My first use of basecamp was to get to grips with the site, and its features. I like the to-do lists that have been placed on there, as it gives clear indication to what roles and responsibilities we each have.
This link was to a documentary about Spurn Point which featured many aspects.
I completed some research on the history of the lifeboat, of which I attained of a website. I also gained small research on the world war two aspects from the same website.
World War two
For centuries Spurn was owned by the Constable family, the Seigniors of Holderness, who lived at Burton Constable. When the War Office wished to establish Spurn Fort to protect the Humber in World War I, it leased the peninsula from the Constables, and in 1925 the War Office bought it from the Constables by compulsory purchase. Between the wars only a few military personnel remained at the Point. Spurn Fort was re-armed and manned during World War II. While the army was in control, the sea defences were well maintained, and after the war most of the personnel who remained were busy on that work. During the period of international East-West tension known as the Cold War in the early 1950s, Spurn’s role in coastal defence was reassessed, and for a while the military returned, and even built new hutments near the Warren. However, by about 1956 the Ministry of Defence had decided that Spurn no longer had any useful military role, and prolonged negotiations began with interested parties concerning its future. The Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust (now the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust) was interested in establishing Spurn as a nature reserve, whilst other, mainly local people wished to buy it for development as a recreational facility, probably a caravan or chalet site. In the end the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust bought Spurn in 1959. The Trust could not afford to maintain the defences, and they are now crumbling away. At the northern end of the peninsula only about three yards (or three metres) of land now separate the high tide mark on the Humber from the high tide mark on the sea.
The Lifeboat
Since 1810 Spurn has been the base of the Humber Lifeboat. Established at the end of Spurn Point because so many ships were being wrecked on the Stony Binks, the lifeboat has had many distinguished coxswains and crew, who have been involved in numerous dangerous rescues. Between 1810 and 1910 the lifeboat was operated by Hull Trinity House, and after that date by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The lifeboat is manned by the only full-time permanent crew in the British Isles, and since 1819 the peninsula has been home for both the lifeboat crew and their families.
The first houses stood on the Humber side of the peninsula not far from the lighthouse. In 1857 they were replaced by a new terrace of houses on a site now taken up by the Point car-park. In 1890 a school was erected nearby, and Spurn children were educated there until 1945, when the school was closed and the children were taken daily to Easington or to secondary schools in the area (as they still are). In 1975 the families moved into modern houses a little further down the Point. Dave Steenvoorden is the present Superintendent Coxswain of the Humber lifeboat, The Pride of the Humber.
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