Spurn#Lighthouses

Spurn Head was known to classical authors, such as Ptolemy as Ocelum Promontorium ({{langx|grc|Ὀκέλον ἄκρον}}).Ptolemy, Geography, 2.3.6.{{cite DGRG|title=Ocelum}} 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.{{cite book|last=Bruce|first=J.|year=1838|title=Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV|publisher=Camden Soc. 1|page=4|oclc=602067}} 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.{{cite web | url=http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/RAVENSER/index.htm | title = History of Ravenser Odd | access-date=15 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508134629/http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/RAVENSER/index.htm |archive-date=8 May 2009}}

File:Spurn Head and Lighthouse, c.1904 (archive ref PO-1-132-1) (36917176342).jpg

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'.{{cite book |last1=Elliot |first1=George H. |title=European Light-House Systems |date=1875 |publisher=Lockwood & co. |location=London |pages=115–116 |url=http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv38f8413f |access-date=10 March 2019}}

During the First World War two coastal artillery {{convert|9.2|in|mm|adj=on}} batteries were added at either end of Spurn Head, with {{convert|4|and|4.7|in|mm|adj=on}} 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.

File:Spurn Head Settlement.jpg

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.{{cite web | title = Sails on Rails | url = http://www.copsewood.org/ng_rly/sailbogie/sailbogie.htm | publisher = Mike Munro | access-date = 8 July 2009}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.ywt.org.uk/reserves/spurn-nature-reserve|title=Spurn National Nature Reserve|publisher=Yorkshire Wildlife Trust|access-date=23 January 2015}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-46608595|title=Spurn, Yorkshire's 'Land's End' five years on|work=BBC News|date=26 December 2018|access-date=26 September 2019}} Spurn has now become a tidal island, as the narrowest part of the sandbank connection to the mainland is flooded with each high tide.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08mn6yg|title=Holderness, Countryfile – BBC One|publisher=BBC|access-date=23 July 2017}}

Plans to build a new visitor centre for the reserve were unveiled in September 2014 by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT).{{cite news|url=http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Visitor-centre-plan-Spurn-Point-Nature-Reserve/story-23014024-detail/story.html|work=Hull Daily Mail|date=29 September 2014|title=Visitor centre plan for Spurn Point Nature Reserve

|access-date=23 January 2015|first=Danny |last=Longhorn}}{{cite newsletter|work=Spurn Newsletter|publisher=Yorkshire Wildlife Trust|issue=1|date=September 2014|access-date=23 January 2015|url=http://data.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/Spurn%20Newsletter%201%20Sept%202014.pdf|title=The Spurn Visitor Centre|pages=1–4}} Planning consent for the initial plans was refused by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in July 2016{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-36828817|title=East Yorkshire wildlife visitor centre plan rejected|date=18 July 2016|work=BBC News|access-date=29 January 2017}} but revised plans were approved in January 2017.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-38759171|title=Spurn gets go-ahead for wildlife visitor centre|date=26 January 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=29 January 2017}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/Spurn_visitor_centre_plans_sparks_opposition.aspx?s_id=557018582 |title=Spurn visitor centre plans sparks opposition|access-date=23 July 2017}} The new visitor centre was officially opened by Simon King on 20 March 2018.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-43472770|title=Spurn wildlife visitor centre opens despite objections|date=20 March 2018|work=BBC News|access-date=6 October 2019}}

A February 2023 inspection of the RNLI launch jetty revealed structural issues, as a result the station was moved to Grimsby.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-65781749|title=Humber lifeboat station leaves Spurn Point after 213 years of rescues|date=1 June 2023|work=BBC News|accessdate=30 September 2023}}

File:Spurn in 1979.jpg

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 {{convert|110|yd|m|-1|abbr=off}} 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 {{convert|2|m|ftin|abbr=off|order=flip}} 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.

File:Spurn Point and lighthouse, aerial 2021 (1) - geograph.org.uk - 6871723.jpg

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.

{{Infobox lighthouse

| qid = Q26365310

| name = Spurn Point Lighthouse

| image = Spurn lighthouse.JPG

| image_width =

| caption =

| location = Spurn Point
East Riding of Yorkshire
England

| coordinates = {{coord|53.578996|N|0.118325|E|display=inline}}

| grid_ref_UK = TA 40345 11239

| yearbuilt = 1895

| yearlit =

| automated = 1957

| yeardeactivated = 1985

| foundation =

| construction = brick tower

| shape = cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern

| marking = white and black bands tower, white lantern

| height = {{convert|39|m|ft|abbr=on|order=flip}}

| focalheight =

| lens = 6-panel hyper-radial rotating catadioptric (1895-1957)
3-panel 3rd-order rotating catadioptric (1857-1985)

| currentlens =

| lightsource =

| intensity =

| range = {{convert|17|nmi|km|abbr=on}}

| characteristic = Fl W 15 s
Oc RW (sector lights)

| country =

| countrynumber =

| countrylink =

| managingagent = Spurn Point National Nature Reserve{{cite rowlett|enge|access-date=6 May 2016}}

| heritage = Grade II listed building{{NHLE|num=1083476|desc=Spurn Lighthouse|grade=II|accessdate=21 May 2021}}

| mapframe-zoom = 9

}}

The earliest reference to a lighthouse on Spurn Point is 1427, when a certain Richard Reedbarrow ('Hermit of the Chapel of Our Lady and St Anne at Ravenspurn') petitioned Parliament for permission to levy dues on ships entering the Humber from the sea, in recognition of his having built a tower (to serve as a beacon by day and a light by night), 'that should teach the people to hold in the right channel'. Permission was duly granted by Letters Patent of King Henry VI, on 28 November that year (though it is not known whether or for how long the tower remained in service).

From the 17th century there are records of a pair of lighthouses being maintained as leading lights: a high light and a low light.

There is evidence that Hull Trinity House maintained beacons on Spurn Head in the 16th century, but these were unlit seamarks. Demands for a light on the spit grew over the following century, and in the 1670s the (disputed) landowner, Justinian Angell, set about erecting a pair of lighthouses; he was granted a patent to levy dues for the lights on 25 October 1675. Angell's high light lasted for just over a century, but the low light had to be rebuilt on several occasions. Over time, the lights gained a reputation for being unreliable, and in 1766 an Act of Parliament was passed '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'.

File:The Spurn Lighthouses (archive ref PH-2-263) (37087370005).jpg, 1829).]]

In 1767, therefore, John Smeaton was commissioned to build a new pair of lighthouses; the work was jointly overseen by the London and Hull Trinity Houses (albeit the Angell family would continue to receive the dues once the work was complete). They were first lit on 5 September 1776. Smeaton's high light (a {{convert|90|ft|m|disp=sqbr|adj=on}} red-brick tower) remained in use until 1895, but there were problems (as there had been in previous years) with maintaining the low light, and after only a year or two it was washed away during a heavy storm.{{cite book |last1=de Boer |first1=G. |title=A History of the Spurn Lighthouses |date=1968 |publisher=East Yorkshire Local History Society |location=Beverley |pages=53–68 |edition=2nd |url=http://www.eylhs.org.uk/dl/133/a-history-of-the-spurn-lighthouses |access-date=6 April 2025}} In its place, a moveable wooden swape-style light was used for a number of years. By 1815 the swape was much decayed and the light had become unreliable, so the following year a new Low Lighthouse was built (a {{convert|50|ft|abbr=on}} brick tower, designed by John Shaw); it was first lit on 25 November 1816. In November 1829, however, a storm severely undermined the foundations of Shaw's tower, and two months later it was decommissioned. In its place a moveable wooden tower was used for the low light, which remained in use until it too was swept away in a storm, in March 1851. The following year, a new Low Lighthouse was constructed in stone, designed by James Walker and built under the supervision of engineer Henry Norris.{{cite web | title = Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 2 | year = 1861 | pages = 69 | url = https://archive.org/stream/lighthousemanage02blak#page/69/mode/1up }} Unlike its predecessors, this low light was built on the estuary side (i.e. to the west) of the high light, rather than on the seaward side.

File:Spurn Low Lighthouse.JPG

Initially both lighthouses were coal-fired. When the low light was rebuilt in 1816, it was equipped with Argand lamps and reflectors.{{London Gazette |issue=17192 |date=16 November 1816 |page=2172 }} As a result, it outshone the high light; so in 1819 Smeaton's high tower was likewise fitted with Argand lamps and reflectors (24 in number).

The wooden low light, in use after 1830, had a smaller lantern than its predecessor; in 1848, it was equipped with a small Fresnel lens (a fifth-order lenticular dioptric) and this was reused, in Walker's tower, when the low light was rebuilt in 1852. The following year, a Fresnel lens was installed in Smeaton's tower (the high light): this was a large (first-order) fixed optic, made by Henry Lepaute of Paris. (Prior to installation this lens had been exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851).{{cite web | title = Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 1 | page = 30 | url = https://deriv.nls.uk/dcn23/8037/80373343.23.pdf }} In 1867 a red sector was added, which warned ships of hazards to the south ranging from Clee Ness to Sand Haile Flats;{{London Gazette |issue=23255 |date=24 May 1867 |page=3000 }} (initially applied to the low light, it was moved to the high light in 1871).{{London Gazette |issue=23691 |date=27 December 1870 |page=5920 }} The high light was made occulting (once every half minute) in 1883.{{London Gazette |issue=25244 |date=22 June 1883 |page=3213 }}

File:Spurn Lighthouse - geograph.org.uk - 309594.jpg

In 1895 both Walker's low light and Smeaton's high light were decommissioned; they were 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; the tower served for a number of years as an explosives store. Of the old Smeaton high light only the foundations remain (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).{{cite book |title=Mercantile Marine Fund: Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee of Inquiry appointed by the President of the Board of Trade |date=1896 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |page=281 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgBQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PPn281 |access-date=8 April 2025}} Keepers' cottages had been constructed within the circular compound of the old High Lighthouse, and these remained in use after its demolition up until the 1950s.

The 1895 lighthouse is a round brick tower, {{convert|128|ft|m|abbr=off}} 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.{{cite web |title=Hyper-radial Lenses |url=https://uslhs.org/hyper-radial-lenses |website=United States Lighthouse Society |access-date=11 March 2019}} Its white light had a range of {{convert|17|nmi|km|0|abbr=off}} 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;{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Robin |title=Lighthouses of the North East Coast |date=2014 |publisher=Halsgrove |location=Wellington, Somerset |isbn=978-0-85704-234-7 |pages=122–128}} power was drawn from nearby generators maintained by the military garrison.

Then, in 1957, the lighthouse was converted to acetylene gas operation.{{cite web |title=Spurn Point |url=https://www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com/Hull-Spurn-Point/details/?dms=3&venue=2173292 |website=Visit Hull and East Yorkshire |access-date=11 March 2019}} 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.

Due to improvements in navigation, the light was discontinued in 1985; the main optic was removed the following year. The combined acetylene lamp and gas-powered optic were subsequently put on display, first in the Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum, then (for a time) in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.{{cite web |title=Photo |url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a-lighthouse-lens-displayed-inside-the-national-maritime-museum-in-47590330.html |website=Alamy |access-date=20 March 2019}}

After 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-24141102 |work=BBC News |title=Spurn Point lighthouse gets lottery renovation|date=18 September 2013|access-date=23 June 2014}} Work began in 2015;{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-32242983|title=Spurn Point lighthouse revamp work gets under way|date=10 April 2015|work=BBC News|access-date=9 August 2016}} it was completed in March the following year, and opened to the public for the Easter weekend.{{cite news|url=http://www.ywt.org.uk/news/2016/03/30/spurn-lighthouse-opens-public|title=Spurn Lighthouse opens to the public!|date=30 March 2016|publisher=Yorkshire Wildlife Trust|access-date=20 March 2018}}

File:Spurn Head RNLI Launch Platform.jpg|The pier and launching platform for the RNLI at Spurn

File:Spurn Lighthouse in the sea mist.JPG|Sea mist

File:HumberVTS.JPG|Humber Vessel traffic service

File:SpurnPoint1.JPG|Spurn Point from the mainland

File:Spurn 3.jpg|Humber Vessel traffic service

File:Spurn 4.jpg|RNLI Platform

File:Spurn 8.jpg|The lighthouse at Spurn Point

File:Lighthouses at Spurn Head - geograph.org.uk - 200519.jpg|The old Low Light (1852) seen alongside the new (1895) lighthouse

File:National Maritime Museum Cornwall (8817).jpg|The 1957 optic in the National Maritime Museum, Cornwall

File:Spurn Point High Lighthouse.jpg|The lighthouse seen from the beach

File:Spurn Point view.jpg|Spurn Point seen from the lighthouse

File:We made it! (29306714183).jpg|The newly-restored lighthouse in April 2016

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Spurn Point Lighthouse Act 1772

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Great Britain

| 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."

| year = 1772

| citation = 12 Geo. 3. c. 29

| territorial_extent = Great Britain

| royal_assent = 21 May 1772

| commencement = 21 January 1772{{efn|The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793.}}

| repeal_date = 6 August 1861

| repealing_legislation = Statute Law Revision Act 1861

| related_legislation = Spurn Point Lighthouse Act 1766

| status = Repealed

| original_text = https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D78uAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA71

| collapsed = yes

}}

• Humber Forts
• Spurn Lightship
• Spurn Point Military Railway

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{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book

| title=Gazetteer – A–Z of Towns Villages and Hamlets

| publisher=East Riding of Yorkshire Council

| year=2006

| page=10

}}

{{Refend}}

{{commons category|Spurn}}

{{Wiktionary|spurn}}

• [http://www.ywt.org.uk/reserves/spurn-nature-reserve Yorkshire Wildlife Trust – Spurn Nature Reserve]
• [http://www.britainexpress.com/countryside/coast/spurn.htm Spurn Head Heritage Coast]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20000510060149/http://www.spurnpoint.com/ Spurn Point – National Nature Reserve and Lifeboat Station]
• [http://www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/ Spurn Bird Observatory]
• [http://easytide.ukho.gov.uk/EASYTIDE/EasyTide/ShowPrediction.aspx?PortID=0171&PredictionLength=7 Tide times at Spurn Point from the UKHO]

{{Portalbar|Yorkshire|England|United Kingdom}}

{{East Yorkshire|state=collapsed}}

{{Lighthouses in England}}

{{Authority control | additional=Q26365310}}

Category:National nature reserves in England

Category:Special Protection Areas in England

Category:Islands of the Humber

Category:Humber

Category:Nature reserves in the East Riding of Yorkshire

Category:Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserves

Category:Bird observatories in England

Category:Yorkshire coast

Category:Spits of England

Category:Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire

Category:Navigational hazards