File:Model boat pond in East Park, Hull - geograph.org.uk - 214577.jpg

English: Model boat pond in East Park, Hull. Part of the original Victorian park designed by borough engineer Joseph Fox Sharp and opened on 21st June 1887 (Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee day).

In the summer of 2006, local model boat enthusiasts appeared on BBC TV's Look North programme complaining that the pond was unusable because it was clogged with weeds and other debris. A representative from Hull City Council promised that the pond would be cleared for the official reopening of the park on 21st June and this was duly done (more than £10.3 million in total was spent on refurbishing the park).

Personally, I have vivid memories of the pond from the age of about eight. We lived in a small terraced house on Summergangs Road and a strategically placed hole in the fence meant that the park became an extension of our back yard. I was walking along the edge of the pond kicking at some sticks which were floating on the surface and wondering how I was going to explain to my mother how come I had one wet foot when there was a sudden splash behind me. I turned in horror to find that my toddler sister (who I was supposed to be looking after) had fallen in the water. She had obviously tried to copy me. I did what any typically brave eight year old big brother would do: I panicked and froze while someone else dragged her out, not realising until much later that the pond was only about a foot deep. I explained the fact that she was soaked to my mother by pretending she fell in a huge puddle, but sis was just learning to talk and over the next few weeks the truth came out. Mother was understandably furious and said I'd never be trusted to look after any of my sisters again, and I never was, although quite how that constitutes a punishment I'm not sure.