History of Cottingham: Snickets - Snuff Mill Lane

[@KenDay]

Found you via the ocean going chicken on Twitter. Really enjoying these thank you. I was at Hull Grammar school in the late ‘60’s and remember many cold, wet, muddy cross country runs along Snuff Mill Lane. Brrrrr feel chilly just at the memory. 😂

[@paultranmer1150]

A really informative and entertaining presentation.I have great momories of my childhood spent tiddling along Snuffy and Beck Bank.Thank you Mr Nerd for a well-researched and accurate summary.

[@bluecenturion7105]

Very nostalgic for me as my great Aunt used to live in one of those NER cottages being the widow of an ex-driver. Spent many happy days around there as a kid. Lovely thanks!

[@chrishank]

Thank you I enjoyed that. I remember the beck down Beck Bank, and I remember it being culverted 50 years ago. At that time I lived just off Hull Road and often played or walked the dog on ‘Snuffy’ or ‘up the hill’ (embankment). I was surprised to hear the embankment is now overgrown. Back in the 60s and 70s it was very open with just a bit of shrubbery down the sides. I also used to sit at the top and watch the trains go by. Happy days!

[@hullhistorynerd]

Yeah, I was gutted that I couldn't get onto the embankment. Many happy summer afternoons spent chilling there with a book and a packed lunch!

[@annsuttie6990]

Fascinating, lived down Linden ave until 1971, brought back so many memories.

[@janew607]

Loved watching this. My grandparents lived in Hall Walk and we used to spend many hours up and down Snuff Mill Lane when we visited as young children in the 60s and 70s. This has brought back wonderful memories.

[@paullakin7777]

Fascinating and well presented. Thank you for taking the time to do this, they are all much appreciated.

[@mammothmotouk]

Another success. I have loved this series. I have to say I have already started rewatching your back catalogue. I also waited until the end of the video and enjoyed the credits. Please, please do more! Both my son (5) and I can’t get enough. Big love from us, Rob and Harrison.

[@hullhistorynerd]

That's awesome, really glad you're enjoying them!

[@sudomatic]

Thank you for this, grew up on the nearby estate and snuffy was a massive part of my childhood. The embankment was known as "Big hill".

[@davidgibb1654]

Lovely memories for someone born in 1944 and brought brought up in Cottingham. I dare say the imprints of the coins we placed on the lines of the Snuff Mill railway crossing have faded with the passing years.

[@hullhistorynerd]

I believe they've replaced the rails since then, the trains no longer make as many of those old 'clickety-clack' sounds that they used to. If I remember right they did it either in the late eighties or early nineties when I was living here as a teen. However, putting pennies on the rails was still a thing when I was at school!

[@kalumbailey5103]

Definitely havent mate or theirs still some there in remembrance dont worry, I've done the same thing dozens of times walking home from cott high at that exact crossing and there was always a few other coin prints I didn't put there aha, nearly 20 years ago now, memories

[@jslonisch]

Really interesting. Those NER cottages are great. Thanks for braving the cold to film it for us although it looked like a beautiful day to be out.

[@hullhistorynerd]

It was chilly, but I wrapped up warm and the frosty ground meant that I didn't end up with my shoes and trousers blathered in mud like the time I went to shoot the B-roll footage! There are more of the NER cottages in the West End of Cottingham too, down Southwood Avenue.

[@nervo6321]

Thanks for a great video i walk the length of Snuff Mill Lane regularly with my Husky, will see it in a different light now, absolutely fascinating.

[@cottinghamMB]

Thanks for another enjoyable history lesson about the village i grew up in! I spent a lot of time at the Bricknell ave. end of Snuff Mill Lane as a youngster. Brought back some good memories watching this!

[@JohnHopkin]

Many thanks, HHN. I've walked and cycled this path countless times (not to mention those cross-country runs, from Hull Grammar School in my case, many years ago!) and your video answered a lot of questions I had about it, as well as some questions I didn't even know to ask. I was looking forward to this one especially, and now I'm looking forward to your continuation of the route east towards Newland.

[@MrJohntheHarp]

I used to love scrambling all over Snuffy with my mates back then on motorbikes!!

[@10mins]

Thanks for another interesting trip around my childhood playgrounds. We moved onto Bricknell Ave in 1963. I attended Croxby School for a year and then went to Hull Grammar School. Snuff Mill Hill was, at that time, easily accessed. We could even ride our bikes to the end, and in winter, if it snowed, it was great for sledding. Pity that it's now so overgrown. I didn't realise it was built on a foundation of rubble from WW2 damage. If I'd known back then I probably would have taken a spade and started digging. Snuff Mill Lane itself brings back a mixture of memories. My uncle used to take me fishing for sticklebacks in the drain where it meets Bricknell Avenue. That was when West Bulls Farm was still there, several years before what was to become my family home was built. My parents would occasionally take my sister and I out for a long walk into Cottingham and we'd stop to feed donkeys (or maybe they were ponies) kept in a field somewhere along the way. But I also remember the torture of cross country runs through the mud, and a tragic occasion when the older sister of a school friend was hit and killed by a train at the crossing.

[@hullhistorynerd]

Lots of memories there both happy and very tragic.

[@ninafyodorov8933]

I recall we did dig and it uncovered clay pipes from a much earlier period. It had been a rubbish tip for a lot longer than WW2 according to the records we obtained. The lane was part of our cross country run. I walked it last in December 2018, I have lived out of the UK for 20 years. The walk from Hull to Cottingham via Princess Avenue, Westbourne Avenue, Bricknell Avenue covered all my old haunts from 8-15 years old.

[@hullhistorynerd]

@@ninafyodorov8933 Very interesting!

[@mrjonnydz]

Brilliant Videos Hull History Nerd. Keep it up. Love hearing the stories and seeing old photos and maps of these places we all walk past nowadays without a second thought. Thanks for your efforts and i hope you do more when you can.

[@hullhistorynerd]

Glad you're enjoying them!

[@Charlie-wood]

Thankyou for a great insight into this ancient historical route. I used it daily as a young person. I hope it stays a pathway and isn’t ever tarmac.

[@slw0599]

Yet another brilliant & fascinating video from the fast becoming legendary hull history nerd...I remember spending a lot of my youth playing on snuff mill, having recently moved to cottingham I often cut through the lane either cycling or whilst out running...keep up the great work!

[@herbo1586]

I cycled this route last week with my son, and researched the mill after passing it. Great to see a video about this. Also nice work on the rest of your videos, I’m making my way through them

[@andywatson6471]

Brilliant, well done. We did a whole project on Snuff Mill House at school, probably 2nd Year Juniors. Also used that route on me bike to get up to see my Nanna and Grandad who lived near The National, and also to Kelvin to play football with me mates.

[@asc.445]

Brilliant. Sat on an oil rig in the Gulf of Thailand feeling quite home sick.

[@asc.445]

@TheEternalPonderer Oh undoubtedly. I still take great comfort in watching content regarding Hull and East Yorkshire. My Thai wife doesn't understand why I love the area so much! I'll have to take her back some day soon.

[@philipnovis9433]

Living on the Dent Road Estate off Bricknell Ave and going to Cottingham High School, I used to cycle through snuffy to and from school. Its been many years since I've been to either snuffy or the lane. At the the side between the railway and Bricknell I remember one of my mates falling out a big tree breaking his arm. Truth be told he could have died as it was the tall poplar trees. I remember the ambulance driving up and down Bricknell ave trying to find the entrance. Eventually got to him. I'm 51 now and so this brought back memories

[@edwardhart247]

Fantastic! brought back lots of memories and really informative too. I always wondered about that embankment.

[@hullhistorynerd]

Same! It was always such a nice place to go and sit on a warm sunny day with a book and some sandwiches, and I always used to wonder about its purpose. There are similar embankments in east Hull, specifically in Longhill Park and Alderman Kneeshaw park on Bilton Grange, but they're obviously the spoil heaps from digging out the drains that run alongside them.

[@eekamoose]

Excellent. As someone who also used to spend hours playing on and around Snuffy Hill when I was a youngster it was very interesting to find out nearly 50 years later why it is there. I won't admit to train spotting but I did have some model railway stuff bought out of the proceeds of delivering milk and papers. All your videos are interesting and entertaining, liked and subscribed!

[@kevincollis2632]

Excellent again HHN 👍

[@williamgrady9004]

Fascinating video. Have walked my dog from Bricknell Avenue along Snuff Mill lane to Cottingham many times. I believe snuff mill house now contains a hand crafted gin distillery.

[@hullhistorynerd]

It does indeed!

[@Wedgedoow]

Very interesting video Jim thanks for uploading

[@HullYorkshireMemoriesM.Coldham]

Another really interesting video, thank you, from one nerd to another.

[@SheGeek78]

I was at hull grammar 1989-1991 and we did cross country running at Snuff Mill Lane

[@peaks9634]

Thank you again for yet another brilliant video and you have finally answered to what the embankment on the east side of the railway was for

[@johnraggett7147]

Thank you from Leipzig, Mr. Nerd. Good to see Frog Hall on the map (17.45). I grew up, after the war, in a prefab, 141 Froghall Lane, Sutton Road.

[@emmalenejackson2492]

Love this video...very interesting history xxx

[@Shheistmcgregor]

great video nerd, very informative , great . well done

[@stevenwilson1455]

When i was a boy going to the school next door croxby, us local lads in the area used to play, hang out here most days, was a great place to see lots of wildlife especially newts, frogs due to the wetlands .....

[@hullhistorynerd]

I can imagine it being an amazing place to grow up next to!

[@michaelcowan9980]

Thanks for a great story Jim. Well researched and presented. Very interesting for me as 50 years ago as a schoolboy at Wyke and Kelvin Hall schools we used to do cross-country runs to the single embankment. I always wondered where it was going to, as you did. We also thought it got it's name from someone being murdered (snuffed out !) down there. Schoolboys eh! Thanks again

[@ConstanceMarkiewicz]

Fascinating! Thanks. From a fellow History Nerd.

[@paulbateman63]

As always, thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you 😊

[@philpearson7573]

Hi. Another really interesting video - Thank you. I grew up on Dent road estate and this was our playground. Not sure if it it still there, or if it is of any interest to you, but we ( as kids ) snook into the large triangular shaped garden of the first house on the right as you look down the lane from Bricknell ave end. We found a large underground air raid shelter with big steel doors and some kind of connecting tunnel. I remember it had chalk drawings on the walls. We only went in once and it was spooky as hell to a kid of 12 ish but I always remembered it.

[@hullhistorynerd]

I reckon there are a lot of those air raid shelters around Hull. My Grandad and his family survived because of one when their house was hit by a bomb down Nornabell Street, they had to be rescued as rubble fell on the shelter.

[@itsmikee112]

Another great video Mate, Please do more Cottingham History..... How about Baynard Castle ?

[@hullhistorynerd]

I'd love to do the Castle, but I want to try to contact the current owner of the manor house to see if I can film there. It's certainly on the list though!

[@davidgibb1654]

If I thought the trip down Snuff Mill Lane evoked memories, then what can I say about the Church Lane Snicket? Every Tuesday and Friday evening I left home in Kingsway, through Longmans Lane and then through the Snicket on my way to St Marys for choir practise. It was as you describe before the housing developments, and on a dark winter's night, quite a daunting experience for a ten year old. As I recall, there was only one street light, possibly at the end of King Tree Avenue. I could have taken a longer route, but it was a badge of honour to use the Snicket. I ran the whole way.

[@WILD35]

I used to cycle down that lane in my school days of bikes with my mates I didn't know it was snicker I'm shocked it is wow thanks for history update

[@hullhistorynerd]

Technically it isn't, apart from that one bit just between Snuff Mill House and the railway line, but I really wanted to do a video on it!

[@kalumbailey5103]

No way, I literally grew up playing around the mud an Trainline end of snuff, the fields are amazing for kids wanting to just mess about and explore

[@orville3816]

Very interesting, I never knew it was so important! Used to cycle it from my home in East Hull to CHH.....as you mentioned.....very muddy!!! Was there ever plans for Parkway Cott, to link up with Parkway Willerby, I wonder??

[@hullhistorynerd]

Funny you should ask that, but yes! There were indeed plans to link those roads into a single Parkway, but it never materialised.

[@spanishpeaches2930]

I had a mate, when I was at schoo,l who lived on Snuff Mill Lane.

[@timblagdon103]

I went to Wyke Hall school the lane was on the route for our cross country runs.

[@hullhistorynerd]

I'm hearing a lot from people who used to do those runs from various nearby schools!

[@slw0599]

I also went to wyke, then Kelvin & also remember doing the school cross country runs on snuffy.

[@amc2233]

Excellent

[@ey242]

in hindsight ,a road with flyover on snuffy lane joining up to parkway cottingham and possibly willerby would negate the trafic gridlock in cottingham and give better access to the motorway network heading in and out of hull from the west imo

[@hullhistorynerd]

Yes, the thought occurred to me too!

[@hullhistorynerd]

@@mikeking2539 Yes, that's what I said in the video.

[@chrismccartney8668]

The snicker saved by Hull Road so all can still enjoy..

[@sameyers2670]

Thank you for another interesting video. When was Priory Road developed?

[@hullhistorynerd]

Priory Road was developed in the 1930s, from what I can gather, which sits about right with the style of the houses along there and Kingsway.

[@sameyers2670]

@@hullhistorynerd Thank you

[@poshbird600]

A very good video.. 😊😊😊

[@angelinegrows7765]

Brilliant !

[@colinbrigham8253]

Thank you 🤗

[@martingreen5192]

Oh Snuffy Lane, what memories, first serious girlfriend, getting up to no good with the lads, The Beatles and Rolling Stones. It was always sunny then - but maybe because that was before it was tarmaced so it could be muddy in wet weather.

[@hullhistorynerd]

It still isn't tarmaced apart from that stub of the northern end. Most of it is still muddy, with the aggregate surface leading to the cottage full of puddles and dips. It's certainly still a place to wear some robust shoes!

[@martingreen5192]

@@hullhistorynerd guess it was 1968 when I was last there, looked on Google Street view. Many thanks for bringing back my youth, even if only for a short time

[@misskittysmith]

Awesome! Very interesting thankyou. Also, bungalow type things are just..... bungalows? 😆

[@hullhistorynerd]

Yes, yes they are...I blame it on a knock on the head I had a few years ago...

[@catherineearnshaw6840]

I used to live down outlands rd not far away

[@mystro5050]

Lmao you caught my childhood home #Nostalgia

[@donfox58]

Well, there you go. The number of times I've walked the dog along that embankment that stops dead at the railway, and wondered why it was there. Now I know.

[@hullhistorynerd]

Yeah, that always fascinated me for years!

[@Llanchlo]

@@hullhistorynerd An episode on the bomb clearances including Alderman Kneeshaw "dump" would be faacinating.

[@catherineearnshaw6840]

I used to walk my dog on snuff mill lane every night

[@msgretrogamer]

I really enjoyed this snicket series.