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Kilnsea Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

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KILNSEA:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake of Holderness (South Division) - Petty Sessional Division of South Holderness - County Council Electoral Division and Poor Law Union of Patrington - County Court District of Hedon - Rural Deanery of Hedon - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish occupies the extremity of the narrow tongue of land between the German Ocean and the Humber, and includes the long spoon-shaped projection called the Spurn. The total area, according to the Ordnance Survey, is 911 acres, of which 678 are under assessment. The rateable value is £598, and the number of inhabitants in 1891 was 165. The land belongs to several proprietors, of whom the principal are Sir F. A. Talbot Clifford-Constable, Bart., J.P., D.L., of Burton Constable Hall, who is lord of the manor; Mrs. Brown, Cheltenham; William Sharp, Kilnsea; John Peacock Crawforth, Kilnsea, and Mrs. Murphy. The surface is level and treeless, and the land, with the exception of the Spurn, the warren, and the marshes, arable. The soil is of a rich, strong, clayey nature, and very productive.

The earliest notice of the place occurs in Domesday Book, wherein it is written Chilnesse, and in later documents it is spelt Kylnesse and Kilness. The first part of the name signifies, in the ancient British language, a church or cell, and to this the Saxons added ness, a promontory. At the time of the Conquest, Morcar had 13½ carucates of land to be taxed. The Conqueror gave the manor, with the rest of Holderness, to Drogo, and it still remains attached to the seigniory.

The village of Kilnsea is small, and stands about eight miles south-east of Patrington. The old church of St. Helen stood on the brink of the cliff, and had become so undermined by the action of the sea that, in 1823, it was deemed no longer safe to hold divine service within its walls. It was dismantled in 1826, and, on August 1st in that year, the nave and chancel, with the greater part of the tower, were swallowed up by the sea. A fragment of the tower remained for several years longer. The spot where it stood is now under the sea, and can be seen only at very low ebb tides. A new church, of the same dedication, was built in 1864, at a cost of £500, exclusive of the site, which was given by the late Leonard Thompson, Esq., of Sheriff Hutton. The stones for the foundation, buttresses, coping, &c., were obtained from the ruins of the old church, and brick has been used for the walls. It is a substantial edifice in the Gothic style, standing ahout 800 yards west of the site of its predecessor, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, vestry, and western bell turret. The erection of the church was in a great measure due to the exertions of Mr. John Ombler, superintendent of the Spurn beach and works, under the Board of Trade. The Diocesan Society contributed £102; the remainder was raised by subscription.

The church of Kilnsea was given by Stephen, Earl of Albemarle, to Birstal Priory, and passed by sale, with the rest of the possessions of that alien cell, to the abbot and convent of Kirkstall. At the dissolution of monasteries, the patronage and rectory reverted to the Crown, and in 1667 they were purchased by Edward Slater, of Hull. From this family they descended to the Thompsons, of Sheriff Hutton. The living is a discharged vicarage, united with Easington and Skeffling, in the patronage of the Archbishop of York, and held by the Rev. Henry Maister, M.A., who resides at Skeffling.

The Primitive Methodists have an iron chapel here, built in 1885, at the expense of the late Henry Hodge, Esq., of Hull.

A stone cross, that formerly stood here close to the cliff, was removed, in 1818, to the park of Sir Thomas Constable, Bart., at Burton Constable, to preserve it from destruction by the encroachments of the sea. It was subsequently removed to the town of Hedon, where it now stands.

The greatest breadth of the parish, between the sea and the Humber, is a little under one mile, but we may infer from the terminal ness of its ancient name that it was formerly much wider. The encroachments of the sea have been constant and progressive upon the perishable coast of Holderness, and it is probable that, since the Norman Conquest, the extent of the parish has been reduced fully one half. From measurements and close observation, it has been ascertained that a strip of land two yards in breadth is wasted yearly along the cliffs.

SPURN HEAD, or Spurn Point in this parish, is a low headland of gravel and sand, accumulated by the sea and the wind, and disposed in its peculiar forms by the united action of currents from the sea and Humber. It is a wild dreary spot, a trifle more than a mile in circuit, and but little amenable to the hand of cultivation. A long narrow ridge of pebbles and sand connects it with the land. Some years ago the sea made a clean breach through this sand bank, and the sum of £24,000 was voted by the Government for the repair of the breach and the strengthening of the bank. Strong timber groins have also been placed along the shore so as to form a firm beach, and thus prevent the further encroachment of the sea upon the parish.

There are two lighthouses at the Spurn, under the management of Trinity House, London, a few cottages for the seamen who have charge of the life-boats, and a public house. The first lighthouse on this part of the coast was projected by Richard Reedbarrow, hermit of the chapel of Our Lady and St. Anne, at Ravenspurne. He petitioned Parliament for permission to build a tower which should be a signal by day, and a light for the direction of the mariners by night. To assist him in the completion of the work, Letters Patent were granted empowering the mayor and certain merchants to levy for a period of 10 years, a duty of 1s. on every ship of 120 tons and upwards, 8d. on every vessel of 100 tons, and 4d. on every vessel of less burthen. This Ravenspurn, where Reedbarrow had his oratory and erected the tower and beacon, was situated at the mouth of the Humber, in the immediate neighbourhood of Spurn Head, and is also variously called, in old writings and documents, Ravenser, Ald Ravenser, Ravenesse, and Ravensburgh. It was a seaport and town of some importance, returning two members to Parliament in the reign of Edward I. and II. It was here that Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, landed in 1399, to fight for and win the crown of England, and here Edward IV. landed in 1471, after a brief exile in Holland, to renew the struggle of the House of York for the crown, and to overthrow the Kingmaker and the Lancastrians on the field of Barnet. The stone cross, mentioned in the accounts of Kilnsea and Hedon, is supposed to have been originally erected at Ravenspurne to commemorate the landing of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry Iv.

RAVENSPURNE, which was in this parish, has long been numbered among the "lost towns of Holderness. "It has been engulfed by the sea, but neither the time when it was destroyed, nor the spot where it stood are accurately known. Its destruction was probably gradual - the result of many storms. Some portion of it appears to have been in existence in the time of Leland, who says that "the ryver Hull kepith yn the marche of Holderness to the very mouth of Hulle haven, and thens the marche of Holderness is to Ravenspur."

In 1676 a patent was granted by Charles II. to Justinian Angell, of London, merchant, enabling him to "continue, renew, and maintain certain lights that he had erected at the Spurn Point." In 1766, an Act was obtained for taking down this lighthouse and erecting two others in more suitable situations. The work was entrusted to John Smeaton, the builder of Eddystone lighthouse. The foundations of the high light were completed early in 1773, and the low light was covered in towards the end of the following year. The former is still standing, the latter has been destroyed and re-built three or four times.

There is a Lloyd's Signal Station at the Spurn, and also a Mission room for the use of the life-boat crew, &c.

It has been thought by some that Spurn Head is the Ocelum Promontorium of Ptolemy; there are, however, better reasons for believing that Flamborough Head is the place indicated by the Roman geographer.

Many Roman and other antiquities have been found in the parish from time to time, and amongst them is a very perfect little brazen figure of Mercury. Recently a bronze fibula, of unusual design, was found near Kilnsea. It is almost two-and-a-half inches in length, one inch in breadth, and in shape somewhat like the letter S. Some of the enamel, with which it was ornamented, still remains, showing two colours - a dark greenish brown, and a fine ruby red.

[Description(s) from Bulmer's History and Directory of East Yorkshire (1892)]

Directories

  • Transcript of the entry for the Post Office, professions and trades in Bulmer's Directory of 1892.


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