Skegness

Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Located on the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, 43 miles (69 km) east of the city of Lincoln it has a total resident population of 18,910.^[1]

The first Butlins holiday resort was opened in Skegness in 1936. Partially owing to this, the resort is one of the better known seaside resorts in the United Kingdom.

Geography

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.

The civil parish extends westwards along the A158 to the west side of the South View Hotel, and the boundary follows North Drain, bodering with Burgh le Marsh. Just north of Mill Hill, it borders with Addlethorpe, passing to the west of Ash Tree Farm, the airfield and Skegness Water Leisure Park. At the north end of the leisure park it boders with Ingoldmells, and the boundary follows to the south of Wall's Lane. The boundary crosses the A52 at a subway across the road, just south of the Butlins camp.

To the south of the hotel on the A158, the parish follows Main Drain, to the west of Warth Lane. Just south of Ivy House, it crosses the A52 and borders Croft. The boundary follows Cow Bank Drain, over a level crossing, to the north of Croft Grange, then passes through Bramble Hills, just north of Seacroft Golf Course to the sea.

Skegness enjoys its position on what is officially recognised as 'the drier side of Britain', being the east coast^[2] - a fact that has often been used to some advantage in promoting it as a holiday resort.

Climate

As with the rest of the British Isles, Skegness experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. Temperature extremes since 1960 have ranged from 32.4 °C (90.3 °F) In August 1990,^[3] down to −10 °C (14.0 °F) in January 1963.^[4] The lowest temperature recorded in recent years was −8 °C (17.6 °F) during December 2010.^[5]

History

Early history

The name would appear to indicate that Skegness has its origin in the Danish period of settlement of England although there is no reference to a village named Skegness in the Domesday Book. The town's name means either "Skeggi's headland" or "beard-shaped headland", depending on whether the first element represents the personal name Skeggi^[7] (meaning 'bearded one'), one of the Vikings who established the original settlement to the east of the current town which was washed away by the sea in the early sixteenth century; or the Old East Norse word skegg "beard".^[8]

Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lincolnshire from a very early time, for governance, the parish of Skegness was in the Marsh division of the ancient Candleshoe Wapentake in the Parts of Lindsey.

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.^[9]

Railway

Skegness was primarily a fishing village and small port^[10] until the arrival of the railway in 1875. In 1908, Great Northern Railways commissioned a poster to advertise excursions to the resort, the first being from King's Cross, London on Good Friday 1908, leaving London at 11.30 am.^[11] The 'Skegness is so Bracing' poster featuring The Jolly Fisherman helped to put Skegness on the map and is now world famous. The poster, derived from an oil painting by John Hassall (illustrator), was purchased by the railway company for the 12 guineas.^[11] Paradoxically, Mr Hassall did not visit the resort until 1936. He is said to have died penniless.

Resort town and Butlins

Most of the land in what is now the downtown core formed part of the estate of the Earl of Scarbrough and he, together with his agent H.V.Tippet,^[12] realised 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 which opened up Spain (in particular) to the average holidaymaker after World War II currency restrictions were lifted and travellers could leave the UK with more than 50 pounds.

Ingoldmells, the parish to the north of Skegness, was the site of the UK's first Holiday Camp, started by Billy Butlin in 1936. Butlins is still there today, in modern dress, at the north end of the town, on the road to Ingoldmells. It maintains its appeal as a popular destination for family holidays, and attracts thousands to the resort in the low season with music weekends encompassing 60s, 80s, soul and other genres.

The Wash Incident

The Wash Incident took place in the early hours of 5 October 1996 when a strange red and green rotating light was seen by many Skegness residents and police officers to the southeast of Skegness, who then contacted the Coastguard at Great Yarmouth. It later involved many RAF stations, including RAF Neatishead, and GCHQ. The object was not an aircraft because although it could be seen on radar, it had no transponder. The Skegness News, a local newspaper which no longer exists, investigated the incident and sought confirmation of the object from the Jodrell Bank Observatory. In their report to the RAF, the observatory said that Venus, ‘the queen of UFOs’, which had been shining with exceptional brilliance in the early morning sky to the east, probably explained the light shown on the video. The object was caught on video by Skegness Police. The RAF decided the stationary 'blip' was a permanent echo of the 83m tall St Botolph's Church, Boston, and the object on the video was the planet Venus.^[13][14][15] It coincided with the Westendorff UFO sighting.

Present day

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.^[16] It has also been described by Lonely Planet's Great Britain guide as "everything you could want" in a seaside resort. On 22 July 2008 the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, caused controversy in an article in The Daily Telegraph, where he declared "Stuff Skegness, my trunks and I are off to the sun", in his desire to have a foreign holiday that year.^[17]

Tourist industry

The town is popularly known as Skeg, Skeggy, Costa del Skeg or Skegvegas or "the Blackpool of the East Coast", 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.^[18] The slogan is thought to have come from an unknown member of staff of the railway. The poster was first seen at Easter in conjunction with an excursion from Kings Cross Station. The last of these trips ran in 1913.^[19]

Further up the coast are the other holiday resorts of Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards.

Many of the hotels, guest-houses, self catering apartments and bed & breakfast establishments in and around the Skegness area are members of the "Skegness East Coast and Wolds Hospitality Association" or SECWHA for short. An association formed in April 2008 after the merging of two previous associations known as "The Skegness Hoteliers Association", consisting of Hotel, bed and breakfast and guest house accommodation providers and the "Skegness Self Catering Association", consisting of holiday flats, chalet and caravan parks.

However, Skegness, like many UK resorts, has suffered in recent years due to the increase in cheap foreign package holidays over staying at home. Its past two summer seasons have been marred by rain, and in the 18 months leading up to the end of 2008, the resort had suffered the destruction by fire of three of its most popular attractions - The Dunes pub at Winthorpe, the Parade Complex which housed a nightclub, bar and amusement arcade, and most recently a seafront building housing two bars and a fish-and-chip shop.

Landmarks

Clock tower

At the end of Lumley Road is the town's prominent clock tower, its most well-recognised landmark, built in 1898-99 and funded through public subscription. The clock tower became the subject of a hoax in the Skegness Standard on 1 April 2009, when the newspaper claimed that it was about to be dismantled and moved to a museum.^[20] It is also featured as a 3D rendering in Google Earth.^[21]

Gardens

Beyond the clock tower, Tower Esplanade leads to the beach, with a statue of the Jolly Fisherman in the Compass Gardens to one side and the entrance to the once-popular boating lake on the other. The name Lumley comes from the surname of the Earl of Scarbrough's family. St Matthew's church^[22] of Early English Gothic style is on Lumley Avenue, being built by the Earl of Scarbrough in 1879, and [St Clement's] is on Church Road North. Tower Gardens, previously known as the Pleasure Gardens, opened in 1878 after being generously donated by the Earl of Scarbrough.^[23] The gardens have events during the summer.^[24]

Pier

Skegness had a 1,843 foot (562 m) 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, the schooner Europa, and it took twenty years to raise the money to fully repair it. In 1978 the pier was badly damaged and considerably shortened; this time by severe gales.^[25] 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.

Hotels

Well-known hotels include the "North Shore", the Vine, Southview Park Hotel (west along the A158), the Crown, the County, the Links, and the Royal Renaissance Hotel, which was formerly known as the Seacroft.^[26]

Other

The RNLI has a station in Skegness. It is manned by a crew who are all volunteers except for the coxswain, and equipped with two lifeboats - the all-weather Lincolnshire Poacher and a smaller dinghy-style inshore boat. The town has a long and rich lifeboat history. The Coastguard have a base on the town's industrial estate.

Two miles (3 km) out to sea is an offshore drilling platform for gas, and clearly visible from the beach - and indeed several miles further inland - is the large Lynn and Inner Dowsing Wind Farm operated by Centrica. A larger windfarm further out to sea had been proposed.

Shopping

Lumley Road, High Street and Roman Bank are the main shopping areas, with plenty of fish and chip shops and pubs. There are large Lidl, Morrisons and Tesco supermarkets and a smaller Iceland store all located in the centre of the town near the railway station. There is also a Co-op store in the Hildreds shopping centre and the Westgate department store on Lumley Road.

Leisure

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. The Embassy Theatre is the East Coast's Premier Entertainment venue on Grand Parade, Skegness.

On 16 August 2007, a huge fire hit an entertainment complex on the Skegness front, wiping out the town's main nightclub and a large amusement arcade. No-one was injured but the severity of the fire meant that the complex had to be demolished.^[27] There are now plans to build a hotel on the site.

In the latter part of 2008, another fire broke out at a building a little further along the seafront. This time, pubs and a fish-and-chip shop were gutted.

Skegness has an annual carnival in August, along with a week-long programme of events throughout the town. East Lindsey District Council used to operate the carnival procession, but they handed over control of the event to a group of volunteers who now run it on a smaller scale.

Skegness is also host to the annual SO Festival, July's largest music and arts festival, which it now combines with the switch-on of the seafront illuminations.

Health

Skegness Hospital has two entrances - accident and emergency on Dorothy Avenue and the main entrance on Lincoln Road. In October 2005, the East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust closed the Scarbrough Ward as part of a package of money-saving measures.^[28][29] 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 including doctors, nurses, business people, journalists and councillors 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.^[30] The PCT said the donation would "impinge" on its duties, and could be considered "unlawful" if accepted. The ward re-opened in 2006 and began operating to its previous capacity again.

The town also has two large GP practices, a nurse-lead community mental health team, providing long-term and short-term care and a PCT health centre; the latter being on Cecil Avenue.

Schools and colleges

Primary education establishments

• Richmond Primary School^[31]
• Seathorne Primary School^[32][33]
• Skegness Infant School^[34]
• Skegness Junior School^[35]
• The Viking School (independent)

Secondary education establishments

• Skegness Academy (formerly known as St Clement's College & the Earl of Scarbrough High School) is a secondary modern on Burgh Road.^[36]
• Skegness Grammar School on Vernon Road.

Tertiary education establishments

• Skegness College of Vocational Training on Wilford Grove and Grosvenor Road.^[37]
• Skegness Academy on Briar Way, run by Grimsby Institute and Boston College (opened in 2006).^[38]
• Lincolnshire Regional College on Heath Road run by Grimsby Institute

Places of interest

Beach

The long and wide sandy beach features a fine herd of donkeys for riding, and has several times won the Blue Flag beach award for cleanliness. The Central beach has retained its blue flag status for 2011/2012.^[39] From 2007 the Quality Coast Award was introduced by Keep Britain tidy, an environmental charity focusing on raising the standards of beaches in England. This award is handed out in recognition of the achievements of beach managers and guarantees holiday makers that the beach is of the highest standards The Central beach has been given the coveted award. Quality Coast Award

The shape of the beach itself has changed considerably in the last decade. In the mid-1990s an extensive programme of enhancement to the sea defences was carried out, with the installation of rock armour along the length of Lagoon Walk. This provided a very effective barrier against the sea's tremendous power, but consequently the highest tides were forced southwards. The Environment Agency predicted that the sea would destroy Skegness Boating Club's boat compound and possibly wipe out a grassed picnic area just behind it. As the tides shifted, the boat compound was indeed flattened by the sea. Sand dunes were washed away and significant new creeks were carved into the beach, but so far the picnic area remains intact.^[40] The boating club now has a new compound just off the Princes Parade car park.

Fairy Dell

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.^[41] 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 22 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.^[42]

Natureland Seal Sanctuary

Natureland Seal Sanctuary provides visitors with entertainment, education and conservation. The sanctuary opened its doors in 1965 and attracts thousands of visitors each year. The sanctuary features seals, penguins, tropical and seawater aquariums and koi pond, a pets corner, tropical house and floral palace. Natureland works with abandoned baby seals which are often washed up on the beach and in need of medical care. Staff treat and rear the seals until they are well enough to be returned to the sea.

Other

• To the south of the town is Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, on the northern limit of The Wash.
• Church Farm Museum is a museum of agricultural life covering the 17th to 20th Centuries.
• The town is also a major centre for bowls.
• Annual world's premier Meccano exhibition is staged in the Embassy Theatre, on the Grand Parade by the seafront.
• Botton's Pleasure Beach, featuring roller coasters, mini merry-go-round (the Gallopers), dodgems and many traditional and modern rides^[43] as well as its spectacular annual end-of-season firework display.

Transport links

Roads

The A52 passes through the town from Boston to Mablethorpe. The A158 connects Lincoln to Skegness, and connects with the A16 to the north via the A1028. National Express operates direct (non-stop) daily coaches from East Midlands cities in the warmer months of the year. A 36-mile-long (58 km) Roman road passes between Lincoln and Skegness via Burgh le Marsh, initially following the A158, then to the north of the road, across the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Railway and bus

The town's railway and bus stations are located next door to each other at the bottom of Richmond Drive in the town centre.

Stagecoach Lincolnshire is the main operator in the town with regular services operating up the coast as far as Mablethorpe, there is also regular services inland to both Boston and Lincoln.^[44]

Skegness railway station, is the terminus for the Grantham to Skegness Line. Trains run the full length of this and the Nottingham to Grantham Line to give connections to the East Midlands. For the current amount of traffic, the station is bigger than necessary with four long platforms. Each platform can accommodate a full HST. The station decor has seen better days, and much heavier throughput since the main interconnecting line, the East Lincolnshire Railway, was dismantled from Firsby to Grimsby. Access from the north was discontinued from 1970.

The station is currently having a major renovation programme costing £290,000

Nottingham, Grantham, Boston and Sleaford have direct connections, while popular places such as Leicester, Derby and Kettering require a change at Nottingham. The track from Boston to Skegness, although once part of a busy longer-distance line, is not suited to large heavy trains, therefore line speeds are generally restricted to a maximum of 30 mph (for locomotive-hauled trains).

In 2009, East Midlands Trains introduced a direct service from Nottingham to Skegness, operated using an HST. This service was extended in 2010 as far as Derby, which will hopefully be continued in 2011.

Airfield

Fine beaches link the coastal towns, and there are many large caravan parks in the surrounding countryside. Skegness Water Leisure Park, a short distance to the north of the town, near Ingoldmells, has its own airfield, with two runways. Visiting pilots can call the airfield on 132.425 MHz, although PPR (Prior Permission Required) is stated for landing.

A number of years ago, pleasure flights used to operate from the original Skegness airfield which used to be located close to the current site of Butlins. Vintage Austers were taking off and landing several times an hour in summer as holidaymakers sampled the joys of flying. At the time the shortest runway was just under 400 yards, making it challenging for less experienced pilots. Many pilots from other airfields were sent to Skegness as part of their qualifying cross country, it was a vibrant general aviation airfield.

Sport

Skegness Stadium, just outside the town, hosts stock car racing throughout the year, with special events such as truck racing, stunt shows, firework displays and caravan racing. Speedway racing was staged at the stadium in 1997.^[45] The Skegness Braves failed in both of their attempts to operate there for a full season.

Skegness is home to Skegness Town A.F.C. and also has a rugby club, Skegness RUFC, and is home to Skegness Cricket Club.

News and media

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

• The Skegness Target is delivered free to most homes in the area every Wednesday. It can also be purchased at retail outlets such as newsagents and petrol filling stations, for those who aren't on the delivery rounds. The paper's website is incorporated into the This Is network, and is owned by Northcliffe Media.
• The Skegness Standard is a paid for newspaper, also released on Wednesdays. Its sister paper, the Citizen, is delivered to homes free of charge on Fridays. These two papers are owned by Johnston Press, and the Standard also has its own website. The former tabloid editor Neil Wallis started his journalistic career in the 1960s on the Skegness Standard.^[46]
• TV-wise, Skegness is covered by BBC Yorkshire & Lincolnshire/ITV Yorkshire, though it overlaps with BBC East Midlands/ITV Central (East).
• On the internet, there is a lively discussion forum used by both local people and visitors to Skegness, at the Visit Skegness website, and a new website, Skegness.com, is being developed to provide local information, what's on listings, a business directory and other content.

Local government

Skegness Town Council

The town's parish authority is Skegness Town Council, which comprises five seats in each of four wards - St Clements, Scarbrough, Seacroft and Winthorpe - making 20 seats in total.^[47]

Following elections in 2011, the political makeup of Skegness Town Council is as follows:-^[48]

• Conservatives: 12
• Labour: 6
• Independents: 2

This represents a net gain of 6 seats for the Conservatives, offset by the loss of 4 seats for Labour, 1 for the Independents and 1 for the Liberal Democrats.

The council has achieved Quality Status, which is an official mark of recognition that it conducts its affairs well in areas including official procedures, the qualification of its clerk and the effectiveness of its communications.^[49]

The next Skegness Town Council elections are due in 2015.

Skegness 2020 Vision

During 2008 and 2009, Skegness residents took part in the Skegness 2020 Vision initiative, set in motion by the town council, to draw up a Local Plan for the town.^[50]

Under this scheme, a group of volunteers from a cross-section of the community led efforts to find out exactly what the people of the town wanted to see change, and indeed the things they wanted to remain. This was done through surveys and public consultations at a number of different venues.

The aim was to produce a 'blueprint' for the development of Skegness by the end of 2009, to cover the coming ten to twelve years and be a 'vision' for the future, hence the name Skegness 2020 Vision. This plan will then be used as a guide for developers and councillors when it comes to submitting and indeed considering applications for planning permission.

References

External links

• Skegness Guide - what's on, things to do, news
• Skegness Town Council
• Photos of Skegness, Mablethorpe, Chapel St Leonards from the past to present day
• History of Butlin's
• Skegness Playgoers
• Skegness Standard Local Newspaper
• The official "Skegness Magazine" news stories past and present
• Skegness.com
• Skegness Discussion Forum
• Stagecoach Lincolnshire

Video clips

• Pathe newsreel, 1925, motor racing on the sands
• Pathe newsreel, 1949, extreme weather
• Pathe newsreel, 1949, extreme weather
• 1996 UFO on Anglia TV