Spurn Point
Humberside boasts a curiously shaped landmark that’s regarded as a help by some, and a hindrance by others. No, not local MP John Prescott — it’s Spurn Point, three and a half miles of sand and shingle banks, held together by marram grass and sea buckthorn, and only 50 metres wide at some points. Its surrounding mudflats make it a popular spot for bird-watching.
Situated in the Humber estuary, Spurn has been a focal point of navigation for North Sea shipping. The Ministry of Defence sold Spurn to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in the 1950s, but the Point’s sea defences — originally built by the Victorians — cannot cope with the non-stop battering from the open sea.
Spurn Point’s current lighthouse, closed since October 1986, dates from the 1890s. Its first one was built around 1427.
Photo: Mark Pilkington
NOMINATION 649 OF 1160
It's as English as the weather. One minute it's going to be washed away by the sea, the next there's a battle to preserve it for the wildlife that lives on it. And anyway, the maps of the east coast would look odd without it.
Barry Tenlet
