Day 10: Cleethorpes, Beverley, and Burniston

When I first embarked on this journey, my sister warned me that there would be days when I asked myself “why?”, today started off as one such day.

It's the first wet day for a start, mizzling rain obscuring views and dampening enthusiasm for visiting Victorian seaside candy floss and fun fair resorts.

Cleethorpes was my first stop and she struck me as not having weathered the recession as well as other seaside resorts. Today she looked a little sad.

As is now my habit, I went into the lovely new library and asked the ladies on the counter to give me my 'must see must do list. '

1. Go to the fitties (not a misprint and the highlight of the trip actually)
2. Go on the pier
3. Visit SeaView Street with quirky shops then St. Peter's Avenue where the locals do their shopping.
4. Visit the British Heart Foundation Charity shop for a bargain
5. Go to Grimsby and visit the National Fishing Heritage Centre.

I would never have discovered the Humberston Fitties on my own. At the far end of the promenade beyond Pleasure Island there are dozens of chalets, huts and bungalows just steps away from sand dunes and the beach. It's a seashore community that now has conservation status.

No two houses are the same. Fitties is the local word for Saltmarsh and during WW1 the land was divided into plots and was used for billeting soldiers.

By 1929 there were 153 timber huts, some constructed from disused railway carriages. It was like the homes in Dungeness, but far more closely packed.

 In 1939 the residents again had to leave and the military moved in again. The librarian said that a mock up of Grimsby dockyard was also constructed there to fool the Germans.

Several of her homes wore a plaque that said '"Proud to be a hut dweller."

Now on to the pier. I live in Eastbourne, and in case you didn’t know, we have a pier.  The pier in Cleethorpes to me seemed like a restaurant on girders over the sea, but apparently it is the best pier in UK of 2015. Well, Eastbourne Council- did we compete ? and if not why not?

I visited the shops as suggested, and felt very privileged to live in an area where recession has hit less hard than it has in parts of Northern England. I thought it was charming that the librarian loved picking up bargains from the British Heart Foundation shop but again it made me realise that if you are a resident here rather than a holiday maker, there may not be a lot to do or the money to do it. I did find a cookery book bargain too.

I fully intended to spend time in the National Fishing Heritage Centre in Cleethorpes sister town Grimsby but had to content myself with reading it about on Google as all the streets around it were closed off. No idea why but I couldn't get anywhere near it.

Over the Humber Bridge to East Riding of Yorkshire. It was still raining so I could see very little of the river Humber itself.

The toll booth attendant suggested I stop off at Beverley. A good suggestion. 

 

 In contrast to Cleethorps this was a bustling market town with an enormous gothic Minster and possibly one of the most special Youth Hostel buildings in the area, in a 600 year old friary.

Flamborough Head is on the coast between Filey and Bridlington and its cliffs are home to thousands of seabirds. 

It has not one but two lighthouses. The first is a Chalk Tower built in 1669. 

The 'modern' one, a working lighthouse was built in 1806.

Tonight I am staying in Burniston near Scarborough with Airbnb host Mandy, her family and their dog Stella. They all made me feel very welcome.

Supper had to be in the Blacksmith's Arms in Cloughton as the two pubs in Burniston had a kitchen fire in one case, and decorators painting in the other so neither was serving food.

Their loss- my gain! Delicious!