Nafferton: The stunning Yorkshire village enveloped in a natural world with large water features at its heart

From Priestgate, there's fantastic views of the former mill pond, which is drained through sluice gates into a mill race flowing into a wood and steel waterwheel and into Nafferton Beck, and later the River Hull.

Aside from being a focal point, residents are proud of the habitats that the mere affords on their doorsteps.

Perhaps the village's best known resident, Victorian wildlife campaigner Reverend Francis Orpen Morris served as vicar of Nafferton from the 1840s.

Alongside penning books for children and on religious subjects and stately homes, the clergyman's natural history works proved popular.

Historians say he was unable to reconcile with the theory of evolution became known for being an extreme anti-vivisectionist and taking his butterfly net with him to collect specimens on visits around his parish.

While his great work was A History of British Birds, earlier this year, an independent ecology report commissioned by Nafferton Parish Council found the body of water was suffering "disturbance and damage" caused by ducks grazing aquatic vegetation, trampling banks and eating amphibian larvae.

The report said the mere was being impacted by excessive wildfowl numbers, reducing water quality, suppressing vegetation while impacting populations of fish and invertebrates.

It recommended concerted action to deter ducks from roosting there, including felling trees on the mere's island to boost vegetation on its surrounds, further defending the island with brash and timber and erecting signs appealing to people not to feed the birds.

The last of the mills and maltings the mere once supplied were bulldozed 40 years ago, but north-east of the village, an 18th century windmill, minus its sails, can be seen from the south side of the Bridlington Road.

Standing above the mere, almost like a sentry, is the village's oldest surviving building, All Saints Church. It is Grade I-listed, which puts it among the country's most highly protected buildings.

All Saints' website states: "We are so fortunate in Nafferton that our church is on a hill above the street above the mere. It’s like a microcosm.

"When we climb the path to the door of the church, we are reminded that we’re ascending above our daily cares and duties to join the saints and the angels in worshipping God."

Parts of the church, such as the four-bay aisled nave, date from the 12th century, but it has had numerous additions, including a chancel in the 13th century, aisles in the 14th century and its tower in the 15th century.

The 19th century saw a major restoration of the church, the majority of which was undertaken under the guidance of Reverend James Davidson, the first vicar to introduce harvest festivals into the East Riding.

He was much more popular than his predecessor Rev Morris, and used the collection raised to mark his jubilee in the parish to extend the village school in Westgate, which has since been transformed into a home.

The village's children now attend Nafferton Primary School, also on Westgate, which in 2022 Ofsted found to be good overall, with outstanding areas.

Recent years have seen the school heralded for its move Io create a reading environment which inspires pupils to pick up a book.

December saw the school transformed into a festive wonderland, including a Santa on the roof, a wooden reindeer with a sleigh, fake snow, with carol-singing ovens performing during lunchtime.

North of the school is Middle Street, which has the village's greatest concentration of listed properties, some of which date from the time three mills were in operation on the mere.

To the lake's south-east is Nether Hall, a Victorian property on an eight-acre medieval sited, close to Nafferton Beck, the grounds of which have a dry moat around a 130m long and 70m wide island and a ha-ha.

The site was a manor house of the Constable family who were granted manorial rights when the Percy lands passed to the crown in 1537, though in 1546 Sir Marmaduke Constable returned them to King Henry VIII.

Also on the village's eastern boundary, which is about ten miles from the coast, is Nafferton Sports and Recreation Club, which next week will stage Nafferton's annual Beer, Cider and Gin Festival.

Last summer, one of the recreation ground's regular users, Nafferton Junior Football Club, was thrust into the spotlight after one of its balls was discovered washed up on a beach in Terschelling, a small island off the coast of Holland.

Club chairman Sean Gibson said it was a mystery how the ball ended up there, adding it was possible a stray shot had landed in a ditch during an away game in Hull before being washed out to sea.

There's plenty of parking at the grounds, but elsewhere in the village, with cars parked on both sides of the road in places driving along some streets has been dubbed challenging by some.

It's small wonder the community warmly welcomed the opening of a 278sq m supermarket and petrol station on a site off New Road, with parking last summer.

At the opposite end of the village, hourly trains depart to Hull and Bridlington.

The brown and red brick with sandstone dressings railway station, station-master's house and goods shed were built for the York and North Midland Railway in 1846.

It's 12 years since the station was sealed off and services suspended after a suspected Second World War bomb was unearthed by residents digging flower beds for a village in bloom competition.

The 2lb bomb turned out to be inert.