Read's Island

Read's Island is an island situated just outside the Ancholme sluice, on the Humber Estuary in England. Some suggest it is an artificial island. However, the site of the current Read's Island was for very many years a large sandbank going by the name of "Old Warp" and is shown on the 1734 Customs Map of the Humber where Read's Island now lays, and extending further downstream. Grass was then seen growing on Old Warp by the early part of the 19th century. With the Humber Estuary being a drain for a large part of the Midlands, including the River Trent and all of its tributaries, and the River Ouse draining a major part of Yorkshire, England, and being very tidal, it was a simple task and a matter of waiting a few years for some strategically placed piles of bricks and concrete to start off this island (some say). It was certainly protected and further land reclaimed from the Humber as its island status grew, and by the 1861 census there was one wooden cottage on the island, with a fresh water well. German prisoners of war rebuilt the brick flood walls during the 1914-1918 war.

The major part of Read's Island is in the parish of Winteringham despite the closest village being South Ferriby. Historically, there is an approximate 20 year cycle whereby the main shipping channel alternates from just north of Read's Island to the South Channel, between the Island and the shoreline in South Ferriby and Winteringham parishes.

It has been occupied at times in the past, at one point as a farm with cattle roaming along it, and when there are particularly high spring tides, at low water, it was possible for the cattle to reach solid ground by walking across the mud at low tide. However, when the island was farmed by Joseph Popple in the 1930s cattle had to be transported by barge. The island then extended to some 600 acres (2.4 km²) and was used for summer grazing. It was locally famous for wildlife and hares.

The size of the island was reduced by half in the floods of 2008.

Currently, as the Humber continues to change, the Island is in decline. Current thinking suggests that the main (undredged) shipping channel that leads to the likes of Goole, may fall between the island and the Humber's Lincolnshire shore before too many more years have passed.

Read's Island is an RSPB reserve due to its importance for ground-nesting avocets - 6% of the entire UK population.

Note that Read's Island is the spelling used by the Ordnance Survey and other maps, whilst some spell it Reads Island, and others even Reed's or Reeds Island. The Read brothers of Burton Stather are believed to be the first to graze cattle on the island.

External links

• RSPB Read's Island
• Winteringham - Read's Island history