Cleethorpes

Cleethorpes Station

The station is where many Victorian tourists would come to Cleethorpes and is still used to this day by people coming to enjoy Cleethorpes beach and its amusements.

Cleethorpes station opened on 6 April 1863, with the station building being completed in 1883. The coming of the railway was the catalyst for Cleethorpe’s development into a popular seaside resort for everyone. As was the case with many Victorian seaside resorts, the coming of the railway allowed working class people to travel cheaply for the first time.

The railway made Cleethorpes a popular holiday destination for many workers travelling from the industrial centres of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster and many other industrial towns and cities in South Yorkshire and further afield.

The station itself, sits right on the front (as seen in the image above), allowing people to quickly alight and go straight to the beach.

The stations former refreshment rooms, which represent the site of the earliest station at Cleethorpes, and clock tower, which represents the later station, are Grade II listed.

The Promenade

Upon leaving the station, the Victorian holidaymaker would be brought straight to Cleethorpes' extensive promenade.

The promenade was a popular Victorian feature that allowed people to take in the fresh air and enjoy the views.

The Cleethorpes prom featured several Colonnades. These provided an enclosed area where people could sit and enjoy the view while strolling along the prom.

The promenade substantially reinforced the quickly eroding boulder clay cliffs of Cleethorpes. The ongoing erosion of these cliffs posed a real threat to the town.

The initial promenade of the 1800s covered a length of about 0.8 miles, over time the promenade was extended, measuring 1.5 miles by the early 1900s and now covering a significant distance from the outskirts of Grimsby to the South-East of Cleethorpes.

Beach Amusements, Rides and Cleethorpes Tower

Rides and amusements became very popular in the early 20th century.

This section of beach, above the high water mark, has been a popular spot for amusements and rides for over 100 years. Helter skelters, a carousel and even a switchback railway opened in 1899, which was an early form of roller-coaster, have been sited here.

Just across the road to the North-West was one of Cleethorpes' more unique attractions.

Towers were all the rage in the early 1900s and Blackpool wasn’t the only place that had one!

Cleethorpes Tower opened in 1902 and featured a revolving viewing platform. Capable of accommodating 200 people, the tower stood at 150 ft tall.

Cleethorpes tower was one of four towers in England designed by Thomas Warwick. The others were in Scarborough, Morecambe, and Great Yarmouth.

Images-

 Lincolnshire XXIII.9, Revised: 1906, Published: 1908 OS Map 

EPW031924 ENGLAND (1930). The railway station, pier and town, Cleethorpes, 1930 https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW031924 

Cleethorpes Pier

Opened in 1873, the construction of the pier was funded by the local railway, the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (later integrated into LNER), to increase tourism to the area via train! The pier cost £10,000 to build.

The pier’s pavilion caught fire in 1903 but luckily was saved by local fire crews who travelled from Grimsby to tackle the blaze.

LNER sold the pier to Cleethorpes council in 1936.

A section of the pier cut out and isolated during the Second World War to stop it being used to land troops if an invasion took place. The isolated section was demolished after the war, with some sections being used to construct a new stand at Leicester City Football club. The section that was cut in 1940 can still be seen today.

Today, 335ft (just over 100m) of the original 1,200ft (350m) survives.

The Submerged forest

Looking North-East from the pier, you will see the site of the Cleethorpes prehistoric submerged forest and peat shelf.

We don’t recommend accessing the remains of the submerged forest. The section of beach where the submerged forest is located can be dangerous to access. When combined with a fast moving tide the area can be extremely dangerous. We don’t recommend that you access the submerged forest and only do so with an experienced guide. CITiZAN North can provide organised guided walks of the forest.

The forest consists of a large number of fallen trees and tree stumps, mostly of oak, and an extensive peat shelf. These remains were once part of a huge un-managed woodland. The timbers themselves have been carbon dated to the late Neolithic Period (4200 to 4900 years ago).

Rising sea levels saw the forest inundated with sea water during the Bronze Age, with the trees being unable to survive in the salt water. At around the same time we also see evidence of human activity, with track-ways being constructed to aid movement through the forest.

You can find out more about Cleethorpes Submerged forest in this CITIZAN blog-  https://citizan.org.uk/blog/2016/Aug/25/three-submerged-forests/ 

Cleethorpes Ship Breaking & Wrecks

As with the submerged forest, we do not advise venturing out into the this area without guidance.

The beach of Cleethorpes is littered with the remains of various timber hulled vessels. It’s suggested that these are the remains of ships that were deliberately grounded on the peat shelf and clay as part of a local ship breaking industry. The peat shelf offered a stable platform from which to break ships. One surviving hulked vessel to the south has evidence to suggest that ship breaking was taking place but there is little in the way of further evidence.

Ships were known to run aground frequently at Cleethorpes during poor weather and it is quite possible that some of these timbers relate to wrecked vessels.

We are currently working to identify the local wrecks. One resource we use to help identify wrecks is the Lloyd's Register of Shipping. This vital resource can be looked at online through the Lloyd's Heritage & Education Centre website here- https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/ 

One ship that did come to grief on the shores of Cleethorpes was the brigantine 'Sir Henry Havelock', which ran aground at Cleethorpes in November 1893- https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/ships/sir-henry-havelock-1859/search/everywhere:sir-henry-havelock 

Chapel of Ease

This site of a Chapel of Ease is recorded in this area that was part of the hamlet of Itterby. This chapel of ease is recorded as having paid tithe in fish to Wellow monastery. A chapel of ease was built to allow parishioners who could not easily attend the main parish church services to worship.

The chapel was located just off the Eastern edge of the end of the current pier, showing how far this stretch of coast has eroded over 800 years.

Coastal erosion was a threat to Cleethorpes until very recently.

Ross Castle

Castle Folly was built in 1885 for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. The building is of iron slag and limestone rubble and is built into the low sea cliff. Built as part of the improvements to the promenade and pier gardens undertaken by the railway company, and named after the company's secretary, Edward Ross. The top of the castle marks the original height of the clay cliffs which were being eroded by the sea until the new promenade was created. The structure is Grade II Listed.

Cleethorpes Coast Edge

The coast edge on this section of Cleethorpes' front remained vulnerable vulnerable to coastal erosion until the early part of the 20th century when the promenade was built.

The image provided by the link below shows extensive coastalerosion in this exact spot in 1906-  https://imagesoflincolnshire.co.uk/Coastal_Erosion_Cleethorpes_1906.html 

The construction of the promenade we see today helped to halt the threat and advance of coastal erosion.

Haile Sands and Bull Sands forts

Here's our final point. Looking to the mouth of the Humber, you will see two forts sat right in the entrance to the river Humber.

The Humber was key to Navy operations and shipping during the First World Wars. Following bombardment of East coast towns early in the war, and to deter attacks by German submarines, two forts were built out in the Humber Estuary.

Haile Sand and Bull Sand forts were constructed to mitigate the threat from submarines in the Humber and also keep enemy shipping out of range of the important docks and naval infrastructure on the Humber. Although construction of the forts took place during the First World War, only Haile Sand Fort was completed in time to see service during the war. Bull Sand, the larger of the two forts, opened in 1919.

Bull Sand fort was armed with four 6in Breach Loading guns and Haile Sands with two 4in Quick Firing (QF) guns. The armaments show us that each fort had a different defensive task.

Both forts were re-used during the Second World War and remained in use by the army until 1956. They were still armed into the 1960s. The forts were eventually passed on to the local conservation trust and have since seen many different owners over the years.