England's Historic Seascapes: Withernsea to Skegness
Museum of London Archaeology, 2010. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000104. How to cite using this DOI
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Primary contact
David
Bowsher
Director of Research
Museum of London Archaeology
Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London
N1 7ED
UK
Tel: 020 7410 2285
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 935
- ALSF Project Number: 4730
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000104
- How to cite using this DOI
Humber Gateway Character Area
Present Day Form
The Humber Gateway offshore character area is situated in the north coastal section of the study area to the east of Holderness and to the north of the main Humber navigation channel. The geology of the area comprises chalk bedrock overlain by glacial till (clay, sand and gravel debris deposited from ice sheets) known as the Boulders Bank Formation. The water depth across the area varies between 10m and 15m and the maximum tidal range is 3-4m. The seabed is gently undulating and consists of gravel and gravely sand.
Sea Use: Present
The Humber Gateway dominant character is fishing from the coastal area of Holderness. The principal fishing activity in the area supports static gear boats fishing for crab and lobster and dredging for shellfish with occasional beam trawling and lining for white fish such as cod and whiting and flat fish such as sole and plaice. Commercial shipping tends to avoid the area due to the shallow nature of the area.
The area has part of two active aggregate extraction sites (102 BDL and 105 BDL) in its boundaries and also contains an area of a new license application to the south of 102 BDL. It is the site of a proposed round 2 wind farm, the Humber Gateway. The wind farm would be located some 10 to15km offshore with c 70 turbines with an estimated maximum power rating of 300 Mega Watts. Cables would run 1-3m under the sea bed to a landfall near Easington in Holderness.
Sea Use: Past
The Humber Gateway character area has been shaped by thousands of years of dynamic sea level changes and erosion and deposition. The relatively shallow nature of the sea bed means that the area was dry land almost certainly in the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.
Marine traffic would have historically used this area because of it's proximity to the Humber approaches navigation channel to the south although it is a shallow area and numerous wrecks will be found here possibly dating from the Roman period onwards. Fishing activity would have been carried out in the area from the medieval period onwards.
Archaeological Potential
The Humber Gateway character area has potential for the presence of drowned land surfaces resulting from the fact that sea level has fluctuated between -120 metres and +10 metres over the past 500,000 years. From the period 500,000 BP to 22,000 BP (before present), human population levels were low, and little more than stray finds may be expected, although these may still be of considerable archaeological importance.
From 22,000 BP to 2100 BP parts of the North Sea were dry land and human population levels were higher, especially in the Mesolithic age. Finds dating to the Mesolithic have been found to a depth of 40m so any area of sea bed above that has potential for habitation. Inundation of the North Sea landscapes occurred between 10,000 and 6,000 BP and the most likely evidence for human occupation would be, therefore, Mesolithic in date. Earlier Palaeolithic occupation is less likely to be found and later Neolithic occupation is likely to have been limited to the inshore and very highest of the banks and shoals such as the Dogger Bank.
The Humber Gateway lies in the position of the Devensian terminal morrain field and it is likely that much of the area was relatively high land but has been subject to severe coastal erosion. This makes it a possible Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and, in the east, Neolithic habitation site. Any residual artefacts, however, would have been eroded and scattered over a wide area by the tidal rip down this coast. Over the last 6000 years (if not more), humans have used sea faring vessels and this area being close to a navigation channel (see above) has many wrecks. UKHO and NMR data show a total of 29 known wrecks in this area, 20 named. The wrecks include a group of 5: the Elsie, William & Betsey, Frances, Harbringer and Rose of June all sunk by U boat in 1941. There are 4 wrecks dating from 1917 - 1919 all sunk by mines.
Character Perceptions
The area is perceived locally as an important inshore fishing area. It contains the proposed Humber Gateway wind farm and parts of aggregate dredging areas.
References
Close's Fisherman's Chart (UKHO 1953)
Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters (MAFF 1989)
University of Hull, 1994 Humber Estuary and Coast
