Haisborough Sands (or Haisboro Sands or Haisbro Sands) is a sandbank off the coast of

Norfolk, England Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...

Happisburgh Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial to ...

.SC1408 Harwich and Rotterdam to Cromer & Terschelling Admiralty Small Craft Chart Coastal planning chart of the Harwich and Rotterdam to Cromer and Terschelling Scale: 1:300,000 The shoal is long and wide and lies parallel to the North east coast of Norfolk. The shoal is marked to the north-west by north by the Haisbro

Light Buoy A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. Types Navigational buoys * Race course marker buoys are used for buoy racing, the most prevalent form of yac ...

, North cardinal. To the south-east by south is a light buoy South cardinal, and to the west by Mid Haisbro light buoy starboard hand. In 1995 there were three drying patches recorded to the north-north east and east-south east of the Mid Haisbro light buoy. Except at

slack water Slack water is a short period in a body of tidal water when the water is completely unstressed, and there is no movement either way in the tidal stream, and which occurs before the direction of the tidal stream reverses. Slack water can be esti ...

their positions are indicated by tidal

eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid b ...

particularly on the north west, and in slight or moderate seas the swell breaks on the shallower parts of the banks. There are several foul patches on the southern part of the shoal. Over the years this shoal has claimed many ships.

Description

The main ridge of the shoal is made up of five distinct areas.Special Area of Conservation (SAC):Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton
/ref> These are named Haisborough Sand, Haisborough Tail, Hammond Knoll, Winterton Ridge and Hearty Knoll. To the eastern edge of the sands there are areas called Hewett Ridge and Smiths Knoll which form a ridge of sandbanks on the outer boundary of the sands. Inshore and to the west there are additional banks including Winterton Shoal and the Newarp Banks.

Fish and mammals

Haisborough Sands and its surrounding shoals are known to be spawning grounds for

Sand eel Sand eel or sandeel is the common name used for a considerable number of species of fish. While they are not true eels, they are eel-like in their appearance and can grow up to in length. Many species are found off the western coasts of Europe ...

s ''Ammodytes'', Lemon sole ''Microstormus Kitt'' and sole ''Solea solea''. The sands also provide nursery grounds for

Cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

''Gadus morhua'', Herring ''Clupea harengus'', Mackerel ''Scomber scombrus'', Sole, Lemon sole and

Plaice Plaice is a common name for a group of flatfish that comprises four species: the European, American, Alaskan and scale-eye plaice. Commercially, the most important plaice is the European. The principal commercial flatfish in Europe, it is al ...

''Pleuronectes platessa''. There are small numbers of

Harbour porpoise The harbour porpoise (''Phocoena phocoena'') is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar ...

regularly observed within the boundaries of the sands. The

common seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...

s ''Phoca vitulina'' which are resident in the Wash are occasionally observed in this area.

Ships wrecked on Haisborough Sands

Some of the ships wrecked here include: * HMS Bideford New Years Eve 1761/2 * HMS ''Invincible'' - 16 March 1801 *SS ''Chicago'' - 1878 *Barque ''Brownrigg'' on 12 August 1888 *SS ''Cambria'' after a collision with SS ''Killingworth'' on 14 May 1891 *Barque ''Ceylon'' of

Christiania, Norway Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, 1893 * ''Optima'' ex ''Placilla'' - 18 January 1905 * SS ''Atbara'' of London on 11 February 1907 *An un-named steamer - 1907 * Barque ''Alf'' of

Laurvig Larvik () is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality of Larvik has about 46,364 inhabitants. The municipality has a 110 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

on 23 November 1909 *SS ''Bodil'' of

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

on 26 May 1915 * SS ''Camille'' on 6 January 1916 * SS ''Kronprindsesse Victoria'' of Haugesund, Norway. 26. November 1917 * SS ''Georgia'' - 1927 * SS ''Monte Nevoso'' during 14–16 October 1932"Henry Blogg, the Greatest of the Lifeboatmen", Jolly, C., Pub: Poppyland Publishing, new edition 2002, * SS ''Meriones'' 26 January 1941 * SS ''Gallois''; part of

Convoy FS 559 Convoy FS 559 was a British convoy in World War II. On the night of 5 August 1941, six merchant ships from the convoy ran aground on the Haisborough Sands. The Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the Eng ...

on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Oxshott'' of London; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Aberhill'' of Methil, Fife; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Taara'' of

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Paddy Hendly'' on her maiden voyage; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Deerwood'' of London; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Betty Hindley''; part of Convoy FS 559 on 6 August 1941 *SS ''Afon Towy'' on 6 August 1941 * HM Trawler ''Agate'' (referred to as T87 by the AdmiraltyThe Ship-Wrecks off North East Norfolk by Ayer Tikus: Published by Ayer Tikus Publications; ASIN B0032Z2NU0); part of Convoy FS 559 on the 6 August 1941 *Trawler MV ''Cuttlefish'' - 1981 *''

City of Sunderland The City of Sunderland () is a metropolitan borough with city status in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, spanning a far larger area, including nearby towns incl ...

'' - 2008 *Muros - 3 December 2016

Gallery

File:Oil Painting of the Monte Nevoso, Lifeboat Museum 13 February 2010.JPG, The SS Monte Nevoso marooned on the Haisborough Sands File:Hasiboro sands chart 13 02 2010.JPG, Admiralty chart of Haisborough Sands File:ELLIOT(1875) p125 - Plate VI. Haishorough, general plan.jpg, Chart of the Haisborough Sands Lighthouse

References

{{Reflist Sandbanks of the North Sea Coastal features of Norfolk Landforms of Norfolk Sandbanks of England

Description

Fish and mammals

Ships wrecked on Haisborough Sands

Gallery

See also

References