Druridge Bay is a long bay on the North Sea in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south. Druridge Bay Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of Druridge, in the centre of the bay) is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. Coastal areas on the bay are set aside as

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

Wartime defences

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, defences were constructed around Druridge Bay as part of the anti-invasion preparations. The defences included scaffolding barriers and anti-tank blocks overlooked by pillboxes; behind these were

minefield A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

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

Proposed nuclear reactor

The bay was the focus of a long-running campaign against proposals to construct a

Pressurised Water Reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan, India and Canada). In a PWR, water is used both as ...

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

station during the 1980s and for the large-scale extraction of sand from the area in the 1990s. The first campaign, along with changes in

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

policy on nuclear power, prevented the power station from being built: the plan was shelved in 1989. The land was retained by Nuclear Electric and in February 1996 was allocated to the NDA/ BNFL. In November 1996 the NDA/BNFL sold the land to farmers.

Proposed coal mine

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 (900 acres) 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. Over 1800 letters of objection were received. Northumberland County Council approved plans for the open-cast mine in July 2016. In September 2016, the plans were put on hold subject to a government inquiry. In March 2018, the proposal was formally rejected by the Communities Secretary

Sajid Javid Sir Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the ...

. The company behind the project said they were planning to formally challenge the decision in the High Court. In September 2020, the proposal was rejected again by the Secretary of State.

Wildlife

Northumberland Wildlife Trust purchased the sand extraction site from

RMC Group RMC Group plc (formerly "Ready Mixed Concrete Limited") was a ready mixed concrete, quarrying and concrete products company headquartered in Egham, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 1 ...

in 2006. The shore is known for populations of birds including the golden plover and the

purple sandpiper The purple sandpiper (''Calidris maritima'') is a small shorebird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. This is a hardy sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America and winters further south on the Atlan ...

. 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 a

slender-billed curlew The slender-billed curlew (''Numenius tenuirostris'') is an extinct species of curlew native to Eurasia and North Africa. Isotope analysis suggests the majority of the former population bred in the Kazakh Steppe despite a record from the Siberia ...

in Britain, although this identification is still disputed by some.

Naturism

Druridge Bay is also used by naturists. The North East Skinny Dip, first held in 2012, is an annual event to raise funds for

MIND The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

, the mental health charity. It is held around the time of the Autumn Equinox in late September each year.

Culture

Music

The Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest wor ...

's 1994 album ''

Promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortification, fortress or city walls ...

'' begins with a

field recording Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using diff ...

of the waves breaking on the shore at Druridge Bay, recorded especially for the album by producer

Darren Allison Darren Allison (born May 1968, Ashington, Northumberland, England) is an English record producer, musician, and audio engineer, best known for his production work with artists such as Spiritualized,Kempster, Chris "Studio secrets of the sta ...

.Liner Notes by

- "A Secret History". Setanta Records SETCDL100

Gallery

Image:druridgenorthview.jpg, Looking north over Druridge Bay from Cresswell Image:druridgedunes2.jpg, Druridge Bay Image:druridgedunes.jpg, Druridge Bay File:Druridge anti-tank blocks.jpg, Old World War II anti-tank defences. Now buried by

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

and

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

References

Notes

General references

*{{cite book , last = Foot , first = William , title = Beaches, fields, streets, and hills ... the anti-invasion landscapes of England, 1940 , publisher = Council for British Archaeology , year = 2006 , isbn = 1-902771-53-2

External links

Northumberland County Council page on Druridge Bay

Youtube
- Tyne Tees News broadcast June 1990 mentioning plans to build nuclear power station Bays of Northumberland