The king granted a royal charter, dated April 1, 1299, that renamed the settlement of Wyke to "King's town upon Hull", or Kingston upon Hull. The charter remains preserved in the archives of the city's Guildhall.
In 1440, a new charter allowed the town to choose a mayor, a sheriff, and twelve aldermen to run its own affairs. The charter also said that the aldermen also be justices of the peace (that is, judges) for the town and its county.
Hull's port grew busier in the Middle Ages, sending wool, cloth, and leather to north Germany, towns on the Baltic Sea, and the Low Countries, bringing back timber, wine, furs, and dyes.
Sir William de la Pole was the town's first mayor.
The town grew rich during the 16th and early 17th centuries. At this time Wilberforce House was built. It is now a museum about William Wilberforce. who campaigned to abolish the slave trade.
In 1642 Hull decided to support for Parliament and refused to let Charles I enter the town. This meant the king could not have Hull's arsenal. Named a traitor, Hotham was eventually executed, in spite of a pardon issued by Parliament. Charles I besieged the town, that is he ordered his army to surround the town and force Hull to surrender. This siege helped start the fighting in the Civil War.
Hull became a city in 1897 This was then time when the city was the richest it had ever been. Catching whales and fishing were very important. Whaling is now banned, and fishing is limited by EU rules. But Hull is still a major port sending bulk goods and commercial road traffic by RORO ferry to and from the Dutch ports of Rotterdam and Zeebrugge and on to Europe. Hull is also an important centre of food-processing for the United Kingdom.
In the Second World War much of the city centre was completely destroyed. Hull was the most severely-bombed city or town apart from London during World War II, with 95% of houses being damaged or destroyed.
Hull was hit hard by the June 2007 floods. There was standing water over a wide area affecting 20% of the city's housing and damaging 90 out of its 105 schools. But the flooding was not as dramatic as the localised flooding in Sheffield and Doncaster. Newspapers and television reported about other areas, and Hull Council leader Carl Minns said Hull was the "forgotten city" of the floods.
Damage to schools alone has been estimated at £100 million.
Kingston upon Hull's city centre is close to the Humber. The city is surrounded by the rural East Riding of Yorkshire, isolating it from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Much of Hull is on reclaimed land at or below sea level. The Hull Tidal Surge Barrier is where the River Hull joins the Humber Estuary and is lowered at times when unusually high tides are expected. It is used between 8 and 12 times per year and protects about 10,000 people from flooding.
Due to its low level, Hull is expected to be at increasing levels of risk from flooding due to global warming.
The city is quite small, but there are many villages in the metropolitan area. The largest of these suburbs is Cottingham.
Hull was a county borough in the East Riding of Yorkshire from 1889 to 1974. Then it became a non-metropolitan district of the new Humberside county. When that county was abolished in 1996 it was made a unitary authority.
The governing body of the city is now Hull City Council, based in the Guildhall in the city centre.
The council has adopted the "leader and cabinet" model. This means that most decision are made by the leader of the council and a "Cabinet"
The council was the UK's worst council in both 2004 and 2005, but is now rated as a two star "improving adequate" council after its recent "corporate performance assessment".
Hull has the following twin towns:
Hull, Massachusetts in the USA is named after this city, as is Hull, Quebec, which is part of Canada's national capital region.
Hull is the only city in the UK with its own independent telephone network company, now called KCom. On 24 May 2007, the council sold their remaining stake in the company for over £107 million.
People linked to the city include:
Riding (division)
In the United Kingdom, a riding is a division of certain large historic counties. It is usually one of three parts; the word itself comes from Old English "trithing" (itself from Old Norse "thrithjungr") which means 'third part'.
Several counties are divided into ridings, but are usually governed by a council bearing the same name as the county. However, the ridings of Yorkshire are so large that each riding was given its own county council. Thus there were county councils for the East Riding, the North Riding and the West Riding. In 1974 when all the administrative counties of England and Wales were reorganised, these councils were replaced by six new ones within Yorkshire (either wholly or in part) called North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham and Humberside.
In Canada, a riding is a federal constituency, or "electoral division" as they are known in Canada.
Pulkkila
Pulkkila is a former municipality in Northern Finland. It was in Northern Ostrobothnia, "Pohjois-Pohjanmaa", Oulu province, Finland, and its original name (with ) is Pulkkila. The population of Pulkkila is about 1,600. Pulkkila is best known for its metal works.
Since 2009, it was merged to form the new municipality of Siikalatva.
Emmental cheese
Emmental cheese (sometimes also called Emmentaler or Emmenthal) is a Swiss cheese. It first came from Switzerland. It is named after the "Emmental", the valley of a river, near Berne. Emmental cheese was first made around 1353 when Bern joined the confederacy.
Today, most cheese-producing countries make a cheese called "Emmental cheese" - These cheeses often have little in common with the original though, except for the holes in the cheese. In 1882 was the first time, products could be protected in Europe. Already at that time, Emmentaler was made in countries other than Switzerland.
Emmental cheese is amongst the best-known types of cheese. It is made from cow's milk. Two of the features that make Emmental distinctive are its holes and sweetness. The holes are there because of the way the cheese is made with bacteria which produce the cheese and over time (usually several months) create bubbles of carbon dioxide gas.
Today, Switzerland, France, Austria, and Germany produce Emmental cheeses that have a Protected Designation of Origin. In Switzerland, Austria and Germany, untreated milk is used; most of the other countries use pasteurized milk. About 12 litres of milk are needed to make 1 kg of cheese.
Emmental is produced in loaves of 70–80 kg. Usually, Emmental cheese is left to ripen for a period of 6–7 weeks. Ripening it for 8–12 weeks gives a more spicy (salty) cheese. In Europe, about 464 200 tons of Emmental are produced each year. This means that about 6% of the total amount of milk these countries produce is used to make Emmental cheese. France is the biggest producer of Emmental. In 2005, 247 069 tons were produced there. For this, 13.1% of national milk production was used. About 19% of the production was exported.
French and Swiss people eat the most of this kind of cheese, about 3.3 kg per person per year. Germans eat about half that amount, 1.7 kg per person, per year.
Emmental is also widely used in convenience food products, because it is so widely known.
Emmental
Emmental is a part of Switzerland. It is made of low hills. Most of it is in the Canton of Berne. Its biggest rivers are the Emme and the Ilfis. The biggest localities are Burgdorf, Langnau and Huttwil.
The landscape is mostly made of meadows. There are some forests too. Most of the people live from raising cattle (mostly cows), or from things closely related to cattle-raising. Emmental cheese has its name from this region. Langnau is known for Ceramics. Pottery from the region is also well-known.
There is also some industry. The Emmental had one of the first fully-electric railway lines in Switzerland.