Holderness is an area of England on the coast of Yorkshire. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the middle ages, and has more in common topographically with Holland than with other parts of Yorkshire. It falls within the administrative area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, having from 1974 to 1996 been the borough of Holderness in Humberside. To the north and west are the Yorkshire Wolds.

Its coastline has the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe: 5 feet (1.5 metres) a year on average, 2 million tons of material. Some of this is transported by longshore drift and accumulates at Spurn point. About 3 miles (5 km) of land has been lost since the Roman era, including 23 towns/villages.

The Erosion at Holderness

There are two big cities in the area they are; Grimsby and Hull, however these are not affected by the erosion that the villages of; Hornsea, Mappleton, Withernsea, and Albrough are.

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Erosion at Holderness

When is the erosion occurring are there any patterns

About 7,654,000 cubic miles of land has been eroded away in the last 1 hundred years. The cliff has an average land loss of 2 meters a year. The erosion mainly occurs during storm periods and tidal surges. There was a loss of 6 meters of land in 2 days in October 1967. In 1912 the Owthorne Church fell into the sea it only stood 115 years (which in church terms is a short period of time).

What is happening

Erosion is a 4 stage, cyclic process; the soft clay becomes saturated and loses strength, the cliff being too step collapses either as a block of material or as a slurry slide, cliff failure reduces the gradient and prevents erosion, but large waves the north east remove debris and the cliff over-steepens and the cycle begins again. Only 3% of the total material that is eroded is deposited at Spurnhead. Undercutting is the main problem that the erosion creates.

Where is the erosion occurring

Holderness is part of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Villages in the area include; Hornsea, Mappleton, Withersea and Kilnsea. All the villages affected by the erosion are on the north side of the estuary of the River Humber. The area stretches from Flambourgh Head (High chalk cliffs, just north of Bridlington) down to Spurnhead (sand spit, on above map).

How are the local authorities protecting the area

“Hard defences (Coastal Management)in the form of a concrete seawall and timber groynes afford protection and an on going refurbishment programme ensures this has continued.”. A large-scale underwater tyre reef could be set up off the Holderness coast, however this would cost £390,000 to build. Other defences include; sea walls, groynes, Rip Rap and gabions. “The groynes provide a barrier to sediment transportation”, however further south the coastline is suffering from Terminal Groyne Syndrome (TGS). Groynes are used to prevent the occurrence of '''LongShore Drift''' and this interference of this natural process causes beaches to decrease in size becasue of material being trapped further up shore by the last groyne this is TSG.

Why is the erosion rate so high

The undercutting of the cliffs cause slumping type landslips Mass wasting. The mixture of a very long north easterly fetch, allowing the waves to become very powerful, and the softness of the geology that make sup the cliffs equals a lot of erosion. Holderness is a former bay that was filled in the last ice age and is now made up of chalk/glacial Till compound that is easily eroded.

Who is the erosion affecting

Businesses and residents in the area are having to Rollback to local towns nearby because of the eroding cliffs. A local resident, John Bimington, used to live 100 meters from the sea, now he has lost 20 meters of his land in 7 years, a loss of 20%. 45 families in Withersea are unprotected by the sea wall. People’s houses have decreased in value because of the risk of erosion.