North Cave: The picturesque Yorkshire village with a long history and a strong sense of community

That’s because a short drive from this main route to Yorkshire’s great port city, lies North Cave Wetlands, one of our county’s loveliest nature reserves, a nationally-important site for conservation – and a prime example of how once-industrial land can be returned to wildlife with sensitive and imaginative management.

Fifteen miles west of the busy centre of Hull, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) reserve is attracting increasing numbers of visitors to this quiet corner of East Yorkshire – more than 35,000 a year.

And it is not just the number of visitors that is expanding. So is the reserve itself. In the years ahead, it will grow as land is added. It is already supporting 170 species of birds and 200 plant species, and in the future will become even more biodiverse.

Yet only a couple of decades ago, this would have been unthinkable, because what is now a haven for nature was once a quarry that could quite easily have become a landfill site.

That must be hard to believe for the visitors strolling the paths alongside the lakes and reedbeds, or the birdwatchers with their binoculars in the hides.

The villagers of North Cave fought hard against the landfill plan, and their victory was a win for both where they live and for the countryside around.

This is in many ways the quintessential East Yorkshire village – picturesque, peaceful, with a long history and a strong sense of community, the ancient, grade-one listed All Saints Church at its heart, and North Cave Beck meandering by.

The beck probably gave the village its name. Though there is some debate about the origin of Cave, the generally accepted view is that it probably comes from the Old English word “caf”, meaning stream or beck.

The wetlands are part of the community too, and have been for approaching a quarter of a century.

The area was once an ancient fenland called Walling Fen, which was drained to create farmland before quarrying for sand and gravel began in 1990 and continued for the next eight years.

The YWT acquired the first 40 hectares in 2000 after the villagers of North Cave and nearby Hotham won their battle against the waste plan.

The previous owners, Humberside Aggregates, moved more than 250,000 tonnes of material over the following three years to create habitat for waterbirds, and later restored and gifted to the YWT the 18-hectare Dryham Ings flood meadowland to the south of Dryham Lane. The reserve will ultimately be 140 hectares when quarrying and restoration is complete.

Whatever the time of year, the wetlands are captivating. There are shallow and deep-water lakes with islands, reedbeds, grassy banks, meadows, hedgerows and wooded fringes.

Sluices control water levels, and in winter mud banks provide valuable habitat.

It is a nationally important nature reserve. North Cave has up to two per cent of the national breeding population of avocets, one of Yorkshire’s biggest sand martin colonies and up to 2,000 pairs of black-headed gulls, a nationally significant number.

Autumn is a time of movement, as summer visitors depart, winter visitors arrive and migrants pass through. In the months ahead, the reserve will welcome large flocks of ducks and geese. Water rails and bitterns sometimes stray out of the reedbeds to the water’s edge.

Next spring, waders and common terns will return for the summer. Besides the gull colony, visitors will be able to see – and hear - calling reed buntings, sedge warblers and Cetti’s warblers.

In July, a new hide overlooking an extension to the wetlands opened, funded by the family of Dennis Wood, who was among 337 men killed in October 1942 when the Queen Mary ocean liner crashed into the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Curacoa and caused it to sink.

Mr Wood's sister, Margaret, is a member of YWT and a regular visitor to the reserve, and was keen to give him a space to be remembered in East Yorkshire where he grew up.

The extension the hide overlooks has been designed to provide breeding habitat for rare and endangered ground nesting birds such as avocet and little ringed plover.

New areas of reedbed nursery have also been created to allow for further future expansion and provide habitat for other important wetland-dwelling wildlife.

There is more yet to do at the reserve. Quarrying is still taking place nearby, but as work finishes at these sites, they will be transformed into wetlands, which is a powerful illustration of how, with the right approach, former industrial land can be re-wilded for the benefit of nature and the wider community.

The wetlands are not the only reason for visitors to come to this lovely part of East Yorkshire.

In recent years, the award-winning, eco-friendly William’s Den adventure play attraction, which opened in 2017, has brought a new influx of visitors to discover North Cave.

William’s Den is the UK’s largest bespoke indoor timber play experience. As well as a play barn, it features an extensive outdoor play area with a 50-metre zip wire, a den-making area and a network of grassy mounds and tunnels for children to explore.