East-ish !

Decision made we headed for Spurn point. It’s a fascinating piece of coast line. A spit of land made up from sand and shingle washed down the coast, it extends into the Humber estuary 3 ½ miles. It’s narrow and in places is only 200 feet wide so it’s easy to keep dashing from the seaward side to the estuary looking for ships and birds.

It’s owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and of course they charge parking. I remember one year we decided to have the laugh on the Trust and walked along the seaward side of the spit. It took us ages and was a lot further than 3 ½ miles, you see we walked along the outer edge of the curve! I’m not sure who had the last laugh!

It’s a good place to go bird watching especially at migration time. If the weather is bad out to sea and blows migrating birds off course they can end up landing on the first bit of land they see - Spurn.

At the end of the spit there is a large area of Sea Buckthorn, a deadly vicious plant with huge thorns that tear at you. If you can fiddle a way through there are a lot of old WW2 buildings amongst the sand dunes. It was an important area during the war and heavily guarded. There are also some WW2 buildings and gun emplacements on the cliffs at Easington which are being undermined by the sea. Each year we visit, more of the buildings have fallen onto the beach and the sea is attacking the concrete structures.

There’s been a lifeboat station on the point since the early 1800’s and it’s the only station in the country that has a fulltime paid crew and they have to live on the point. The crew have to be available 24 hours a day when they are on duty and cannot leave the point during that time. This means that the wives and families have to do all the errands, shopping, taking the car to the garage, going to the post office, taking the kids out for the day or to the pictures. It must be difficult for them and we have total admiration for both the crew and their families.

I do enjoy a walk on the beach here but it’s certainly not a pretty place and the mud coloured water does not invite paddling!

We spent the first night a little further up the coast and next day had a walk along the beach. The cliffs were still of boulder clay and being washed away at a terrific rate each year. There are very few pebbles or shells but I did my best and ended up with one pebble and a piece of sea washed wood that looks just right for Ikbana.

After the warmth of the last 2 weeks it felt really cold in the wind and we couldn’t decide where to go. We were getting bored sitting in the van so went to Burton Agnes where there is a craft shop, a Norman Manor House and of course Burton Agnes Hall. We didn’t feel any great wish to look around the Hall’s gardens on account of the cost and anyway we prefer wild and natural gardens. If you like Guinea Pigs this is the place to visit with the kids in the summer. There’s an enclosed area where kids can play and there must be about 30 or 40 ‘pigs’ all running loose, a lovely little corner.

We bypassed Bridlington and went onto the North York Moors. At this time of year the grassy roadside banks are beautiful, covered in Primroses, Violets, Stitchwort and other Spring flowers. I love to see them, better than any formal gardens!

We did drive through Whitby but it was so busy and all the parking was full, we should have known really, it was Saturday and the weather has been so good that all of the North of England had descended on the town. Instead we went to Sandsend, a mile further North for my obligatory walk on sand and paddle.

The boulder clay cliffs in places are 100 feet high and we scrambled down onto the surprisingly empty beach. It’s a lovely beach, wide when the tides low and sandy with heavenly pockets of pebbles. The pebbles have been washed out of the boulder clay and vary in size and colour. The clay forming the cliffs was deposited by glaciers during the ice age. As the glacier moved slowly along it collected the ’boulders’ and dragged them across the underlying rock, so some of the pebbles have a lovely flat side to them making them perfect for pendants. I live in the hope that on one of my forays I’m going to find something spectacular, well you never know what’s hiding in the clay, I could be the next Mary Anne what sit!

I had a happy hour or two trying to find the perfect pebble and collecting some pretty pendant shaped ones for polishing. I’ve got a small tumbler and it’s lovely to end up with a pot of polished pebbles from our travels.
This coast is constantly being eroded from the rain as well as the sea and wind, and barriers of huge chunks of rock are being built up along the foreshore. It’s especially so at Whitby beneath the Abbey and we noticed that the barrier is being extended along the beach towards Sandsend. I must admit it’s very dangerous to get too close to the cliff , a mudslide could occur at any time.

Next day we woke early and were walking around Hutton Le Hole on the North York Moors before the milkman! It’s a very pretty village with a stream running through the middle and beautiful cottages with olde worlde plants running riot in the gardens and over the walls. It’s a perfect place for kids to grow up, stream to go stickle backing or paddling, a lovely green to play tag or games on, not very good for the typical football or cricket though on account of it’s gradient, all nestled in a quiet valley, I’d love to live there for a year.



We followed the road back to civilisation and again the grassy banks were coloured with the Spring flowers, if ever I get a lot of money I shall buy some land and have my own lane built and planted with Violets and Primroses and Bluebells and, well you get the idea.

Helmsley was our next stop, we remembered some craft shops that were interesting. It’s a nice town and does have some lovely crafts and we visited the local craft show in the town hall. I get disappointed with some of the goods on sale as crafts. Where the pieces are bought and just put together I can’t see them as true crafts. Crafts to me are where the raw material is bought and the item made by yourself so cards would be painted or pressed flowers arranged, jewellery is made from wire, or beads made from clay, buying the pre-faceted stones and then just sticking them in pre-cast mounts is not a craft. I like to see them and indeed make them myself but I can’t see it as a craft!

I’ll get off my soapbox now and tell you that we were both horrified when we saw the top of our van through the first floor window of the craft show. It was green, that’s got to be the first job when we get home.

We had a stroll through Helmsley and along the stream, all the towns and villages hereabouts have a stream and they’re really lovely, life in the town. I found a wool shop with a sale! But it was only 9.50 am and I thought it might open at 10 am but much to Pat’s delight it was Sunday and it didn’t open at all.

By now it was raining and we headed South. Passing Borough Bridge I noticed the ‘Devil’s Arrows’ 3 huge stones around 20 feet high and dating back to 2000 BC. Apart from the type of stone and sizes nothing is known about the stones, so here’s a good chance to get the imagination in gear, who knows, inspiration might strike.

The rain followed us for another few miles and we headed for home, a bit of a disappointing few days, perhaps we have outgrown the East Coast.