Druridge Bay

Coordinates: 55°16′44″N 1°34′01″W / 55.279°N 1.56708°W / 55.279; -1.56708

Druridge Bay

Druridge Bay
Druridge Bay
Druridge Bay shown within Northumberland
OS grid reference NZ276984
List of places
UK
England
Northumberland

Druridge Bay is a 7 miles (11 km) long coastal bay in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south. Northumberland Coast Country Park is situated within the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farm-steading of Druridge, in the centre of the bay) is owned by the National Trust. Areas within the bay are set aside as nature reserves.

During the Second World War defences were constructed around Druridge Bay as a part of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II. The defences included scaffolding barriers and anti-tank blocks overlooked by pillboxes and behind these were minefields and an anti-tank ditch.[1]

Between the hamlet of Druridge and Cresswell, anti-glider ditches were dug and there is an extant brick-built decoy control.

The bay was the focus of a long-running campaign against a proposal to construct a Pressurised Water Reactor nuclear power station during the 1980s and the large scale extraction of sand from the area in the 1990s. The campaign, along with changes in UK Government policy on nuclear power, prevented the power station from being built, and the plan was shelved for the time being in 1989. Northumberland Wildlife Trust purchased the sand extraction site from RMC Group in 2006, the shore is known for populations of birds including the golden plover and the purple sandpiper.

The land was retained by Nuclear Electric and in February 1996 was allocated to the NDA/BNFL.[2]

In November 1996 the NDA/BNFL sold the land to farmers. [3]

Druridge Bay again became the focus for environmental concerns in late 2015, when a planning application was submitted by Banks Group for an open-cast mine extending to 360 hectares immediately to the west of the beach, for the extraction of 3 million tonnes of coal: six weeks after the application was submitted the UK government announced that all coal-fired energy generation would cease by 2025. Northumberland County Council are due to make a decision on the application (which has received over 1800 letters of objection) in June 2016.

Druridge Bay is best known to birdwatchers for hosting, in 1998, the Druridge Bay curlew, a controversial bird which was eventually accepted as the first record of slender-billed curlew for Britain, although this identification is still disputed by some.

Druridge Bay is also a delightful spot for naturists. The North East Skinny Dip, first held in 2012, is an annual skinny dip to raise funds for MIND, the mental health charity. It is held around the time of the Autumn Equinox in September each year.


References

Notes


  1. ↑ Foot, 2006, p199.
  2. ↑ "parliament told site to allocated to NDA/BNFL". Retrieved 2011-11-30.
  3. ↑ "site sold to farmers in Nov 96". Retrieved 2011-11-30.

General references

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.