It's still cut off, the new visitor centre is actually three miles away from the old one that was towards the end of Spurn Point.
That's a bit like building cairns on the moors. But I bet the tourist trade in Hornsea and Skipsea wouldn't like it.
I was talking to one if the nature reserve bods yesterday after he'd done an interview with The Dalesman. They work on the lighthouse will be completed soon & the scaffolding will be coming down before opening to the public. Only a small part of the military road was washed away, but it was enough to stop access. A dozer was used in November to cover the cut off part to make the Point accessible to the RNLI & British Ports. Bicycles will be available by the summer for people to use to get to the Point. The YWT hold beach clean up sessions, if anybody fancies getting involved & have regular family craft & information days if you're visiting.
Nice image of 'the narrows' back in 1950, with the road and railway line still in operation (from Hull: The Good Old Days)... please log in to view this image
One of the most interesting little railways in the country. Was powered by an Itala racing car right up until the 40's I believe and at other times was an early example of green transport. please log in to view this image A most unusual feature of the Spurn railway line was the sail bogies or trolleys, which ran upon the line from about the end of World War I onwards. These strange vehicles were powered by sail and were basically just wooden platforms with flanged wheels, although there were a number of variations on this basic design so that not all were alike. They were fashioned and used by the lifeboatmen and the men working for the War Department. Because they were so unusual and distinctive these vehicles were very much noticed by visitors, and trips on them were greatly appreciated (see Sailing the Rails, pp. 41-50 for many photographs and stories). Ronald Kendall, the son of a lifeboatman, who lived on the Point as a child in the 1930s, remembered the bogies well: On one occasion a gang of us, without notifying anyone, lifted the bogie onto the line and began pushing it along, running and jumping on. As we came up to the bend near the chalk bank and going down a slight incline we came face to face with the Kenyon. It was a case of all jumping off and collecting a few bruises as the bogie crashed into the train. The bogie was in a mess of course. We were reported to our fathers who read us the riot act and so forth. Over the years there were quite a number of incidents with bogies, such as the one where a new man was bringing some people to Spurn, but lost control. He lowered the sail but hadn’t the brake to hand. He told the couple to jump off. The two men jumped but the lady was too frightened to move for a while, but eventually she rolled off cutting parts of her face etc. Although hazards could always be attached to this type of transport it was on the other hand just as safe as trains, cars, horses or any form of transport. http://www.skeals.co.uk/Articles/Spurn Railway.html
Spurn Point really is an amazing place. I took my Mrs there when we first go together and she loved it, I remember seeing something bobbing up and down in the water on the sea side of the point, thinking it was a seal. Until, much to our amazement it got closer to the shoreline and then walked up the beach. It was a deer - still to this day baffles me as to where it came from. I've never seen anything quite like it, it came from quite a distance out at sea.
The deer was probably part of a herd which was bred for venison somewhere near Withernwick if I remember correctly. A few escaped into the wild and began to breed and the local population grew.
