Read's Island

Read's Island is an island situated just outside the Ancholme sluice, on the Humber Estuary in England. The Lincolnshire Trust suggest it is an artificial island, and a report from 1979 says that it was reclaimed. However, the site was for many years a large sandbank going by the name of "Old Warp" and is shown on the 1734 Customs Map of the Humber where Read's Island now lays, and extending further downstream. A local history website about Barton-Upon-Humber indicates that both are true. It says that two wrecks, including one which locals deliberately scuttled, helped to form the island off South Ferriby. The scuttling was to protect the banks on the southern shore. In 1872, it was described as being 300 acres, in 1886 it was 491 acres whilst in 2008 it was 200 acres. Flooding in 2007 left the island depleted of areas for avocets to breed, so a programme of rebuilding was instituted.