A lifetime of Islands

Friday 11 October 2024

Island 518 - Houmet Benest/Houmet Benêt, Guernsey

Houmet Benest/Houmet Benêt is a small uninhabited tidal island located about 100 metres off the north east corner of Bordeaux Harbour on the east coast of Guernsey. It is covered in grass, bracken, brambles, rock samphire, sea campion, thrift and gorse, but there are no trees. When I visited in October 2024 I saw 4 wall butterflies, which is more than I have ever seen in one place before. In the 18th century a gun battery was built on the island and a few remains of this can still be seen. I came across a stone with S4 carved on it.

Sea campion and gorse on Houmet Benest

Bordeaux Harbour from Houmet Benest

La Vieille from Houmet Benest

Stone with S4 carved on it

Houmet Paradis from Houmet Benest

Hommet from Houmet Benest

Bordeaux Harbour from Houmet Benest

Thursday 10 October 2024

Island 517 - Hommet, Guernsey

Hommet is a very small tidal island located close to the north coast of Bordeaux Harbour on the east coast of Guernsey. On most maps it is shown as a peninsula, but there is definitely an area of about 20 metres of sand and pebbles between the Hommet and mainland Guernsey, which covers at some high tides. The island is covered in grass, thrift and brambles and there is one small tree growing on it.

Hommet from Bordeaux Harbour

Bordeaux Harbour from Hommet

Hommet Benest from Hommet

Herm and Jethou from Hommet

Friday 23 August 2024

Island 516 - Sunk Island, East Yorkshire

Sunk Island is located on the north bank of the Humber estuary and 2 miles to the south of the village of Otteringham in East Yorkshire. It is owned by the Crown Estate.

Sunk Island started life as a sand bank, which appeared in the late 16th century. By the mid 17th century the sandbank was 7 acres in size. It was claimed as crown property and leased to Colonel Anthony Gilby, who died in 1682. He started the process of reclaiming it from the sea. His descendants continued the process of embanking and draining and by 1850 the island had an area of 5000 acres. The current area of Sunk Island is 4,575 hectares (11,305 acres). Nowhere on Sunk Island is more than 4 metres above sea level.

Sunk Island is no longer a true island. Until the late 17th century it was separated from the mainland of East Yorkshire by the North Channel. Then the western end of the North Channel silted up and the lack of flowing water caused the North Channel to silt up even more. The Winestead Drain is a river, which has its source near Withernsea and flows into the North Channel a mile to the west of Patrington Haven. In 1819 the Winestead Internal Drainage Board installed a sluice on the North Channel and the eastern part of the North Channel was renamed the Winestead Drain.

At the time of the 2021 census the population of Sunk Island was 221. The houses and farms are scattered around the island. Many of the cottage and farmhouses were designed by the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon and were built 1855-57. The land is almost all in use for growing arable crops.

The Church of the Holy Trinity is located in the middle of the island and adjacent to the old school, postbox and telephone box. The red brick church was built 1876-7 by Ewan Christian. It was declared redundant c1983 and is now used as a heritage centre.

In 1908 Stanley Duncan (1878-1954) founded the Wildfowlers Association of Great Britain and Ireland (WAGBI) at the "Black Hut, which was located close to Outstray Farm at the east end of Sunk Island by Winestead Drain. In 1981 WAGBI became the British Association for Sport and Conservation (BASC). In 1994 a monument to Stanley Duncan was erected at the end of the public road next to Outstray Farm by the Hull and East Riding Wildfowlers Association and the Holderness and Humber Wildfowlers Association.

There is a Greenwich meridian marker located on the sea wall just over half a mile south of Outstray Farm. It was erected in 1984, but was moved 130 metres north when the sea wall was realigned in 2006 to create a 54 hectare intertidal wildlife site to compensate for the loss of habitats, due to the increase in size of the ports of Hull and Immingham.

There is a Ground Control Interception (GCI) radar station on the opposite side of the road to Bleak House Farm Cottages half a mile south west of Patrington Haven. This was built as part of RAF Patrington during the Second World War (c1942) to detect, locate and track enemy aircraft. It has a stand-by set house and a large operations block, which was known as the Happidrome. The domestic accommodation for RAF Patrington was at Patrington Haven on the north side of Winestead Drain. The radar station was in use until 1955.

Sunk Island sign

Church of the Holy Trinity

War Memorial, Telephone Box and Postbox

Signpost

Giant gecko on house

Houses on Village Road

1855 - date above the door of a cottage

Typical Sunk Island view of arable fields

Gate to nowhere

WAGBI Monument at Outstray Farm

WAGBI logo on monument

Old Radar Station close to Bleak House Farm Cottages

Tuesday 28 May 2024

Island 515 - Packing Shed Marsh Island, West Mersea, Essex

Packing Shed Marsh Island is a small island of shingle and shells sandwiched between Cobmarsh Island and Sunken Island half a mile south west of the town of West Mersea on Mersea Island. The Mersea Fleet flows to the east of the island and the Thorn Fleet flows to the west. The island is 300 metres long at low tide and at high tide most of the shingle is covered with water. The remains of oyster pits can still be seen in the middle of the island. These provide nesting sites for herring gulls and oystercatchers.

In the late 19th century huge quantities of oysters were sent from Mersea Island to Billingsgate Fish Market in London in barrels on Thames barges. They were also exported to Europe. The Packing Shed was built on the island, which later became known as Packing Marsh Island, by the Tollesbury & Mersea Native Oyster Fishery Company Limited c1890. It was used for cleaning, grading and packing the oysters, which had been dredged up from the local oyster beds. The island was owned by Willoughby John Bean, who also owned much of West Mersea, from 1887 until 1891 when he sold it to Albert Barker. Barker sold it on to the Tollesbury & Mersea Native Oyster Fishery Company Limited in 1914.

The original Packing Shed was blown away in a storm in the 1890s but a replacement was built in 1897. This shed was used continuously, apart from during the Second World War, until the late 1950s when the oyster industry collapsed, due to diseased oysters. An additional smaller shed was built to the north of the main Packing Shed in 1912, but it was destroyed during storms and floods in March 1949.

After the 1950s the Packing Shed was used occasionally by the Tollesbury & Mersea Native Oyster Fishery Company Limited for storing fishing gear, but it gradually fell into a derelict state. By the end of the 1980s all that remained of the Packing Shed was part of the roof and some wooden wall cladding. It was further damaged by two storms in September 1990. It was then restored by a group of local volunteers and it reopened to visitors in 1992. The island and the Packing Shed still belong to the Tollesbury & Mersea Native Oyster Fishery Company Limited but they now lease it to the Packing Shed Trust.

In the inter-war period American slipper limpets were competing for food with the oysters and so tons of limpets were dredged out of the oyster beds and dumped on the island, which helped to stabilise it. However, storms in 1987 and 1997 moved some of them and the island is gradually eroding away.

The Packing Shed Trust holds open days once a month during the summer and on those days they run a ferry service to and from the island from the hammerhead quay at West Mersea. A cream tea is included in the price of the trip, which in 2024 was £8.

Packing Shed

Shingle beach

Inside the Packing Shed

Seating outside the Packing Shed for cream tea eaters with West Mersea in the background

Remains of the oyster pits and nesting herring gulls

Cream tea on Packing Shed Marsh Island

Ferry

Saturday 2 December 2023

Island 514 - Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound

Drake's Island, which is also known as St Nicholas's Island, is located in Plymouth Sound 0.5 miles south east of Western King Point and a mile south west of The Hoe. It has an area of 6 hectares and the highest point on the island is 25m above sea level.

The island is made of Devonian limestone and fossilised rhyolite volcanic lava and ash (tuff or tufa). Drake's Island was joined to Mount Edgcumbe on the Cornish coast until c3,000 years ago when sea levels rose after the last ice age and flooded the land bridge.

There was a chapel dedicated to St Michael on the island in the 12th century. Drake's Island used as a refuge by Protestants during the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. The island was first fortified c1550 to safeguard the maritime approaches to Plymouth. The chapel was demolished at this time and the stone was reused to build two artillery towers.

The fortifications were upgraded c1601 by Federico Genebelli for Elizabeth I. Barracks, firing platforms and store rooms were built on the top of the island and walls were built around the island's coast.

During the English Civil War of the 1640s Plymouth supported the Parliamentarians and the island played an important role in helping the city withstand a 4 year siege by the Royalists.

After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Drake's Island was used as a prison for 25 years. Prisoners included Leveller Robert Lilburne and General John Lambert, both of whom died on Drake's Island.

The strategic importance of Drake's Island increased after the Royal Naval Dockyard moved from Cattewater to the Hamoaze (Tamar estuary) in 1691. In 1715 or 1717 Colonel Lilley surveyed the defences on Drake's Island and reported that they were in a very poor condition. In 1720 a guardhouse and barracks were built on the west side of the island. In 1780 the defences were modernised. A south facing battery was built on the top of the island. A barrack block and officers' quarters were built constructed at the west end of the island. The barracks were upgraded and extended in the 1830s and 1840s.

In 1860 work began on fortifications on the orders of Lord Palmerston. An arc of 21 casemates were constructed on the south west side of the island for 9 inch 12 ton guns, along with a complex of tunnels and magazines. In 1870 five 12 inch 25 ton guns were delivered and hauled to the Upper Battery. From 1898-1901 three new batteries were built on Drake's Island - Eastern, Centre and Western Batteries

During the First World War Drake's Island had 9 guns in 3 batteries and a garrison of up to 300 men but the guns were never fired in anger. Lady Nancy Astor opened a recreation hut for the soldiers on Drake's Island, which had been funded by her husband Waldorf Astor.

During the Second World War Drake's Island was equipped with guns and searchlights to protect the Royal Navy's base at Devonport from sea borne attacks. The jetty, which is still in use, was built in 1939. Up to 490 men were stationed on the island but once again the main guns were never fired in anger, as the Germans attacked Plymouth from the air.

In 1961 the War Office handed Drake's Island back to the Duchy of Cornwall. They leased it to the National Trust, then the Mayflower Trust and finally Plymouth City Council. It was run as an Adventure Training Centre from 1963 until 1989. Trees were planted on the island during this period. A mains water pipe was laid from the mainland to the island in 1964.

In 1996 Dan McCauley, businessman and former owner of Plymouth Argyle FC, purchased Drake's Island from the Duchy of Cornwall. His plans to build a hotel and leisure complex on the island were turned down by Plymouth City Council.

Local businessman Morgan Phillips bought Drake's Island in 2019 and it is currently open for pre-booked guided tours in conjunction with Plymouth Boat Trips. The ferry departs from the Barbican landing stage. When I visited in September 2023 the guided tour cost £18 and the ferry was £7.50. The guide who showed us round was excellent and I thought it was very good value for money.