Humber Firsts
A Region of Firsts: Leading the Way in Innovation, Industry and Impact
Humber is a region that doesn’t wait for change. It leads it. From world-class renewable energy projects to groundbreaking environmental restoration, Humber is home to a long list of UK, European and World firsts. These achievements reflect the region’s ability to think big, act boldly and shape the future.
This collection of pioneering milestones showcases just some of the ways Humber is setting the pace in energy, technology, nature, infrastructure and community. Whether it’s the UK’s first vertical farm, the most inclusive junior football team or green hydrogen production at scale, Humber proves time and again that transformation begins here.
- The Humber will be producing ½ of the UK’s renewable electricity, enough to power 25m homes
- Hydrogen storage capacity to power 2m UK homes for 1 year
- The Humber will have capacity to meet 30% of the UK government’s hydrogen production targets by 2030
- Air Products at Immingham – the UK’s first at-scale green hydrogen plant
- East Yorkshire has the first zero-carbon prison in the UK
- Gigastack is the UK’s leading Green Hydrogen Project
- Yorkshire Energy Park is set to be the UK’s first freeport-based energy and technology business park
- East Coast Cluster is one of the UK's first carbon capture and storage projects
- SSE Thermal Keadby site could become UK’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture
- The Humber is home to the UK’s most established offshore wind cluster
- We are the UK’s ‘Energy Estuary’
- Meld Energy is planning the UK’s largest green hydrogen plant
- The Humber is the UK’s largest industrial cluster for decarbonisation
- Zero Carbon Humber is the world’s first net zero industrial cluster
- Drax could host the world’s first carbon negative power station
- H2H Saltend is the world’s first hydrogen production plant with CCS
- Hornsea 2 is the world's largest offshore windfarm
- Humber Zero is a world-scale CO2 reduction project using carbon capture
- SSE Thermal and Equinor plan one of the world’s largest hydrogen storage sites
- British Airways uses SAF produced by Phillips 66 Limited – a world first
- Hull is the UK’s broadband champion with the fastest average speeds
- Tech Nation recognises the Humber’s digital sector as one of the UK’s hottest
- Hull has the UK’s first AI employee: Avery Ingram
- KCOM was one of the first in the UK to roll out super-fast fibre broadband
- Quickline Communications is the first UK company to offer standalone 5G technology
- Hull became the UK’s first city with an all-digital telephone system
- Hull is the most interconnected city in the Northern Hemisphere
- Humber Tech Park will be one of Europe’s largest data centres
- Lazenby’s launched the world’s first self-sanitising kiosks
- Professor George Gray paved the way to LCD technology
- Hull fintech launches the first decentralised tipping platform, thankyü
- The Humber has the UK’s largest bird migration population – SHIIP project
- Spurn Point hosts the UK’s first on-site oyster reef nursery
- Hull is a Tree City of the World
- Hull was the first city in Europe to become a Global Water Resilient City
- The 370-acre Saltend site is one of the UK’s most important manufacturing hubs
- Siemens Gamesa is Europe’s largest offshore wind manufacturing site
- VPI Immingham is one of Europe’s largest combined heat and power plants
- INEOS operates a world-scale chemical plant producing ethyl acetate
- Pensana has built the UK’s first rare earth processing facility at Saltend
- Arbor is the UK’s largest timber importer and processor
- Tronox has the largest titanium dioxide site in Europe
- Phillips 66 is Europe’s only producer of graphite electrode battery coke
- Siemens rail factory is one of the most technologically advanced in the world
- Hull company February created the first AI software developer Avery Ingram
- Fenner developed the first fire-resistant conveyor belt
- Home to the UK’s busiest ports complex, now with Freeport status
- The Port of Grimsby is the UK’s largest for importing cars
- The Port of Hull is the UK’s leading softwood timber port
- The Port of Goole is the UK’s premier inland port
- The Port of Immingham is the UK’s largest by tonnage
- ABLE Marine Energy Park (AMEP) is potentially Europe’s largest new port development
- Grimsby is one of the world’s clean maritime clusters
- Home to the world’s first sustainable maritime refuelling port
- Ron Dearing UTC is the UK’s top-performing school or college for apprenticeships
- Healing Academy is the first High Performance Foundation Pioneer
- Barton junior football team is the most inclusive in the UK
- Hull was the first UK city to back the ‘right to grow’ food on disused land
- Hull was the first UK city to develop a Bondholder ambassador scheme
- Hull telephone directory was the first “Golden Pages” in the UK
- First public hydraulic power network created in Hull – also Hull’s first public utility
- Hull’s National Picture Theatre is the last remaining WW2 civilian ruin being restored
- Ann Cooke- born in Hull in the late 1790s, she became Britain’s first female professional photographer
- Sir John Hall- born in Hull in 1824 and led the campaign for women’s suffrage in New Zealand
- John Harrison (Barrow upon Humber): inventor of the marine chronometer
- The Deep is the world’s first submarium
- William Jackson Food Group: first to produce frozen Yorkshire puddings
- Hull Municipal Crematorium: first municipal crematorium in the UK
- Hull’s artificial sunlight clinic: first of its kind in the UK
- First vertical cotton farm in the UK/Europe (Gooddrop – pending verification)
- Grimsby was once the world’s largest fishing port
- Hull Royal Infirmary: first fenestrated Altura graft surgery
- University of Hull developed the first bone-density scanner for osteoporosis
- Hull resident Mike Swainger: first in the UK fitted with a bionic hand
- Siemens Mobility in Goole manufactures UK tube and main line trains
- We are the UK’s Trading Gateway
- The River Humber is the largest deep water estuary on the UK East Coast
- Barton junior football team is recognised as the most inclusive in the UK
- Sir John Hall born in Hull in 1824 led the parliamentary campaign for women’s voting rights
- Hull appointed its first female Church of England bishop (Rev Canon Alison White)
- Vivergo Fuels: UK’s largest single-source animal feed supplier
- Grimsby Fish Market: largest seller of Icelandic fresh fish in the UK
- The Humber processes 70% of the UK’s chilled and frozen seafood
- 80% of the UK’s holiday home market is manufactured in the Humber
- Hull became first UK city to back ‘right to grow’ on disused land
- Hull City took part in England’s first ever penalty shootout – and lost. The Tigers were defeated by Manchester United in the semi-final of the short-lived Watney Cup in 1970, with George Best scoring the first spot-kick. Denis Law then became the first player to have a penalty saved in a shootout while City keeper Ian McKechnie became the first player to miss when he fluffed the deciding penalty.
- Up to the early 1960s, when league games were often played on Christmas Day, Hull City and Grimsby Town were the only two teams exempt from playing because fans in the fishing industry needed to be at work.
- Hull City is the only team in the Football League which hasn't got a single letter that you can colour in.
- Ebenezor Cobb Morely was a sportsman but he drafted the first Laws of the Game of Football. He wrote a letter to a newspaper that proposed aa governing body for Football. A meeting followed and the FA was duly formed. He was also President of the FA for a period too.
- World Cup winning Rugby League Player Sir Clive Sullivan lifted the Challenge Cup for both Hull FC and Hull Kingston, He now has a road named after him in Hull, Clive Sullivan Way. He was also the first black Captain for Great Britain in any sport and remains the only black Captain to win a World Cup.
- Kiplingcotes Derby - The Horse Race is over 500 years old. This 4 mile flat race takes place just to the North of Hull and is the oldest Flat Race in the UK, It is held every third Thursday in March.
- Humber is home to England's first ever Rugby World Cup-winning captain - Karen Almond from Cottingham, who led the Red Roses to victory in 1994 and changed the game for women's sport forever.
- A letter discovered deep in the archives of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu describes how two Hawaiian Princes - and their English guardian - went surfing in Britain in September 1890, but this earliest record of UK Surfing didnt happen in spoert's meccas of Newquay or Croyde, it took place in the East Yorkshire resort of Bridlington.
Know a Humber First We’ve Missed?
This collection is just the beginning. If you know of a world, UK or industry first that started right here in the Humber, we want to hear about it. Help us showcase the bold, brilliant and pioneering spirit of our region.
Got a Humber First? Share it with us and let’s make sure it gets the recognition it deserves.
Bring the buzz back to your workplace – why not use the Mentimeter questions and Humber Firsts facts from Monday’s event to spark a team quiz or lunchtime challenge?
You can access the full interactive quiz via the button below – perfect for sharing in meetings, energising team sessions, or adding a fun and fact-filled activity to your next event.
