sea. This maritime research project investigated the Pocklington Steamship Company set up by Charles Steels, researched the connection of the town to H.M.S. Volage and highlighted the stories of historical nautical people from Pocklington and the surrounding area.
- Rewilding Youth ran a series of maritime themed workshops for children and young people exploring the history of knots and their use on ships, sea monsters and their origins and maritime music, all with creative and hands-on activities.
- Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society ran weekly drop-in Heritage Workshops at Goole Museum throughout the Spring and Summer, exploring the history of Yorkshire’s waterways and encouraging people to get involved in local history.
The projects have encouraged people to think about Hull and the wider region’s maritime identity in different ways and in many cases have led to participants reporting improved wellbeing, developing skills and learning something new about our history.
We’d like to take the opportunity to share some of the feedback from the community grant fund projects:
Holly, Dance in Company, said: “The atmosphere was always happy, energetic, friendly and had a real sense of community… Everyone had a go even if they were feeling apprehensive and seeing the confidence in the room spread as everyone become more comfortable and let go of inhibitions was magical to see.” –
Andrew, Pocklington and District Local History Group, said: “Without the Hull Maritime grant, I doubt we would have researched this topic. It has given our town a different perspective on our heritage and enabled us to discover aspects of our history that were unexpected.”
“Fantastic exhibition so well researched and put together well done to everyone!” Quote taken from Hedon Viewfinders exhibition comments book.
Eden, Rewilding Youth, said: “Over the course of the three sessions, we’ve used wild spaces to connect nature with the history of the city, striving to connect young people with the heritage of the place they call home. Both the young people involved and the staff at Rewilding Youth have learnt so much about the history of the area, connecting us with the real history that shaped Hull as we know it today.”
“The food reminded me of home and the good old days. Food like this that I can easily reconnect with is everything to me” – Attendee at BAMEEN’s Fish Based Food Cultures event.
