Skegness
Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and 22 miles north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579, it is the largest settlement in the East Lindsey district; it also incorporates Winthorpe and Seacroft, and forms a larger built-up area with the resorts of Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards to the north. The town is on the A52 and A158 roads, connecting it with Boston and the East Midlands, and Lincoln respectively; Skegness railway station is on the Nottingham to Skegness line.
Historically Skegness was situated further east and sat at the mouth of The Wash; it was later named for the headland which likely sat near the settlement. There is evidence of late Iron-Age and early Roman saltmaking activity in the area and the settlement may have been associated with a Roman fort and ferry crossing to Norfolk. The modern name is Old Norse and appears in the historical record from the 12th century. By the 14th century, Skegness was a locally important port for coastal trade. The natural sea defences which protected the harbour eroded in the later Middle Ages, and it was lost to the sea after a storm in 1525 or 1526. Rebuilt over a mile westward, it remained a small fishing and farming village, but from the late 18th century members of the local gentry visited for holidays.
The arrival of the railways in 1873 transformed it into a popular seaside resort. This was the intention of the landowner, the 9th Earl of Scarbrough, who wished to capitalise on the growing trend for seaside holidaying, increasingly affordable among the working population. He built the infrastructure of the town and laid out plots, which he leased to speculative developers. This new Skegness quickly became a popular destination for holiday-makers and day trippers from the East Midlands factory towns. A drop in trade in the 1880s was soon replaced by a boom; by the interwar years the town was established as one of the most popular seaside resorts in Britain. The layout of the modern seafront dates to this time and holiday camps were built around the town, including the first Butlin's holiday resort which opened in Ingoldmells in 1936.
The arrival of package holidays abroad in the 1970s and the decline in industrial employment in the East Midlands harmed Skegness's trade in the late 20th century, but it retains a loyal visitor base and has increasingly attracted people visiting for a second holiday; tourism also increased following the Great Recession of 2007–09. In 2011, the town was the United Kingdom's fourth most popular tourist destination and in 2015 it received over 1.4 million visitors. Despite the arrival of a number of manufacturing firms since the 1950s and Skegness's prominence as a local commercial centre, the tourism industry remains very important for the economy and employment. Its low wages and seasonal nature, along with the town's aging population, have contributed towards high levels of deprivation among the resident population.
Geography and geology
Skegness is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire in the East Midlands of England. The civil parish includes most of the linear settlement of Seacroft to the south, and the village of Winthorpe and the suburban area of Seathorne to the north, all of which have been absorbed into the town's urban area. The outer lying hamlet Ashington End lies on the western edge of the parish boundary. The neighbouring parishes are: Ingoldmells to the north, Addlethorpe to the north-west, Burgh le Marsh to the west and Croft to the south.Physical geography and geology
Skegness fronts the North Sea; it sits on a low-lying, flat region called Lincoln Marsh which runs along the coast between Skegness and the Humber and separates the coast from the upland Wolds. Much of the parish's elevation is close to sea level, although a narrow band along the seafront rises to above. The bedrock under the town consists of chalk belonging to the Cretaceous Ferriby formation which runs north-west in a narrow band to Louth in the Wolds; it is a highly productive aquifer. The superficial geology reflects the region's low-lying geography and consists of clay and silt saltmarsh and tidal creek deposits built up over the last 12,000 years. The shoreline consists of blown sand and beach and tidal flat deposits in the form of clay, silt and sand.Longshore drift carries particles of sediment southwards along the Lincolnshire coast. At Skegness, the sand settles out in banks which run at a slight south-west angle to the coast. Material especially accretes further south at Gibraltar Point; finer sediment drifts further on to the Wash. There has been coastal erosion in the area for thousands of years, though it was relatively sheltered until the Middle Ages by a series of offshore islands made up of boulder clay; rising sea levels and more intense sea storms from the 13th century onward eroded these islands, increasingly exposing the Skegness coast to the tides. Records from the Middle Ages show that local people maintained sand banks as a form of sea defence; work on them would take place outside the harvest, when men could be spared. Fines were levied against those who put animals to graze on the dunes, which could weaken their structure. The first modern sea defences consisted of the stone retaining wall erected in 1877 to support the seafront development. This wall largely saved the town during the 1953 flood, though gardens, the amusements and part of the pier were damaged. In the aftermath, sea defences have been built along a stretch of coast between Mablethorpe and Skegness to prevent erosion, but currents continue to remove sediment and the defences hinder dune development; a nourishment scheme began operation in 1994 to replace lost sand.
Climate
The British Isles experience a temperate, maritime climate with warm summers and cool winters. Lincolnshire's position on the east of the British Isles allows for a sunnier and warmer climate relative to the national average, and it is one of the driest counties in the United Kingdom. In Skegness, the average daily high temperature peaks in August at and a peak average daily mean of occurs in July and August. The lowest daily mean temperature is in January; the average daily high for that month is and the daily low is.Early history
Prehistoric
There is evidence of late Iron-Age and early Roman saltmaking activity along the part of the Lincolnshire coast which Skegness now occupies. There are medieval references to a "Chester Land" and "Castelland" at Skegness and the antiquary John Leland was informed in 1543 that a castle had existed at Skegness before being lost to the sea in c. 1526; this has been interpreted as tentative evidence that there was a Roman fort at the site. The archaeologist Charles Phillips suggested that Skegness was the terminus of a Roman road running from Lincoln through Burgh le Marsh and was also the location of a Roman ferry which crossed The Wash to Norfolk. This theory is now "generally accepted".It is likely that the Anglo-Saxons used these Roman fortifications as one of several defensive positions along the coast. Later, the Vikings settled in Lincolnshire and their influence is detected in many local place names. Skegness's name combines the Old Norse words Skeggi and ness, and means either "Skeggi's headland" or "beard-shaped headland" ; Skeggi may be the name of a Viking settler or it could derive from the Old Norse word "beard" and have been used to describe the shape of the landform.
Early medieval
Skegness was not named in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is usually identified with the Domesday settlement called Tric. The historian Arthur Owen and the linguist Richard Coates have argued that Tric derived its name from Traiectus, Latin for "crossing", referring to the Roman ferry that Phillips argues launched from Skegness. In Domesday there are four entries for Tric: Alan of Brittany had an estate there which was sokeland of his manor of Drayton; Eudo of Tattershall had two estates there, sokeland of his manors of Burgh Le Marsh and Addlethorpe respectively; and Robert Despenser had sokeland belonging to his manor of "Guldelsmere" which is normally identified with Ingoldmells. Tric is not otherwise recorded; the name Skegness appears in the 12th century, and further references are known from the 13th.In the Middle Ages, the township and the majority of the parish fell under the jurisdiction of the manor of Ingoldmells, which also covered parts of Addlethorpe, Burgh le Marsh, Great Steeping and Partney. This was Despencer's Domesday estate. It passed to his brother Urse d'Abetot on his death probably in the late 1090s; Urse exchanged them with Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract. With the exception of a period of forfeiture in the 12th century, the manor descended with the Honour of Pontefract through the de Lacy family until it was inherited in 1348 by Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster ; it passed to John of Gaunt, the husband of the duke's daughter and eventual sole heiress Blanche, and then to their son Henry of Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV, after which the lordship of the manor merged in the crown. According to the local historian W. O. Massingberd, there was no manor of Skegness, the "greater part" being under Ingoldmell's jurisdiction, though the Bishop of Lincoln had a small manor there and some land was held in the parish of the manor of Croft.
Medieval harbour
As a coastal settlement, Skegness benefited from natural sea defences. Behind barrier shoals, dunes and beaches, a natural headland and cape allowed for the establishment of a harbour. It is unlikely but impossible to know whether there was continuity between the Domesday vill of Tric and this later settlement; the geographer Ian Simmons has speculated that the later settlement may stem from an attempt by the local lord to replicate Wainfleet's success as a port in the 12th and 13th centuries. The harbour at Skegness was relatively small and its trade in the 14th century was likely more coastal than international; it was "thriving" in that century but its economic fortunes were probably closely related to those of nearby coastal ports, such as Wainfleet, which in turn depended on the larger port at Boston which was heavily involved in the wool trade. It was also an important port for Lincolnshire fishermen. In the fifteenth century Skegness imported timber and other wares from Scandinavia; there were also instances of piracy off the coast.During the medieval period the destruction of offshore islands led to silt being deposited along the Lincolnshire coast; as salt-working and drainage intensified, this combined to leave the coast in a constant state of change. As the historian Simon Pawley has stated, "Coastal townships, originally established when conditions were more stable and less unpredictable, have had to adapt to frequent changes in their interactions with the sea". The later medieval period brought frequent storms, which eroded Skegness's sea defences. The manorial court records instances of illegal grazing on the sandbanks which would have contributed to erosion. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, Skegness was one of several coastal settlements to incur major loss of land to the sea. Local people attempted to make artificial banks, but they were costly. Rising sea levels from the later medieval period further threatened the coast. In 1525 or 1526 Skegness was largely washed away in a storm, along with the hamlets of East and West Meales and the headland which gave Skegness its name.
Later fishing and farming village
After the flooding, Skegness was rebuilt along the new coastline. Stone from St Clement's Church was salvaged and used to rebuild it on a new site. By 1543, when the antiquarian John Leland visited the town, some of the old buildings were still visible at low tide, but he noted that "For old Skegnes is now buildid a pore new thing". Over the course of the sixteenth century, the sea continued to encroach into the land at Skegness, while depositing sand banks further south, likely leading to the creation of Gibraltar Point. A 1560 inquest called for new sea banks to be built, construction of which began in 1568, were likely interrupted by the "Great Flood" of 1571 and were still not finished by 1574. Ships are recorded unloading their wares at Skegness the following century.Skegness was principally a small farming and fishing village throughout the early modern period. The ownership history of the land was complicated, with many transactions occurring in the later Middle Ages. A large portion appears to have come into the hands of the Hiltoft family, from whom it passed to Nicholas Saunderson, 1st Viscount Castleton following his marriage to Mildred, heiress of John Hiltoft of Boston. Castleton enclosed 400 acres of saltmarsh in 1627; Gibraltar Point led to more land being reclaimed from the sea south of Skegness, by Croft Marsh, and successive Lords Castleton were engaged in long disputes and legal claims over the ownership of the new lands, eventually acquiring land by the sea in 1681. The whole estate passed through the male line which became extinct in 1723 on the death of the 5th Viscount, who bequeathed his estate to his cousin Thomas Lumley; in 1740 Lumley became 3rd Earl of Scarbrough. By 1845, the Scarbrough estate comprised 1,219 acres at Skegness. The Drake family of Shardeloes Park and the Tyrwhitts of Stainfield also had estates at Seacroft and Croft Marsh in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Tyrwhitt portion was inherited by the Drakes in 1776 and included a large warren south of Skegness; the family's holdings covered 3,000 acres and extended from Seacroft to Wainfleet.
The Lincolnshire marshland running alongside the coast from Wainfleet up to the Humber provided good pasture for sheep and cattle, especially in the silty, flat Outmarsh closest to the shore. The area around Skegness was no exception and was used for grazing. In 1636, 1,200 sheep and many cattle and horses were put out to pasture there. In the early 17th century, farmers on the Wolds drove their sheep to the Skegness Outmarsh for summer fattening, but absentee landlords often allowed their land to become run down while continuing to charge rates; as they attempted to increase rents, "outfarmers" might end the practice, using turnips on their own land instead. Reclaiming marsh land and developing dykes naturally meant enclosing it, which was often a piecemeal process. The Lords Castleton had enclosed a large portion of the lands around Skegness by 1740, over 800 acres. In the early 19th century, the pastures benefited from their proximity to markets and good soil, but lacked shelter and hedgerows along the wide dykes. The population sat at 134 in 1801; this had risen to a modern peak of 366 by the time of the 1851 census but dropped slightly over the following twenty years. As late as the early 1870s, the settlement "was still very much an undeveloped village of fishermen, farmers and farm hands".
Development of the seaside resort
Before the railways
While most of those living in Skegness worked in agriculture or fishing, local gentry began visiting the village for leisure reasons from the late 18th century. The sea air was thought to have health-giving qualities. To capitalise on this trend, the Skegness Hotel opened in 1770; visitors could reach it by omnibus from Boston, which was the terminus of several stagecoaches. The first reference to bathing machines on Skegness's shores dates to 1784 though they are thought to have been present earlier. Private houses also opened their doors to lodgers, including Moat House, and by 1813 another hotel had opened: the New Hotel, later named Hildred's after its Victorian landlords. It was joined in the 1830s by The Ship.The diarist John Byng paid a visit in the late 18th century and, although pleased with the clear air, he was unimpressed by the Skegness Hotel and its landlord. The local gentry frequented Skegness, with the Massingberds known to visit the Vine in the early 19th century. Born and raised at Somersby, the poet Alfred Tennyson holidayed at Skegness as a young man, often taking walks along the shore from his lodgings at Mary Walls' Moat House on the sea bank; some scholars have drawn parallels between his poetry and the landscape he encountered on these visits. The place remained popular with visitors and another hotel, Sea View, was built in 1862. By 1872, there were also nine lodging houses.
The arrival of the railways
The East Lincolnshire Railway, running along the coast between Boston and Grimsby, opened in 1848 but ran further inland than Skegness, through Firsby, Burgh and up to Alford. There were clear benefits to building lines connecting the coastal settlements, but it was not until the late 1860s that the first moves were made. In 1868, a line was built connecting Spilsby with Firsby junction, and the following year work began on a branch from Firsby to Wainfleet All Saints, therefore bringing railways to both market towns. By the time that opened, plans were tabled for the Skegness extension, which were approved in 1871 by GNR shareholders and later by Parliament. The railways arrived at Skegness in 1873.From the outset, the railway to Skegness was not an agricultural venture but one designed to bring day trippers to the seaside. Rising wages and better holiday provision meant that some working-class people from the East Midlands factory towns could afford to have a holiday for the first time. As the historian T. W. Beastall wrote: "Here were six miles of water to which the people of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham could resort". The arrival of the railway coincided with the Great Depression of British agriculture, during which time cheaper foreign goods undermined the industry. As a major landowner, Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough, had seen his income stagnate and assets lose value; his agent, Henry Vivian Tippet, while surveying the Skegness lands ahead of the railway's arrival, decided that the earl's fortunes might be revived if he turned Skegness into a seaside resort.
in the late 19th century
Building the resort town
By the time the station opened the shoreline had been surveyed and the earl's land divided into lots, some of which were sold to builders in 1873. The earl stipulated that developments needed his approval and would have to be completed promptly, but it is not clear that the plots were quick to sell or always built on. A more comprehensive scheme emerged in 1876, when a road plan was developed and the earl took out a mortgage of £120,000 to fund developments. In 1878, the full plan was finished by George Booth Walker. It laid out plots for 787 houses in the settlement on 96 acres of land between the shoreline and Roman Bank north of the High Street. The new streets were to be grid-aligned, with a Grand Parade running along the shore parallel to a road along Roman Bank ; these were the eastern and western boundaries of the development. Scarbrough Avenue was laid out running inland from the centre of the Parade and was bisected by Lumley Avenue, with a new church in the roundabout. At the end of Scarbrough Avenue would be a pier. Scarbrough Avenue and Lumley Avenue were planned with wider roads than the other streets, suggesting that they were envisaged as the main throughfares.The earl spent thousands of pounds on laying roads and the sewerage system, and building the sea wall. He leased nearby brickworks in 1875 to provide a supply for builders. The earl created companies to provide many other amenities, including gasworks, waterworks, Skegness Pier, the pleasure gardens, the steamboats and bathing pools. With the brickworks struggling to keep up with demand, he formed a company to take them over in 1882 and the following year expanded the operation. He donated land and money towards the building of St Matthew's Church, two Methodist chapels, a school, a cattle market and the cricket ground.
1878–''c''. 1890: early boom and slump
Housebuilding was left to speculative builders, who purchased 99-year leases on the plots of land. Although the plans likely intended Scarbrough Avenue to be the centre of the new town, the earliest development was concentrated in the south along Lumley Road, which offered a direct route from the train station to the seafront; most of the plots there had been leased by 1880 and built by 1882. Newspapers across the Midlands advertised properties, and shops began opening. The market place envisaged in the early plans was never built nor were the winter gardens, but the Lumley Hotel opened in 1880 followed by the Lion Hotel in 1881, by which time almost a thousand people had moved into the town; of the 1,332 people recorded in the 1881 census, 91.6% had not been in the town 10 years earlier, including many young people and a diverse range of trades. According to the local historian Winston Kime, Skegness had become known as a "trippers paradise" by 1880. The August bank holiday saw 20,000 descend on the town; they came to enjoy the beach, the many games and amusements that had popped up in the town, the pleasure boat trips that had just started launching from the pier, and the donkey rides. By August 1882, 368 houses had been built and boarding houses were being erected along Drummond Road, Rutland Road and Algitha Road; a freehold society was laying what became Grosvenor Road. This boom continued into 1883.Building contracted after the 1883 season. Few developments took place over the coming years, although the accreted sands in front of the sea wall south of the pier were converted into the Marine Gardens in 1888 to avoid them becoming unsightly. This stagnation coincided with a declining number of day-trippers, which fell from a peak of 230,277 in 1882 to 118,473 in 1885. The population contracted from the 1,934 recorded in 1882 to 1,488 in 1891. The lands north of Scarbrough Avenue went undeveloped; the earl had been unable to sell them and planted trees on the sand dunes and named it The Park, known locally as "The Jungle".
''c''. 1890–1914: resurgence and growth
Fortunes changed during the 1890s. As the historian Susan Barton has written, "Skegness and other 'lower' status resorts provided cheap amusements, beach entertainers, street traders and, by the end of the nineteenth century, spectacular entertainment for a mass market". The number of annual excursions to Skegness had risen to 226,880 in 1902 and grew to 321,260 in 1907. In 1908 the famous "Jolly Fisherman" poster was used by GNR to advertise day trips from King's Cross in London. The town's largest hotel, the Seacroft Hydro, opened in 1908–09. In 1913 more than 750,000 people made excursions to the town. Aside from bathing and enjoying the sands, visitors to Skegness found entertainment in the pier, which had a concert hall, saloon and theatre; from 1904 to 1920 the one-legged Billy Thompson dived off the end to please the crowds. On the beach, Fred Clements' concert on the dunes off North Parade was a popular attraction in the Edwardian period, allowing him to open a theatre in 1911; other theatres and picture houses opened around this time. Britain's first switchback had opened in the town in 1885 or 1887. A fairground operated on the central beach before the First World War, an aerial flight north of the pier by 1906, and the Figure 8 rollercoaster replaced the 1885 switchback and opened near Sea View on North Parade in 1908.The town became an urban district in 1895, and by 1901 its population exceeded 2,000. Convalescent homes began opening in the town, the earliest being the Nottinghamshire Convalescent Home for Men. Holiday homes or camps for the poor opened for Derbyshire children in 1891 and Nottingham girls in 1907. A clock tower was built to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897 and was formally opened in 1899. The dunes to the north and south of Skegness made for excellent golf courses, with one opening at Seacroft in 1899. Another golf links opened at North Shore in 1911. By that year, the population had reached 3,775.
1914–1945: boom years between the wars
Aside from a seaplane base briefly established by the town in 1914, the First World War brought little change to the fabric of Skegness but the resort underwent much change between the world wars. The Urban District Council purchased the seafront east of the parade wall from Lord Scarbrough in 1922 with the intention of overhauling it. The district engineer and surveyor Rowland Henry Jenkins was responsible for planning the works, which included the construction of Tower Esplanade, a paved walkway extending from the clock tower to the shore. To the south, he built the boating lake on sand dunes and the Fairy Dell paddling pool. To the north, he replaced the Marine Gardens; a large part of the site was used for the Embassy Ballroom, outdoor bathing pool, restaurant and orchestral piazza which all opened in 1928. The town's first municipal car park opened that year, catering for the rapidly growing motor traffic. In 1923, the amusements on the main beach were moved to the dunes opposite The Park, but a covenant stipulated that once The Park began to be developed the amusements would need to relocate. After works began, Billy Butlin agreed to build permanent amusements south of the pier; these opened in 1929. Afterwards, Jenkins remodelled the foreshore north of the pier, constructing walkways, sports grounds and bowling greens which opened in 1931. During the 1930s, the west side of North Parade was built up with hotels. Convalescent homes were built in interwar years, including one for Derbyshire miners at Seathorne.Skegness's popularity as a tourist destination grew in the interwar years and boomed during the 1930s, helped by the new attractions. Swimming galas, tournaments and regattas were among the popular events laid on at the new facilities. Elsewhere the Skegness Aero Club attracted 15,000 spectators to watch a show at the Winthorpe Airfield in 1932; that year the illuminations were turned on for the first time and the Sun Castle opened on North Parade. The following year Butlin launched a carnival, among the largest on the east coast. Cinemas and casinos joined the theatres of the Edwardian period as popular attractions. In 1936, Butlin built his own all-in holiday camp in Ingoldmells, providing constant entertainment and facilities for guests. It was joined in 1939 by The Derbyshire Miners' Holiday Camp. This coincided with growth in the residential area; speculative housing was put up north of Scarbrough Avenue from the 1920s by T. L. Kirk and J. H. Canning, and after Castleton Boulevard was built in 1934 the original plan area was largely filled in. A hundred houses were also built in the Richmond Drive area under the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919, and private developments took place around Wainfleet Road and Lincoln Road in the 1930s. The owner of land north of the North Shore golf links laid out a housing development, the Seathorne Estate, in 1925, by which time Winthorpe Avenue was mostly built up. By 1931, the town's population had reached 9,122.
During the Second World War, the Royal Air Force billeted thousands of trainees in the town for its No 11 Recruit Centre. The Butlin's camp was occupied by the Royal Navy, who called it HMS Royal Arthur and used it for training seamen. Aerial bombing of the town began in 1940; there were fatalities on several occasions, the greatest being on 24 October 1941 when twelve residents were killed during a bombing raid.
Since 1945: shifting trade, changing fortunes and new growth
Since the Second World War, self-catered accommodation has become increasingly popular and led to the growth of caravan parks and chalet accommodation. This began slowly in the 1950s, but the rate accelerated; in 1963 Cook's Richmond Carapark opened and more followed. By 1981 20 caravan sites were in operation and five years later there were 12,000 holiday caravans and chalets in Skegness and Ingoldmells. Much of the lodging accommodation in the town centre closed as a result, although 300 bed and breakfasts were still operating in the 1970s. The 1970s also witnessed the birth of the cheap package airline holiday abroad, which took visitors away from British seaside towns. The decline in coal mining in the East Midlands in the 1980s caused what the BBC described as a "damaging dip in trade". Nevertheless, holiday-makers continued to visit the town and the 1980s and 1990s witnessed another boom, as people ventured to Skegness for their second holiday alongside trips abroad; it also proved popular among the elderly in the winter months. By 1998, the town had lost over 3,000 of the 8,100 bed spaces it had in 1950, but had gained 15,000 caravans; as the historian John K. Walton summarised: "people still wanted donkey rides". The Lindsey coast's popularity grew as a result of the late 2000s Great Recession, as it offered a cheaper alternative to holidays abroad. Between 2006 and 2008, 870,000 people made overnight trips to Skegness; this figure had risen to 1,030,000 for 2010–12.The fabric of the town centre has also changed. North and South Bracing were built in 1948–49, followed by the Festival Pavilion in 1951; Natureland Seal Sanctuary opened in 1966 and the 1960s saw Tower Explanade extended. Butlin's left the main amusement park and it was extensively refurbished in 1966; the North Parade amusements were also refitted in 1970 and the Figure 8 demolished. In 1971, the pier entrance was replaced with what David Robinson called "a characterless mass of glass and concrete" housing arcades, a bingo hall and a variety bar; in 1978, a large section was swept away in a storm. The remaining shoreward portion was modernised in 1991 and a bowling alley added. The Embassy Ballroom and the swimming baths were replaced with the Embassy Centre in 1999. By 2001, European Union grants had provided millions of pounds towards regeneration schemes. Since the war, most of the seafront's hotels, cinemas and theatres have been turned into amusement arcades, nightclubs, shops and bingo halls, a process well-underway by the early 1980s when Grand Parade was described as "sadly mutilated"; within two decades it had become a row "of souvenir shops and amusement arcades". What remained of Frederica Terrace, one of Skegness's oldest buildings, had been converted into entertainment bars and arcades before it was destroyed in a fire in 2007.
The town's residential area has also grown since the Second World War. In the immediate post-war decades there was pressure to provide local people with more affordable housing; council estates were built at Winthorpe, west of St Clement's Church and off Richmond Drive. There were also private developments, including the estate east of Richmond Drive; Lincoln Road was built in 1960 as a more direct route to the town centre from the A158, and private housing was then built to its south; the developments enveloped the 18th-century Church Farm building, which was restored and opened as a museum in 1976. The seafront was fully developed in the 1970s and the last of The Park built on in 1982. Between the 1970s and the 1990s a large amount of private housing development took place, including sites north of the A158 and near Seacroft. The demand for this housing partly came from retirees from the East Midlands and South Yorkshire; they were both keen to live by the seaside and capitalise on low house prices. Accordingly, the population had risen to 18,910 in 2001. By that time, the District Council's Local Plan stated it wished to see more "balanced growth" in housing which would benefit the local community. Since the end the 20th century, a growing number of people have purchased or rent static caravans along the East Lindsey and opt to live in these for a large part of the year, enabled by improvements in caravan designs; a 2011 report estimated that 6,600 people were living in such properties.
Economy
Tourism industry
According to VisitEngland, in 2011 Skegness was the fourth most popular holiday destination in the United Kingdom. In 2015, Skegness and Ingoldmells received 1,484,000 visitors, of which 649,000 were day visitors; this brought in £212.83 million in direct expenditure, with an estimated economic impact of £289.60 million. The town council has described local employment as "heavily reliant" on tourism. One estimate suggested that in 2015 2,846 jobs were supported directly by the visitor economy, with tourism indirectly supporting nearly 900 more. Over half of these jobs were in accommodation and food and drink, with a further 18.1% in retail. Skegness's visitor economy has been described by the district council as "counter-cyclical"; while continuing to serve a loyal client base, it provides a cheap alternative to holidays abroad and has therefore proven popular when the economy has been slower for the rest of the region.The seafront is a hub for the tourism industry, much of which is geared towards the provision of food, amusement arcades and other attractions, including the Botton's Pleasure Beach funfair with various rides. The pubs, bars and nightclubs, and neon-lit amusements have earned it the popular nickname "Skegvegas".
Other industry
Before the 1950s, the only major manufacturing interest in Skegness was Alfred Hayward's rock factory which had opened in the 1920s. After the Second World War, some other light industry arrived, including Murphy Radio and the nylon makers Stiebels. The Urban District Council opened an industrial estate in 1956 for manufacturers. Murphy's successor left the town in the 1970s, but Stiebels and the ride manufacturer J. R. Mitchell were still operating in the late 1980s, alongside Rose-Forgrove and Sandersons Forklifts. The industrial estate, off Wainfleet Road, continues to house a range of businesses and the district council have proposed expanding it as of 2016. The council opened the Aura Skegness Business Centre there in 2004.Shopping and services
Along with Louth, Skegness is "one of the main shopping and commercial centres" in East Lindsey, most likely due to it being the closest service hub for a large part of the surrounding rural area. Management Horizon Europe's 2008 UK shopping index measured the presence of national suppliers; Skegness was the highest ranked shopping destination in the district. It also ranked highest in the 2013–14 Venuescore survey. The High Street and Lumley Road are key retail areas, along with the Hildreds Centre, a small shopping mall which opened in 1988, Skegness Retail Park, and the Quora Retail Park on Burgh Road which opened in 2017 and includes several supermarkets; other supermarkets operate elsewhere. Occupancy rates are relatively high; in 2015, 4% of ground-floor retail units were vacant, which is less than half the national average and down from 9% in 2009. Nevertheless, Skegness is relatively weak at offering comparison goods, with Lincoln and Grimsby being key destinations for higher value shopping.Demography
Population size and change
The poll tax returns for 1377 recorded 140 people living in Skegness over the age of 14; in 1563 there were 14 households and in the late 17th century, there were ten families. The first census of the parish was conducted in 1801 and recorded a population of 134. It had risen above 300 by 1841 and reached 366 ten years later, before dropping back to 349 in 1871. Following the initial development of the seaside resort, the population rose rapidly, contracted in the 1880s and then rose sharply so that by 1921 the resident population was over 9,000. This figure reached 12,539 in 1951, and continued to rise at varying rates over the course of the century. It had reached 18,910 in 2001 and 19,579 in the most recent census, taken in 2011. The Office for National Statistics -designated Skegness Built Up Area incorporates the contiguous conurbation extending north through Ingoldmells to Chapel St Leonards; this had a population of 24,876 in 2011 which makes it the largest settlement in the East Lindsey district and represents about 18% of the district's population.Ethnicity and country of origin
According to the 2011 census, Skegness's population was 97.6% white; 1% Asian or British Asian; 0.4% Black, African, Caribbean or Black British; and 0.9% mixed or mutli-ethnic; and 0.1% other. The population is therefore less ethnically diverse than England as a whole, which is 85.4% white; 7.8% Asian or Asian British; 3.5% Black, African, Caribbean or Black British; 2.3% mixed ethnicities; and 1% other. 94.2% of the town's population were born in the United Kingdom, compared with 86.2% nationally; 3.5% were born in European Union countries other than the UK and Ireland, of which more than three quarters were born in post-2001 accession states; for England, the figures were 3.7% and 2.0% respectively. 1.8% of the population was born outside the EU, whereas the total for England was 9.4%.Household composition, age, health and housing
In the 2011 census, 47.8% of the population were male and 52.2% female. Of the population over 16, 45.3% were married, compared to 46.6% in England; 28.8% were single, 12.8% divorced, 10.3% widowed, 2.6% separated and 0.2% in same-sex civil partnerships. In 2011, there were 9,003 households in Skegness civil parish. It has a slightly higher than average proportion of one-person households ; most other households consist of one family ; there is a lower than average proportion of one-family households with a single parent and one-family households with married or same-sex civil partnership couples. There is a slightly higher proportion of cohabiting couples than in England as a whole. There are higher than average rates of one-person and one-family households aged over 65. In 2016, East Lindsey had Lincolnshire's second-highest rate of conception among females aged 15 to 17.East Lindsey has a high proportion of elderly people living in the district, driven partly by high in-migration and by the out-migration of younger residents; the local authority has described this as a "demographic imbalance". A 2005 study by the town council reported that for every two people aged 16–24 who left the town, three people aged 60 or above moved in. The 2011 census showed Skegness's population to be older than the national average; the mean age was 44.3 and the median 46 years, compared with 39.3 and 39 for England. 21% of the population was under 20, versus 24% of England's, and 32.2% of Skegness's population was aged over 60, compared with 22% of England's population. This high proportion of elderly residents has also increased the proportion of infirm people in the district. In 2011, 69.6% of the population were in good or very good health, compared to 81.4% in England, and 9.9% in very bad or bad health, against 5.4% for England. 28.6% of people also reported having their day-to-day activities limited, compared with 17.6% in England.
As of 2011, Skegness has a lower proportion of people who own their homes with or without a mortgage than in England, a greater proportion of people who privately rent, a slightly smaller proportion of social renters and 1.2% of people in shared ownership schemes. The proportion of household spaces which are detached houses is higher than average, as is the proportion which are apartments in a converted house and flats in a commercial building. The proportion of terraced household spaces is much lower, while the proportion of purpose-built flats is also lower. 2.3% of household spaces are caravans or other mobile structures, compared with 0.4% nationally.
Workforce
In 2011, 60% of Skegness's residents aged between 16 and 74 were economically active, compared with 69.9% for all of England. 51.7% were in employment, compared with 62.1% nationally. The proportion in full-time employment is also comparatively low, at 27.7%. The proportion of retirees is higher, at 21.7% compared with 13.7% for England. The proportion of long-term sick or disabled is 7.9%, nearly double England's 4%; 2.3% of people were also long-term unemployed, compared with 1.7% in all of England. The 2011 census revealed that the most common industry residents worked in were: wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, accommodation and food services, human health and social work, non-classified industries, education, manufacturing and construction ; no other industries made up more than 5%. The proportion of people employed in accommodation and food services was over three times the national figure, while the proportion working in wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair was also higher than in England's as a whole. Most other industries were under-represented comparatively, with both financial services and information and communication especially so.The tourism industry in Skegness is dominated by low-paid, low-skilled and seasonal work. Compared with the whole of England, the workforce has a relatively high proportion of people in elementary occupations, sales and customer service occupations, caring, leisure and other service occupations, as well as skilled trades, managers and directors and process plant and machine operatives. There is a much lower proportion of people in professional, associate professional, technical, administrative and secretarial occupations than in England as a whole. A lack of more varied, higher skilled and better paid work and further education opportunities leads many more skilled, ambitious or qualified young people to leave. There is a chronic difficulty in attracting professionals to the area, including teachers and doctors; this is partly due to the perceived remoteness of the area, seasonality and social exclusion. Employers also find it difficult to attract higher skilled workers, including chefs; a report prepared for the town council also cites a lack of "work readiness" among young people as a common problem facing employers. The proportion of residents aged 16 to 74 with no qualifications was 40.8%, much higher than the national figure ; the proportion of residents whose highest qualification is at Level 1, 2 or 3 is lower in each category than the national population; 10.7% of the population have a qualification at Level 4 or above, compared with 27.4% nationally.
Deprivation
In a 2013 ONS study of 57 English seaside resorts, Skegness and Ingoldmells was the most deprived seaside town; 61.5% of their statistical areas were in the most deprived quintile nationally, compared with 20% for England as a whole; only 7.7% fell in the least-deprived three quintiles, compared to 60% for England. The government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation place large parts of Skegness among the 10% most deprived parts of England; two of its neighbourhoods were ranked among the ten most deprived areas in Lincolnshire. There is limited research into the causes of deprivation in the town. A local official quoted by The Guardian in 2013 attributed high levels of deprivation to the seasonal and low-paid nature of work in the tourism industry, which constitutes a large part of Skegness's economy; and also the tendency for retirees from former industrial areas in the East Midlands to move to the town and spend most of the year living there in caravans. In 2019, the town council listed several key challenges: the low-paid, low-skilled and seasonal nature of work in the tourism industry; a consequential dependency on benefits and a reduced tax base; the under-funding of public services; poor infrastructure; a lack of training for and consequent out-migration of talented young people; and difficulty attracting skilled workers.Transport
The A52 road from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Mablethorpe passes through Skegness via Nottingham, Grantham and Boston. The A158 from Lincoln terminates in the town, and the A1028 connects Skegness with the A16 which runs from Grimsby to Peterborough via Louth.Omnibus services reached the village from Boston before the development of the resort; by the 1840s Brown's omnibus made the journey from Boston three days a week. As of 2020, Stagecoach Lincolnshire is the main bus operator in the town with regular services on routes to Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards; there are also Lincolnshire InterConnect services up the coast as far as Mablethorpe and inland to Boston and Lincoln.
Skegness railway station is the terminus for the Grantham to Skegness line which runs hourly services from Nottingham via Grantham. Opened in 1873, it was the final station on the Firsby–Skegness branch of the East Lincolnshire Railway. The number of people travelling by car and coach probably overtook the number using the train in the 1930s, a trend solidified in the post-war years. The station was earmarked for closure in the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, but a third of the summer visitors still used it and lobbying by the urban district council preserved passenger services; the line was nevertheless closed to freight traffic in 1966 and the main interconnecting line, the East Lincolnshire Railway, was dismantled from Firsby to Grimsby in 1970. The passenger timetable was reduced to save costs in 1977, but a full timetable returned in 1989 and improvement works were carried out in 2001 and 2011, the latter seeing the old station master's house demolished. As of 2020, trains run the full length of the Poacher Line and the Nottingham to Grantham Line to give connections to the East Midlands; Nottingham, Grantham, Boston and Sleaford have direct connections, while Leicester, Derby and Kettering require a change at Nottingham.
Skegness Water Leisure Park, north of the town, has its own airfield, with two runways. PPR is stated for landing.
Government and politics
National and European politics
In national politics, Skegness fell within the Lincolnshire parliamentary constituency until 1832; in 1818 four residents were entitled to vote, and in 1832 there were seven. That year the county was divided up and the village was included in North Lincolnshire. In 1867, it was transferred to the new Mid Lincolnshire constituency, which was abolished in 1885, after which Skegness placed in the Horncastle constituency. Another reorganisation saw the parish incorporated into the East Lindsey seat in 1983; this was abolished in 1995 and Skegness was transferred into the new constituency of Boston and Skegness. The current constituency has been held by Conservative members of parliament since it was created; the incumbent is Matt Warman, who has held it since 2015. Between 1999 and the United Kingdom's departure of the European Union in 2020, Skegness was represented in the European Parliament by the East Midlands constituency.At the first election after it was created, the current seat was highly marginal, with the Conservatives receiving 42.4% of the vote and Labour 41.0%. By 2019 the Conservatives had increased their vote share to 76.7%, while Labour's share had fallen to 14.0%.
The same period saw support for the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party grow, reaching a peak in 2015, when it polled second and secured UKIP's second-highest vote share in any constituency in that election. The constituency is estimated to have had the highest vote share in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 EU referendum, at 75.6%. In the aftermath the town became the focus of international media attention, with Reuters labelling it "Brexit-on-Sea" and suggesting that many of its residents were "more nostalgic and more socially conservative" than those in diverse, liberal, urban areas, and keen to see state funds paid to the EU redirected into supporting the town. Afterwards support for UKIP fell and the party did not stand in 2019, although support for leaving the EU remained high. The Brexit Party did not contest the parliamentary seat in 2019, but in the European Parliament elections held earlier that year, it has been estimated that Boston and Skegness probably had the third-highest vote share for the Brexit Party of any constituency.
Local government
Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lincolnshire since the Middle Ages, the ancient parish of Skegness was in the Marsh division of the ancient wapentake of Candleshoe in the Parts of Lindsey. In 1875, it was placed in the Spilsby Poor Law Union, but in 1885 Skegness became a local board of health and urban sanitary district. In 1894, Skegness Urban District was created in its place. The civil parish of Winthorpe – which had previously also been part of the Spilsby union, rural sanitary district and, from 1894, rural district – was abolished in 1926; most of it was merged into Skegness Urban District and a portion into Addlethorpe civil parish. In 1974, the urban district was merged with the municipal borough of Louth, the Alford, Horncastle, Mablethorpe and Sutton, and Woodhall Spa urban districts, and the rural districts of Horncastle, Louth and Spilsby to create East Lindsey, a district of Lincolnshire; by statutory instrument, Skegness civil parish became the urban district's successor.Skegness Town Council, the parish-level government body beneath the district council, is composed of 21 councillors from four wards: Clock Tower, St Clements, Winthorpe and Woodlands. There are seven representatives for Skegness on East Lindsey District Council, which uses different wards: three councillors are returned for Scarbrough and Seacroft ward, and two each from St Clements and Winthorpe wards. Skegness sends two councillors to Lincolnshire County Council, one each for Skegness North and Skegness South divisions.
Skegness Urban District Council meetings were held at 23 Algitha Road until 1920, when the authority purchased the Earl of Scarbrough's estate office at Roman Bank for £3,000 and used those as offices; these burned down in 1928; a new town hall opened in 1931 and was later extended. In the 1950s, the council acquired for £50,000 the former convalescent home run by the National Deposit Friendly Society on North Parade ; this was converted into offices, which were opened in 1964. The town council took over the building and it continues as the town hall as of 2019.
Public services and infrastructure
Utilities and sewerage
As part of the Earl of Scarbrough's scheme, gas works were opened in the town in 1877 and were lighting the streets the following year. The urban district council declined to purchase the gas company in 1902; the UDC attempted to takeover it in 1911, and after much dispute with the company, purchased it in 1914. The works were extended in the 1920s. The UDC's gas company was nationalised in 1949 and its functions taken over by the East Midlands Gas Board, which merged into British Gas in 1973 and was privatised in 1986.The town's water works opened in 1879 and were extended in the 1920s. To meet growing demand, Lord Scarbrough had a new borehole sunk at Welton le Marsh in 1904, with a pumping station and pipes transporting fresh water to the town. The first sewerage disposal system was designed by D. Balfour as part of the Earl of Scarbrough's development scheme; a sewerage farm and works were erected at Seacroft. The development was principally funded by the Earl, with a quarter of the funds contributed by the Spilsby Sanitary Authority. A sewerage disposal works opened at Burgh Le Marsh in 1936. Responsibility for water was later taken over by the East Lincolnshire Water Board; in 1973 this merged into the Anglian Water Authority, which was privatised as Anglian Water in 1989.
The Mid-Lincolnshire Electricity Supply Company brought electricity to the town in 1932. The company was nationalised in 1948 and its function taken over by the East Midlands Electricity Board. Street lighting was electrified in the late 1950s. Electricity supply was privatised in 1990.
Emergency services and criminal justice
In 1827 the village was afforded its first police constable, which it shared with Ingoldmells. The town's first police station opened in 1883 on Roman Bank. In 1932, Skegness became a divisional police headquarters. Its current building opened in 1975. Criminal cases were heard in Spilsby until Skegness was granted its own petty sessions in 1908; these operated only during summer until 1929, when cases were heard there year-round; a court opened on Roman Bank that year. The building was replaced in 1975 and the Spilsby magistrates court closed in 1980, transferring all cases to Skegness.By 1913, the town had a fire brigade. A station was added to the Town Hall on the corner of Roman Bank and Algitha Road in the late 1920s. A new station was built on Churchill Avenue in 1973. It continues to operate as of 2020.
Lifeboat station
Skegness had a signal station by 1812 and four years later a mortar-fired brass lifeline was put in place in the village. In 1825, a lifeboat was purchased for Wainfleet Haven and first launched from Gibraltar Point in 1827; it moved to Skegness in 1830. A new boathouse was built in 1864 on South Parade and rebuilt in 1892. Motorised tractors were used to pull the boats after 1926 and the last sailing boat was retired four years later. The current lifeboat station was built in 1990.Healthcare
opened in 1913 as a cottage hospital; it underwent major redevelopment works in 1939, was taken over by the National Health Service nine years later and extended in 1985. As of June 2020, it is a community hospital run by the Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust; some of its services are provided by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust. It contains two in-patient wards, with 39 beds and its services include a 24-hour, walk-in Urgent Care Centre. ULH runs Accident and Emergency departments at Lincoln County Hospital and Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.As of 2020, the town also has two GP practices, four dental practices, and three opticians. There are community mental health services provided at Holly Lodge. There is also a health centre on Cecil Avenue and the hospital includes a contraception and advice centre.
Other services
Skegness's first post office opened in 1870; it moved premises in 1888 and 1905, before moving to Roman Bank in 1929. As of 2020, Royal Mail's Skegness Delivery Office operates there; Post Offices also operate on Burgh Road and Drummond Road in Skegness, and at Winthorpe Avenue in Seathorne.A wireless telegraph station operated at Winthorpe from 1926 to 1939.
Education
Primary
Skegness's first elementary school was established in 1839 on the west side of Roman Bank; despite being enlarged in 1850, the standard of education and facilities were regarded as poor by inspectors. Winthorpe's children were given lessons in the church from 1823 and in the parish clerk's cottage from 1840, but the village did not get a schoolhouse until 1865. As part of Lord Scarbrough's town plan, Skegness National School opened on Roman Bank in 1880; in 1932 it was replaced with another elementary school, Skegness Senior Council School, which existed until it became a secondary modern school in the 1940s. The county-council run Infants' School was founded on Cavendish Road in 1908, followed by Skegness County Junior School in 1935, the Seathorne Junior School in 1951 and Richmond Junior School in 1976.As of 2020, the town is served by five state primary schools, four of which are academies: the Skegness Infant Academy ; Skegness Junior Academy ; Seathorne Primary Academy ; The Richmond School; and Beacon Primary Academy.
Several private schools existed in Skegness during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Boyer's Orient College for Girls, a junior boys school on Algitha Road and the Seacroft School for Boys, the latter of which closed in 1950 and was replaced by a local-authority-run girls' special school which shut in 1984. As of 2020, one private primary school operates in the town: The Viking School, which opened in 1982.
Secondary
Until the post-war period, the only secondary education available to Skegness's children was at Magdalen College School in Wainfleet; a grammar school, it had been founded in 1484 and selected pupils based on ability. In 1933, it closed and was replaced by the coeducational Skegness Grammar School, which opened in the town and continues to select pupils using the eleven-plus examination; it provides boarding facilities for pupils who do not live locally. Having previously been grant-maintained and a foundation status school, Skegness Grammar School converted to an academy in 2012. At its last Ofsted inspection report in 2017, it was assessed as "requiring improvement". As of 2020, there are 456 boys and girls on the roll, out of a capacity of 898.The passage of the Education Act 1944 made secondary education compulsory for pupils aged 11–15 from 1945. The Skegness Senior Council School became Skegness Secondary Modern School as a result and had its own governing body from 1947; it was renamed the Lumley Secondary Modern School in 1956. Another school, the Morris Secondary Modern, opened in 1955. Both came under a joint governing body in 1976 and merged ten years later to form the Earl of Scarbrough School; that closed in 2004 and reopened as St Clements College, a community school which converted into Skegness Academy in 2010. It is coeducational and has a sixth form; at its 2020 Ofsted inspection, it was assessed as "requiring improvement". There were 893 pupils on roll in that year, out of a capacity of 1,340.
Tertiary
Both of the secondary schools provide education for pupils aged 16–18. Other providers of further education include the Skegness College of Vocational Training, a private centre founded in 1975; its head office is in Skegness and it offers training in vocational subjects to people aged 16 and over on the east coast of Lincolnshire. East Lindsey Information Technology Centre opened in Skegness and Louth in 1984; following a merger in 2000, it became First College, which continues to operate an adult and community learning facility in Skegness. The Lincolnshire Regional College opened in Skegness in 2009 and in 2017 became Skegness TEC, part of the TEC Partnership of further education colleges.Religion
Demographics
In the 2011 census, 68.2% of Skegness's population stated that they were religious and 24.7% stated they did not follow a religion. Compared to England's population, Christians were over-represented in Skegness, while all other groups were under-represented. There were 8 Sikhs in Skegness, making up 0% of the population compared with 0.8% nationally; Hindus composed 0.1%, Muslims 0.5% against 5% nationally, Jewish people 0.1% compared with 0.5% for all of England, and Buddhists 0.2% of the town's population, contrasting with 0.5% nationally.Places of worship
The three Anglican places of worship are the churches of St Clement and St Matthew in Skegness, and St Mary's Church in Winthorpe. St Clement's stonework dates to the 13th century, but it was rebuilt in the early 16th century after the old church was lost to the sea. When the seaside resort was being planned in the 1870s, it was clear that St Clement's was both too small and too far from the new town to be convenient. The much larger St Matthew's Church was therefore built on Scarbrough Avenue in 1879–80, with the north aisle and chancel added before the church was consecrated in 1885; the spire which was planned could not be completed due to subsidence. Winthorpe's church dates to the late Middle Ages and was much-altered in an 1880 restoration. As of 2020, services are usually held every Sunday in St Matthew's, and in St Mary's and St Clement's on all but the first Sunday of the month.Skegness's first Roman Catholic church was built in 1898 with seating for 500 people. In 1950, the congregation moved into a new building: the Church of the Sacred Heart on Grosvenor Road. Mass continues to be held there as of 2020.
The early 19th century saw Methodism arrive in Skegness. A Wesleyan preacher visited once a month before the Wesleyans built a chapel on the High Street in 1837, which was replaced in 1848 and again in 1876; as the resort developed they were allocated a new site and their new chapel was completed on Algitha Road in 1881. The Primitive Methodists built a chapel on Roman Bank on land purchased in 1836 which became known as Bank Chapel; as it was located closer to Winthorpe, worshippers from Skegness raised money to build their own chapel on the bank but further towards the growing town in 1881; they replaced this in 1899. In 1979, the Skegness Primitive Methodists' chapel on Roman Bank closed, with the Wesleyan chapel taking over a united congregation. The original Bank Chapel was used by people from Winthorpe until it was replaced by Seathorpe Methodist Church in 1910; this closed in 2009. As of 2020, Skegness Methodist Chapel on Algitha Road holds services on Sundays and mid-morning prayers on Mondays. The Baptists also held services on the beaches of Skegness from 1893, forming a branch of the church the next year; temporary accommodation was built soon afterwards which sufficed until St Paul's Baptist Church opened in 1911; it was named for the short-lived St Paul's Free Church group of worshippers which had split from the Anglican congregation in the 1890s and in whose accommodation on Beresford Avenue the Baptists settled before they built their own chapel. As of 2020, St Paul's Baptist Church holds regular Sunday services.
The Salvation Army had a presence in the town before its members became a separate unit in 1913. Their citadel was built on the High Street in 1929. Their church remains on the High Street as of 2020. Skegness Pentecostal Community Church was registered as a charity in 1969, but closed in 2001. The Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church was registered as a charity in 1996; it later changed its name to the New Day Christian Centre and moved to new premises in 2011; as of 2020 it operates on North Parade as The Storehouse Church and, as well as running church services, provides Skegness's only food bank. As of 2020, there is a seventh-day adventist church on Philip Grove.
In December 2019, the district council approved plans for a mosque and community centre adjacent to the former Methodist chapel on Roman Bank.
Ecclesiastical history
The earliest record of a priest at Skegness dates to 1291; the church belonged to Holy Trinity College at Tattershall in the late Middle Ages; in 1548, the patronage was held by the Duchess of Suffolk; by 1641 it had passed to Nicholas Saunderson, 1st Viscount Castleton, and later passed to his eventual heirs, the Earls of Scarbrough. Winthorpe's church was possessed by Bullington Priory in the Middle Ages. The vicarage was united with Burgh Le Marsh in 1729, but they were separated in 1914 and it was united with Skegness in 1978. As of 2020, the ecclesiastical parish's legal name is Skegness with Winthorpe. It is in the Archeaconry of Lincoln in the Diocese of Lincoln. It was in the Candleshoe Rural Deanery until 1866, when it was placed in the Candleshoe No. 2 Rural Deanery; reorganised into the Candleshow Rural Deanery in 1910, it was placed in the Calcewaithe and Candleshoe Rural Deanery in 1968; it remains there as of 2020. The parish forms part of the Skegness Group, which also includes Ingoldmells and Addlethorpe.Culture
Seafront attractions
Skegness has a long, wide, sandy beach, which is a main attraction for visitors. It has been described as "sparklingly clean" by Rough Guides and in 2019 was re-awarded the Foundation for Environmental Education's Blue Flag award which recognises its high-quality water, facilities, beach safety, management and environmental education facilities. Between 1 May and 30 September, dogs are banned from the beach. Donkey rides are offered for children there.The seafront includes Skegness Pier, which houses amusements; to the south, Botton's Pleasure Beach is a funfair with roller coasters and other rides. Further south still is the Jubilee Clock Tower and the boating lake and Fairy Dell paddling pool. The western side of Grand Parade houses amusements and eateries, punctuated by the entrance to Tower Gardens, a park; its pavilion, which dated to 1879, was demolished in 2019–20 and a community centre and café built on its site. Opposite the gardens is the Embassy Theatre. The town's nightlife also includes bars, pubs and nightclubs.
Museums, zoos, library services and nature reserves
, on North Parade, rescues and houses distressed seals; it also features penguins, aquariums, and other animals. The town also has an aquarium, which opened on Tower Esplanade in 2015. Further into the town, The Village Church Farm contains exhibitions about historical farming life. A volunteer-run heritage railway, the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, moved to Skegness in 1990 and opened to fare-paying members of the public in 2009; it operates along a length of track.Lincolnshire County Library Service opened a branch in 1929 which was run by volunteers. In the 1930s, the council purchased a former shop on Roman Bank and converted it into the current library, run by full-time staff. As of 2020, it opens every day except Sunday.
To the south of Skegness is Gibraltar Point, a national nature reserve, consisting of unspoilt marshland. It was among England's earliest bird observatories when it was established in 1949 and, as of 2020, is open to the public; alongside walkways and paths, it has a visitor centre, nature centre, café and toilet facilities.
Concert and dance halls, theatres and cinemas
Skegness Pier had a concert hall and later the Pier Theatre. Otherwise, most early attractions were to be found on the beach; Fred Clements ran a concert on the sands, which he moved to a temporary building on the lawn of Hildred's Hotel in 1906. He opened the Arcadia Concert Hall in 1911. The town's early dance halls included the Alhambra on Grand Parade and Central Hall on Roman Bank. The Alhambra was converted into a casino in 1922, the same year that Central Hall became a cinema. The Arcadia became a theatre; it was renamed the Arcadia Centre following a renovation in 1972 but closed in 1987 and was demolished before 2000. Henri de Monde opened the King's Theatre in 1912. In 1928, as part of the local authority's foreshore development, the Embassy Ballroom was built on Grand Parade. It was remodelled in 1982 and completely rebuilt in 1999; the Embassy Centre is Skegness's only theatre as of 2020.Skegness's first cinema – the Lawn Theatre – opened in 1911. Also opened in that year, the Arcadia Theatre showed films during winter. Central Hall on Roman Bank was converted into a cinema by J. H. Kenning in 1922, the same year that Clements opened the Tower Theatre on Lumley Avenue. The Parade Cinema opened in 1933 and the ABC Cinema three years later. The Parade Cinema closed in the 1970s, but the Tower and ABC cinemas are still open as of 2020.
The Skegness Boys' Brigade Band started in 1908; it was disbanded on the outbreak of the First World War. A new band was formed in 1923 or 1928, as Skegness Town Band, which later changed its name to Skegness Silver Band. The band continues to operate as of 2020. The Skegness Excelsior Band also operated in the interwar period. The town's amateur dramatic society, the Skegness Playgoers, was founded in 1937. As of 2020, they aim to put on two productions a year at the Embassy Centre.
Festivals and events
Skegness hosted its first carnival in 1898, a "Venetian Fair"; the modern event dates to 1933, when Billy Butlin launched a carnival in the town. It continues to operate as an annual event as of 2020. Since 2009, Skegness has also held a music, art and cultural event, the SO Festival; in 2013 the district council estimated that it generated £1m for the area.Sport
Skegness is home to Skegness Town A.F.C., which plays at the Vertigo Stadium on Wainfleet Road; known as The Lilywhites, the club was founded in 1947 and has been in the Northern Counties East Football League since 2018. Another team, Skegness United F.C., folded in 2018. The town also has a rugby club, Skegness R.U.F.C., which plays in the Midlands 4 East division of the Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire Rugby Football Union, and has a clubhouse on Wainfleet Road. Skegness Cricket Club traces its origins to at least 1877 and has its ground on Richmond Drive. There is also Skegness Yacht Club, Indoor Bowls Club and Skegness Town Bowls Club. Skegness Stadium, just outside the town, hosts stock car racing.Local media
The first newspaper in Skegness was the Skegness Herald, launched in 1882 and edited by John Avery. Charles Henry Major started a competitor, Skegness News, in 1909 and then bought the Herald in 1915, shutting it down in 1917; the Skegness News continued until 1964. In 1922, the proprietors of the Lincolnshire Standard group of newspapers established a local version for the town, the Skegness Standard; it switched to tabloid in 1981. Mortons of Horncastle revived the Skegness News title in 1985; in 2000 it was purchased by Welland Valley Newspapers and in 2007 merged with the Skegness Standard ; the Standard continues as a weekly as of 2020. The East Lindsey Target was founded in 2001, became the East Coast and The Wolds Target in 2017, and continues as of 2020.Skegness is covered by BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire/ITV Yorkshire. The public broadcaster BBC Radio Lincolnshire operates across the county, as does the commercial radio station Lincs FM. Coastal Sound radio is a community radio service broadcasting from Skegness to the area and beyond by way of the internet.
Town twinning
Skegness is twinned with Bad Gandersheim, a city in southern Lower Saxony, Germany; the effort is supported by the Skegness Twinning Association.Historic buildings
Skegness's oldest buildings are the medieval churches of St Clement, in Skegness, and St Mary, in Winthorpe. St Clement's has a 13th-century tower, with the rest of the building dating to the later Middle Ages at the earliest and probably the mid-16th century; it is thought to have been rebuilt at that time. There were restorations in 1884 and the 20th-century and it is grade-II* listed. St Mary's is grade-I listed and is mostly 15th-century, with some late 12th-century elements. There are some 16th-century monumental brasses, and a medieval standing cross in the churchyard, which is a scheduled monument. Other buildings which predate the modern resort town include the Ivy House Farmhouse on Burgh Road, which dates to the mid or late 18th century, Church Farmhouse on Church Road, which dates to the early 18th century and hosts the Church Farm Museum, the 18th-century Church Farmhouse on Church End, Winthorpe, and the early-19th-century Burnside Farmhouse. The houses at 1–5 St Andrew's Drive are mid- to late-19th-century cottages and thought to have been built to house coastguards.Parts of the Victorian development have also been recognised for their special interest. These include the Church of St Matthew and the war memorial in its churchyard, the Jubilee Clock Tower, and portions of original railings dating from the 1870s which are situated to the south and north of the clock tower; these are all grade-II listed structures. A large portion of the later esplanade, boating lake, land north of the pier and tower gardens is also grade-II listed. South Parade and Grand Parade contain 19th- and 20th-century boarding houses in the Queen Anne revival style. Modern buildings of note include the Sun Castle, County Hotel and The Ship Hotel.
Notable people
Skegness has been home to a number of people associated with the entertainment industry. Billy Butlin first set up his amusements stall on the seafront in the 1920s, opened the fairground rides south of the pier in 1929 and then established the first of his all-in holiday camps at Ingoldmells in 1936. Joyce, Lady Pontin, who notably supported her future husband Sir Fred Pontin's holiday park business, worked as secretary at Butlins in Skegness for a time, which experience led to her being recommended for a job at Pontins. Among performers connected with the town was the comedian Arthur Lucan, who grew up in the Boston area and busked in Skegness after leaving home. The actress Elizabeth Allan was born in the town, the daughter of its doctor, A. W. Allan. The rock singer and songwriter Graham Bonnet was born in Skegness in 1947. The comedian Dave Allen worked as a redcoat at Butlins early in his career. Maurice Moran regularly produced and performed in pantomimes at the resort. The disgraced clergyman Harold Davidson performed in a circus act in the amusement park in 1937, but died that year in the town after being mauled by one of his lions. The clown Jacko Fossett retired to Skegness.Several notable religious figures either lived in the town or served it in some capacity. The priest Edward Steere, who later became Bishop in Central Africa, was curate from 1858 to 1862. George William Clarkson was rector from 1944 to 1948; he was later Bishop of Pontefract and Dean of Guildford but in his retirement returned to Lincolnshire to serve as an assistant bishop in the diocese, and live in Skegness. Canon Graham Sansbury was rector between 1948 and 1958. The priest Roderick Wells was rector from 1971 to 1978. Canon Samuel Cutt, later Chancellor of Wells Cathedral, attended Skegness Grammar School. The priest Kenneth Thompson also lived in the town.
In the sports world, Anne Pashley, the Olympic athlete and opera singer, was born at Wallace's holiday camp in Skegness in 1935. The footballer Ray Clemence was born in Skegness in 1948 and attended the Lumley Secondary School; other footballers born in the town include Arthur Atkin, Calvin Palmer, Ray Veall, Tony Colavecchia, Wes Parker and Kern Miller. The cricketer Ray Frearson played for the Skegness team and died in the town. Among golfers, Mark Seymour died in Skegness in 1952, and Helen Dobson was born there. The horseracing announcer Mark Johnson is also a native of the town.
Several legal figures have connections to the town. Christopher Carr, the barrister, attended the grammar school, as did the circuit judge Nigel Daly. Lee Ranson, who has been chief executive officer of the multinational law firm Eversheds Sutherland since 2017, was born in Skegness in 1964.
Others with links to Skegness include the poet and art critic William Cosmo Monkhouse, who died in the town in 1901, and the novelist Vernon Scannell, who was born there in 1922. Low Warren, the journalist, was a food controller in the town for the Ministry of Food between 1939 and 1941. The former tabloid editor Neil Wallis started his journalistic career at the Skegness Standard in the 1960s. Reginald J. G. Dutton, who created the shorthand Dutton Speedwords, for some time chaired Skegness Urban District Council. The politician Robin Hunter-Clarke grew up in Skegness and sat on the town council. The naval officer Sir Guy Grantham was born in the town in 1900, as was the seaman Jesse Handsley, who served on Scott's first Antarctic Expedition; Kingsmill Bates retired to Skegness; and the mariner W. G. Scourse died there in 1952. The surgeon Kenneth Black worked as a consultant at the hospital. The chess champion and educator John Littlewood taught at the grammar school from 1955 to 1967. The teacher Mark Garbett was a deputy head at the Grammar School from 1997 to 2000. The businesswoman Carol Shanahan is a native of the town.