325 



NOTES ON THE GROWTH OF SPURN.* 



ARTHUR E. BUTTERFIELD, Assoc.M.I.N.A. 



Spurn, as is well known, is formed of and maintained by the 

 material eroded from the coast of Yorkshire south of Brid- 

 ling-ton, and consists of sand and g^ravel to a very g-reat depth. 



Its position is a variable one and is constantly chang-ing-, and 

 there can be little doubt that its first appearance was as an 

 island, and that its connection to the mainland was a more or 

 less gradual process. 



In 1660 the high-water mark was evidently not much south 

 of Kilnsea, and Spurn was then nothing but a heap of shingle 

 considerably to the south. 



Greenville Collins in his chart of 1684 shows Spurn con- 

 nected to the mainland, but whether this was so it is difficult to 

 say, as subsequent surveys show Spurn still as an island. 



It is of course not at all improbable that a connection to the 

 mainland did exist, and that it was in the absence of protection 

 washed away again. 



In 1820 Spurn was only an island at high water, and con- 

 tinued so until 1852. The approach from the mainland was dry 

 at low water in 1820 and gradually increased in height, until in 

 1852 there were only two places which were submerged at high 

 water spring tides. 



In December 1849, during a N.N.W. gale, a serious breach 

 was made in this neck of land about half a mile north of the 

 then high lig-hthouse. It was 320 yards wide, and at high 

 water, ordinary spring tides, it had 12 feet of water in it. This 

 was evidently caused by a strong set of the ebb tide from the 

 Humber, but it must be noted that this breach never reached in 

 depth to the level of low water spring tides. It was sub- 

 sequently made good by the deposit of chalk, and it can be 

 easily located by the bank of chalk on the Humber side now. 



Spurn with its narrow connecting neck of land has since 

 1852 been well protected by groynes, and at present shows no 

 signs of yielding to any attacks of the sea. 



The movement of Spurn is west and south. 



* Read at the Spurn meeting- of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, 2nd 

 July 1904. 

 1904 November i. 



