Ravenspurn
Ravenspurn was a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire which was lost to the sea due to coastal erosion: one of more than 30 places along the Holderness Coast which have been lost to the North Sea since the 19th century. The town was located close to the end of a peninsula near Ravenser Odd, which was destroyed by the waters in the fourteenth century. The peninsula still survives and is known as Spurn Head. The North Sea lies to the east of the peninsula, the river Humber to the west.
The region of coastline is known as the Holderness Coast; geologically the land is formed of glacial tills (boulder clay), which are subject to coastal erosion. Now at sea, areas around the site are being drilled for natural gas.
Ravenspurn appears in William Shakespeare's plays Richard II, Henry IV, Part I, and Henry VI, Part III, under the spelling "Ravenspurgh".
Two medieval kings landed at Ravenspurn: Henry Bolinbroke in 1399, on his way to dethrone Richard II and take the throne as Henry IV, and Edward of York, the future Edward IV, in 1471, on his way back from exile in the Netherlands. He was resisted by the local lord, Sir Martin de la See.
- Location map: 53°36’10"N, -0°10’2"E
See also
Outside links
- Browne, Horace B. (1912). "How Two Kings of England landed at Spurn". The Story of the East Riding of Yorkshire. London: A Brown & Sons Ltd.. p. 155. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52367/52367-h/52367-h.htm#chap17.