Remembering all four
Lillian Bilocca, known as Big Lil; Yvonne Blenkinsop; Mary Denness; and Christine Smallbone, later known as Christine Jensen. The four leaders were supported by a wider community of fishing families who wanted safer conditions at sea.
From tragedy to a campaign for change
Between January and February 1968, St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland were lost. Fifty-eight men died. The losses struck deeply at the Hessle Road fishing community.
A community’s voice
The women gathered support, challenged trawler owners and took their demands to government. Their campaign attracted national attention and helped secure reforms to protect fishermen.
A legacy to pass on
The headscarf became an enduring symbol of the campaign. This tribute honours all four women by name through symbolic headscarves, a petition and maritime imagery.
Your part of the story
What do you remember?
Send a photograph, family memory, name or correction. Include the place, approximate date, the people you recognise and permission to publish.
Email Info@hessleroad.com ↗Contribution guidance →Research sources & illustration notes
The four headscarves represent the shared campaign; their colours and patterns are artistic choices, not attributed to individual women. The petition, radio and trawler are symbolic illustrations, rather than an original document, named vessel or photographed event.
- Hull History Centre: Remembering Lillian Bilocca. Records the tragedy, campaign and all four women, including Christine Smallbone's later Jensen name. ↗
- Hull Maritime: Hull backs the Headscarf Statue, 11 September 2024. Names all four women and describes the campaign's safety reforms. This is cited for historical context, not as a statement of the statue project's present status. ↗
- MyLearning: The Women of Hessle Road: Hull. Museum learning resource on the disaster and campaign for better safety at sea. ↗
- UK Parliament: Commons debate of 8 March 2018 records the Hessle Road women's committee and its four campaign leaders, using Christine Jensen's later name. ↗