Druridge Bay

Druridge Bay

Druridge Bay is a bay in Northumberland, seven miles long, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south.

The Northumberland Coast Country Park is situated within the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farm-steading of Druridge, in the centre of the bay) is owned by the National Trust. Areas within the bay are set aside as nature reserves.

During the Second World War, defences were constructed around Druridge Bay as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. The defences included scaffolding barriers and anti-tank blocks overlooked by pillboxes and behind these were minefields and an anti-tank ditch.

Conservation and controversy

The bay was the focus of a long-running campaign against a proposal to construct a Pressurised Water Reactor nuclear power station during the 1980s and the large scale extraction of sand from the area in the 1990s. The campaign, along with changes in Government policy on nuclear power, prevented the power station from being built, and the plan was shelved for the time being in 1989. Northumberland Wildlife Trust purchased the sand extraction site from RMC Group in 2006, the shore is known for populations of birds including the golden plover and the purple sandpiper.

The land was retained by Nuclear Electric and in February 1996 was allocated to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority|NDA/BNFL.

In November 1996 the NDA/BNFL sold the land to farmers.

Druridge Bay again became the focus for environmental concerns in late 2015, when a planning application was submitted by Banks Group for an open-cast mine extending to 890 acres immediately to the west of the beach, for the extraction of 3 million tons of coal: six weeks after the application was submitted the government announced that all coal-fired energy generation would cease by 2025.

Nature and naturism

Druridge Bay is best known to birdwatchers for hosting, in 1998, the Druridge Bay curlew, a controversial bird which was eventually accepted as the first record of slender-billed curlew for Britain, although this identification is still disputed by some.

Druridge Bay is also a delightful spot for naturists. The North East Skinny Dip, first held in 2012, is an annual skinny dip to raise funds for MIND, the mental health charity. It is held around the time of the Autumn Equinox in September each year.

Pictures

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  Looking north over Druridge Bay from Cresswell
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  Druridge Bay
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  Druridge Bay
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  Old wartime anti-tank defences, buried by time and sand.

Outside links

• Location map: 55°16’44"N, 1°34’1"W
• Streetmap: NZ276984

References

• Foot, William (2006). Beaches, fields, streets, and hills ... the anti-invasion landscapes of England, 1940. Council for British Archaeology. ISBN 1-902771-53-2.