Sign up to the GrimsbyLive newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

This is the epic view from the top of the tallest crane at the Port of Immingham.

Six miles to the left, the Grimsby Dock Tower is just a fuzzy silhouette, while the banks of the East Riding are vaguely visible straight ahead.

The ship-to-shore crane stretches an impressive 30 metres into the air - and Grimsby Live made the climb right to the top.

It took a short journey in a mechanical lift, a clamber along metal platforms to get to the cab - and a march up some steps to get to the highest platform another 15 metres up.

Our guide was charge hand Sonny Sellars. The 27-year-old started working for the port's operator Associated British Ports (ABP) two years ago so knows his way around.

(Image: Jon Corken/GrimsbyLive)

It is his job to "drive" the £5 million crane, using its arm to grab containers full of cargo from a global array of waiting ships.

Proudly sitting in the revolving seat, Sonny shows off his control board of buttons and switches that do everything from move his seat down to manoeuvre the entire crane arm.

The crane, based at the Immingham Container Terminal (ICT), can lift a colossal 45 tonnes.

Immingham is a dedicated in-dock container terminal, a regional centre for short-sea container imports handling around 183,000 containers each year.

The facility operates on a 24/7 basis and boasts three ship-to-shore cranes, four rubber-tyred gantry cranes and five reach stackers.

All 12 see a phenomenal amount of use day in, day out. The terminal is extremely busy and on average sees around 2,500 lorry movements each week.

Inside the containers, shipped to Immingham from all over the world, you will find just about the full range of things that the UK trades in - from food to cars, clothes to computer parts.

From here, the containers are taken by lorry all over the UK, but mostly to places around the Midlands and the north of England.

ABP also handles containers to put back onto ships to export UK manufactured products, although these are significantly fewer in number.

The container terminal is doing "amazing business" at the moment and ABP saw its container terminals across the Humber grow by 23 per cent last year.

The terminal, its kit and the people that keep it working are phenomenal.

The panoramic views from the top are pretty epic too, if not slightly dizzying and stomach churning at the same time.