Humberston Fitties: Northern plotlanders determined to live on in face of adversity

Godfrey Holmes travels again to meet plotlanders who really treasure their unconventional architectural and social heritage- this time to Cleethorpes in the Humber Estuary

Each chalet has it's own unique design (Photography by Godfrey Holmes)

Welcome to Humberston Fitties, an unusual development – if development is not too structured a concept – that has been declared a Conservation Area. Welcome to a Plotland not scattered but bunched, not decrepit but ordered, plotlanders not bowed but buoyant – ever ready to challenge the authorities who maybe wish they were not there at all.

This is a windswept sand dune one and a half miles south of the regenerated, partly reinvented Victorian resort of Cleethorpes. Lincolnshire boasts similar seaside resorts struggling to bring themselves into the 21st century: Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Ingoldmells, Skegness. Cleethorpes, not actually a North Sea-facing town, more Humber Estuary, with that long spit of sand, more sand dunes, Spurn, immediately opposite.

The Fitties not only comprises 320 individual, distinctive, colourful chalets – another 17 plots cleared awaiting inspiration – all nestling beside roads or dirt-tracks quaintly called “Fifth Avenue", “Sixth Avenue”, etc. It also shares its shore with the Humber Mouth Yacht Club, some dedicated wetlands, RSPB Tetney Marshes, a cluster of wind turbines and an extensive Thorpe Park Holiday Centre.

Between 1895 and 1939 the vision of Arcadia – paradise on Earth – was captivating. City-dwellers, coal miners, steel workers, traders and hobos alike searched out marginal land – fields so difficult to cultivate that they were called “3-plough” – where they could construct their dwelling-places, in turn relying more on canvas, corrugated iron, recycled timber, rubble, and the discarded shells of cars, trams and vans rather than conventional bricks and mortar.

They were pioneers, wanderers influenced by early socialism, arts and crafts, naturism, theosophy, oddfellows, methodism, whatever, who came to Lincolnshire on pedal-cycles, bone-shaking mopeds, motorcycles with sidecar – some towing a little cart – wooden planks clamped beneath the arm of many a veering rider. Other early squatters – forbears indeed of squatting “hippies” we associate more with the 1960s – came by train, trudging on foot those final lanes until they arrived.

The entrance to Humberston Fitties Conservation Area

Amazingly, modern Cleethorpes has kept its Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway station. The resort acts as terminus for brand new and important trains crossing the Pennines to Ringway Airport, then Blackpool. Cleethorpes is also the end of the line for local trains serving Gainsborough, Grimsby and Barton-on-Humber. Holiday makers, fisher-folk too, on their Fitties plots, actually call this neighbouring resort "Grimsby-at-Play".

Talking of play, the early, second and third generations of Fitties’ plotlanders really value toll-free leisure. They and their children adore the freedom of bracing fresh air, sand – lots of sand- unkempt dunes and mysterious marshes. In the 1940s, as now, there were several flagpoles; flags specially hoisted, whistles whistled, gongs struck to alert frolicking children to tea-time or bed-time. Excited children can still scamper off with some degree of safety.

Parents also relax. Not for most of them the cultivated garden or neat allotment. The chalet in peace time – necessarily requisitioned in war time – represents fun, relaxation, entertaining relatives. Nor should visitors have always expected mod-cons, en suite; more a straw mat to sleep on, a crystal radio to listen to, a bale of hay to sit on, a chipped enamel bowl to eat from. Simplicity.

Crude chemical toilets replaced slopping out in the 1950s. And by the early 1960s, most chalets had access to mains water rather than a communal stand-pipe. Electricity followed much later in 1999, then dustbin collections and rediffusion. Not all bungalows, of course, have aged well. A few, though still habitable, have decayed. Others are codged up with “temporary” repairs. Many are re-roofed. Come replacement windows. UPVC is permitted at the back, timber or metal frames preferred for the front.


 The pier of Victorian seaside resort Cleethorpes
 (Godfrey Holmes)

By far the strictest rule for Fitties’ dwellers is the 10-month year. All chalets must be vacated from four in the afternoon to 9.30 the next morning throughout January and February. This rigorously enforced restriction maintains the impermanence that first characterised the “camp". Other rules limit the number of weeks a towed caravan or motor-home can be parked next to, outside, a chalet, and caravans are not to be used as extra bedrooms.

Ironically, 12-month residency for the Fitties, however attractive, would have destroyed camp spirit. Conversely, a proposal floated for 8-month residency would have also spelt doom.

Another greater thunderbolt was the October 2016 decision by North Lincolnshire Council to sell the site - an enterprise deemed outside its “core business”. The Council had inherited the Fitties from Grimsby Rural District Council, which had acquired benevolent ownership in 1938. After some well-attended public meetings, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) was formed- part of its remit to offer the Council £1.5m to take control of the Fitties. Caroline Carr, of the CIC, told the Grimsby Telegraph: “Residents are now finally coming together to ensure that our needs and way of life in the park are protected as much as possible.

”We have started this company in a bid to do this, which is free for all members to join, and at the moment we have a collective of some very talented people with a wide array of skills who are helping us to do that, covering all areas from legal issues, to conservation law and of course tea and cake providers.”

Surprisingly, Thorpe Park, next door, did not bid, but reserved the right to in the future. That left just one competitor: Tingdene, part of whose business is the actual manufacture of Park Homes. According to the Council, Tingdene offered much more cash. After a March 2017 decision, Paul Spriggins, triumphant Tingdene Director, spoke to the Grimsby Telegraph: “We are really impressed with the opportunity of Humberston Fitties and the surrounding area, and plan to provide a long term sustainable operation whilst providing the necessary investment.

CIC Chairman, Robert Reynolds

”We intend to consult with the existing chalet owners and listen to their views as well as the community group and prominent stakeholders. Humberston Fitties has significant historical value and it is set in a fantastic environmental location, we have the expertise and experience to add to this value and we look forward to safeguarding the next 100 years of use for existing and new residents.”

Some reassurance, but perhaps not enough. Residents face with some trepidation the possible slotting in of statics wherever a plot becomes available. And once one factory-built home arrives, the second will arrive by low-loader soon after. Then there is the question of lease harmonisation. In recent decades, leases have been granted for five, 10 or 15 years, at an annual cost of £800, another £800 service charge going towards the maintenance of footpaths, lighting, verges, dykes, ditches and security. Will ground rents now go up? Will site services become more costly? What sort of improvements or investments will individual plotlanders now be allowed to make?

Robert Reynolds, CIC Chairman, explains to me the importance of keeping his neighbours informed and on board. One woman, now in her nineties, and recently widowed, has spent almost her entire life on the Fitties. Twin girls chattered away how special they find the camp when spending their holidays with granny. Boaters still want to set sail from the creek just five minutes away. Joiners want to practise their carpentry, stitchers their needlework. Such pride. But will pride come before the proverbial fall? The Fitties does not merit that fate. That gong can be heard again. For whom does it toll?

The author wishes to thank not only the CIC but also Sarah Palmer for assisting his access, understanding and photography. Unattributed opinions are, however, the author’s own.