Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Cleethorpes is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then developing into a resort in the 19th century. Before becoming a unified town, Cleethorpes was made up of the three small villages of Itterby, Oole and Thrunscoe.

The town lies on the Greenwich meridian and its average annual rainfall is amongst the lowest in the British Isles.

In 2021, The Trainline named Cleethorpes beach the second best seaside destination in the UK that is reachable by train, just behind Margate.

History The name Cleethorpes is thought to come from joining the words clee, an old word for clay, and thorpes, an Old English/Old Norse word for villages, and is of comparatively modern origin. Before becoming a unified town, Cleethorpes was made up of three small villages, or "thorpes": Itterby, Oole and Thrunscoe, which were part of a wider parish called Clee (centred on Old Clee).

Whilst there are Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in the area, permanent occupation appears to date from the 6th century, with substantial communities appearing only in the 9th century when the Danes arrived.

The manor of Itterby was purchased in 1616 by the trustees of Peter Blundell's charity for the benefit of scholars and fellows at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from Blundell's School, Tiverton. This is reflected in many of the street and park names in the area.

Cleethorpes developed as a fishing village. By the time of the 1801 census the population was 284. The 1820s saw the first developments of Cleethorpes as a health holiday resort, with sea-bathing and the taking of medicinal waters becoming fashionable. By 1831 the population had increased to 497.

In 1842 the Cleethorpes Enclosure Bill was enacted. 2,100 acres (8.5 km²) of land were divided among land owners and eight new roads developed. In 1848 Cleethorpes was described as

"…much resorted to as a bathing-place, for which it is highly eligible; the air is pure, the scenery good and besides a few lodging-houses and smaller inns, there is a large hotel, built some years since, on an eminence embracing extensive views of the sea, the Humber, and the Yorkshire coast. Many of the population are employed in the oyster-fisheries".

The resort expanded following the linking of the town by railway with industrial towns in Yorkshire. Cleethorpes Pier opened in 1873 and the promenade in 1885. Cleethorpes with Thrunscoe was created as a Local Board of Health District in 1873, and under the Local Government Act of 1894 it became an urban district. Its headquarters was established at Cleethorpes Town Hall in 1905.

In 1916 the urban district was renamed Cleethorpes, and in 1922 and 1927 the town's boundaries were extended to include part of Humberston (as far as North Sea Lane) and the Beacon Hill area of Weelsby parish. In 1936 Cleethorpes was granted a charter of incorporation to become a municipal borough.

Cleethorpes successfully resisted attempts by Grimsby to absorb it and in 1974 it became the Borough of Cleethorpes within the new county of Humberside. However, when Humberside County Council was abolished in 1996, Cleethorpes Borough Council was joined with Grimsby Borough Council as the unitary authority of North East Lincolnshire. In 2009 North East Lincolnshire Council agreed to market the towns of Grimsby, Immingham and Cleethorpes, under the 'Greater Grimsby' banner.

Local residents from Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire and Humber area affectionately refer to Cleethorpes as Meggies. Cleethorpes can also be known as "down beach".

Redevelopment The Winter Gardens, a venue for a variety of events, was demolished in 2007 and replaced by 47 flats. During a mass boycott of punk bands in the 1970s the Winter Gardens was just one of five U.K. venues that allowed the likes of the Clash, AC/DC and the Sex Pistols to perform. The old mini steam railway running from the seafront Leisure centre to St Anthony's bank has been extended and significantly improved whilst a cafe, taphouse, and gallery has been added to the boating lake, many ducks and geese use the boating lake to breed making it a pleasant place to visit. A large open air show ground has been built close to the eastern end of the boating lake often showing live bands and hosting special events, most notably hosting the London 2012 Olympic torch relay. A new RNLI station is set to be completed on the Central Promenade by 2023.

Geography Cleethorpes is situated on the southern side of the Humber estuary in North East Lincolnshire - a unitary authority area in the North of England. The Greenwich meridian passes through the town and a signpost shows some distances to worldwide locations. North Pole 4,051 km (2,517 mi), South Pole 15,963 km (9,919 mi), New York City 5,602 km (3,481 mi), London 230 km (140 mi).

Cleethorpes is physically linked to the neighbouring town of Grimsby by built up residential estates and the villages of Old Clee and Weelsby are also contiguous with the two towns.

Transport Bus services to Grimsby, Immingham and nearby villages are operated by Stagecoach East Midlands. There is a bus service to Skegness via Louth, which runs once a day on weekends in the summer, provided by Stagecoach East Midlands.

From Cleethorpes railway station, operated by TransPennine Express, trains run, via Grimsby Town, to Barton-upon-Humber (for bus link to Hull) operated by East Midlands Railway, and hourly trains to Doncaster, Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street (TransPennine Express). Trains to London Kings Cross,Peterborough, Leeds, Bradford, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh are available by travelling to Doncaster and changing there. Connections to Lincoln Central, Nottingham and Leicester are available by changing at Grimsby Town for services run by East Midlands Railway.

Cleethorpes is at the end of the A180, A16 and A46 roads.

Education Secondary schools in Cleethorpes include Cleethorpes Academy and Beacon Academy.

From September 2011, N.E. Lincolnshire SSP was the only remaining School Sports Partnership after government funding cuts.

Religion The parish church is St Peter's, built in 1866. Other churches are St Francis of Assisi on Sandringham Road, and Holy Trinity and St Mary's Church in Old Clee, the oldest building (built 950 AD) in Grimsby. Christ Church of Cleethorpes, near Machray Place, is also one of the larger parishes.

Sport Cleethorpes is home to Blundell Park, the home ground of the football team, Grimsby Town, one of few English League clubs with a town or city name to have their home ground in a different community. There is an athletics club and Cleethorpes Rugby Union Football Club who play in the Midlands 4 East (NE).

Cleethorpes cricket ground, known as Cleethorpes Sports Ground, is located on Chichester Road. It hosts professional games such as the 20/20 cup and various county games played by Lincolnshire County Cricket Club, and the Vagabonds cricket team.

Cleethorpes Town F.C. play in the Northern Premier League - South East Division. Their home matches are played at the Linden Homes Club, Clee Road, Grimsby.

Leisure/other sports The old Cleethorpes bathing pool was demolished and replaced in the eighties with a modern leisure centre. Facilities include a large indoor wave pool, badminton and squash courts, a gym and sports hall. The local badminton club meets here.

A greyhound racing track was opened around the outside of the stock car racing track in 1981 (which was on the site of the former Cleethorpes Marineland & Zoo which closed in 1977). The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club NGRC) and was known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. In 1983 there were plans to build new kennels and join the NGRC but racing only lasted until midway through 1986. The stock cars closed in the mid-1990s.

Landmarks While commonly referred to as a seaside resort, Cleethorpes actually sits on the Humber Estuary. The sea at Cleethorpes is actually the mouth of the Humber. This means that bathers are separated from the sea by several hundred metres of sand at low tide.

The sea front provides views of shipping traffic entering and leaving the Humber for the ports of Grimsby, Immingham, Hull and Goole.

Two large fortifications, the Humber Forts, are visible in the mouth of the river. On a clear day, the lighthouse situated on Spurn Point can be seen with the naked eye from the North Beach.

There is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution station near the pier and next to the Coastguard on Central Promenade. Work began on a new, larger RNLI station in 2022. Cleethorpes Rescue also protect the beach.

Cleethorpes has a large boating lake with many varieties of ducks, swans and geese. There is also a 62.01-hectare (153.2-acre) local nature reserve: Cleethorpes Country Park, situated between the resort and the village of Humberston. To the south of Cleethorpes, near Humberston, is a yacht club.

The Cleethorpes Leisure Centre was opened in 1983 to replace the open bathing pool that was wrecked by storms on 11 January 1978. The leisure centre contains a 33-metre pool, 1.8 metres deep, as well as a water slide and a wave machine. The building also contains a gym and a sports hall. In 2012, major work was carried out to the roof of the building due to water damage.

Ross Castle, a mock ruin of a castle built in 1885 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, was named after Edward Ross, secretary of the railway company. Its height was the highest point on the cliffs. After a period of closure, the castle was renovated, re-opening in June 2008 to the public. Possibilities of a further closure have been raised after a woman fell to her death on 9 January 2009. In 2007 the town was the Royal Horticultural Societies Britain in Bloom award winner in the coastal category. The town was also received a Silver-Gilt award, a Tourism Award and Jeff Blanchard the Shredded Wheat Community Champions award.

A statue of the Boy with the Leaking Boot was given to the town in 1918 by John Carlborn. It is reported that he was a Swedish immigrant to Cleethorpes who had built up a successful shipping business, and that the statue was a copy of one in the Hasselbacken Restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden. The Cleethorpes statue now stands in a pond in the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Gardens, on Kingsway. It was stolen and replaced in 2002 and 2008, and vandalised in October 2011. In July 2012, two youths were recorded on CCTV as they frolicked naked in the pond and destroyed the fountain. A replacement statue was made by a local garden ornaments manufacturer and installed with improved security in September 2012. A nearby pub was named The Leaking Boot, but was destroyed by fire in June 2009.

Other visitor attractions • Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway • The Signal Box Inn (aka The Smallest Pub on the Planet). • Cleethorpes Pier • Discovery Centre • Floyd the Dragon - The Cleethorpes mascot • Meridian Point • Pleasure Island Family Theme Park (closed in October 2016) • The Jungle Zoo. • The Magical Castle • Classic Home Cinema: one of the few remaining cinema shops (8, super 8, 9.5 and 16 mm)

There was a roll of honour at Matthew Humberston Foundation School commemorating the deaths of 42 past pupils of the school who died in World War I, but after the closure of the school in 2010, it was put into storage at the North East Lincolnshire Council offices. As of November 2019 the roll of honour was still being stored by the council, "with a view to being put on public display in a new town centre museum and heritage centre".