Humber
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- For other uses, see Humber (disambiguation).
The Humber is a large tidal estuary forming part of the boundary between northern and southern England. It starts at Faxfleet and the Trent Falls at the confluence of the River Ouse and the River Trent; it then passes the junction with the Market Weighton Canal on the north shore, the junction with the River Ancholme on the south shore; past North Ferriby and South Ferriby, under the Humber Bridge and past Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Kingston upon Hull on the North bank, where the River Hull joins, then into the North Sea between Cleethorpes and Spurn Head.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, it was a major boundary, separating Northumbria from the southern kingdoms. Indeed the name Northumbria simply indicates the area North of the Humber. It currently forms the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire, to the north and North and North East Lincolnshire, to the south.
From 1974 to 1996 the area known now as East Riding, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire constituted Humberside and for hundreds of years before that, The Humber lay between Lindsey and The East Riding of Yorkshire. (A riding is an old way of saying a one third part). Since the late eleventh century, Lindsey had been one of the Parts of Lincolnshire.
Two fortifications were built in the mouth of the river in 1914, the Humber Forts. Fort Paull is further upstream.