Skegness

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Skegness
Coordinates: 53.1453° N 0.3402° E
Population	16,806
OS grid reference	TF5663
District	East Lindsey
Shire county	Lincolnshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SKEGNESS
Postcode district	PE24, PE25
Police	Lincolnshire
Fire	Lincolnshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
European Parliament	East Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Lincolnshire

Skegness is a famous seaside resort town in Lincolnshire, England, with a permanent population of 16,806 (20,694 including Ingoldmells). It is home to the original Butlins, built in 1936, and is one of the most, more so in the past, famous traditional English seaside resorts. It is administered by East Lindsey District Council.

Contents 1 History 2 Skegness today 2.1 Local politics 3 Education 4 Media 5 External links 6 Notes

[edit] History

The name indicates that Skegness has its origin in the Danish period of settlement in Britain. Although it has been suggested that it looks like a foot, a hypothetical Viking responsible for establishing the earliest settlement on this location, it is much more likely to have derived from words which appear in modern Danish as skæg, beard and næs, nose or in geographical terms, headland. View this aerial photograph to see why. Longshore drift carries particles of sediment southwards along the Lincolnshire coast but at Skegness, the sand settles out in banks (tombolos) which run at a slight angle to the coast forming the beard. The slightly elevated dune land sheltered the small natural harbour which the Danes found behind the banks. The finer sediment drifts on to find a home in the mud of The Wash, beyond Gibraltar Point.

In August 1642, a consignment of arms and money, probably raised by Queen Henrietta Maria, in the Netherlands for the support of King Charles I's campaign in the Civil War, was forced into Skegness by the ships of the Parliamentarian Earl of Warwick.^[1]

Skegness was primarily a fishing village and small port until the arrival of the railway in 1875. The land was part of the Earl of Scarbrough's estate and he, or his agent H.V.Tippet^[2] saw that the extensive sandy beach could be made attractive to holidaymakers from the industrial towns of the English Midlands, a clientele already developed by Thomas Cook. He planned the town as a resort from 1877 and it expanded rapidly, but along with many other UK resorts, especially those on the cold North Sea, it lost out to the cheap package holiday boom after World War II. Ingoldmells, the next parish to the north of Skegness was the site of the UK's first Holiday Camp, started by Billy Butlin in 1936. Butlin's is still there today, in modern dress, at the north end of the town, on the road to Ingoldmells.

Skegness had a 1843 foot (562 metre) long pier which was opened on Whit Monday 1881, at that time it was the fourth longest in England. Steamboat trips ran from the pier to The Wash and Hunstanton in Norfolk from 1882 until 1910. In 1919, it was damaged by a drifting ship and it took twenty years to raise the money to fully repair it. Again in 1978, the pier was badly damaged and considerably shortened; this time by severe gales.^[3] The pier has since undergone major refurbishment and is now once again a thriving tourist attraction, although it no longer extends far seaward of the high tide line.

[edit] Skegness today

In March 2005, Skegness took the top spot in a survey by Yours magazine, looking at the best retirement places in the UK. Yours researchers visited sixty likely towns, and factors involved in judging included house prices, hospital waiting lists, the crime rate, council tax rates, activities and attractions, weather patterns and ease of transport. It has also been described by Lonely Planet's Great Britain guide as "everything you could want" in a seaside resort.

Today the town's tourist industry mainly caters for working-class holiday-makers and day-trippers from Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and other areas of the East Midlands. Skegness has been dubbed "the Blackpool of the East Coast" or "Nottingham by the Sea", and has a famous mascot, the Jolly Fisherman (designed by John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway), and a slogan - Skegness is so bracing - a reference to the chilly prevailing north-easterly winds that can and frequently do blow off the North Sea. The town is popularly known as Skeg, Skeggy or "Skegvegas". Further up the coast are the other holiday resorts of Mablethorpe, Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards. Fine beaches link the coastal towns, and there are many large caravan parks in the surrounding countryside. One caravan park a short distance to the north of the town has its own airfield, with a 755 metre grass runway. Visiting pilots can call the airfield on 132.425MHz, although PPR (Prior Permission Required) is stated for landing. A number of years ago, pleasure flights used to operate from the aerodrome. The town is served by Skegness railway station, which is the terminus for a line from Boston. The A52 passes through the town from Boston to Mablethorpe.

The seafront teems with a variety of ways for visiting tourists to spend their money. The main strip of road along the beach is a kaleidoscope of neon and flashing lights advertising arcade machines, slot machines, fairground rides, crazy golf, fish-and-chip shops and various bars. There are also seasonal shops selling cheap ways to entertain oneself, such as kites and buckets-and-spades - such quieter pleasures can be enjoyed on the long wide award-winning beach, which in summer features a fine herd of donkeys for riding. The town is also a major centre for bowls, and is the home to the world's premier Meccano exhibition, annually staged in the Embassy Theatre, on the Grand Parade by the seafront. Behind the Embassy is Botton's Pleasure Beach, featuring roller coasters, mini merry-go-round (the Gallopers), dodgems and many traditional and modern rides, as well as the annual spectacular end-of-season firework display.

There are large Morrisons and Tesco supermarkets in the centre of the town near the railway station, and a Co-op in the Hildreds Centre shopping area. Lumley Road is the main shopping area, with plenty of fish and chip shops and pubs.

To the south of the town is Gibraltar Point, a nature reserve on the northern limit of The Wash.

[edit] Local politics

On the southern foreshore sits a popular family attraction, the Fairy Dell paddling pool. Closed by the district council because of health and safety fears in 2004, the pool soon became the centre of controversy as people from Skegness, elsewhere in the country and as far afield as Australia voiced their dismay at the loss of such a time-honoured free facility. Taxpayers and town councillors joined forces with the local press to campaign for the Fairy Dell to be reopened, and the district council gave way to public pressure and promised to have it back in operation by summer 2006.

On 22nd May 2006, the Fairy Dell re-opened following a major refurbishment during which many improvements were made to the pool such as clean-filtered water and extra water features. All in all, the protesting had paid off and the new Fairy Dell looked splendid. You can see it by Clicking Here

In October 2005, the East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust closed the Scarbrough Ward at Skegness Hospital as part of a package of money-saving measures. Locals were outraged by the decision, because the ward represented about a third of the hospital's entire capacity and also provided palliative care. Campaigners marched through the streets and held up the traffic, then later called for the resignations of the PCT board members after they turned down a £100,000 donation offered by East Lindsey District Council to enable the ward to remain open through the winter. The PCT said the donation would "impinge" on its duties, and could be considered "unlawful" if accepted.

Skegness can now say it has its own rock club. Live bands of all genres playing at "The Parade Complex" every few weeks. Organised by a team called "AlternativeSkegness", it is hoping to expand soon and make the band nights a big attraction similar to Rock City in Nottingham.

[edit] Education

Skegness is also the home to the schools for most of the surrounding area's secondary education. Two schools cater for the 11–18 age range, St Clement's College (formerly known as the Earl of Scarbrough High School) is a secondary modern on Burgh Road, and Skegness Grammar School on Vernon Road.

[edit] Media

The resort is served primarily by three local newspapers - the Skegness Standard, Skegness Citizen and Skegness Target.

[edit] External links

• Skegness resort page on Lincolnshire Seaside website
• Embassy Theatre - Programme and information
• What's On in the Skegness area
• Complete Online Guide to Skegness
• Skegness Town Council
• East Lindsey District Council
• Photos of Skegness, Mablethorpe, Chapel St Leonards from the past to present day
• History of Butlin's
• The International Meccano website
• Photographs of recent events in Skegness including a photograph of the new style Jolly Fisherman which made its first public appearance in June 2006 and unique photographs of democracy in action at a Skegness Town Council meeting

[edit] Notes

Lincolnshire

County town: Lincoln Other settlements: Boston | Bourne | The Deepings | Gainsborough | Grantham | Louth | Skegness | Sleaford | Spalding | Stamford Parliamentary Constituencies: Boston and Skegness | Gainsborough | Grantham and Stamford | Lincoln | Louth and Horncastle | Sleaford and North Hykeham | South Holland and The Deepings Districts: Boston | East Lindsey | Lincoln | North Kesteven | South Holland | South Kesteven | West Lindsey Further details: Geography | History | Education | Transport | Places of interest | Diocese Edit this template

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