Hornsea is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The settlement dates to at least the early medieval period. The town was expanded in the Victorian era with the coming of the Hull and Hornsea Railway in 1864. In the First World War, the mere was briefly the site of RNAS Hornsea Mere, a seaplane base. During the Second World War, the town and beach were heavily fortified against invasion.
The civil parish encompasses Hornsea town; the natural lake, Hornsea Mere; and the lost or deserted villages of Hornsea Beck, Northorpe and Southorpe. Structures of note in the parish include the medieval parish church of St Nicholas, Bettison's Folly, Hornsea Mere and the sea front promenade.
The economy includes a mix of tourism and small manufacturing. Most notably, Hornsea Pottery was established in Hornsea in 1949 and closed in 2000. Modern Hornsea still functions as a coastal resort and has large caravan sites to the north and south.
The soft soil and low-lying geography result in consistent coastal erosion that threatens some of the infrastructure of the community. This is expected to worsen as climate change causes sea level rise. In some areas, residents have already been forced to take a managed retreat.
Etymology and name The name Hornsea likely derives from the Old Norse elements horn ("horn"), nes ("headland, promontory") and sæ ("sea, lake").
Hornsea may have been the site of Cornu Vallis, a place-name derived from Brittonic corno ("horn")
Geography The civil parish of Hornsea is located on the Holderness coast approximately north-east of Hull. The parish is bounded by the civil parishes of Atwick to the north, Seaton to the west, Hatfield and Mappleton to the south, and by the North Sea to the east. The civil parish contains the coastal town of Hornsea, and a suburb of "Hornsea Bridge" or "Hornsea Burton" south of the former railway line,The modern (2006) 1:25000 Ordnance Survey maps shows a place named 'Hornsea Burton' here that should not be confused with the lost village of Hornsea Burton. The modern settlement is here referred to as the "Hornsea Bridge suburb" to avoid confusion. as well as Hornsea Mere. Excluding the town and its suburbs there are no other habitations of note in the parish, except some farms. The remainder of the parish is low lying farm land divided into fields.Ordnance Survey. 1:25000 2007
Most of the civil parish lies at between above sea level, with the highest points in the parish under . The B1242 road runs north to south parallel with the coast through the parish and the A1035 runs westward connecting with the A165 near Leven. Additionally a foot and cycle path, the Hornsea Rail Trail, part of the Trans Pennine Trail runs south-west from the town centre towards Hull.
Hornsea Mere is a lake of around with an outflow towards the sea by the Stream Dike Drain. This drain also separates Hornsea from the Hornsea Bridge suburb.
At the 2021 census, Hornsea parish had a population of 8,787. Hornsea is in the Parliamentary constituency of Beverley and Holderness.
Geology and erosion
The underlying geology is primarily boulder clay. High points in the area are formed of gravel. (See moraine.) The topsoils are fine and loamy, whilst the rock beneath the boulder clay is classed as Flamborough Chalk from the Upper Cretaceous period. Historically large stones in the boulder clay were removed for use in road construction – this activity had been prohibited at Hornsea by the board of trade by 1885. Sands and clays were also used locally in building (), though better quality materials were found elsewhere.
Some early writers (William Camden 1551–1623) thought that ground conditions in the area were evidence of an earthquake, whilst supposed the Mere and fossil finds to be evidence of a great flood or deluge in the area. Since at least the late 19th century the geological conditions overlying the underlying chalk have been interpreted as being from a glacial process in origin – both the boulder clay and the gravel beds and moraines.
Borings suggest the chalk probably lies at around under the sand, gravel and clay beds at Hornsea, though possibly deeper. Water in Hornsea has been obtained from wells and bore holes, though some borings have yielded water contaminated with iron, whilst others failed to reach an aquifer even at a depth of .
The Mere is the last of many lakes in the Holderness area – the remainder had been drained by the late 19th century. At the sea remains of a submarine forest were found in a bed of peat found around halfway between cliff and lower water. The trees found were oak, alder and willow. A variety of fossils have been found in the deposits, including those of the extinct Eurasian cave lion (Felis spelaea), Woolly Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), Aurochs (Bos primigenius) as well as Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) and Horse species (Equus). Molluscs found in the subterranean gravel appear to have been freshwater species. It is thought the source of the submarine forests recorded on the coast at Hornsea may have been a second mere on the eastern side of the present lake which was silted and was lost to the sea at some point.
The coast at Hornsea is subject to erosion. The rate of erosion varies, but has been inferred at around per year in the latter part of the 16th century; estimated by George Poulson at per year in the late 18th century, though recorded at up to in some years in the same period. The rate of erosion may have been influenced by the presence or absence of erosion limiting groynes or a pier. South, at Hornsea Burton, erosion rates rose from pa between the periods 1845–76 and 1876–82, thought to be due to the construction of groynes north of the beach at Hornsea. The current (2008) rate of erosion is north of and south of Hornsea – the difference due to the defences at Hornsea preventing the renewing flow of sediment southwards.
An apocryphal inscription said to have been found in Hornsea references the nearing of the sea by erosion – the figure of ten miles given as the distance the town once stood from the sea is certainly artistic licence.
Hornsea town
The old town of Hornsea is centred on the Market Place, and includes Southgate, Westgate and Mere Side; the resort and promenade is connected to the old town by Newbegin and New Road, and includes much of the Victorian development of the town. Buildings in the town are predominately red brick, with pantile or slate roofs; some structures use local cobbles as a building material. Modern Hornsea also incorporates several caravan sites, mainly on the northern and southern edge. There are two notable parks in Hornsea, Hall Garth Park which includes a historic moated site, and the Memorial Gardens.
The area of 'old' Hornsea centred on the Market Place, and including Hall Garth Park and the large houses around Hornsea Town railway station and Grosvenor Road are now (2007) part of a Conservation Area – the area excludes the 19th/20th century resort, and promenade.
Like other small North Sea coastal resorts Hornsea has a promenade, laid out gardens, hotels, fish and chip shops, gift shops and so on. On the southern edge of Hornsea, near the site of Hornsea Pottery is a shopping centre known as Hornsea Freeport – the Freeport adapted some of the original theme park set up by Hornsea Pottery.
There are three schools in Hornsea: Hornsea Community Primary School, Hornsea Burton Primary School and Hornsea School and Language College.
Hornsea has an independent lifeboat service provided by Hornsea Inshore Rescue, a registered charity since 1994.
Hornsea has a high frequency of all-day public transport bus service to and from Hull, Beverley, Hessle and a daily service to Bridlington, and to Withernsea.
History
Prehistory to medieval There is evidence of prehistoric human activity in the area. Near Norththorpe, north of Hornsea crop marks indicate a site interpreted as a Neolithic henge monument, thought to have been later reused as a Bronze Age ringwork. The site is similar to one excavated at Paddock Hill, near Thwing. The site consists of cropmarks indicating circular ditch surrounding a diameter circular area, with a probably entrance point at the east-south-east. There are cropmark indications that an outer ditch existed and that a roundhouse or henge was located inside the monument. Prehistoric finds in Hornsea include a polished Neolithic stone axehead, Neolithic or Bronze Age flints, and Bronze Age flint arrowhead.
There are also cropmarks in the Hornsea area indicating human activity during the Iron Age/Roman Britain period, thought to the remnants of field systems.
An Anglo-Saxon burial ground was discovered in 1913 near the Hydro on Cliff Road; the site was re-excavated in 1982. Thirteen skeletons were initially found, and a further six at the later excavations – a wide variety of grave goods were found including vases, and objects of bronze, ivory, bone, silver, jet and beads.
Hornsea is mentioned as a Manor, as Hornesse, in the Domesday Book of 1086. After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, overlordship passed from Morcar to Drogo de la Beuvrière. Drogo fled to Flanders after killing his wife, a relative of William the Conqueror, and Holderness subsequently passed to Odo, Count of Aumale. In around 1088 Odo gave the manor, church and lands at Hornsea to the Benedictine St Mary's Abbey, York. Rights of fishing in the Mere also passed to the Abbey.
St Nicholas' Church, Hornsea dates to the 13th century, with alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries. The church is of cobbles plus stone dressings, much of it in the perpendicular style. The font, some memorials and an effigy also date to the 13th century, a restored former medieval market cross is found in the churchyard. The church tower was formerly surmounted by a spire, reported as ruinous in the early 1710s and said to have fallen down in 1733. The church was extensively restored in the 1860s by George Gilbert Scott, including rebuilding of the upper tower; further work was done at the beginning of the 20th century by Brodrick, Lowther & Walker. The medieval rectory of the church was located to the north, at a moated site – some earthwork remains are still extant, and were incorporated into the public Hall Garth Park in the 19th century. The church's crypt is said to have been used as a storage base by local smugglers.Visit Hornsea, A History of Hornsea, accessed on 13 July 2026 Other remnants of the medieval town include the Hornsea Cross on Southgate, probably formed of remnants of other medieval crosses.
During the medieval period Hornsea was a market town, and also functioned as a fishing town and port. In 1377 the Poll Tax recorded 271 tax payers in Hornsea, and a further 264 at Hornsea Beck, and 96 at Hornsea Burton; in 1490 the parish of Hornsea recorded that there were 340 persons in Hornsea, and 240 at Hornsea Beck and 50 at Hornsea Burton.
There is limited evidence on the extent to which Hornsea functioned as a port. However, there are several medieval references to it. In 1228 documents refer to tolls on merchandise from ships both north and south of the beck. Holinshed noted Horneseie Beck as amongst the places on the coast used for trade; and sometime before the reign of Elizabeth I (16th century) the large sum of £3,000 had been spent on a pier at Hornsea – it was destroyed by the sea sometime around the latter half of the 16th century.
Coastal erosion had ended Hornsea's importance as a port by the 16th century, though its market continued to be important locally.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1540), right of ownership of Hornsea were returned to the Crown from St Mary's Abbey. Subsequently, the property was split into three parts – the manor, church and mere.