September 2021

There are two natural islands in Hornsea Mere, Swan Island (see a bit of above) and, the smaller, Lady Island. The photo above shows how meres developed in lower land between undulations which became vegetated. Even millennia ago the current-day Hornsea Mere would have been a large example, many would have been much smaller. From […]

In 1988 Humberside County Council Archaeology Unit published a Bulletin summarising their North Holderness Survey. To continue this section of my study I will precis their information before going on to precis the final chapter in Professor English’s book ‘The Lords of Holderness 1086 – 1260’. Inevitably the four unitary authorities that replaced Humberside County

Although strata of coal and chalk dip far below the surface the drift geology of Holderness is glacially deposited boulder clay. Two questions need some sort of an answer – What is clay? and what is boulder clay? Clay is a fine/dense grained soil where each particle has a moist skin. Clay tends to swell

Another source of evidence dealing with the history of the draining of the Hull Valley and west Holderness is the book the cover of which is shown above, Becks, Banks, Drains and Brains, The Drainage History of the River Hull Valley – this published in 2013 by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Given a

The extract from Robert Morden’s map of the East Riding published 1695, see above, makes the point clearly (s.p.b.). A series of rivers in central Holderness flowed west-south-west to become tributaries of the River Hull even though the sources of these rivers were close to the coastline. In south Holderness a series of streams flowed

It follows from what was stated at the end of the last blog that the pre, or inter, glacial coastline with the sea lapping at the base of the dip slope of the Yorkshire Wolds that here might be the remnants of a low cliff-line at these points – indeed this is so, roughly corresponding