Yorkshire Coast and Humber Estuary RCZAS NMP

The Yorkshire Coast and Humber Estuary Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (RCZAS) included an air photo interpretation element as part of the National Mapping Programme (NMP). This mapping project covered the inter-tidal zone and a minimum 1km-wide strip of coastline between Whitby in North Yorkshire and Donna Nook in North Lincolnshire. It included the mouth of the Humber Estuary as far as Sunk Island on the north bank and Grimsby on the south bank. The primary aim of this RCZAS was to enhance the record of the coastal archaeology of north-eastern England, and identify sites at short-term and medium-term risk in the coastal hinterland. The main project is being conducted by Humber Field Archaeology and the NMP element was conducted by Humber Field Archaeology and the NMP element was undertaken by contractors and staff from Archaeological Services (WYAS). As of June 2007 the NMP mapping has been completed.

The project has identified and recorded over 1000 features dating from the Neolithic through to the twentieth century. These include clusters of Iron Age square barrows, prehistoric or Roman boundary systems and medieval settlements. However this coastline is richest in the remains of military features from World Wars I and II and over 700 of the recorded features were of this period. Many of these sites have been previously documented by the Fortress Studies Group and the Defence of Britain surveys, but this is the first attempt to produce consistent, detailed plans of such remains from aerial photographs. Amongst the most curious statistics generated by the mapping was that a total length of 212km of barbed wire entangelments were mapped!

The Humber Estuary and Yorkshire Coast offer an assortment of medieval/post medieval features, often still visible as earthworks on the most recent photography such as the settlement remains at Rolston and Wilsthorpe.

Amongst the military features recorded were the anti-invasion defences at Sand le Mere near Tunstall Hall and the Easington defence sites that consisted of anti-tank cubes, pillboxes, infantry trenches and gun emplacements. The Aldbrough `starfish' bombing decoy was also situated nearby.

 

 

This project also investigated the use of aerial photographs for charting the rate of coastal erosion. Aerial photographs provide an invaluable record of coastline changes from the early 1940s and the team working on the NMP element have been producing maps of the sample stretches of coastline from the earliest and latest available vertical air photographs.  The greatest measured loss has been 115m over the period between 1945 and 1994 at Mappleton in the East Riding. Of course with the loss of land there has been destruction of archaeological sites and monuments as seen in the case studies below.

The images used on this page are copyright English Heritage unless specified otherwise. For further details of any photographs or other images and for copies of these, or the plans and reports related to the project please contact the NMR English Heritage's public archive.

For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us at: AerialSurvey@english-heritage.org.uk.