Things you didn't know about... South Humberside

From pumpkin power to Get Carter, this former postal county and frequent film location is full of surprises...

The Humber Bridge in East Riding

The Humber Bridge

It doesn't really exist... sort of
South Humberside is a former postal county, meaning that Royal Mail used the name to help differentiate between like-sounding towns. It was established in 1974 as part of Humberside and was, unsurprisingly, the area south of the Humber river. In 1986 it was abolished and the area is now referred to as part of Lincolnshire.


Pumpkin power in South Humberside
Spooky pumpkins go on display every year at the Pumpkin Day at Normanby Hall Country Park in South Humberside.


Scunthorpe can break the Internet
Scunthorpe in South Humberside has caused problems for email filters and internet service providers, which have been known to reject the town's name as an obscenity. One internet service provider once blocked Scunthorpe's residents from creating accounts.


Although the problem of computers misunderstanding innocent sub-strings of letters has become known as "the Scunthorpe problem", other towns beyond South Humberside—such as Penistone and Lightwater—have suffered similar difficulties.


Get Carter—in South Humberside
Author Ted Lewis featured Scunthorpe in some of his books about a gangster called Jack Carter. One book was turned into the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine, although the location was moved from South Humberside to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The film was remade in 2000 and featured Sylvester Stallone in the title role.


Ian Botham played football on South Humberside
Most people know Ian Botham as one of England's best-ever cricketers. Far fewer know that in March 1980 he joined Scunthorpe United football club in South Humberside in an attempt to regain fitness following an injury. He played for the club 11 times and also had a stint at Yeovil Town.


Grimsby is a real fisherman's town
Legend says that Grimsby in South Humberside was named after a Danish fisherman called Grim. The "by" part of the name comes from the word for "village" in Old Norse and also means "city" or "town" in Danish.


South Humberside pops up in the strangest places
South Humberside—especially Grimsby—frequently pops up in famous songs and films. Musicians who have name-checked the area include Erasure and Elton John, while films such as Atonement and This is England also used the area as a location. South Humberside even makes an appearance in the computer game Resistance: Fall of Man.



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