Sunk Island is a

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, England. It lies south of Ottringham and to the north of the Humber Estuary. The Greenwich Meridian passes through the east of the parish. According to the 2011 UK census, Sunk Island parish had a population of 228, an increase on the

2001 UK census A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

figure of 224.

History

Sunk Island originated as a

sand bank In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. I ...

in the Humber Estuary; at first it was open sea, then sand accumulated there until visible at low tides, then at all tides. Colonel Anthony Gilby made the outer banks, empoldering it and making it useful for pasturage, under lease/gift from the crown. By the reign of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

, it was said to form a

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, from the mainland. From 1663, the land around it was gradually drained, and by the mid-18th century, the channel separating it from the shore had entirely silted up. It was

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

ed in 1831. The island has an area of . There is an account of the island from 1711 by the Reverend Francis Brokesby of Shottesbrooke, which was reproduced in 1799. This account was originally written as a contribution to Leland's ''Itinerary'', vol vi, p96. "The Island of Sunk, in Humber, figured in the map of the East-Riding of Yorkshire, in the last edition of The Brittania, and indeed could not be in those of Mr Camden's setting forth, because not then nor many years after in being. It was spoken of as a novelty when I first went into Yorkshire, forty four years ago. A little after which time it was bestowed on Colonel Anthony Gilby, then Deputy-Governor of Hull, by a grant from King Charles II. It is reported to be at first a great bank of sand, (of which there are still many to be seen in Humber at low water) that at thereat other mud and mattter stopt; and then still more and more by degrees, until it arrived at its present bigness." The Reverend Brokesby then gives an account from someone who lived on the Island, as follows "The Island, when it was given to Colonel A.G. was never quite overflown but at spring tides. At neap tides (as I am informed by some of the oldest mariners in this place) it was constantly, for as long as they remember, dry and had on the highest parts grass. It is reckoned about seven miles about, and is of an oblong figure; and is separated from

Holderness Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...

by a channel near two miles broad, which as low water is almost dry, and in forty of fifty years (according to the computations of people who live near it, and who pretend to ground their account on good observations) is expected to be wholly filled up, and the island joined to the main land, if that be a proper expression when a smaller island is joined to a larger. Ir produces all sort of grain, but especially barley and oats, which comes to much greater perfection than in any other part of Yorkshire besides, or in the neighbouring counties. Besides these, there grows a great deal of

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...

, which is a plant for dying with, or at least to giving the ground for blue and green, as I am informed. There are near 2000 acres enclosed with high banks to keep out the sea, which otherwise would overflow the island at spring tides. Besides this, there are six or seven hundred acres more of very good ground, and as fine grass as any in England, not enclosed, and therefore frequently overflown at high tides, on which they feed a great many horses and sheep. But tho' it be overflown, the water rises not much above the ground, so that it is soon dry again. Most of these horses and sheep are bred upon the island and thrive very well; especially the horses, which are chiefly of the large size for coaches. They have lately put several thousand couples of black rabbits upon it, whose furs are more valuable than the common grey. ..... There are three houses upon the island and nightmen to keep care of the banks and other matters." A

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

was built at the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Today, the settlement consists of a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

, a few houses and various

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

s. Cottages were built 1855–7 by

Samuel Sanders Teulon Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings. Family Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...

. The parish church of the Holy Trinity, designed by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...

in the 1870s, is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

References

External links

*
Sunk Island Crown EstateSunk Island meridian markerGoogle Earth view of Sunk Island
{{Authority control Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Holderness Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire Former islands of England Islands of the Humber Polders Crown Estate