Post It from Sandalwood CL, Easington, East Yorkshire Sunday 28th July 2013.

Both Sharon and I worked for a number of years in the geographical area of Holderness, in Easy Yorkshire, which is the southeast part of the County and includes the beautiful area of Spurn Point. I particularly grew to love the area, in part due to my former life as a Merchant Navy Officer and the proximity to the sea and shipping, but the whole area is very pleasant to spend time in with some interesting features.

So for the weekend we decided to revisit the area in the motorhome and to stay at our very first CL. We chose Sandalwood at Easington because I knew where it was and had met the owner, Stafford St Quinton, when had worked out that way. The area is well known to people from West Yorkshire who seem to travel to this part of the East Coast in their droves and many settle there but I knew Stafford was a local man through and through. I booked the weekend over the telephone with his wife, Audrey, who seems to have as much to do with the CL as Stafford and arrangements were made. We could arrive at any time we wished on the Friday so we left home around 1030 to travel the great distance of around 14 miles to our destination.

On the way there we passed the elegant ‘Queen of Holderness’ Church at Patrington and then just as you leave the village on the left we saw the sign at the edge of the road marking the Greenwich Meridian as we crossed from West to East. The sign for this is more easily visible when travelling in the opposite direction but it is just past the village playing fields for those who want to see it.

As we approached the village of Welwick we noticed that there was a metal structure depicting the village’s association with the Gunpowder Plot. The Wright brothers, who were amongst the plotters and friends of Guy Fawkes are said to have engaged in the plotting from the barn at Ploughlands Farm, near the sign, and there was a suggestion that there had been a secret tunnel linking the farm to the village Church. I was well aware of the association but the signs were new for me as we had not visited the area for some years.

As you arrive at Easington you can see the gas terminal and adjacent wind farm. They did say that 25% of all the UK’s gas entered the country from the North Sea at this point and now there is an MOD police presence all the time which you regularly see on patrol in their Shogun 4x4’s.

Stafford greeted us and over a good chat we rekindled how I knew him in a former life for me. He was very obliging and keen to engage in conversation. The CL is at his home and we had a hard standing pitch overlooking a large area of mown grass surrounded by a variety of trees. The main road into Easington village was at the end of the drive but we could not really see it from the pitches. I could hear the passing traffic though as I am very sensitive to noise and would have to sleep with my ear plugs in.

We set up the van and had lunch before getting the bikes out and going for a ride through the village, past the Tithe Barn on Humber Side Lane stopping for a view of this beautiful old barn and down to the end of the lane where it meets the north bank of the Humber Estuary. They say this river is the second most difficult river to navigate in the whole world, I presume this is due to the strong currents and constantly moving sand banks. From here we could see the Bull Anchorage when Sharon and I once spent a full week at anchor waiting for a berth at Immingham to discharge our cargo of coal in 1979. The fort was planned in 1914 to protect the river at the start of the First World War but was not completed until 1919 and it is now a Grade II listed Building.

We rode our City bikes with some difficulty along the top of the river bank to Kilnsea where we then joined the road and went to visit the North Sea passing the Crown and Anchor Pub which has a good view over the Humber and some tourist information plaques. Blue Bell Cottage, near to the North Sea is now owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, who own Spurn Point, and is now a café. It currently stands less than 190 yards from the sea but when it was built in 1817 it was 534 yards from the sea. The coastal erosion of the Holderness plain has been constant and even some villages have been lost to the sea in years gone by.

We rode back along the road into Easington and saw the construction work at the cliff top where the generated electricity from a new off shore wind farm will come ashore. It then travels underground across Holderness to Saltend, on the edge of Hull, where I assume it will join the National Grid. This area is currently enjoying a surge in new development associated with the renewable energy industries.

The afternoon was pleasantly warm in the sun and we decided to enjoy a pint of Yorkshire bitter sat outside the White Horse pub in the village square and very good it was too. It was noticeable as we travelled from home just how many country pubs were now closed or up for sale, a shame really as they were often the heart of village life.

Back at the CL we sat in the afternoon sun and just relaxed, by the end of the day we were not alone but had two more motorhomes and a caravan on the CL, all couples from Leeds, Pontefract and the West Midlands. The CL has excellent facilities, three toilets and two showers and I must say they were kept very clean and tidy, presumably by Audrey who I managed to have a chat with as well. Between the two of them they had a lovely CL and Stafford did say they had been doing it for 37 years now so there will not be much they don’t know about customer relations.

The evening was warm and as we faced west we were easily able to enjoy our meal outside in the setting sun, a good end to a lovely day and even Smokee enjoyed basking in the setting sun. It seems that he now commands his own seat so I was relegated to the dining chair as he had the lounger, what a life for a house cat! Stafford and Audrey came to visit all their guests and spent time chatting with everyone, which I thought was a very nice gesture. It was obvious this was not merely a way of getting some income, they clearly took great care and pride in the service they offered to Members, and long may they still do so.

Saturday was forecast to be cloudy with the torrential rain coming from France reaching us by 1500 so we got up early, for us, and set off on our bikes for the ride to Spurn Point which was the main purpose of our stay. We easily managed the ride without any difficulty or fear from the traffic, a distance of about6 miles from the CL. The access road, which is maintained for the RNLI lifeboat crews who actually live on the station at the very point, and Humber Coastguard and Pilots who are also based at the point, had been breached the week before which meant there was quite a bit of sand covering it for a stretch in the middle. We had to walk that bit as to try and ride in the sand would be dangerous, as I overheard Stafford telling a couple early that morning. Having broken my elbow after falling from the bike on the sand in Spain I know only too well that his advice was good.

The point which is a spit of moving sand protruding into the North Sea at the mouth of the Humber Estuary is a haven for migrating birds and other wildlife. If you manage to view it from the air, as I had often done when visiting gas rigs in small helicopters with my work, you would see its beauty. We once had a large photo of the point with a view across Bridlington Bay to Flamborough Head on our hall wall. The sand around the point is very soft and walks along both the sea and river sides are very enjoyable. At the tip is the old gun battery, now in ruins, and the old lighthouse which is no longer in use. I think the Trust actually have started to have exhibitions there and had recently seen adverts for a photographic exhibition there. There is the RNLI lifeboat moored off the jetty to which the Pilot Cutters are berthed alongside and there are the remnants of the rusting tractor unit and trailers for a once lively crab pot fishing industry from the point. It is all very magical for me and the sea till draws me like a magnet.

The only downside now is that there are Brown Tailed Caterpillars which turn into moths all along the point and these cause irritation to the skin. We actually came close to one on the concrete wall near the jetty, well away from the growth where we saw their cotton wool like nests, so they do get everywhere and you need to take care. The Trust had placed warning signs everywhere and I understand the families living at the point have had enough of them.

The lifeboat has special meaning for me as an ex seafarer and I have done various charity events in support of this particular one. When I worked in this area I got to know Brian Bevan, it’s Cox at the time who was the RNLI’s most highly decorated Cox, and I learned just how heroic the RNLI crews were in saving lives. I am still amazed that they are funded solely from charity donations. Brian is now retired but I understand he still lives locally.

We rode back and sat outside the Crown and Anchor pub to enjoy the views across the river to Lincolnshire whilst we enjoyed our picnic lunch, no beer today! At the view point on the bend in the road there are two plaques giving tourist information about things to see locally and around Holderness.

On our way back to the CL we tried to look up old friends who lived in the village but were unsuccessful so we went back to the CL before the rain arrived. I put the bikes into the garage, a task in itself, for the last time as next week we shall be having a bike rack fitted. The rain held off so we enjoyed a chat with our neighbours, who had two very well behaved Labrador dogs, and enjoyed the sun as long as we could. We did have to eat inside though as the sky turned cloudy and winds grew stronger. The rain never came though until we went to bed and then it was heavy.

Sunday morning Stafford visited with the Sunday paper we had ordered. They were delivered from the close by town of Withernsea which I thought was an excellent service and not one I expected to have at a CL. I do not generally take the papers as they are often full of rubbish or bad news but today I took his offer as he had said there was no need to rush off, leave when we wished, so we decided to spend time relaxing with the Sunday paper and leave after lunch.

Our first visit to a CL was excellent, and this will not be our last visit to Sandalwood. I will also look for more CL’s wherever we are that have facilities like Stafford and Audrey’s has as they are truly excellent.

Hope you enjoy the read and the photos.

Regards, Roy