Things to do in East Yorkshire

Beverley Minster in the East Riding of Yorkshire is one of the largest and most magnificent parish churches in England, a building of cathedral dimensions that surpasses many English cathedrals in the quality and ambition of its Gothic architecture. The minster was built in two main phases between approximately 1220 and 1420, producing a building in which the Early English Gothic of the east end and the fully developed Perpendicular Gothic of the west front represent the full range of English medieval church architecture within a single building, the stylistic development across two centuries displayed as a coherent architectural history in stone. The west front of Beverley Minster is among the finest pieces of English Gothic church architecture, a screen of towers and niched statuary that was the direct inspiration for the west front of Westminster Abbey as designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in the eighteenth century. The twin towers rise with elegant authority above the town and the surrounding East Riding plain and provide the visual anchor for the historic townscape of Beverley. Inside, the nave of extraordinary length and height creates an impression of soaring Gothic space that belies the building's parish church status, while the fourteenth-century Percy Tomb is one of the most exquisite pieces of Gothic funerary sculpture in England. The Saxon origins of Beverley Minster give the building a depth of history that extends beyond its Gothic fabric. St John of Beverley, the eighth-century Bishop of York who established the first religious community here, became one of the most venerated saints of medieval England and the minster's status as a place of pilgrimage and sanctuary made it one of the most important churches in northern England throughout the medieval period. The sanctuary stone, indicating the bounds within which the right of sanctuary applied, still stands outside the minster door. The market town of Beverley surrounding the minster is one of the finest in Yorkshire, its medieval street pattern, guild hall and Georgian townscape providing an excellent setting for a minster visit.

Spurn Point is a narrow spit of sand and shingle extending approximately five kilometres south into the mouth of the Humber Estuary from the Holderness coast of East Yorkshire, a dynamic and unstable landform of great ecological and geological interest that is one of the most unusual and most atmospheric coastal landscapes in England. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust manages the spit as a nature reserve, and the combination of the dynamic shingle and sand habitat, the exceptional autumn migration that makes Spurn one of the most celebrated birdwatching locations in Britain, and the dramatic landscape of the estuary crossing make it a rewarding destination throughout the year. The spit has been breaking and reforming over centuries as longshore drift carries sediment south along the Holderness coast and the Humber tidal currents erode and redistribute it at the estuary mouth. A major breach in December 2013 made Spurn an island accessible only on foot or by vehicle at low tide, transforming its character and access arrangements while making the dynamic nature of the landform even more immediately visible. The breach and the subsequent response of the dunes and shingle to the changed hydrological conditions provide a natural experiment in coastal dynamics of considerable scientific interest. The autumn bird migration at Spurn is one of the most celebrated events in the British birdwatching calendar. The spit's position at the tip of a peninsula jutting into the Humber acts as a funnel for migrating birds moving south along the coast, and the concentration of migrants in the scrub and dunes during September and October provides one of the finest opportunities in England for observing rarities and common migrants at close range.