Cowden, East Riding of Yorkshire

Cowden (or Little Cowden) is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of Hornsea and lies just east of the B1242 road towards the North Sea coast. Its name means a hill where charcoal was burnt.[1]

Cowden
Cowden is located in East Riding of Yorkshire
Cowden
Cowden
Location within the East Riding of Yorkshire
OS grid referenceTA239403
• London160 mi (260 km) S
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHULL
Postcode districtHU11
Dialling code01964
PoliceHumberside
FireHumberside
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament

It forms part of the civil parish of Mappleton. Originally, Little Cowden was its own parish, however, the parish church was lost to coastal erosion, so it was moved into the parish of Mappleton.[2]

Lark Hill Beach

The Royal Air Force operated a 600-acre (240 ha) bombing range on the beach at RAF Cowden between 1959 and 1998. The range was closed due to coastal erosion, which is quite common on the East Riding coast.[3][4] The erosion regularly reveals buried ordnance. In February 2021, Brimstone Site Investigation was awarded a £1.5 million contract to clear the ordnance from the site over a four-year period. The contract was the first of its kind awarded to a civilian company by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).[5]

The local HM Coastguard team at Hornsea frequently attend reports of ordnance in the first instance and send the details to the Humber Coastguard Operations Centre and EOD ops centre to decide on the appropriate means of disposal. All ordnance found on the coast should be reported to the Coastguard by dialling 999.

No. 5131(BD) Squadron used to deploy from RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire to make the old bombs safe but were disbanded in 2019 with the British Army and Royal Navy EOD teams continuing to operate nationally.[6][7][8]

References
  1. Ekwall, Eilert (1991). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place names. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780198691037.
  2. "North division: Mappleton | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  3. Burkeman, Oliver (1 September 2000). "Erosion tips RAF shells on to beach". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  4. Pye, K.; Blott, S. J. (December 2015). "Spatial and temporal variations in soft-cliff erosion along the Holderness coast, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK". Journal of Coastal Conservation. 19 (6): 785–808. doi:10.1007/s11852-015-0378-8. S2CID 128996067.
  5. "Contract awarded to clear unexploded ordnance from Mappleton Beach". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  6. "The beach where it's not safe to pick up the shells". The Yorkshire Post. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  7. Townend, Jon (26 July 2012). "BLOWN AWAY: E YORKS: Bombs and rockets made safe on old beach target range". Hull Daily Mail. p. 18. ISSN 1741-3419.
  8. Burkeman, Oliver (1 September 2000). "National Roundup: Erosion tips RAF shells on to beach". The Guardian. p. 8. ISSN 0261-3077.
  • Gazetteer — A–Z of Towns Villages and Hamlets. East Riding of Yorkshire Council. 2006. p. 4.
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