Spurn
Encyclopedia
Spurn Point is a narrow sand spit
on 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 is over 3 miles (4.8 km) long, almost half the width of the estuary at that point, and as little as 50 yards (45.7 m) wide in places. The southernmost tip is known as Spurn Head or Spurn Point and is the home to an RNLI lifeboat
station and disused lighthouse. It forms part of the civil parish of Easington
.
Spurn Head covers 113 hectares (279.2 acre) above high water and 181 hectares (447.3 acre) 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
.
(a.k.a. Ravenspur or Ravensburgh), where Henry 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.
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.
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. The station is now one of only a very few in the UK which has full-time paid staff (the others all being on the River Thames in London).
In World War I
two coastal artillery
9.2 inches (233.7 mm) batteries
were added at either end of Spurn Head, with 4 inches (101.6 mm) and 4.7 inches (119.4 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. The Information Centre has a leaflet describing the defences.
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.
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 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 2 metres per year, keeping pace with the coastal erosion further north.
The second of the Six Studies in English Folk Song for Cello 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.
, and the area has a bird observatory
, for monitoring migrating
bird
s and providing accommodation to visiting birdwatchers. Their migration is assisted by east winds in autumn, resulting in drift migration of Scandinavia
n 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 Wheatear
s, Whinchat
s, Common Redstart
s and flycatcher
s 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.
Spit (landform)
A spit or sandspit is a deposition landform found off coasts. At one end, spits connect to land, and extend into the sea. A spit is a type of bar or beach that develops where a re-entrant occurs, such as at cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift...
on the tip of the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...
, England that reaches into the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
estuary. It is over 3 miles (4.8 km) long, almost half the width of the estuary at that point, and as little as 50 yards (45.7 m) wide in places. The southernmost tip is known as Spurn Head or Spurn Point and is the home to an RNLI lifeboat
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
station and disused lighthouse. It forms part of the civil parish of Easington
Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Easington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England in the area known as Holderness. It is situated between the Humber estuary and the North Sea at the south-eastern corner of the county at the end of the B1445 road from Patrington.The civil parish is formed by...
.
Spurn Head covers 113 hectares (279.2 acre) above high water and 181 hectares (447.3 acre) of foreshore. It has been owned since 1960 by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the traditional county of Yorkshire, England.The Trust is part of the UK-wide partnership of 47 Wildlife Trusts.It was formed in 1946, as the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust, essentially to preserve its first nature reserve Askham Bog on the...
and is a designated National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...
, Heritage Coast
Heritage Coast
A Heritage Coast is a strip of UK coastline designated by the Countryside Agency in England and the Countryside Council for Wales as having notable natural beauty or scientific significance.- Designated coastline :...
and is part of the Humber Flats, Marshes and Coast Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...
.
History
In the Middle Ages, Spurn Head was home to the port of RavenspurnRavenspurn
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 has also...
(a.k.a. Ravenspur or Ravensburgh), where Henry Bolingbroke landed in 1399 on his return to dethrone Richard II
Richard II
-People:*Richard II of England , King of England.*Richard II of Normandy , Duke of Normandy*Richard II of Aquila *Richard II of Capua *A nickname for Richard M...
. It was also where Sir Martin De La See
Martin De La See
Martin De La See was the son of Brian De La See, by Maud, daughter and heiress of John Monceaux. He married Margaret Spencer, daughter and heiress of Christopher Spencer, by whom they had one daughter, Margaret. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Wentworth, Knight, of Nettlestead, Suffolk,...
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.
An earlier village, closer to the point of Spurn Head, was Ravenser Odd
Ravenser odd
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....
. Along with many other villages on the Holderness
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the 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 other parts of Yorkshire...
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.
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. The station is now one of only a very few in the UK which has full-time paid staff (the others all being on the River Thames in London).
In World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
two coastal artillery
Coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications....
9.2 inches (233.7 mm) batteries
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
were added at either end of Spurn Head, with 4 inches (101.6 mm) and 4.7 inches (119.4 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. The Information Centre has a leaflet describing the defences.
As well as a road, the peninsula also used to have a railway, parts of which can still be seen. Unusual 'sail bogies
Sail bogey
A sail bogey or sail trolley is a wind-driven vehicle that runs along railway tracks.The Spurn railway, built along Spurn Head on the Yorkshire coast of England was built in the First World War and ran until the early 1950s and included sail bogies as part of its rolling stock.In the early days of...
' were used as well as more conventional light railway equipment.
Geography
The peninsula is made up from sand and shingle eroded from the HoldernessHolderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the 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 other parts of Yorkshire...
coastline washed down the coastline from Flamborough Head
Flamborough Head
Flamborough Head is a promontory of on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, and the resistance it offers to coastal erosion may be contrasted with the low coast of Holderness to the south...
. Material is washed down the coast by longshore drift
Longshore drift
Longshore drift consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle to the shoreline, which is dependent on prevailing wind direction, swash and backwash. This process occurs in the littoral zone, and in or within close proximity to the surf zone...
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
Marram grass
Ammophila is a genus consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses; common names for these grasses include Marram Grass, Bent Grass, and Beachgrass...
(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
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, having developed on an underwater glacial moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
. As the ice sheets melted, sea level gradually rose and longshore drift
Longshore drift
Longshore drift consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle to the shoreline, which is dependent on prevailing wind direction, swash and backwash. This process occurs in the littoral zone, and in or within close proximity to the surf zone...
caused a spit to form between this and other islands along the moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
. 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
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. 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 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 2 metres per year, keeping pace with the coastal erosion further north.
The second of the Six Studies in English Folk Song for Cello composed in 1926 by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, the Andante sostenuto in E flat "Spurn Point" celebrates this peninsula.
It was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders
Seven Natural Wonders
Seven Natural Wonders was a television series that was broadcast on BBC Two from 3 May to 20 June 2005. The programme took an area of England each week and, from votes by the people living in that area, showed the 'seven natural wonders' of that area in a programme.The programmes were:The series...
as one of the wonders of Yorkshire.
Ecology
The landward-side mud flats are an important feeding ground for wading birdsWader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
, and the area has a bird observatory
Bird observatory
A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far flung areas. Most bird observatories are small operations with a limited staff, many volunteers and a not-for-profit educational status...
, for monitoring migrating
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s and providing accommodation to visiting birdwatchers. Their migration is assisted by east winds in autumn, resulting in drift migration of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n migrants, sometimes leading to a spectacular "fall" of thousands of birds. Many uncommon species have been sighted there, including a Cliff Swallow
Cliff Swallow
The Cliff Swallow is a member of the passerine bird family Hirundinidae — the swallows and martins.It breeds in North America, and is migratory, wintering in western South America from Venezuela southwards to northeast Argentina...
from North America, a Lanceolated Warbler
Lanceolated Warbler
The Lanceolated Warbler is an Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus Locustella. It breeds from northeast European Russia across northern Asia to northern Hokkaidō, Japan...
from Siberia and a Black-browed Albatross
Black-browed Albatross
The Black-browed Albatross or Black-browed Mollymawk, Thalassarche melanophrys, is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae, and it is the most widespread and common albatross.-Taxonomy:...
from the Southern Ocean. More commonly, birds such as Wheatear
Wheatear
The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae...
s, Whinchat
Whinchat
The Whinchat Saxicola rubetra is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in Africa.Its scientific name means "small rock-dweller", in reference to its habitat...
s, Common Redstart
Common Redstart
The Common Redstart , or often simply Redstart, is a small passerine bird in the redstart genus Phoenicurus...
s and flycatcher
Old World flycatcher
The Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds mostly restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.-Characteristics:...
s 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.