Recently endured a bitterly cold north-west wind to walk another section of the Humber bank, this time on the south bank. This stretch was from the mouth of East Halton Beck (sometimes called East Halton Skitter) eastwards to Killingholme Dock. This ‘dock’ is not actually a dock but two jetties out into the Humber along which ‘tugs’ load or unload containers from ships anchored at their end, usually two but have sometimes seen three ships. On the shore are large storage areas and warehouses plus at least one area of hard standing for imported cars. The Humber bank public right of way passes by the landward end of the jetties and a walker has to be very careful of passing tugs as they stop for no man. East Halton Beck is a considerable water course, has its source in the dip slope spring line of the Lincolnshire Wolds and its lower course meandering across the Humber floodplain. The photo above shows the mouth of the Beck at low tide when large banks of estuarine mud are revealed. The view is looking north across the Estuary with High Paull/Paull Fort clear to see, the crossing tower of St. Augustine’s church visible on the horizon and part of Paull village shown extreme left. East Halton Beck would be tidal further inland were it not for a sluice gate constructed at the head of the mouth of the River. A linear reedbed is shown at high water level.
From here eastwards the sea defence is a stone-faced bank sloping to Humber with a cement promenade on top wide enough for one car to travel along. The landward side is a grassy bank. In effect it is usually only fishermen that actually drive down the promenade, these usually parking it angled passing points.
(to be continued).

The above photo shows a section of the southern rampart of Paull fort as well as a section of the coastal footpath. Paull fort is on the list of Heritage at Risk Register sites (s.p.b.s). The footpath shown is accessed either from the village itself by walking past Paull lighthouse (as was) or down a rough track that starts beside a derelict single-storey gatehouse cottage that once was the entrance to the site of a large house that once existed on the foreshore. Again p. 646 of Pevsner (s.p.b.) is a good source of evidence. Until relatively recently the fort/battery was often open to the public (although I only went in once) and attractions included a big transport aircraft of the 1950s previously sited at the Museum of Army Transport, Beverley, the site now a shopping complex. The aircraft was, I think, manufactured at Brough. Paull fort/battery is currently disused and the buildings within the site deteriorating rapidly.
Page 646 (see above) tells us that the very first fortification on the site was a gun battery established in 1542. This would have been a fraction of the size of the present complex but sited there to command a view to the left and right along the lower Humber and an emplacement to deter invaders. The view was a result of the site being at the southernmost end of the morainic ridge previously mentioned. The date 1542 suggests that it was somehow related to Henry VIII’s Northern Progress of 1541, during which he did order the building of defences for Hull east of the lower River Hull, this resulting later in the building of a massive curtain wall through the parish of Drypool incorporating three round forts. This was enlarged to form what was called the Citadel the following century which was only demolished when the Victoria Dock was created in the 1850s. The south blockhouse of this site has been recently excavated by archaeologists and there are plans to create an information site near the Deep.
(to be continued)

Two sites remain in the English Heritage Heritage at Risk Register for the lower Hull valley and south Holderness areas (s.p.b.s). Paull Holme Tower is sited just north of the Thorngumbald managed retreat area and is clearly visible from the current clay bank (see above). It is also visible from the road that leads past Paull church to the village of Thorngumbald although less clearly owing to a thick roadside hedge. The tower survives on private land and, although it does not suffer wilful damage, the brickwork and internal and external features are being weathered rapidly.
Some information on this rather mysterious site is given by David Neave in his revised edition of Pevsner’s York and the East Riding page 646 with an architectural drawing of the building’s west front on page 647. This late 15th century tower apparently originally adjoined an earlier timber-framed manor house, now lost, although an early 19th century plan showed a building plan forming an H-shaped ground plan. In the early 19th century all the building was demolished leaving only the Tower seen today.
The architectural drawing shows a two-light window which is a gothic revival import of the late 19th century but suggesting that back then the structure may have had public access. The second and third floors of this three-storey building are set back slightly from the floor below while the parapet projects somewhat. A basement apparently exists and is brick-vaulted. On the first floor is a surviving fireplace and garderobe chamber. A stone plaque on the west front is badly weathered but includes a shield of arms and three Tudor roses.
Various speculations arise from this information but without some relevant documentary evidence it would be all speculation.
The site of the Tower is interesting being in an immediate area of quite pronounced hills, in particular Boreas Hill and ‘Giants Hill’, a local term, these hills presumably related to the arc of morainic low hills seen between Paull and Sutton.
The other site is Paull Fort – to follow.

This will be the last of my posts about the Withernsea Improvement Co.. The drawing/lithograph above shows St. Nicholas church, Withernsea in a state of considerable dereliction, this drawn in the mid 19th century. I think this drawing is included in some editions of Poulson’s book (s.p.b.s), but am not sure. Although not clear in the scan, beyond the east end of the chancel may be seen two tents with flags flying from the central tent pole and just a little bit of the corner of the hotel (s.p.b.s) built as part of the Withernsea Improvement Plan, this dating the the drawing more accurately. Bannister (s.p.b.s) was determined to repair the church as many holiday makers of the day would see church attendance on holiday as important as when at home.
In fact St. Nicholas church had been ruinous and, presumably, disused since the early 17th century when the roofs of tower, nave and chancel had been torn-off in a great storm. The church had only been built in the late 15th century to replace St. Mary’s then lost to coastal erosion. This one of a number of churches lost to coastal erosion as highlighted in an early 20th century booklet compiled by Thomas Sheppard, first curator of Hull Museums.
In 1858 Withernsea church was restored according to designs by the relatively young Cuthbert Brodrick. The new works included a new south porch and north-side vestry, Perpendicular tracery and glazing in the window openings and a parapet added to the top of the West tower, as well, presumably, as new roofs. The cobble and freestone walls of the medieval church had largely survived.
Ironically St. Nicholas’ stands disused again today, the congregation being insufficient to justify ongoing maintenance.
Clearly the settlement of Withernsea moved west after the loss of St. Mary’s to where the new ‘inland’ church was built.
(I may entitle myself to a week or so off as Heritage Week commitments are looming, I have had some domestic problems and the revised website is soon to be launched. Also my re-walking of the Humber bank is not progressing very fast).