Place:Kilnsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia which describes the parish since the changes of 1974 and 1996 Kilnsea is now a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of the village of Easington, on the north bank of the Humber Estuary. The hamlet forms part of the civil parish of Easington. In 1823 Kilnsea was a civil parish in the Wapentake and Liberty of Holderness. The parish church, dedicated to Saint Helen, was close to the cliff and in a "state of dilapidation" and "dangerous condition". Repairs were considered usless with the expectation that the sea, which had already swept away the graveyard, would take the church "in a short time". Population in 1823 was 196. The old St Helen's Church was lost to the sea in 1826, and was replaced by a new church in 1865, at a cost of £420, that incorporated some salvaged remains of the old building. The present Church of St Helen, Kilnsea, Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is a redundant parish church dating from 1864–5. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Church of St Helen, Kilnsea. end of Wikipedia contribution

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Kilnsea from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"KILNSEA, a parish in Patrington [registration] district, [East Riding of Yorkshire]; on the coast, at the mouth of the Humber, 8½ miles SE of Patrington [railway] station. Post town: Easington, under Hull. Acres: 11,036; of which 10,026 are water. Real property: £1,474. Population: 179. Houses: 37. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to Sir A. Constable. Spurn Head, with its lighthouses, forms the SE extremity. Large portions of the land have been swept away by the sea; and even portions which remain are overflowed by high tides, and threatened with destruction. Some Roman relics have been found. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £120. Patron: L. Thompson, Esq. The old church was destroyed by the advancing waves in 1826. The new church was built in 1865; and is in the early English style, of dark red brick, with white bands and stone coignes saved from the church."

Kilnsea was originally an ecclesiastical parish in the Holderness Wapentake. It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 it joined the Patrington Rural District. In 1935 the rural district was abolished. At the same time it was absorbed into the parish of Easington.

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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)