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A piece of Britain that shall forever remain foreign |
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Emigrant platform
Most of the emigrants entering Hull travelled via the Paragon Railway Station and from there travelled to Liverpool via Leeds, Huddersfield and Stalybridge (just outside Manchester). The train tickets were part of a package that included the steamship ticket to Hull, a train ticket to Liverpool and then the steamship ticket to their final destination - mainly America. Sometimes so many emigrants arrived at one time that there would be up to 17 carriages being pulled by one steam engine.
Railway tracks at Hull |
Baggage was stored in the rear four carriages, with the passengers filling the carriages nearer the front of the train. These trains took precedence over all other train services because of their length and usually left Hull on a Monday morning around 11am, arriving in Liverpool between 2pm and 3pm.
The emigrant waiting room fell into increasing disuse as a facilitator for transmigrants when a new dockside railway terminus opened in 1907. The Riverside Quay Railway Station enabled emigrants to walk down the gangway of their ships and straight onto waiting emigrant trains that could reach Liverpool within four hours. Yet the importance of the building in European, British and North American history need not be forgotten and should not be ignored. As one European immigrant to America later recalled…
"After about a week’s stay at Hull we resumed our journey. This time by rail to Liverpool. It was my first ride in a railway train, and that was the case with a good many even among the older people, for in the country from where we came people do not travel much."
"Many are there born into the world and live a long life never to see country and people 50 miles from home. I enjoyed this my first railroad ride immensely though the accommodations were poor. We arrived in Liverpool before night, and here we were to lay upon the stone pavement but as far as I remember it was under a sort of a shed by the dock where cargoes from the vessels were unloaded. It was poor accommodations for human beings, but then we were only emigrants and I did not hear of much complaints."
Words: Nicholas J. Evans
Your comments
1 Beverly Jagla from Washington State, USA - 13 November 2003
"I just visited Hull and was delighted to see that the emigrant waiting room is still there behind the Paragon Station. My grandmother transmigrated through Hull in July of 1899, having left Olso and heading for Ellis Island. I have a copy of the contract she had with the White Star Line that managed her trip from Oslo to Minnesota. These articles helped me find the waiting room and the old station. Thank you.
"
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