Coastal erosion shuts footpath from popular icecream parlour to East Coast beach
A footpath to the seaside from a popular icecream parlour has been closed due to coastal erosion.
After a walk across a field the path from Mr Moo’s at Southfield Farm, Skipsea descends to the beach via a gap to an area called Skipsea Withow.
However the stretch of low cliffs have taken a battering from waves on the back of strong easterly winds.
Owner Judith Foreman said there was now a 5ft drop to the beach which wasn’t safe for people.
She said: “We’ve closed our footpath (as you leave the car park). It’s an absolute quagmire, ankle deep in liquid mud.
"We’ve been here since 1982 and I would say it’s been fairly stable. It’s bad now because of easterlies. waves are being driven in by gales.
"We’ve had nothing like this since the Beast from the East in 2018.”
Mrs Foreman said one of the reasons why there weren’t steps to the beach is that the area forms part of a protected site of special scientific interest.
For years Skipsea Withow has attracted archaeologists and geologists as more of what was once part of an ancient mere or shallow lake has become exposed by coastal erosion.
Numerous timbers can be seen studded into the cliff face and remarkably well-preserved chunks of wood fall out of dark peat deposits onto the sand, as the sea continues to make inroads.
A dig at Skipsea in 1993 by the Central Archaeological Service revealed ash timbers with gnawmarks which were believed to have been part of a beaver dam.
In 2017 a local historian made an amazing discovery on the beach – a football-sized clump of fur sticking out of the cliffs, which turned out to be Bronze Age beaver fur, dating from around 2500BC until 800 BC.
At Skipsea, council records state average erosion over a 34-year period to 2023 was 1.4 metres a year.
The worst affected stretch of the East Riding coastline is below Withernsea, where the cliffs are disappearing at an average of up to 4.5 metres per year.