Welcome to Keyingham & Holderness in East Yorkshire.

For those of you out there wondering where and what Holder­ness actually is, then take a look at this map. Holder­ness is the low lying area bounded by the Humber Estuary and Spurn Head to the South, by Hull and the hills of the Yorkshire Wolds to the West, and by the North Sea to the East. It has more in common, topographically, with the Netherlands, rather than other parts of Yorkshire. It is thought that it was originally the western edge of "Doggerland" that extended as a watery, swampy, low-lying area linking eastern England to the Continent until 10000 years or so ago, before being inundated by rising sea levels in the North Sea.

..lonelier and lonelier, and after that the birds and lights of Spurn Head, and after that the sea. __ Philip Larkin

The Prime Meridian (Greenich Meridian) passes through Holderness 7 km to the east of the village of Keyingham.

The land of Holderness is very fertile consisting of boulder clay left by the last Ice Age and alluvium on the Humber flood plain. Much of this land bordering the Humber is reclaimed; indeed one small village is known as "Sunk Island. There is an interesting publication giving a brief overview of the geological and early social history of Holderness available here.

In the last few years the Environment Agency has breached the sea-defences in a number of places along the north bank of the Humber to allow regular, controlled flooding, and create inter-tidal zones to compensate for loss of marshland habitats to new developments on the south bank of the Humber. The most recent one of these between Patrington Outstrays (Welwick Saltmarsh) and Skeffling is in its final stages, and gives easy access for bird-watchers and the general public to the newly managed area bounding the estuary. Similar examples of older tidal defense "realignment" may be found at Paull Holme on the estuary, and Kilnsea on the coast.

Two other claims to fame, or otherwise, for Holderness are that it used to be claimed that there were more pigs than people, and that its coastline is being eroded at one of the fastest rates in Europe (1.8-2.0 m per year on average).

Spurn Head, the long, thin peninsula curling round into the Humber estuary at the southern most tip of Holderness, richly deserves a much more detailed description than given here, so a good starting point is SKEALS, a local history group's commendable efforts. One of my fondest memories from childhood of Spurn was trying to trace the old railway line laid down in the early 20th century to supply the fortifications at its tip, which controlled shipping entry into the Humber. The rails were rapidly covered and uncovered by drifting dunes and grasses, and often stopped twisted, and pointing out to sea over the beach. All very exciting for a 5 or 6 year old, when we regularly visited for fishing trips in my childhood!

The Head is actually shifting westwards through the effects of tidal erosion. The thinnest part, closest to the "main land" has been breached by high tides in the last few years, and it was decided to give up the fight against nature, and allow its natural progression. The previously only permanently manned RNLI lifeboat service in the UK, and Humber Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) have been abandoned and transferred to the stable south bank. Access to the glorious bird and plant filled 4km spit beyond the breach is by foot, with care (please check tide times), or via the "unimog" all-terrain vehicle operated by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.