Place:Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Hornsea is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The settlement dates to at least the early medieval period. The town was expanded in the Victorian era with the coming of the Hull and Hornsea Railway in 1864. In the First World War the Mere was briefly the site of RNAS Hornsea Mere, a seaplane base. During the Second World War the town and beach was heavily fortified against invasion.

The civil parish encompasses Hornsea town; the natural lake, Hornsea Mere; as well as the lost or deserted villages of 'Hornsea Beck', 'Northorpe' and 'Southorpe'. Structures of note in the parish include the medieval parish church of St Nicholas, Bettison's Folly, Hornsea Mere and the sea front promenade.

The economy includes a mix of tourism and small manufacturing. Most notably, Hornsea Pottery was established in Hornsea in 1949 and closed in 2000. Modern Hornsea still functions as a coastal resort, and has large caravan sites to the north and south.

The soft soil and low-lying geography result in consistent coastal erosion that threatens some of the infrastructure of the community. This is expected to get worse as climate change causes sea level rise.^[1] In some areas, residents have already been forced to take a managed retreat.^[1] Hornsea was an ancient parish, a civil parish from the 19th century, and an urban district from 1894 until 1974.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Hornsea from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72: "HORNSEA, a small town, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in Skirlangh [registration] district, [East Riding of] Yorkshire. The town stands at the terminus of the Hull and Hornsea railway, ¾ of a mile from the sea, and 16 miles NE of Hull. It figures in records of the 13th century; was long a seat of country trade, with a weekly market; is now a favourite bathing resort for the people of Hull, Beverley, and the surrounding country; consists chiefly of four well built streets; is a coast guard station, and a fishing place; and has a post office under Hull, a railway station with telegraph, a good hotel, several inns of different grades, a church, three dissenting chapels, a national school, a church estate of £118 a year, and charities £8. "The church is chiefly of the early part of the 15th century; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower; stands over a vaulted crypt, said to have been at one time used as a receptacle of smuggled goods; and contains an alabaster tomb of 1430, of Anthony S. Quentin. The tower has been partly rebuilt; and a lofty spire, which surmounted it, was blown down in 1732. The railway was opened in 1864; and it has a station at Hornsea-Bridge, about ½ a mile from the town station. Fairs are held on 13 Aug. and 17 Dec.; and races have been run in July. Fine scenery lies around the town; and a chalybeate spring is at a short distance.

"The sea, in the neighbourhood, has been making great encroachments; is traditionally said to have been ten miles distant at and after the founding of the town; carried completely away, upwards of a century ago, a village called Hornsea-Beck; and has rendered the shore a broad band of loose, heavy, sloping sands, stretching beneath a line of cliff, and left bare for a considerable distance at low tides. Bathing machines are used on the sands, but require very broad wooden tires to protect them from excessive sinking. An opening to the sands, in front of the town, is called Hornsea-Gap. A lake, about 1¾ mile long, ¾ of a mile wide, and covering about 436 acres, lies west of the town; bears the name of Hornsea Mere; has a depth, in some parts, of about 10 feet; and abounds in pike, perch, and eels; but is undergoing much change, partly by depositions of vegetable matter from its shores, and partly by action upon it by the sea.

"The parish bears the name of Hornsea-with-Burton; and comprises 3,160 acres of land, and 188 of water. Real property, £6,880. Population in 1851: 945; in 1861: 1,063. Houses: 246. The manor belongs to Lord Westbury. The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Long Riston, in the diocese of York. Value: £382. Patron: the Lord Chancellor."

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Hornsea. The section is entitled "Overview". Hornsea Pottery is a separate article.

GENUKI has a description of Hornsea Burton which is adjacent to Hornsea.

Historically, Hornsea was an ecclesiastical parish in the Holderness Wapentake.

Humberside 1974-1996

In 1974 most of what had been the East Riding of Yorkshire was joined with the northern part of Lincolnshire to became a new English county named Humberside. The urban and rural districts of the former counties were abolished and Humberside was divided into non-metropolitan districts. The new organization did not meet with the pleasure of the local citizenry and Humberside was wound up in 1996. The area north of the River Humber was separated into two "unitary authorities"—Kingston upon Hull covering the former City of Hull and its closest environs, and the less urban section to the west and to the north which, once again, named itself the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The phrase "Yorkshire and the Humber" serves no purpose in WeRelate. It refers to one of a series of basically economic regions established in 1994 and abolished for most purposes in 2011. See the Wikipedia article entited "Regions of England").

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Holderness

This is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than other parts of Yorkshire. To the north and west are the Yorkshire Wolds. The Prime Meridian passes through Holderness just to the east of Patrington.

From 1974 to 1996 Holderness lay within the Borough of Holderness in the short-lived county of Humberside. Holderness was the name of an ancient administrative area called a wapentake until the 19th century, when its functions were replaced by other local government bodies, particularly after the 1888 Local Government Act and the 1894 Local Government Act. The city of Kingston upon Hull lies in the southwest corner of Holderness and the town of Bridlington borders the northeast, but both are usually considered to be outside Holderness. The main towns include Beverley, Withernsea, Hornsea and Hedon. The Holderness Coast stretches from Flamborough Head to Spurn Head.
(Source: Wikipedia)