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. In some areas, residents have already been forced to take a managed retreat.
Etymology and name
The name Hornsea likely derives from the Old Norse elements horn ("horn"), nes ("headland, promontory") and sæ ("sea, lake").
Hornsea may have been the site of Cornu Vallis, a place-name derived from Brittonic corno ("horn")
Geography
The civil parish of Hornsea is located on the Holderness coast approximately north-east of Hull. The parish is bounded by the civil parishes of Atwick to the north, Seaton to the west, Hatfield and Mappleton to the south, and by the North Sea to the east. The civil parish contains the coastal town of Hornsea, and a suburb of "Hornsea Bridge" or "Hornsea Burton" south of the former railway line, as well as Hornsea Mere. Excluding the town and its suburbs there are no other habitations of note in the parish, except some farms. The remainder of the parish is low lying farm land divided into fields.
Most of the civil parish lies at between above sea level, with the highest points in the parish under . The B1242 road runs north to south parallel with the coast through the parish and the A1035 runs westward connecting with the A165 near Leven. Additionally a foot and cycle path, the Hornsea Rail Trail, part of the Trans Pennine Trail runs south-west from the town centre towards Hull.
Hornsea Mere is a lake of around with an outflow towards the sea by the Stream Dike Drain. This drain also separates Hornsea from the Hornsea Bridge suburb.
According to the 2011 UK census, Hornsea parish had a population of 8,432. Hornsea is in the Parliamentary constituency of Beverley and Holderness.
Geology and erosion
The underlying geology is primarily boulder clay. High points in the area are formed of gravel. (See moraine.) The topsoils are fine and loamy, whilst the rock beneath the boulder clay is classed as Flamborough Chalk from the Upper Cretaceous period. Historically large stones in the boulder clay were removed for use in road construction – this activity had been prohibited at Hornsea by the board of trade by 1885. Sands and clays were also used locally in building (), though better quality materials were found elsewhere.
Some early writers (William Camden 1551–1623) thought that ground conditions in the area were evidence of an earthquake, whilst supposed the Mere and fossil finds to be evidence of a great flood or deluge in the area. Since at least the late 19th century the geological conditions overlying the underlying chalk have been interpreted as being from a glacial process in origin – both the boulder clay and the gravel beds and moraines.
Borings suggest the chalk probably lies at around under the sand, gravel and clay beds at Hornsea, though possibly deeper. Water in Hornsea has been obtained from wells and bore holes, though some borings have yielded water contaminated with iron, whilst others failed to reach an aquifer even at a depth of .