While out looking for a meal last night we took the opportunity to scout our route back to the coast this morning. Our walk took us through the dock area of New Holland and past the railway level crossing, where we were held up waiting for a train to pass. As the lineman came out to open the crossing gates, I nipped up the back stairs and had a wee keek in to the signal box, which was surprisingly old fashioned. The railway line is a link to Grimsby and has been in operation since 1848. The original station was the wooden New Holland Pier Station, which stood at the seaward end of the pier providing a direct link to the ferry service for small scale cargo and passengers. We were up early this morning and after a quick cuppie and a cold breakfast were soon back on the road. The weather was overcast with a beautiful mackerel-patterned sky above the Humber Bridge. It was early morning cold and we needed gloves and hat to keep the heat in. Unfortunately, our scouting work of the night before was undone as the route we had scoped, down the side of the New Holland Mere now had a huge padlocked gate across it. There was no alternative but to backtrack to the town and go through the dock area again. New Holland used to be a location for ferry services to Hull but with the building of the Humber Bridge it was no longer a financially viable service and closed in 1981. Our route today follows the sea bank down the river and round some fairly heavy dock areas and ports. The early morning light, slate blue against the grey of the river held some promise of sunshine for later in the day. Walking through the New Holland dock area and a timber yard, we marvelled again at the queer system of right of way in England where your route can take you through the middle of busy industrial areas. Fortunately, it was early on a Sunday morning and there was little sign of activity. Exiting the dockyard, we were soon at the starting line with the dike lying out in front of us for some miles. To our right lay the smallholding on New Holland Mere and to our left the Humber Estuary. The perspective was confusing as we looked down the river to where it bends round to the right to run out past the Spurn Point on the opposite bank. At first sight, it seemed as if the bank we were walking on was going to be very busy further down but in fact it was the heavy industry on the opposite bank that we were looking at, much of which we had walked through a couple of days ago. As the day progressed, we began to pass areas on the other side that we had walked on our previous outing about a month ago. We had been unsure what to expect of today’s walk and whether or not it would be urban or rural in nature and were pleased when it continued in the same vein as yesterday with a mainly rural and arable countryside. The history of some of the the land on the river is industrial but for this stretch those days are long gone and much of the environment has been reclaimed and restored to a more natural state. Throughout the day the river continued to catch our attention. It was interesting to see the industrial areas on the other bank that we had walked through but were now seeing from a different perspective. The light over the river was at times beautiful. The sharp, dark lines of the detritus of the riverbank such a wrecks and old jetties had a startling simplicity against the light sky, as did their stillness against the flow of the river and the movement of the clouds. The paths we walked on moved from grassy to hard, packed earth and eventually to tarmac. There was little navigation to be done until we reached the outskirts of our destination at Immingham. There was some evidence of previous small-scale industry but even on some of these sites there was evidence of artisan activities such as smallholdings with small-scale animal husbandry. There were more of the ponds (flooded clay pits) that were such a feature of yesterday’s walk and beyond the ponds the land was agricultural, mostly arable. In the early part of the walk there were some really lovely stretches of reeds and grasses that from a distance appeared to have a real sturdiness about them but when seen up close had a fragility and tenderness to them. From New Holland we walked down the dike passing by the location of what we thought had been a tilerie, previously makers of bricks, tiles and construction products in baked clay. Beside the large industrial chimney and storage arcades / ovens someone appeared to be operating a smallholding with sheep and pigs wandering in the grounds. Turning the corner of the river at Skitter Ness we could now see the dock and port facilities at North and South Killingholme, as well as at Immingham. We stopped for lunch just North of North Killingholme Haven, beside the remains of a jetty that served a major seaplane base that was located here. The seaplane station, known RNAS Killingholme (originally Immingham) included 5 hangars, as well as a slipway for taking the planes to water. At its height during WW1 when it was one of the largest seaplane bases in the country, it employed about 900 people and handled 100 seaplanes. The base was closed at the end of WW1. Killingholme Haven was a water outlet on the Humber for much of the water drained inland. The surrounding land was once a major producer of clay, which was shipped to Hull. The Haven is now the location for the Humber Sea Terminal which has six berths for ocean going ships, primarily roll-on / roll-off ferries. We moved inland at the Haven to go round the terminal and to cross over the water of the Haven. Regaining the coastal route we passed the Killingholme Haven Pits Nature Reserve (KHPNR), consisting of four flooded clay pits and rough grasslands. The reserve is popular with waders and wildfowl birds and because of its saline lagoon is an important habitat for invertebrate species. A mile or so further down the coast Killingholme Marshes, also an important site for internationally important wader species, has been the subject of some concern in recent years following the submission of an application to by Able UK Ltd., to build a marine energy park on the marshes. The application would result in the loss of a considerable area of land on the marshes and subsequent development and operations on the site could have negative outcomes for KHPNR also. Despite protests from major conservation organisations including the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB, the Secretary of State subsequently granted consent for the development in December 2013. We continued on the coast past the marshes to walk past the three lighthouses that used guard the approaches to the channel (red lighthouse in the background, another white below it). South Killingholme is also home to one of the largest natural gas storage caverns in the United Kingdom. Used to store propane and butane liquefied petroleum gas, the storage facilities are located 180 metres underground within two rock stratus known as the Welton and Ferriby Chalk. As we approached the visible parts of the gas works on the surface, we needed to turn off the coastal path to make our way inland to go round the dock and port area and to access our accommodation at Immingham. As we left the coast, we actually walked across the top of the caverns, a slightly surreal experience. On this walk we have carried our OS Maps on the Kindle. This is a service available from Ordnance Survey whereby you can download the maps to the reader, giving you access to them whenever you want, as long as the reader continues to work that is. Approaching South Killingholme the Kindle gave up the ghost leaving us without access to the map just when we needed it to figure out the route in to town. Step up the hero for the day, Pete Hutchison. Pete works in the gas facility and we were chatting to him about his work and his sport, long distance running. Unbeknownst to us, after we had left him he went away and printed up the maps we would need to finish our journey that day and to get us started the next day as well. Pete typifies the kindnesses we have met on our journey round the coast. Thank you again, Pete for all you did for us. Initially with Pete’s direction and subsequently with the map he provided for us, we were able to find our way in to the town walking a short way up the A160 and then following a path on the left hand side of the A1173. We arrived at our hotel while the Sunday carvery lunch was being served and were more than happy to find out it was included in the cost of our accommodation. After a hefty Sunday lunch we were more than happy to find a wee bed for a wee rest. Its hard at times being a Vagabond! Blowing in the Wind
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