Holderness

As part of the United Kingdom, the Holderness area generally has cool summers and relatively mild winters. Weather conditions vary from day to day as well as from season to season. The latitude of the area means that it is influenced by predominantly westerly winds with depressions and their associated fronts, bringing with them unsettled and windy weather, particularly in winter. The wind sometimes causes depositions to happen. Between depressions there are often small mobile anticyclones that bring periods of fair weather. In winter anticyclones bring cold dry weather. In summer the anticyclones tend to bring dry settled conditions which can lead to drought. For its latitude this area is mild in winter and cooler in summer due to the influence of the Gulf Stream in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Air temperature varies on a daily and seasonal basis. The temperature is usually lower at night and January is the coldest time of the year. The two dominant influences on the climate of the Holderness are the shelter against the worst of the moist westerly winds provided firstly by the Pennines and then the Yorkshire Wolds and the proximity of the North Sea. Generally, rainfall is 600 to 700 mm per year which is low compared with the national average rainfall of 1125 mm.

Geologically, Holderness is underlain by Cretaceous chalk but in most places it is so deeply buried beneath glacial deposits that it has no influence on the landscape. The landscape is dominated by deposits of till, boulder clays and glacial lake clays. These were deposited during the Devensian glaciation. The glacial deposits form a more or less continuous lowland plain which has some peat filled depressions (known locally as meres) which mark the presence of former lake beds. There are other glacial landscape features such as drumlin mounds, ridges and kettle holes scattered throughout the area.

The well-drained glacial deposits provide fertile soils that can support intensive arable cultivation. Fields are generally large and bounded by drainage ditches. There is very little woodland in the area and this leads to a landscape that is essentially rural but very flat and exposed. The coast is subject to rapid marine erosion.[1]

The Holderness coastline suffers the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe: 5 feet (1.5 m) a year on average or 2 million tonnes of material a year.[2] Some of this is transported by longshore drift with about three percent of material being deposited at Spurn Point spit, to the south. The growth of Spurn Point is demonstrated by a series of lighthouses that have been built on the point. It is thought that approximately 3 miles (5 km) of land has been lost since the Roman era, including at least 23 towns/villages, including Ravenspurn.

The Holderness coastline is susceptible to erosion due to the long north-easterly fetch, allowing for powerful waves, and the softness of the geology that make up the cliffs. Holderness is also a former bay that was filled in during the last ice age and is now made up of chalk/glacial compounds that are easily eroded such as boulder clay.

Aldbrough, Holderness. Coastal erosion.

All the villages affected by the erosion are located on the north side of the estuary of the River Humber. The area stretches from Flamborough Head (high chalk cliffs, just north of Bridlington) down to Spurn Point (sand spit, on above map). Villages such as Ravenser, which sent representatives to the parliament of Edward I, have totally disappeared.

The local authorities are endeavouring to prevent the effects of erosion. Hard defences in the form of a concrete seawall and timber groynes have given some protection. It has been suggested that a large underwater reef made of tyres could be built off the Holderness coast to mitigate this erosion but it would be costly to build.

Other defences include sea walls, groynes, and gabions but business people say that if the erosion is not stopped then there will be millions of pounds of damage. However, one or more such groynes has had a detrimental effect further along the coast, in some areas resulting in erosion of up to twenty metres per year initially, though over the long term erosion rates have been seen to revert to their original yearly average of closer to two metres a year.

The Holderness area is drained by the River Hull and its tributaries and a number of coastal streams. The valley of the River Hull is broad and shallow and in its lower reaches the river is contained within flood banks. The River Hull Tidal Surge Barrier at the mouth of the river can be used to prevent surge tides overwhelming the flood defences. Large areas of Holderness are too flat and low to drain naturally so in these areas a low level drainage system operates to collect the water. In the middle and lower reaches of the River Hull water is pumped from the low level drains into a high level system. This system consists of elevated water courses bounded by embankments. It drains by gravity into the sea. The main drain is the Holderness Drain, begun in 1764 by the engineer John Grundy, Jr.[3]

In the east and south-east of Holderness there is a complex network of drains and streams that flow south into the Humber or east into the North Sea. To mitigate the effects of high tides stopping the water flow from these outlets, several have had pumping stations constructed at their outfalls. [4]

There is archaeological evidence to suggest that the first settlers in Holderness arrived in the Neolithic era when the plain was still very wet and most likely consisted of a mixture of marshes, lakes, islands and woodland. As the sea level changed and the area became drier it was progressively cleared of trees and the higher drier parts were initially favoured for settlement.[6]

The Domesday survey reveals that in the reign of Edward the Confessor there were 45 different freeholders having land in Holderness. The name of Holderness may be derived from the Danish "hold" which was the name given in that language to a nobleman with considerable territorial possessions. The "ness" part generally refers to a promontory, or nose-shape, either in a river or jutting from a coastline.[7]

After the Norman Conquest of England the extensive Lordship of Holderness was given by King William I to Drogo de la Beuvrière, a Flemish supporter. This Drogo built a castle at Skipsea before 1087 when his estates were confiscated by the king.

The area was then given to Adelaide of Normandy, and the title to her husband, Odo, but this was taken from him when he rebelled against the King William II in 1095. It was returned to her son Stephen of Aumale in 1102.[8] The Honour or Lordship of Holderness then descended to successive Earls (or Counts) of Aumale:

• William le Gros 1127–1179
• Hawise of Aumale 1179–1194 with her husbands as Counts jure uxoris:
  • William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex 1180–1189
  • William de Forz 1189–1194
  • Baldwin of Bethune 1195–1212
• William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (died 1242), son of the 2nd Countess by her second husband William de Forz
• William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle (died 1260), son of the 3rd Earl

William de Forz, 4th Earl, was survived by his widow Isabella de Forz. She was given custody of her children Thomas and William, but outlived them and also her daughter Aveline, who married Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (son of Henry III), but died aged 15.[9] The Honour of Holderness then escheated to the crown.

The coastal trading town of Ravenser Odd, represented in the 13th century model parliament, was lost to the sea through storm and coastal erosion. Its seaport role was eventually taken over by the new town of Kingston upon Hull but until about 1400 by Hedon and Beverley as Hull was isolated by the surrounding marshes.

Large estates in Holderness were held by the Bishop of Durham and the Archbishop of York. Other large landowners in the area included the abbeys of Meaux and Thornton and the priories of Swine, Nunkeeling and Bridlington. This land was confiscated and became crown property when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.

The Aumale lordship had also passed to the crown and was obtained along with some former monastic lands by the Constable family of Burton Constable in the 16th century. Other large estates created from former monastic holdings were sold by the crown to private landowners in the 17th and 18th centuries. Piecemeal attempts were made to improve the poor drainage of the area and with the formation of drainage boards in the later 18th century flooding began to be controlled. The remaining wastes were added to farm land and the meres, fluctuating lakes, disappeared.

The opening of railways from Hull accelerated the growth of first Withernsea in 1854 and Hornsea in 1864 as coastal resorts and commuter towns of Hull. Many of the other settlements grew and changed their character from agricultural villages to become dormitory settlements of Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Driffield. Sales of large landed estates have reduced many of the large agricultural holdings that were in private ownership but some still remain and some have been used to create large farming agri-businesses which manage considerable areas with few farms. The rail links to both Withernsea and Hornsea closed to passengers in 1964 and closed completely in 1965.[10]