Grimsby is the largest town in North East Lincolnshire thanks to fish. It became an important fishing port in the 12th century, lost favour in the 15th century when its harbour silted up then burst back to life in the mid 19th century with the coming of the railways. By the 1950s it was the largest fishing port in Britain, maybe the world, before fishing quotas brought the industry crashing down. Today Grimsby specialises in food processing instead, mainly of fish caught elsewhere. I fully intend to describe it without using the obvious adjective. [map][19 photos][Visit Grimsby]
»» The town centre
This is not somewhere to come touristing, although that's not to say there's nothing to see. There's the big medieval church near the station, for a start, which is Grimsby Minster (although it only gained minster status ten years ago so isn't as important as it sounds). The town hall is an imposing Victorian building in Italianate palazzo style, but sadly the Time Trap attraction in the former police cells won't be reopening before March so you won't be getting in there. Which basically leaves shopping.
Victoria Street is the main shopping street, which paired with the cheerless Freshney Place mall gifts Grimsby sufficient stores to satisfy the extensive hinterland of north Lincolnshire. House of Fraser alas closed its doors for the last time last month, but M&S hasn't given up yet and is about as highbrow as Grimsby gets. My favourite shop was Magazine World, an unashamed newsagent throwback whose window display consisted of shelves of top sporting and household titles (plus a row of Beano and Dandy summer specials at child's eye height). The longest queue, by far, was for Uniform Direct where a horseshoe of glum mums and bored children awaited fittings for the new school year. The Top Town indoor market was rather emptier, an austere grid of part-occupied stalls serving up meat, veg and (of course) fish.
»» The Haven
Grimsby's silted-up harbour was reworked at the turn of the 19th century to create a large rectangular basin for efficient unloading. It now forms a water feature nudging into the heart of town, but overlooked by copious retail parks rather than anything residential. The Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre opened on the west quay in 1991, telling the story of the national fishing fleet... which I fear means a lot of nets and sou'westers. Its galleries reopened to the public on Tuesday but the faff of pre-booking at a specific time meant I had to give the place a miss. At least tours of the classic side-trawler moored outside, the Ross Tiger, haven't yet restarted so technically I didn't miss that.
The most impressivestructures hereabouts, genuinely so, are the Corporation Bridge and the Victoria Flour Mill. The former is a single-leaf rolling lift bascule bridge installed in 1925, i.e all the traffic stops and one end tips up. An act of Parliament requires the bridge to retain its lifting capacity despite no boat having sailed into the Alexandra Dock this century, forcing the council to set aside £5m for recent repairs. As for the mill, its seven storey redbrick grain silo looks gorgeous but is merely a shell around a central void, hence somewhatunstable. The council are trying to keep it standing while seeking a future use, but can't turn it into flats because the residents would have no windows. Heritage is sometimes a headache.
»» The docks
In the 19th and early 20th centuries Grimsby's docks spread along the waterfront and out into the estuary, to the extent that the average Grimbarian never sees the Humber. What they can see is the 300 foot Grimsby Dock Tower, a supremely elegant Italianate spike which contains the hydraulics powering the lock gates to the tidal basin. The tower's a long way distant, hence off limits, but it's perfectly possible to wander into the nearer reaches of the docks for a fishy eyeful. The railway bridge on Humber Street provides a great vantage point, as well as being the quickest access for workers walking to and from the Young'sfactory on Ross Road.
From up here you can see brightly paintedsheds, lost-looking buildings that were once part of something larger, vast expanses of hardstanding where nothing much happens any more and even the odd trawler. I identified one from Norway, one from Iceland and one from Whitby. These days Grimsby processes more fish than it catches, so the adjacent streets are packed with refrigerated warehouses belonging to numerous independent companies, one of whom might be breadcrumbing your next supermarket purchase. Walking back off the bridge I was blasted by the smell of fishfingers from a ventilation unit, which was life-affirming.
»» The request stop
The railway hugs the coast on the brief journey between Grimsby and Cleethorpes but is only single track, which doesn't aid a good service. Neither does the fact that most of the trains arriving at Cleethorpes have come all the way from Manchester Piccadilly so have a habit of being delayed (mine was ten minutes late due to issues in the Peak District). New Clee station is a single-platformed halt in view of the docks, adjacent to the Flatfish sushi factory and an Aldi car park, potentially serving backstreets on the northern edge of town. But it's only served by stoppers on the Humberlinc line, and then only every two hours, and then only as a request stop, which'll be how it manages to attract fewer than 500 passengers a year. I got lucky and happened to be present when a train actually stopped, but it was going the wrong way so never mind.
»» The football ground
Continuing along the coast we find Blundell Park, the home of Grimsby TownFootball Club, embedded amid a grid of Victorian streets. It's been here since 1899, and its main wooden stand since 1901, so it's not the best appointed of League clubs. The Young's Stand (formerly the Findus Stand) looks considerably more alluring, however, its top tier seats offering panoramic views of the Humber estuary if play on the pitch fails to excite. The club chairman has high hopes of building a new stadium closer to town in East Marsh, one of Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods, but a succession of previous relocation plans have hit the rocks and this looks like another failed dream.
I turned up just after a team practice which meant the gates were open, offering a rare glimpse of the pitch. A couple of players walked out resplendent in their Young's-sponsored kit and unlocked cars rather swisher than most folk have around here. Blundell Avenue, the neighbouring street after which the ground is named, offers an unbroken line of terraced pebbledash with questionable brown splodges on the pavement. Close by is a footbridge over the railway line... which is where I left you in the last paragraph of yesterday's post because Blundell Park is technically in Cleethorpes. Best not mention that when the new season kicks off next Saturday.
Cleethorpes is North East Lincolnshire's seaside resort. Officially what you're paddling in is the Humber estuary, not the sea, but the beach is broad and sandy so the daytrippers don't mind. Cleethorpes grew from a fishing village to a bathing place to a full-on resort in the 19th century, providing an ideal coastal getaway for the folk of south Yorkshire. It's not so popular today but hasn't lost all of its charm, and prides itself on not (quite) being Grimsby. [20 photos][Visit Cleethorpes]
»» The pier
Let's start with the pier which is conveniently located at the head of the promenade. It used to be a lot longer to span the broad tidal range in the estuary, but lost three quarters of its length in 1940 as part of defence works to deter German invasion. What remains is a brief asymmetrical boardwalk leading to an offshore platform with a single large pavilion... which has had at least ten different owners over the last 40 years. The latest business trying to make a go of things is Papa's, an east coast chippy brand with a habit of opening "the world's largest fish and chip restaurant", of which this is their third.
The pavilion seats 500 diners and also incorporates a takeaway, although both require pre-booking this summer which made dropping in for battered haddock too much of a hassle. I was also put off by the takeaway cartons stacked against the front window which prominently featured the phrase 'as featured on the BBC', although it turned out this was for reasons of haute cuisine and not the result of a Watchdog investigation. But mostly I took against Papa's because they'd sealed off the walkways around three sides of the pavilion so the best sea views were available only to those seated inside. It's fortunate that Cleethorpes won Pier of the Year the year before this catering monopoly turned up because, although the exterior looks splendid, I doubt it'd win today.
»» The promenade
Cleethorpes' beachfront promenade runs for just over a mile and is divided into North, Central and South.
North's where the action is, if by action you mean amusement arcades, soft play and a low-key nightclub. On a wet day it offers somewhere to hide and something to do. It's also where the station is so the first place tourists see on arrival, enticed by an ornate clocktower only to be deposited at the entrance to the Fantasy World arcade. The bare minimum of a funfair has been set up on the sands featuring a carousel, a not-so-big wheel, a helter skelter and the tamest of rollercoasters. At the red-and-white striped Cleethorpes Rock Company kiosk plastic sheeting is sometimes used to screen the sugar-rich display from the driving rain. Fryer Tuck's Take Away serves absolutely nothing healthy, with chips, as is right and proper at the seaside.
Central starts at the pier and runs down to the lifeboat station beneath the High Cliff Road. The landward side is backdropped by Pier View Gardens, a thin strip of quintessential resort furniture including flower beds, crazy golf and a waterfall. Crazy golf is cutthroat business in Cleethorpes as each 18-holer competes for business. Friend-of-the-blog Richard Gottfried highly recommends the classic Arnold Palmer, a UK rarity, but also also rates Oddballs for its massive windmill and the hole concealed inside a scale model of the pier. The teenager manning the ticket booth looked beyond bored as I dripped past, as did the hopeful soul in the dry at Julie's Ice Cream Parlour. For the best view along the seafront head to Ross Castle, which isn't a castle but a mock ruin built in 1885 with a spiralling ramp to the upper platform.
South is much less commercialised, a long promenade set back from the road for keen strollers only. A strip down the centre is marked for the use of the Lollipop Road Train, so-called because the conductor hands out free lollipops to every child that travels. What else is a former trawler skipper supposed to do after retirement? The Cleethorpes illuminations appear intermittently atop wooden posts, and leave Blackpool nothing to worry about. As for the beach this is easily accessible behind a low concrete wall, and had been freshly raked earlier on the morning of my visit. Walk right to the end and you reach a formidable leisure centre, built to replace a storm damaged open air pool (beyond which are the boating lake, miniature railway and meridian crossing I told you about yesterday).
»» The town
40,000 people live in Cleethorpes and they get a proper high street, although the majority of businesses near the seafront specialise solely in serving food. Top of the recommended list is Steel's Corner House, a half-timbered fish and chip restaurant opened in 1946 and under the same management since 1978. They don't normally do takeaway but have adapted this summer so I had the opportunity of a pre-ordered box of flaky haddock, and all I can say is I'm not sure why the kebab house nextdoor bothers.
I also took the opportunity to check out a couple of estate agent windows, because it's good for a Londoner to be grounded occasionally. Detached chalet bungalow £55,000. Two bedroom flat £79,500. Three bedroomed terraced house £90,000. Three bedroomed semi £135,000. Three-storey house with five bedrooms £180,000. If all that has you sobbing, perhaps ask yourself what's more important, living conditions or location. So long as you love fish and chips you have nothing to fear.
Cleefacts
» Cleethorpes resident are nicknamed Meggies (as opposed to people from Skegness who are Skeggies).
» Cleethorpes' most famous offspring are songwriter Rod Temperton and actresses Michelle Dotrice and Patricia Hodge
» Cleethorpes prides itself on overperforming in the annual Britain in Bloom competition, peaking with an RHS Gold Champion of Champions award in 2012, although the gold plaques on the wall above Sandcastles gift shop cease abruptly after 2015.
»» The overlap
At the far end of the North Promenade, beyond the go karts and the Sunday market, the coast path passes onto a high sea wall. To one side an incredible sweep of concrete steps leads down to a crescent of beach, almost as if this were an auditorium rather than a breakwater. The main railway line cuts off access from the landward side, eventually spanned by a single footbridge which fails to match up with a gap in the sea wall. The coast becomes more industrial, the inland streets more resolutely terraced, and somewhere along this stretch Cleethorpes merges silently into Grimsby. Let's save its delights for tomorrow.
138 miles north of Newham the Greenwich Meridian finally hits the coast in the Lincolnshire town of Cleethorpes. [map][6 photos]
Marine Embankment, Cleethorpes [53.542°N 0°W]
A strip of stainless steel across the coast path marks the spot. It'd be a fairly anonymous spot otherwise, a mile from the buzz of the town's pier and promenade, facing the mouth of the Humber Estuary across the dunes. But Cleethorpes' borough surveyor had the sense to mark the meridian's crossing in 1933 and today a cluster of commemorative clutter has joined it.
The line cuts diagonally across the path, as you'd expect on a northeast-facing coast. It was provided by a Sheffield foundry with a view to proving that their metal plates could withstand maritime corrosion (and has passed that test with flying colours).
At one end is a signpost pointing towards several far-flung destinations including London, Moscow, New York and Sydney. The North Pole is 2517 miles away and the South Pole 9919 miles distant, which places Cleethorpes 20% of the way down this particular line of longitude. Inexplicably the only other item on the precise alignment is a hulking black bin labelled 'Litter' and 'Dog Waste', and I hate to think what the symbolism of this might be.
The other significant marker here is a two ton granite globe funded by the Cleethorpes Renaissance Town Team. It's only five years old but much of Europe and Africa have already rubbed off its surface so I couldn't tell if the meridian had been marked in a special way. Inscribed on the plinth underneath is the legend 'The World revolves around Cleethorpes' which is an admirably proud civic statement if scientifically untrue. The plinth originally supported a sundial, which means this location has featured at one time or another a metal strip, a signpost, a sundial and a globe - the full gamut of meridian markers.
Three benches face out to sea, or more strictly river. The Humber is still a couple of miles from entering the North Sea, the East Yorkshire shoreline low and very distant, with the occasional ship or tanker passing inbetween. Two garrisonedplatforms can be seen amid the muddy waters, Haile Sand Fort and Bull Sand Fort, built to guard the mouth of the estuary during World War 1. SpurnHead is out there somewhere, but being very flat your best chance of seeing it is to spot the lighthouse at its tip. Turning up on the back edge of a storm is not recommended, the view reduced to a thin grey line between the dunes and a leaden grey sky... plus the benches tend to be very wet.
The coast path is half walkway half cycleway, and breaks here for a brief red paved interlude. On the Cleethorpes side it heads past the back of a caravan park and five glum rows of garage-sized beach huts. Almost all were locked shut as I walked by, the sound of a whistling kettle emerging from the odd one out as a husband raised his binoculars towards birds wheeling above the salt marsh. Downriver the path soon reaches the Meridian Car Park at the end of Meridian Road and then an extensive (non-meridian) caravan park. Beyond that are the Humberston Fitties, a 1920s plotlands development of 320 chalets whose leases prohibit residency during the stormy months of January and February.
A narrow gauge track carrying the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway runs immediately south of the meridian cluster. The railway has been sequentially extended along the coast over the last seventy years, the most recent addition taking it into the adjacent hemisphere, and now runs for a full mile and a half. The closest station to the meridian line is the terminus at Humberston North Bay Lane, its signal box plainly visible to the east. The other stations are Kingsway and Lakeside Central, the latter boasting a signal box which doubles up as 'The Smallest Pub On The Planet' (spoiler: the Guinness Book of Records disagrees). A whistle informed me that trains were indeed running despite the inclement weather, but the service which chuffed slowly past was carrying more staff than passengers.
Just beyond the railway are the ruins of the Pleasure Island Theme Park, which alas became economically unviable in 2016 and awaits redevelopment. The Meridian Showground nextdoor isn't having a good 2020 but one of the Meridian Point Craft Units is open for trading should anybody turn up. Venture further towards the boating lake and you'll discover a small zoo, a Chinese restaurant, a dour flat-roofed-pub, a taproom and a multiscreen cinema in what feels very much like Cleethorpes out-of-town leisure destination. But a steel strip across a footpath was enough for me, not quite the Greenwich Meridian's final landing point but a longitudinal link to back home all the same.
