Next year Hull will play host to thousands of enthusiastic visitors and tourists when it becomes UK City of Culture for 2017.
A mass influx of people is anticipated for the city when the cultural spotlight finally allows Hull and its people to shine across the UK and the wider world, and demonstrate what fantastic events and attractions the whole area has to offer.
So, with all this planning for huge inflows of people, it seems strange to imagine a time when officials were actually working on how to orchestrate a mass exit from the city. But that’s exactly what happened in May 1961, with an operation known as ‘Exercise Exodus’, as revealed by newly uncovered historic records from East Riding Archives.
A tantalisingly small file of photographs, preserved at the Archives repository in Beverley, gives a glimpse at an operation that was conducted by Hull Civil Defence Authority on 28 May 1961. The whole event was in fact part of the city’s emergency plan during the Cold War, for how to evacuate large numbers of residents if the worst happened and Hull bore the brunt of a catastrophic event such as a nuclear weapon strike.
The photographs, from East Riding Archives’ ‘Civil Defence & Air Raid Precautions’ collection, depict crowds of civilians, as well as civil defence personnel, participating in the practice evacuation via the old Humber ferries, and a convoy of buses.
People can be seen queuing for meals and waiting patiently to board the ferry during the exercise’s attempt to simulate the emergency response to a major catastrophe. However, unless more archive material comes to the surface, these photographs are the only evidence that Exercise Exodus ever took place, leaving the operation shrouded in mystery.
Archivist, Sam Bartle said: “A similar exercise was performed in North Staffordshire in 1959, so it’s hardly surprising that Yorkshire’s port city also realised the need for an emergency evacuation plan at a time when the Cold War was at its height. Hull is a city of major importance, and the scale of the event is conveyed by the photographs, showing us how seriously it was taken by the civil defence authorities back then.”
It is unclear just how many people were involved in the exercise, although is obvious from the photographs that a large number of volunteers were recruited to assist in creating an air of realism for Hull’s fake ‘Exodus’.
East Riding Archives are now on the photo sharing website ‘Flickr’, where you can now see these curious ‘Exercise Exodus’ images at www.flickr.com/photos/erarchives
I was on operation exidos age 14, with my friends, I was told a bomb had supposidly gone off in west hull and east hull was being evacuated, we were all dresed up in our sunday best. Buses were parked right down Preston Road and we were taken to the pier, where people were laid on strechers with bandages etc, Then onto the ferry, sat up on the top and at the other side you could have drinks. We sat on the pier new holland until we made the return journey. Lots of people and a good atmosphere. We thought it was a wonderful day out. We often talk about it but no one else seems to remember it.
Oh dear what awful spelling, going far too fast. .