A project exploring the ways in which Arts and Humanities Research and Knowledge Exchange can explore, document, and represent different relationships between a series of shifting and vulnerable geographical environments, and their human occupancy across time.
To explore the ways in which the transient geography of the ever-shifting South Holderness coast and its human occupancy have been entangled and interdependent across time; to record a number of place-based memories and experiences of the coast (from those who have lived there and used it over the years); and to respond to this unique environment and its people through arts-based practice research.
Researchers engaged with published scientific and historical research, worked with local residents and stakeholders, and undertook site-specific workshops in and around the landscape in order to explore and document this special environment. This work involved conducting interviews with local residents, recording a library of sounds, and creating new artistic works that respond to place, nature, and people.
This website is the resulting repository of work undertaken. It contains: an oral history of place – documenting residents’ thoughts, memories and experiences of Spurn, Kilnsea and Easington – and a set of practice research outputs that acknowledge and give voice to the landscape through music, poetry and movement – whilst equally stressing the many bonds that exist between people and place in a fragile, changing, and vulnerable environment.
The Eco-Arts South Holderness project took place at a poignant time in this fragile coastline’s history: at Spurn Point, the coastline’s southern-most tip, a more than seven-hundred-year record of human habitation came to an end in 2023.
This recent, climate-related retreat was only the second time that humans have left the tip of South Holderness peninsula in recorded history – the first being when the medieval city of Ravenser Odd was abandoned following catastrophic storm surges during the winter of 1356-7.
Through interviews with current and past residents of South Holderness (including farmers, artists, historians, and ecologists), as well as interactions with local community groups, Spurn Bird Observatory, and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, researchers have created an oral history archive that documents the unique connections that exist between people and landscape in the South Holderness.
The Eco-Arts South Holderness project is an attempt to document and preserve the unique cultural and environmental heritage of the South Holderness coast.
By engaging with local residents, stakeholders, and organisations such as SKEALS (the local area studies group), Spurn Bird Observatory and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, the project has captured a rich oral history that now tells others the personal stories of those who have lived and worked in this unique and historically changing region.
The Oral history Archive not only serves as a valuable historical resource but also strengthens the community’s connection to their landscape, fostering a deeper appreciation of their shared heritage.
I think when you start walking and like the light changes or something and you just get a like, you know, sort of a window into some something that will make a good painting.
Heather Gatt, interviewed 15.02.2024
The research-led artistic works produced also respond in accessible ways to this coastline’s history and landscape, as well as the longstanding interdependence of people and place in the South Holderness—all framed through research methods rooted in environmental ethics and ecological values.
These works include field recordings, musical compositions, a dance performance, and poetry. In these ways, researchers have made the complex and layered history of the South Holderness coast both accessible and engaging, highlighting the interplay between natural processes and human activity in this fragile region. The project’s impact is seen in its ability to celebrate and document this fragile coastline, ensuring its stories and significance are recognised and remembered.
