The 1st and 2nd Companies having combined to form the 1st East Riding Artillery Volunteers, the 4th was renumbered 2nd East Riding Artillery Volunteers in September 1880. The unit leased from Hull Corporation a hall that had been built for a working men's exhibition adjacent to the Corporation Field in Park Street. The government supplied 32-pounder muzzle-loading guns in June 1860. Eight were used for drill purposes at the Hull Citadel and four were placed in a battery built on the Humber Bank adjacent to Earle's shipyard. The unit took part in national gunnery competitions, and won the Queen's Prize on several occasions. From 1886 the coastal artillery batteries were supplemented by minefields, and the 2nd East Riding AV trained with the Humber Division Submarine Miners. As well as manning fixed coast defence artillery, some of the early Artillery Volunteers manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. But the War Office refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns for Volunteers and they had largely died in the 1870s. In 1888 the 'position artillery' concept was revived and some Volunteer companies were reorganised as position batteries to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. On 14 July 1892 the 2nd East Riding Volunteer Artillery were reorganised as one position battery and 10 garrison companies. By 1893 the War Office Mobilisation Scheme had allocated the unit to the Humber defences. In 1882 the 2nd East Riding AV became part of the Northern Division of the Royal Artillery (later transferring to the Western Division). All Volunteer Artillery units became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) in 1899 and with the abolition of the divisions the unit was redesignated 2nd East Riding Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) on 1 January 1902. With the creation of the Territorial Force by the Haldane Reforms in 1908, the RGA Volunteers were extensively reorganised. In the original plans, the 2nd East Riding RGA would have become the 3rd Northumbrian Brigade in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), comprising 1st–3rd East Riding Batteries and 3rd Northumbrian Ammunition Column. However, these plans were revised in 1910, so that the Hull-based RGA formed two field batteries and an ammunition column in the 2nd Northumbrian Brigade, RFA, and a separate East Riding RGA with four companies of coast defence artillery. The 2nd (or II) Northumbrian Bde was completed by a North Riding Battery from the former 1st East Riding RGA.