A pretty little village surrounded by traditional English countryside and framed by the sea is gradually being washed away.
Ongoing coastal erosion has caused some parts of the village to be lost to the sea forever – and looks set to continue due to the settlement’s close proximity to the coastline.
Tunstall is a tiny village in East Yorkshire and about 15 miles from Hull, it’s loved by those living there there as well as people visiting – but it could be set to totally disappear.
Parts of this village sit extremely close to the coast on a cliff made of soft sediment. Picturesque Tunstall is surrounded by the often raging North Sea, which has been claiming the place for hundreds of years.
The sea’s relentless pull towards the village is thought to be taking away up to two metres a year of this beautiful coastline.
The cliff the village sits upon is made up of silt, sand, gravel and clay so this soft geological material is easily washed away.
A road known as Seaside Lane has already been lost to the temperamental sea and it’s feared that the whole of the Yorkshire village will gradually meet the same fate.
Over hundreds of years, roads, buildings and fields have been lost to the sea – and more recently people have been forced out of their homes due to the erosion.
In the 1800s, historian George Poulson documented what he saw in Tunstall, he said: “The devastations of the sea upon this coast, from Bridlington to Spurn Point, is not uniform, though constant.
“The sea setting to a particular part for some time, and then leaving it and taking away another part, without any apparent cause.
“Tunstal has suffered greatly – 100 acres are gone within the last 60 years”.
The charming village could be gradually wiped off the map due to the relentless sea claiming back the land.
In 2022, winter storms made the seaside village wobbly like jelly, Yorkshire Live reported and 2022 saw double the rate of erosion for villages like Tunstall.
The late Keith Dunn who has since died had lived in Tunstall since 1970 – and he saw ‘the road disappear’.
At the time, he told Hull Live in 2022: “Never in all the world did I ever think the road would disappear but now it has gone.
“There used to be a breakwater here which protected the coast and kept the sand which ensured we had a lovely beach.
“Over about 20 years it broke up and we pleaded for the Government to rebuild it but it said it was too expensive – that has left this area unprotected.”