Hedon is not mentioned in the Domesday Book which leads to the belief that it was a new town created by the Normans as a port. Hedon was at its most prosperous in the 12th and 13th centuries and at one time was the 11th largest port in England. The decline of the port came with the development of the port of Hull and the building of larger ships which were unable to get up the small river to Hedon. Hedon was given its first charter by Henry II in 1158 and was granted improved ones by King John in 1200 and Henry III in 1248 and 1272. Edward III granted the most important charter which gave the town the right to elect a mayor. In 1415 Hedon was granted an important charter, which let the town have burgesses and other ministers and also gave the town a mace. This mace is now the oldest surviving mace in the country. The town was a parliamentary borough until it was disenfranchised under the Reform Act 1832. It still enjoyed its borough status granted by its charters until 1974 when it was removed in a reorganisation of local government. To the west of the town was a racecourse. After popularity waned, it was developed into an aerodrome officially opened in 1929 by Prince George, Duke of Kent. It was the arrival point of Hull-born aviator Amy Johnson on her record-breaking solo flight to Australia in 1930, where she began a triumphant homecoming. After ten years of operation, the aerodrome closed during Second World War, 1939-1945. Afterward, the site was briefly used as a motorcycle speedway track. Attempts were made in the late-1950s to reopen it for flying, which failed, and the land has been used as grazing for cattle. A plaque commemorating the memory of the airfield was installed at the nearby Kingstown Hotel in July 2017. The Hull and Holderness Railway opened in 1854 which ran from Victoria Dock in Hull to Withernsea, through Hedon. The station was built to the north of the town and it proved a vital part of Hedon's transport system for a century. In 1965 Hedon lost its passenger service when British Railways appointed Lord Beeching to stop losses, and closed branch lines not making a profit. The line from Hull as far as Hedon remained open for goods until 1968. Hedon became the subject of national media attention in August 2000 when a freak mini-tornado in the Humber Estuary caused flash floods and hailstones to drop on parts of the town. Hedon was also affected by the widespread floods that occurred in the UK in the summer of 2007; areas affected included the Inmans / Westlands Estates and most areas near the Burstwick drain. A nearby village, Burstwick, saw the most homes flooded in the East Riding of Yorkshire. There have recently been plans to create a country park around the Hedon Haven, south of the town. There is an open-air concrete skate park in the south of the town between Draper's Lane and the Burstwick Drain.
