Walking the Humber. Stage 12. Sunk Island East

A strong northerly wind today. I toyed with the idea of avoiding the exposed walk atop sea wall and going somewhere more sheltered instead, but the pull of the Humber was too much to resist. I drove through Patrington Haven and along the deep and wide Winestead drain to Outstray farm. This stage is along the most recently reclaimed piece of land of Sunk Island, the land was only embanked around 1912. The names of the farms in the area are suggestive of this: Outstray, Newlands, East Growths.

 Almost the first thing I did was to flush a Kingfisher from a drain by the farm. Then two Mandarin ducks fly over, which is a surprise. I walked to the pumping station first. Two pairs of Mute Swans swim on the drain (top shot), sheltered from the wind. One of them seems to have a nest, but I can't see any eggs. There is a family of Greylags with three young. They look at me nervously. 

 Then a Cuckoo flies from just ahead of me from the side of the drain. My first cuckoo of the year! It remains silent and flies to a bush where it is promptly mobbed by Meadow Pipits and forced to move on. 

The stages of reclamation of Sunk Island.

From reclamation to realignment
To give an idea of the zeal of the reclamation enterprise until very recently, engineer James Creassy wrote in a 1797 report for the draining and improvement of Keyingham Level:
'of all the improvements this country can boast none are so strikingly great, or of such public utility as gaining lands from the sea, and draining fens, swamps, and drowned lands.' June Sheppard added 'If the salt-marsh that extends between Sunk Island and Spurn Head should be reclaimed on some future occasion, further adaptations of the Winestead drainage will become necessary.' Little would these authors imagine that reclamation would stop and managed realignment start! Indeed, the easternmost corner of Sunk Island, 54 ha by the pumping station, has already been realigned. After removing rock gabions, the whole of the old wall was reduced in height and on 26th June 2006 two breaches were made. This was the last field to be reclaimed from the Humber, the land had beed arable for less than a century. The realignment scheme was compensatory habitat for development elsewhere. There are ongoing plans for a extension of this scheme at the stage of planning permission, to the east and west of the current site. This may mean the area will be returned to the tides of the Humber once more.

Pumping Station. 

  When this part of Sunk Island was reclaimed, the Winestead Drain had to be extended and deepened. Eventually, after drainage problems, a pumping station was built at the end of the drain as the land is very flat and prone to silting and flooding.

This is the outflow of the Winestead drain, called Patrington Channel across the marsh at low tide.

 I watch the new realignment, the Outstray, now covered in salt marsh. The Cuckoo flies along the shore, giving me a brief photo opportunity.

A small group of Brent Geese takes off, leaving a lone one behind. There are scattered Shelduck feeding on the marsh.

I climb and follow the permissive path along the new sea wall, walking east towards Hawkins point. A little further ahead there is a monument on the sea wall to celebrate the raising of the bank and the position of the Greenwich meridian (more info here).

The plaque marking the location of Greenwich Meridian.

A little while ahead, on the wall, there is an odd object that looks like an old bomb on the sea wall, decorated with a plastic flower. Andy Gibson pointed out it is simply a metal float.

A view of the salt marsh towards the east.

Scurvy grass, Cochlearia officinalis, flowering profusely on the marsh.

This small beach in front of the sea wall gave me some respite from the wind.

 Whole areas of the beach are made of small shells, which are also abundant in the mud by the wall.

One of at least 4 Wheatears on the rocks of the sea wall. Due to the wind, photography was challenging to say the least!

Little Egret.

A distant Whimbrel.

Pair of Roe Deer on the 1897 old sea wall, maybe the same as last week?

Before turning back, I have lunch sheltered behind a spit made of rocks, rubble and mud overlooking Hawkins Point. The tide was out and the waders distant.

Curlew, Grey Plover - some in summer plumage - and Dunlin feed on the mudflats.

A statuesque clump of mud left by erosion of sediments in this part of the Humber. A couple of sections of the sea wall have fallen through, despite the protection of rocks.

Drinker Moth Caterpillar, Euthrix potatoria.

One of a few queen bumblebees on the wing, a Buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris.

The Rapeseed in full bloom at Newlands Farm.

The bubbling calls of two Whimbrels alert me to their presence on the Outstray mudflats.

A male Marsh Harrier flies low over the rapeseed. The female was mobbed by a crow earlier and she moved onto Welwick Saltmarsh, while the male played with the wind flying up and down.

Featured bird: Dark-bellied Brent Goose
This small migratory goose winters in the east and south UK coasts and breeds in the Russian Arctic. It favours estuaries, where it feeds on the salt marsh and also upending in shallow water. It is an amber listed species, and suffered strong declines in the Humber in the mid 20th century due to the collapse of their main food, Eel Grass (Zostera), but populations have recovered in the last decades. In 1975 Eel Grass meadows reappeared in Spurn and Brent Geese started to increase in numbers. The Humber is now an internationally important site for the Dark-bellied Brent, with about 4,000 estimated, mainly in the outer Humber, of which about 1000 winter at Spurn.

Today's walk, about 10 km round trip.

More information
Sheppard, T. 1912. The Lost Towns the Yorkshire Coast and Other Chapters Bearing Upon the Geography of the District.

Sheppard, J. 1966. The Draining of the Marshlands of South Holderness and the Vale of York. (East Yorkshire local history series, 1966).

Welwick managed realignment white paper by ABP. Here.

UPDATE 1/05/2018. Thanks to Andy Gibson, who helped with finding a good starting point for this walk and also provided info and corrections regarding an error in the post on the elimination of the whole sea wall at the managed realignment site. I have edited the sentence and added some info of the strange metal object, which is a metal float.

Walking the Humber. Stage 11. Sunk Island

A blustery, but bright day for a circular walk around Sunk Island, which is made of flat arable land under 4 m over sea level with scattered farmhouses. I drive through the tree-lined approach road to the crossroads that mark the centre of Sunk Island village, a church on one side and the old village school on the other, where I park. Grimsby dock tower rises over the horizon ahead. The rapeseed is blooming and the wheat is thick and green after the last rains, but is quite dry under foot. A Yellow Wagtail flies overhead onto a field.

Farmhouse on Sunk Island

A resting place with great views for a pair of shelduck. 

 I take the right towards Stoney Creek, passing by several farms and the war battery.

Stone Creek anti-aircraft battery.

Information panel on the battery.

 I climb the sea bank by Stoney Creek and head east. A pair of Swallows struggle with the wind to sit on a post. I struggle to get hold of my field book as I take notes.

The salt marsh is wide here, with some pools. A pair of Gadwall, Mallard and two Redshank take off.

The trees of a copse rise ahead appearing looming on the flat landscape. As I walk by the copse, a Lesser Whitethroat sings and two Red Kites are mobbed by a Magpie. I get to see one quite close as it flies over me. I wasn't expecting to see my first Red Kites this year at Sunk Island!
Although there are a few gates and fences, this is a permissive path, not a Public Right of Way, there is easy access all the way around Sunk Island, the worse part just in need of some mowing.

 Near Hawkins point I have a glimpse of Spurn Lighthouses in the horizon, and when I look back I can also see the Humber Bridge, probably not many places where this is possible. The Humber here forms a wide shallow bay with wide mudflats called Spurn Bight.

History of Sunk Island
Sunk Island is an intriguing name for a eye-shaped piece of land attached to the mainland, and its only makes sense when one knows its fascinating history. During medieval times silting of land on the north bank of the Humber was promptly followed by land reclamation, and villages like Tharlesthorpe, Frismersk, Penisthorpe and Orwithfleet were established in the area around or shortly after the Domesday book (1086). However, the new land was lost again to the Humber in the following centuries and the villages and hamlets destroyed. In 1356 Tharlesthorpe was completely lost. By 1670 there were no traces of what is now Sunk Island. These loses to the Humber might have something to do with Spurn being breached, and therefore unable to shelter South Holderness from storms in the North Sea or resulting from changes in the strength and erosive force of the Humber north channel. Part of the land that disappeared into the Humber formed a shoal that was called 'Sonke lands' in navigation charts.

Maps showing the changes in Sunk Island from 1744, after the island emerged for the second time (redrawn and modified from Sheppard, see More Information).

However, the sunken lands eventually re-emerged into a sand bank and then an island. In 1695 Sunk Island had emerged from the tides and part of it was embanked and put into cultivation. In 1744, 20,000 acres were added to the new island. Further silting and reclamation meant that a little later in 1786 the western side of Sunk island had become connected to the mainland and by 1834 much of Sunk Island was attached to the mainland. The North Channel became completely silted and Patrington Haven could no longer be used for navigation in 1869. The fishermen had to move to Stoney Creek. Today, Patrington Haven is now over 4 km away from the Humber bank. The old name for Sunk Island stuck and now it is neither sunk nor an island. Today's walk more or less traced the contour of the island before it became reclaimed and attached to the mainland.

Notice for wild fowlers near Stoney Creek.

A meandering drain.

A copse in the distance.

Red Kite.

Chalk bank at Hawkins point.

Shelduck and Redshank.

Avocets. 

Grimsby Dock tower. 

Long grass on the bank. Around this area a mixed hirundine flock with Swallows, a House Martin and a Sand Martin hunts over the flooded marsh as it moves up the estuary.

Beach east of Hawkins point.

A pair of Roe Deer rests on the 1850 sea wall now well behind the sea defences near East Bank Farm.

Drain near East Bank farm.

Typical farmhouse cottage. After Hawkins point I walk up a farm track and join the road back to Sunk Island church.

Rapeseed in bloom.

The church of Sunk Island.

A Rook takes off the lovely cockerel weather vane atop Sunk Island church.

Today's circular walk, 14 km.

More information
Sheppard, J. The Draining of the Marshlands of South Holderness and the Vale of York. East Yorkshire local history series, 1966. Here.

Genuki Entry for Sunk Island. Here.