28 Facts About Skegness

Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England.

Original Skegness was situated farther east at the mouth of The Wash.

Civil parish of Skegness includes most of the linear settlement of Seacroft to the south and the village of Winthorpe and the suburban area of Seathorne to the north, all of which have been absorbed into the town's urban area.

Skegness was flooded in 1525 or 1526, requiring the village to be rebuilt inland, and loss of land continued during the century.

The archaeologist Charles Phillips suggested that Skegness was the terminus of a Roman road running from Lincoln through Burgh le Marsh and was the location of a Roman ferry which crossed The Wash to Norfolk.

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The name Skegness appears in the 12th century, and further references are known from the 13th.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, Skegness was one of several coastal settlements to incur major loss of land to the sea.

Much of the land in and around Skegness came into the hands of Nicholas Saunderson, 1st Viscount Castleton, who enclosed 400 acres of saltmarsh in 1627 and later in the 17th century reclaimed more marshland which had emerged from the sea, sheltered behind the growing Gibraltar Point.

Skegness's descendant was responsible for erecting Green Bank between Roman Bank and the shore in c 1670, allowing more lands to be converted to agricultural use.

In 1871, a branch line was built to Wainfleet All Saints with rolling stock operated by the Great Northern Railway; an extension to Skegness was approved by GNR shareholders that year and the railways arrived at Skegness in 1873.

Skegness provided or invested in other amenities, including the gas and water supply, Skegness Pier, the pleasure gardens, the steamboats and bathing pools.

Skegness donated land and money towards the building of St Matthew's Church, two Methodist chapels, a school and the cricket ground.

Management Horizon Europe's 2008 UK shopping index measured the presence of national suppliers; Skegness was the highest ranked shopping destination in the district.

Nevertheless, Skegness is relatively weak at offering higher value comparison goods, with Lincoln and Grimsby being key destinations for high-value shopping.

Tourism industry in Skegness is dominated by low-paid, low-skilled and seasonal work.

The main international airport to serve Skegness is East Midlands Airport, Humberside Airport and Doncaster Sheffield Airport are nearby smaller airports.

In 1875, it was placed in the Spilsby Poor Law Union, but in 1885 Skegness became a local board of health and urban sanitary district.

In national politics, Skegness fell within the Lincolnshire parliamentary constituency until 1832; in 1818 four residents were entitled to vote, and in 1832 there were seven electors.

Between 1999 and the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union in 2020, Skegness was represented in the European Parliament by the East Midlands constituency.

The Brexit Party did not contest the parliamentary seat in 2019, but in the European Parliament elections held earlier that year, it has been estimated that Boston and Skegness probably had the third-highest vote share for the Brexit Party of any constituency.

Skegness was nationalised in 1948 and its function taken over by the East Midlands Electricity Board.

Criminal cases were heard in Spilsby until Skegness was granted its own petty sessions in 1908; these operated only during summer until 1929, when cases were heard there year-round; a court opened on Roman Bank that year.

Skegness had a signal station by 1812 and four years later a mortar-fired brass lifeline was put in place in the village.

Skegness has a Roman Catholic church, the Church of the Sacred Heart on Grosvenor Road; it has been based there since 1950, having previously occupied the town's first purpose-built Catholic church since 1898.

Seafront includes Skegness Pier, which houses amusements; to the south, Botton's Pleasure Beach is a funfair with roller coasters and other rides.

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Since 2009, Skegness has held a music, art and cultural event, the SO Festival; in 2013 the district council estimated that it generated £1m for the area.

Skegness is home to Skegness Town A FC, which plays at the Vertigo Stadium on Wainfleet Road; known as The Lilywhites, the club was founded in 1947 and has been in the Northern Counties East Football League since 2018.

Skegness has been home to several people associated with the entertainment industry.