50 
A VANISHING YORKSHIRE VILLAGE. 
The Spurn itself is some 4 miles long, at the commencement so 
narrow that if you stand upon the sandhill which forms it midrib, 
during a high Spring tide, you can throw a stone into the North 
Sea on one side and into the Humber on the other ! At the apex 
the width is most of an eighth of a mile, and here are the Light¬ 
house, Trinity House Signal Station, a Postal Telegraph Office, 
the Lightkeepers’ Houses, and those belonging to the crew of the 
Trinity Lifeboat—to say nothing of a small and highly respectable 
“ Public.” 
The nearest village of any size is Easington, 7 miles away ; the 
nearest Railway Station, Patrington, on the line between Hull and 
Withernsea, 7 more miles. There are also a small collection of 
cottages, a church, and two public houses (called respectively the 
Blue Bell and the Crown and Anchor) just short of where the 
Point commences. This place is known as Kilnsea, and is “ the 
vanishing Yorkshire Village.” 
Geologically, this part of Holderness is practically all glacial in 
origin ; the low cliffs from Withernsea southward to the Spurn 
consisting almost entirely of boulder-clay, the ingredient stones of 
which are largely alien to the district; Shapfell granite boulders 
jostling mountain limestone from Teesdale and so on. In places 
one may see very unmistakeable layers or beds of oystershells in 
clay, among which are found bones, pottery, &c. These were the 
“ Kitchenmiddens ” of the aborigines of Spurn. The actual Point, 
however, is composed of sand and shingle. 
But where did the miles of mud on the landward or concave 
side of Spurn come from ? 
For centuries Spurn has been a promontory, but its outline has 
altered and shifted about marvellously during historic times. The 
action of the North Sea upon the land for miles northward has 
been, and still is, enormous. It is found that the average erosion 
on this part of the coast is 7 feet in places, notably at Easington 
landing it is sometimes as much as 5 yards in a single year ! 
Along with this constant erosion the tides set in a southerly 
direction hereabouts, so that the mud from the cliffs is carried in 
suspension by the sea and deposited upon the inner side of Spurn, 
where the stillness is very noticeable, except with an off-shore 
breeze blowing. 
Although two great rivers, the Ouse and Trent, directly affect 
the Humber estuary, it is hardly likely that they alone would 
account for the great Spurn “muds”; moreover, the outrush of 
