Spurn | |
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Spurn in May 2005, showing the lighthouse and sand-dunes. | |
Location within the East Riding of Yorkshire | |
Population | 50 (approx) |
OS grid reference | TA399108 |
Civil parish | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HULL |
Postcode district | HU12 |
Dialling code | 01964 |
Police | Humberside |
Fire | Humberside |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
UK Parliament | |
Spurn is a narrow sand tidal island [1] located off the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England that reaches into the North Sea and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It was a spit with a semi-permanent connection to the mainland, but a storm in 2013 made the road down to the end of Spurn impassable to vehicles at high tide. [2]
The island is over three miles (five kilometres) long, almost half the width of the estuary at that point, and as little as 50 yards (45 metres) wide in places. The southernmost tip is known as Spurn Head or Spurn Point and was, until early 2023, the home to an RNLI lifeboat station and two disused lighthouses. [3] It forms part of the civil parish of Easington.
Spurn Head covers 280 acres (113 hectares) above high water and 450 acres (181 hectares) of foreshore. It has been owned since 1960 by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is a designated national nature reserve, heritage coast and is part of the Humber Flats, Marshes and Coast Special Protection Area.
Spurn Head was known to classical authors, such as Ptolemy as Ocelum Promontorium (Ancient Greek : Ὀκέλον ἄκρον). [4] [5] In the Middle Ages, Spurn Head was home to the port of Ravenspurn (a.k.a. Ravenspur or Ravensburgh), where Henry of Bolingbroke landed in 1399 on his return to dethrone Richard II. It was also where Sir Martin de la See led the local resistance against Edward IV's landing on 14 March 1471, as he was returning from his six months' exile in the Netherlands. [6] An earlier village, closer to the point of Spurn Head, was Ravenser Odd. Along with many other villages on the Holderness coast, Ravenspurn and Ravenser Odd were lost to the encroachments of the sea, as Spurn Head, due to erosion and deposition of its sand, migrated westward. [7]
The lifeboat station at Spurn Head was built in 1810. Owing to the remote location, houses for the lifeboat crew and their families were added a few years later. By the 1870s a room in the high lighthouse was being used as a chapel for the small residential community on Spurn Head, serving 'the keepers, coast-guardsmen and fishermen who live at the Point'. [8]
During the First World War two coastal artillery 9.2-inch (230 mm) batteries were added at either end of Spurn Head, with 4-and-4.7-inch (100 and 120 mm) quick-firing guns in between. The emplacements can be clearly seen, and the northern ones are particularly interesting as coastal erosion has partly toppled them onto the beach, revealing the size of the concrete foundations very well.
As well as a road, the peninsula also used to have a railway, parts of which can still be seen. Unusual 'sail bogies' were used as well as more conventional light railway equipment. [9]
Following a tidal surge in December 2013 the roadway became unsafe, and access to Spurn Point is on foot only, with a warning not to attempt this when exceptionally high tides are due. [10] [11] Spurn has now become a tidal island, as the narrowest part of the sandbank connection to the mainland is flooded with each high tide. [12]
Plans to build a new visitor centre for the reserve were unveiled in September 2014 by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT). [13] [14] Planning consent for the initial plans was refused by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in July 2016 [15] but revised plans were approved in January 2017. [16] These plans face local opposition because of the perceived feeling of commercialisation of the reserve by YWT, with plans to build extensive car park facilities, no longer free. [17] The new visitor centre was officially opened by Simon King on 20 March 2018. [18]
A February 2023 inspection of the RNLI launch jetty revealed structural issues, as a result the station was moved to Grimsby. [19]
The spit is made up from sand, shingle and boulder clay eroded from the Holderness coastline washed down the coastline from Flamborough Head. Material is washed down the coast by longshore drift and accumulates to form the long, narrow embankment in the sheltered waters inside the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It is maintained by plants, especially marram grass (Ammophila arenaria). Waves carry material along the peninsula to the tip, continually extending it; as this action stretches the peninsula it also narrows it to the extent that the sea can cut across it in severe weather. When the sea cuts across it permanently, everything beyond the breach is swept away, only to eventually reform as a new spit pointing further south. This cycle of destruction and reconstruction occurs approximately every 250 years. More recently, Dr. John Pethick of Hull University put forward a different theory to explain the formation of Spurn Head. He suggests that the spit head has been a permanent feature since the end of the last ice age, having developed on an underwater glacial moraine. As the ice sheets melted, sea level gradually rose and longshore drift caused a spit to form between this and other islands along the moraine. Under normal circumstances, the sea washes over the neck of the spit taking sand from the seaward side and redepositing it on the landward side. Over time, the whole spit, length intact, slips back – with the spit-head remaining on its glacial foundation. This process has now been affected by the protection of the spit put in place during the Victorian era. This protection halted the wash-over process and resulted in the spit being even more exposed due to the rest of the coast moving back 110 yards (100 metres) since the 'protection' was constructed. The now crumbling defences will not be replaced and the spit will continue to move westwards at a rate of 6 feet 7 inches (2 metres) per year, keeping pace with the coastal erosion further north.
The second of the Six Studies in English Folk Song composed in 1926 by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Andante sostenuto in E flat "Spurn Point" celebrates this peninsula.
It was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of Yorkshire.
The landward-side mud flats are an important feeding ground for wading birds, and the area has a bird observatory, for monitoring migrating birds and providing accommodation to visiting birdwatchers. Their migration is assisted by east winds in autumn, resulting in drift migration of Scandinavian migrants, sometimes leading to a spectacular "fall" of thousands of birds. Many uncommon species have been sighted there, including a cliff swallow from North America, a lanceolated warbler from Siberia and a black-browed albatross from the Southern Ocean. More commonly, birds such as northern wheatears, whinchats, common redstarts and flycatchers alight at Spurn on their way between breeding and wintering grounds elsewhere. When the wind is in the right direction migrants are funnelled down Spurn Point and are counted at the Narrows Watchpoint, more than 15,000 birds can fly past on a good morning in autumn with 3,000 quite normal.
Location | Spurn Point East Riding of Yorkshire England |
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OS grid | TA 40345 11239 |
Coordinates | 53°34′44″N0°07′06″E / 53.578996°N 0.118325°E |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1895 |
Designed by | Thomas Matthews |
Construction | brick tower |
Automated | 1957 |
Height | 128 ft (39 m) |
Shape | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
Markings | white and black bands tower, white lantern |
Operator | Spurn Point National Nature Reserve [20] |
Heritage | Grade II listed building [21] |
Light | |
Deactivated | 1985 |
Lens | 6-panel hyper-radial rotating catadioptric |
Range | 17 nmi (31 km) |
Characteristic | Fl W 15 s Oc RW (sector lights) |
Spurn Point Lighthouse Act 1772 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to explain and amend an Act, paired in the Sixth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act for taking down and removing certain Lighthouses now standing near the Spurn Point, at the Mouth of the Humber; and for erecting other fit and convenient Lighthouses instead thereof." |
Citation | 12 Geo. 3. c. 29 |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 21 May 1772 |
Repealed | 6 August 1861 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1861 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The earliest reference to a lighthouse on Spurn Point is 1427. From the 17th century there are records of a pair of lighthouses being maintained as leading lights: a high light and a low light.
In 1767, John Smeaton was commissioned to build a new pair of lighthouses. Smeaton's high light (a 90-foot [27 m] tower) remained in use until 1895, but there were problems (as there had been in previous years) with maintaining the low light; within a short time it had been washed away by the sea. A series of more-or-less temporary replacements were used in the years that followed, until a more solid lighthouse designed by James Walker [22] was constructed in 1852 under the supervision of engineer Henry Norris. [22] Unlike its predecessor this low light was built the estuary side (i.e. to the west) of the high light, rather than on the seaward side.
Initially both lighthouses were coal-fired. In 1819 Smeaton's high light was equipped with 24 Argand lamps and reflectors); [22] later, in 1853, it was fitted with a new Fresnel lens: a large (first-order) fixed optic by Henry Lepaute of Paris. (Prior to installation this lens had been exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851). [23] Later, a red sector was added to the high light, which warned ships of hazards to the south ranging from Clee Ness to Sand Haile Flats. [24]
The low light, meanwhile, had also been fitted with oil lamps and reflectors in 1816. Then, in 1848, a small Fresnel lens (a fifth-order lenticular dioptric) had been installed, which was reused when the new tower was built in 1852. [22]
In 1895 both this low light and Smeaton's high light were decommissioned and replaced by a single lighthouse which still stands on the grass of Spurn Head. The 1852 low light also still stands on the sandy shore of the island, though its lantern has been replaced by a large water tank. (Of the old Smeaton high light only the foundations remain; [25] after dismantling, its optic was re-used in the high lighthouse at Nash Point, where it was installed as part of a programme of improvements.) [26]
The 1895 lighthouse is a round brick tower, 128 feet (39 metres) high, painted black and white. It was designed by Thomas Matthews. The lantern contained a very large revolving hyper-radiant optic by Chance Brothers & Co. [27] Its white light had a range of 17 nautical miles (31 kilometres) and displayed a flash once every 20 seconds. In addition there were separate sector lights, two of which marked particular shoals or sandbanks, while another indicated the main channel along the Humber. Initially oil-lit, the lighthouse was converted to electricity in 1941 to enable the light to be lit briefly (as and when requested by allied ships and convoys) and then extinguished. [28]
Then, in 1957, the lighthouse was converted to acetylene gas operation. [29] A new, smaller, gas-driven revolving optic was installed, which flashed once every fifteen seconds; and the subsidiary lights were provided with occulting mechanisms, also gas-driven. The new systems were automated; the keepers therefore moved out and their cottages were demolished. [28]
Due to improvements in navigation, the light was discontinued in 1985; the main optic was removed the following year. [27] The combined acetylene lamp and gas-powered optic were subsequently put on display, first in the Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum, then in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. [30] Since 1986, the lighthouse remained empty, but in 2013, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust was awarded a £470,500 grant to restore the lighthouse with a view to its being reopened as a visitor centre. This was scheduled to take place in 2015, [31] with work starting in April 2015. [32] The work was completed in March 2016, and opened to the public for the Easter weekend. [33]
Southwold Lighthouse is a lighthouse operated by Trinity House in the centre of Southwold in Suffolk, England. It stands on the North Sea coast, acting as a warning light for shipping passing along the east coast and as a guide for vessels navigating to Southwold harbour.
Flamborough Head is a promontory, 8 miles (13 km) long on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the oldest dating from 1669 and Flamborough Head Lighthouse built in 1806. The older lighthouse was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952 and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England. The cliffs provide nesting sites for many thousands of seabirds, and are of international significance for their geology.
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than with other parts of Yorkshire. To the north and west are the Yorkshire Wolds. Holderness generally refers to the area between the River Hull and the North Sea. The Prime Meridian passes through Holderness just to the east of Patrington and through Tunstall to the north.
Rye Harbour is a village located on the East Sussex coast in southeast England, near the estuary of the River Rother: it is part of the civil parish of Icklesham and the Rother district. Rye Harbour is located some two miles (3.2 km) downstream of the town of Rye.
Blakeney Point is a national nature reserve situated near to the villages of Blakeney, Morston and Cley next the Sea on the north coast of Norfolk, England. Its main feature is a 6.4 km (4.0 mi) spit of shingle and sand dunes, but the reserve also includes salt marshes, tidal mudflats and reclaimed farmland. It has been managed by the National Trust since 1912, and lies within the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest, which is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Ramsar listings. The reserve is part of both an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and a World Biosphere Reserve. The Point has been studied for more than a century, following pioneering ecological studies by botanist Francis Wall Oliver and a bird ringing programme initiated by ornithologist Emma Turner.
Ravenser Odd, also spelled Ravensrodd, was a port in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, during the medieval period, built on the sandbanks at the mouth of the Humber estuary.
Ravenspurn was a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, which was lost due to coastal erosion, one of more than 30 along the Holderness Coast which have been lost to the North Sea since the 19th century. The town was located close to the end of a peninsula near Ravenser Odd, which had been flooded in the 14th century. The peninsula still survives and is known as Spurn Head. The North Sea lies to the east of the peninsula, the Humber estuary to the west.
Withernsea Lighthouse is an inland lighthouse that stands in the middle of the town of Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The lighthouse stands 127 feet (38 m) high and took 18 months to build between 1892 and 1894. Formerly owned and run by Trinity House of London, it ceased operation on 1 July 1976 and is now used as a museum.
Trevose Head is a headland on the Atlantic coast of north Cornwall, on the south-western coast of Great Britain. It is situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Padstow. The South West Coast Path runs around the whole promontory and is within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Trevose Head Heritage Coast. In clear weather, visitors to Trevose Head can see virtually the whole length of the north Cornwall coast; to the north, the view extends beyond the Cornwall county boundary to Hartland Point, Devon; to the south, it extends beyond St Ives to the headland at Pendeen Watch.
RNLB Aguila Wren is a retired Liverpool-class lifeboat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. She is currently being restored to her original RNLI condition, with work expected to be complete in 2017 or 2018. Aguila Wren was built as a memorial to 22 members of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) who were killed when their transport ship to Gibraltar, the Yeoward Line ship Aguila, was sunk by German submarine U-201 in the North Atlantic in 1941.
The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha (19,027 acres) of the county's north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling, and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The North Norfolk Coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.
The Yorkshire Coast runs from the Tees estuary to the Humber estuary, on the east coast of England. The cliffs at Boulby are the highest on the east coast of England, rising to 660 feet (200 m) above the sea level.
The Spurn Point military railway was a railway line in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It extended for 3+3⁄4 miles (6 km), connecting Kilnsea with Spurn Point in the Humber Estuary. The line was built to supply military installations along this stretch of coast.
Withernsea Lifeboat Station is located in the town of Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is one of four RNLI stations in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with another five in North Yorkshire.
Humber Lifeboat Station is an All-weather lifeboat station based at the mouth of the River Humber.
Filey Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station located in the town of Filey, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of eight operational RNLI lifeboat stations situated on the Yorkshire Coast.
Whitby Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station located in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of nine situated along the Yorkshire coast.
Redcar Lifeboat Station is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station based in the town of Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. The station is the furthest north in Yorkshire.
Grimsby Lifeboat Station was located at the Port of Grimsby, in the county of Lincolnshire.
Cleethorpes Lifeboat Station is located on the Central Promenade, in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, which sits on the south bank of the River Humber estuary, in north east Lincolnshire.