38 REPORT — 1853. 



First, as to the waste of land. It is difficult now to form an idea of what 

 was once the greatest extent of the tidal waters of the Humber ; but no doubt 

 they flowed over districts at present in fertile cultivation, forming deep bays 

 only limited by hills and rising ground ; and it is equally difficult to tell what 

 have been the narrowest limits of its channel. We have living witnesses to 

 testify of a much more contracted channel than now exists, and tradition, if 

 not maps, can verify still greater changes. 



Commencing at A on the Lincolnshire side at the confluence of the Trent, 

 and proceeding to Whitton at B, the land is alluvial, and easily affected by 

 the action of the water, and therefore subject to continual change ; at one 

 time accretions of hundreds of acres forming in a few months, and then being 

 as speedily washed away. Whitton is, for some short distance, protected by 

 the lias formation, and therefore is not liable to rapid change, except that of 

 deposits of sand-banks along its frontage, so as occasionally to prevent en- 

 tirely the approach of vessels to its landing. From a point near to Whitton, 

 to another a little to the east of Ferriby at C, including a distance of about 

 six miles of coast, very extensive ravages have taken place ; and in my own 

 recollection and knowledge of the shore, and from facts I have obtained, not 

 less than 200 acres have been lost during the last forty or fifty years, so that 

 the line of coast at this locality forms a considerable bay, but filled in, in 

 some measure, by an island, to which I shall have again to refer. I met with 

 one individual at Wintringham, who informed me, that in one field of 14 

 acres he had constructed, within the space of about twenty years, seven new 

 banks, and only about S^ acres now remain. Another field, of about 17 

 acres, is now reduced to about 2 acres. It is a tradition, that about 100 

 years ago pei-sons could make themselves heard and understood, between the 

 ancient Roman Ferry at Brough and the Ferry opposite. It is now more 

 than a mile from Brough to the nearest point on the opposite side. Of 

 course, water being a better conductor of sound than land, some allowance 

 should be made on that account. At a little more than a mile east of Fer- 

 riby Sluice, at D, the chalk of the Lincolnshire Wolds appears, and for a[ 

 short distance protects the foreshore. Here are two very extensive quarries 

 for procuring chalk, where it is shipped for the purpose of being used for 

 protecting the banks of the Humber, as well as for forming the foundations 

 of roads and other works. From the Barton chalk quarry, throughout the 

 whole of the remaining line of the Lincolnshire coast, it is, with scarcely an 

 exception, alluvial, and liable to, and undergoing changes, except where pro- 

 tected by engineering works : and that part of the coast of the Humber is 

 not without its massive and magnificent works of art ; as at Ferriby Sluice, 

 New Holland, and Grimsby. 



Having thus noticed at something like railway speed the Lincolnshire coast 

 of the Humber, from the Trent to the sea, we will now go back to the con- 

 fiuence of the Ouse, and survey in like manner the Yorkshire shore to the 

 sea at Spurn. 



Starting, then, at Faxfleet at E, we pass the entrance to the Market 

 Weighton Canal, Bromfleet, &c., to Brough at F, a distance of about 5| 

 miles, the line of coast forming a rather deep bay to the north. The forma- 

 tion is rich alluvial soil, and is easily washed away by the action of the tide 

 and the somewhat rough seas of the Humber; and during the last sixty or 

 seventy years, it is well known that a large area of land has been lost in this 

 district, and there is now great danger of still more serious destruction, as 

 the sea-banks are all but undermined. For many years an island existed 

 along nearly the whole extent of the bay, to which I shall have to refer here- 

 after. The land for many miles adjacent to the Market Weighton Canal is 



