WILGILSLAND  The homepage of Pete and Jan Crowther

Spurn Head

Spurn’s Fascination

Spurn is a wonderful place, unique and fascinating. What makes it so special? It has no hills, and virtually no trees, but what it does have is sky and water in abundance. The sky’s reflections in the waters provides some wonderful vistas. Living at the tip of South Holderness we can see the sun rise over the sea in the morning and set over the Humber in the evening. And the plants of Spurn are quite distinctive — I particularly love the Perennial Wall Rocket which fringes the sandy paths from late summer through to autumn, and the beautiful Sea Rocket which grows on sand all over the peninsula and even on the beach itself. Sea Holly, with its brilliant blue flowers and spiky leaves,  is another unusual plant, which attracts butterflies and moths in the early summer. All over the peninsula Sea Buckthorn, with its blue-green foliage and orange berries in autumn provides a splash of colour amongst the Marram Grass of the dunes. Spurn is home for rabbits,  foxes, roe deer, numerous small mammals, and lizards. There are plenty of places where they can hide away from visitors. But perhaps most famously Spurn is a stopping off point for migrating birds. In the spring and in the autumn thousands of common migrants pass though on their way north or south. And rare vagrants can be found when the winds are favourable. You never know what you may see here. And Spurn is so quiet —thankfully no motorways anywhere near, only the distant throbbing from the engines of passing ships. You can sit on the dunes and look out to sea across an empty beach, undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the modern world!

Spurn’s Origins

Spurn Head, or Spurn Point, is a three and a half mile peninsula, composed of sand and shingle, stretching out between the North Sea and the River Humber in a south-westerly direction. The first peninsula developed after the retreat of the last Ice Age, and how it came into existence and how it develops and changes cannot be certainly proven. Its course is not fixed, because it is attached to one of the fastest eroding coasts in the world — the Holderness coast.  One theory, supported by historical records, postulates a cyclical history of about 250 years for each of the various peninsulas, which have grown gradually as a result of long-shore drift of material washed out of the clay cliffs to the north.  The profile of each peninsula, which grows from a stump, is low, allowing a certain amount of washover of sand, which helps to build it up on the western side, whilst most of the material moves further south and forms a spoon-shaped point. With the rapid erosion of the coast to which it is attached, a breach is inevitable eventually, and once the sea gets through, the head becomes isolated and gradually washes away. A new peninsula then forms a little to the west and the cycle starts again. Another theory gives more emphasis to the washover of the neck, and suggests that as the sand and other material is transported from east to west, the neck gradually shifts westward, presumably moving the head with it. It is not possible to test these theories thoroughly because since mid-Victorian times Spurn has been kept in place by artificial coastal defences, begun after a massive breach which took place in 1849, when the peninsula was composed of a string of islets. The groynes and revetments to protect the peninsula were first erected by the Board of Trade, but when military forts were established on the Point (see below) the Army took over, with the Royal Engineers, and later civilians, working upon the maintenance of the sea defences, until the late 1950s, when the military left. Because of these man-made sea defences the peninsula is now the longest it has ever been, and since the 1850s has been kept in the same alignment, making it highly vulnerable to attacks from north-westerly tidal surges in the North Sea. In 1960 Spurn was bought by the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust (now the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust), which could not afford to maintain the defences, and they are now crumbling away. At the northern end of the peninsula only about three yards (three metres) of land now separate the high tide mark on the Humber from the high tide mark on the sea.

The Lighthouses

Lighthouses have been located on Spurn for over five hundred years. The first reference to a lighthouse on Spurn dates back to 1427, when  a hermit, William Reedbarrow, was granted dues from passing ships to complete a lighthouse which he had begun to build there, though little further is known about it. In the late seventeenth century a high and a low light were erected on what was then the tip of the spit, probably about two miles north of the present tip. The low light had to be rebuilt several times, but the high light lasted until the late eighteenth century, when John Smeaton, the celebrated engineer who had built the Eddystone lighthouse in 1759, designed and built two new lighthouses, under the direction of the Hull and London Trinity Houses. In 1852 a new low lighthouse was built on the Humber foreshore, and in 1895, because there was evidence that the foundations of Smeaton’s lighthouse were giving way, the present lighthouse was erected. The low lighthouse then became unnecessary because lights shone out at several levels from the new one, and it became a store for explosives, and later was topped by a water storage tank. The high lighthouse shone out over Spurn (apart from during war-time) for 90 years, until in 1985 modern technology made it redundant.

The Lifeboat

Since 1810 Spurn has been the base of the Humber Lifeboat. Established at the end of Spurn Point because so many ships were being wrecked on the Stony Binks, the lifeboat has had many distinguished coxswains and crew, who have been involved in numerous dangerous rescues. Between 1810 and 1910 the lifeboat was operated by Hull Trinity House, and after that date by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The lifeboat is manned by the only full-time residential crew in the British Isles, and since 1819 the peninsula has been home for both the lifeboat crew and their families. The first houses stood on the Humber side of the peninsula not far from the lighthouse. In 1857 they were replaced by a new terrace of houses on a site now taken up by the Point car-park. In 1890 a school was erected nearby, and Spurn children were educated in this unusual spot until 1945, when the school was closed and the children were taken daily to Easington (as they still are).  In 1975 the families moved into modern houses a little further down the Point. Dave Steenvoorden is the present Cox'n of the Humber lifeboat, 'Pride of the Humber'.

Humber Pilotage

The Humber is a very dangerous river with constantly changing currents. In the sixteenth century Hull Trinity House controlled navigation on the Humber, providing beacons, buoys and lightships, as well as licensing pilots, overseeing the management of Spurn lighthouse, and managing the Spurn lifeboat. After 1800 the pilots became the Humber Pilots Commission, and in 1908 they came under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Humber Conservancy Board, whose powers were in 1968 transferred to the British Transport Docks Board, and in 1981 to Associated British Ports (ABP). Until 1975 the pilots worked from a vessel moored off Spurn but in that year  they moved to a shore base on Spurn itself, established in one of the old World War I buildings on the Point, and a jetty was constructed for the pilot boats to work from.  The Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), which monitors all shipping in the Humber, is also controlled by Associated British Ports, and runs a 24-hour watch on the Humber from a tower established on the base of a former Battery Observation Post on the Point.
 

The Military Forts

Standing at the head of a busy estuary Spurn Point has played an important role in the defence of Britain. During the Napoleonic Wars a battery with barracks was established there about 1805. At the beginning of World War I, when the military authorities were considering how to defend the Yorkshire coast and the River Humber, Spurn seemed an ideal place to put land-based defences, despite the obvious problems of constructing heavy buildings and armaments on sand.  Accordingly in 1915 Spurn Fort, (which incorporated Green Battery) was established on the Point. A little further up the peninsula near the lighthouse the Port War Signal Station was built. From here all vessels using the area were monitored; they used pennants, lights and sound to indicate that they were friendly vessels. At the mouth of the estuary two forts, Bull Sands Fort and Haile Sands Fort, were erected on sand banks. At the northern end of the peninsula at Kilnsea, Godwin Battery, another fort, was built. During the construction of these forts, a military railway was built to link Spurn and Kilnsea.  As a means of giving early warning of the approach of Zeppelins, the Kilnsea Sound Mirror was erected in fields a little to the north of Godwin Battery. At this time the Army took over responsibility for maintaining the sea defences from the Board of Trade.

After the war the forts were placed under a system of care and maintenance, and Godwin Battery was retained as a local military base, and also used by the Territorial Army for annual camps. In 1933/34 most of the soldiers left Spurn itself, and civilians were employed to care for the camp and maintain the sea defences. When World War II was declared, the military came back in force, and in the early years of the war Spurn played an important role in home defence. When the focus of the war moved to the Continent, Spurn and Kilnsea forts continued to play an important role in the defence of the East Coast from the air. After the war a military presence remained, and in the 1950s during the Cold War, more anti-aircraft artillery was placed in the Warren area. The accommodation on the Point was also used by the R.A.F. until they transferred to a new base at Patrington Haven. By the late 1950s most of the military had withdrawn and the forts were put up for sale. In 1959 Spurn was sold to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust for the creation of a nature reserve and in 1960 Godwin Battery was sold and turned into a caravan site (Sandy Beaches). Some military buildings, gun emplacements, and concrete pill boxes still remain, though many were demolished in the 1970s because they were thought to be dangerous. On the beach in front of Sandy Beaches Caravan Site lie two huge gun emplacements, and more military buildings will soon topple over to join them. On the Point itself it is still possible to see searchlight emplacements, the remains of an engine room, two gun emplacements, and other relics which give an indication of what Spurn must have looked like when it was bristling with armaments and soldiers. In the estuary the two forts, Bull Sands Fort and Haile Sands Fort, still stand grey and forbidding, like sentinels at the mouth of the Humber.

Natural History: Spurn Bird Observatory and Naturalists on Spurn

The unique landscape of Spurn Head, and its distinctive flora and fauna have attracted naturalists to the peninsula since the early nineteenth century. Ornithologists like John Cordeaux, and William Eagle Clarke, spent much time at Spurn in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and they were followed by Ralph Chislett, George Edwards, and George Ainsworth, to name but a few. In the nineteen thirties some of these people realised that Spurn would be an ideal spot for a bird observatory, and made plans to take a lease upon Warren Cottage, at the north end of the peninsula. Unfortunately the war intervened and plans were put on hold, to be revived again in 1945/6, when Spurn Bird Observatory was born. Since then bird observation and recording on the peninsula has continued without a break. Ornithological activities include the organisation of ringing courses, migration watches of the Narrows, and  regular patrols of the Observatory recording area. As well as records of birds, the Observatory daily log covers observations of the weather and sightings of unusual insects, mammals, and reptiles, and indeed any noteworthy feature or occurrence of natural interest.  The importance of the peninsula for natural history was officially acknowledged in 1996 when Spurn became a National Nature Reserve.

 My Research on Spurn

I have been collecting material on the history of the Spurn area for many years. A number of books cover different aspects of the history of this area: books about the lifeboat; books about the military history; books about the railway; books about the lighthouses; books about the natural history. My book, provisionally titled  ‘The People along the Sand’: a fully illustrated history of Spurn and Kilnsea over two hundred years, aims to be more comprehensive. A wealth of material exists about this unusual place, where because of its changing, shifting shape people have had to adapt to nature and live subject to the tides, winds and elements. The book is organised chronologically and an early chapter covers life on the peninsula in the nineteenth century, including a description of Spurn at the beginning of the century; the lighthouses,  the lifeboat from its beginnings, life on the Point for the coxswain and crew, and the lighthouse-keepers and their families. The breach of 1849 had many consequences,  and they are the subject of a section of the book. By the second half of the nineteenth century many wildfowlers and naturalists had begun visiting the area, aided by the coming of the railway to Patrington and Withernsea, and excursions to Spurn from over the river from Cleethorpes and Grimsby became quite frequent in the summer months. In the late nineteenth century new communications came to Spurn, when the Point was linked by telegraph and telephone, and a post office was established. The children got a new school in 1890, a  new lighthouse was built in 1895, and in 1910 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution took over responsibility for the lifeboat. One of the most notable events of the early twentieth century in the area was the 1906 floods, whilst erosion continued to give cause for concern The First World War brought drama and danger, and the construction of the railway and the forts at Spurn and Kilnsea, the Port War Signal Station,  Bull and Haile Sands Forts, the attacks from the sea and by Zeppelins from the air meant that the inhabitants really felt that they were on the front line in the early years of the war. Between the wars a period of peace and quiet for the peninsula began, though this was still a period full of interest, with a continuing military presence, dramatic rescues at sea by the lifeboat, and the vicissitudes of travel on Spurn’s unique railway line. World War II brought the military back in force, along with many changes, though it appeared that local people coped very well with the influx. After the war the military remained for some time, and indeed there was a revival in Spurn’s and Kilnsea’s strategic importance during the Cold War in the early to mid-1950s. The establishment of Spurn Bird Observatory brought new people to the Point, and in 1953 the devastating floods hit the East Coast. The late 1950s was a crucial time in the history of both Spurn and Kilnsea, when the Ministry of Defence decided to relinquish control of the forts, and Spurn peninsula was purchased by the Yorkshire Naturalists Trust (later Yorkshire Wildlife Trust) for a nature reserve, and Godwin Battery became a caravan site. Since then many more changes have taken place. As well as farming and fishing, tourism has become a staple part of the local economy. The battle against the sea continues, with erosion taking its toll, especially as the sea defences crumble away. The lighthouse is now redundant, but still stands firmly and picturesquely on the peninsula.

Modern technology enables anyone researching an area or topic to access the internet and exchange information quickly and easily, scan photographs digitally, record reminiscences, and so on and so forth. For years I have been taking advantage of these opportunities and I have been in touch with people brought up at Spurn, who now live many miles away. However I know that there are many more out there, and I hope that by mean of this web page I shall make further contacts. I have built up a considerable body of information, which I am happy to share with people who may not know much about the place which they or their relatives or friends knew many years ago. So please contact me if you think you may have photographs or reminiscences that you would like to share. Did your ancestors live at Spurn? Were you associated with the lifeboat community or the lighthouse keepers? Did you or do you know of anyone who served with the forces at Spurn or Kilnsea? Did you come to Spurn in the 1950s, either in the military or as a visitor? Your information will help me to build up a picture of life in this remote spot.

 On this web page I will include examples of some of the material that I have come across.  Thousands of soldiers passed though Spurn and Kilnsea. Miss Carrie Leonard ran a café near Godwin Battery, and she kept an autograph album, which I have been fortunate enough to borrow. Here is a sample page from the album, with the signatures of men belonging to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.