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Skegness ( ) is a Seaside resort and civil parish in the East Lindsey of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 21,128 as of 2021, it is the largest settlement in East Lindsey. It incorporates Winthorpe and Seacroft, and forms a larger Urban area with the resorts of Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards to the north. The town is on the A52 and A158 roads, connecting it with Boston and the East Midlands, and Lincoln respectively. Skegness railway station is on the Poacher Line line.
The original Skegness was situated farther east at the mouth of the Wash. Its Old Norse name refers to a headland which sat near the settlement. By the 14th century, it was a locally important port for coastal trade. The natural sea defences which protected the harbour eroded in the later Middle Ages, and it was lost to the sea after a storm in the 1520s. Rebuilt along the new shoreline, early modern Skegness was a small fishing and farming village, but from the late 18th century members of the local gentry visited for holidays. The arrival of the Rail transport in 1873 transformed it into a popular seaside resort. This was the intention of The 9th Earl of Scarbrough, who owned most of the land in the vicinity; he built the infrastructure of the town and laid out plots, which he leased to speculative developers. This new Skegness quickly became a popular destination for Tourism and from the East Midlands factory towns. By the Interwar period years the town was established as one of the most popular seaside resorts in Britain. The layout of the modern seafront dates to this time and holiday camps were built around the town, including the first Butlins Skegness which opened in Ingoldmells in 1936.
The package holiday abroad became an increasingly popular and affordable option for many British holiday-makers during the 1970s; this trend combined with declining industrial employment in the East Midlands to harm Skegness's visitor economy in the late 20th century. Nevertheless, the resort retains a loyal visitor base. Tourism increased following the Great Recession owing to the resort's affordability. In 2011, the town was England's fourth most popular holiday destination for UK residents, and in 2015 it received over 1.4 million visitors. It has a reputation as a traditional English seaside resort owing to its long, sandy beach and seafront attractions which include , eateries, Botton's Amusement park, Skegness Pier, nightclubs and bars. Other visitor attractions include Natureland Seal Sanctuary, a museum, an aquarium, a heritage railway, an annual carnival, a yearly arts festival, and Gibraltar Point nature reserve to the south of the town.
Despite the arrival of several manufacturing firms since the 1950s and Skegness's prominence as a local commercial centre, the tourism industry remains very important for the economy and employment but the tourism service economy's low wages and seasonal nature, along with the town's aging population, have contributed towards high levels of relative deprivation. Poor transport and communication links are barriers to economic diversification. Residents are served by five state primary schools and a preparatory school, two state secondary schools (one of which is Selective school), several colleges, a community hospital, several churches and two local newspapers. The town has a police station, a magistrates' court and a lifeboat station.
Skegness fronts the North Sea. It is located on a low-lying flat region called Lincoln Marsh, which runs along the coast between Skegness and the Humber and separates the coast from the upland The Wolds.. Much of the parish's elevation is close to sea level, although a narrow band along the seafront is above peaking at on North Parade; the A52 road is elevated at ; there is a short narrow bank parallel to the shoreline between the North Shore Golf Club and Seathorne which is above sea level.
The bedrock under the town is part of the Chalk Group, a sedimentary layer formed around 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous; it runs north-west from Skegness in a narrow band to Fotherby and Utterby north of Louth in the Wolds. The surface layers are Mudflat deposits of clay and silt, deposited since the end of the Younger Dryas. The shoreline consists of blown sand and beach deposits in the form of clay, silt and sand. Search for "Skegness"..
In the early 21st century, Longshore drift carries particles of sediment southwards along the Lincolnshire coast.. At Skegness, the sand settles out in banks which run at a slight south-west angle to the coast. Sand continues to accrete at the southern end of the town's shore, but coastal erosion continues immediately north of the settlement.. Modern sea defences have been built along a stretch of coast between Mablethorpe (to the north) and Skegness to prevent erosion, but currents remove sediment and the defences hinder dune development; a nourishment scheme began operation in 1994 to replace lost sand..
Natural sea defences (including a promontory or cape, as the place name suggests, and Shoal and ) protected a Harbor at Skegness in the Middle Ages.. It was relatively small and its trade in the 14th century was predominantly coastal; its economic fortunes were probably closely related to those of nearby coastal ports, such as Wainfleet, which in turn depended on the larger port at Boston which was heavily involved in the wool trade.. It was also an important fishing port.. During the medieval period the offshore barrier islands which sheltered the coast were destroyed, very likely in the 13th century during a period of exceptionally stormy weather. This left the coast exposed to the sea; later in the Middle Ages, frequent storms and floods eroded sea defences.. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, Skegness was one of several coastal settlements to incur major loss of land. Local people attempted to make artificial banks, but they were costly.. Rising sea levels further threatened the coast § 2.2.1.4. and in 1525 or 1526 Skegness was largely washed away in a storm, along with the hamlets of East and West Meales...
The earl spent thousands of pounds on laying roads and the sewerage system, and building the sea wall (finished in 1878)... He provided or invested in other amenities, including the gas and water supply, Skegness Pier (opened in 1881), the (finished in 1881), the (launched by 1883) and Turkish bath (1883)..The dates for the foundations of the water works, bathing pools and pier are from . See for the launching of the steamboats. He donated land and money towards the building of St Matthew's Church, two Methodism chapels, a school and the cricket ground.. Housebuilding was left to speculative builders; the earliest development was concentrated along Lumley Road, which offered a direct route from the train station to the seafront. Newspapers across the Midlands advertised properties, and shops began opening.. By 1881 almost a thousand people had moved into the town.. According to the local historian Winston Kime, Skegness had become known as a "trippers' paradise" by 1880. The August bank holiday in 1882 saw 20,000 descend on the town to enjoy the beach and the sea, the many games and amusements that had popped up in the town, the pleasure boat trips that had just started launching from the pier, and the donkey rides.. Building contracted after the 1883 season,. although in 1888 the accreted sands in front of the sea wall south of the pier were converted into the Marine Gardens,. a lawn with trees and hedges. The undeveloped lands north of Scarbrough Avenue were fenced in and planted with trees in a space called The Park.. This stagnation coincided with a declining number of day-trippers, which fell from a peak of 230,277 in 1882 to 118,473 in 1885. The local historian Richard Gurnham could not find a clear explanation for this decline in contemporary reports, though one newspaper article from 1884 blamed "the depression of trade" in Nottingham for a fall in visitor numbers compared with the previous year.
Seventy-one local servicemen who died in the First World War are commemorated on the town's war memorial. Aside from a seaplane base briefly established by the town in 1914, the conflict brought little change to the town's fabric.. Its popularity as a tourist destination grew in the Interwar period years and boomed during the 1930s... The urban district council purchased the seafront in 1922 and its surveyor R. H. Jenkins oversaw the construction of Tower Esplanade (1923), the boating lake (1924, extended in 1932), the Fairy Dell Swimming pool, and the Embassy Ballroom and an outdoor pool in 1928, and remodelled the foreshore north of the pier in 1931. Billy Butlin (who had been a stall holder on the beach since 1925) built permanent amusements south of the pier in 1929.. In 1932 the first illuminations were turned on; the following year Butlin launched a carnival. Cinemas and joined the theatres of the Edwardian period as popular attractions, while some of the apartments and houses by the seafront were converted into shops, cafés and arcades. In 1936, Butlin built Butlins Skegness all-in holiday camp in Ingoldmells, providing entertainment and facilities for guests.. It was joined in 1939 by The Derbyshire Miners' Holiday Camp.. This coincided with growth in the residential area, mostly speculative developments and some council house; North Parade was built up with hotels in the 1930s and the Seathorne Estate was also laid out in 1925. Progress on the estate was described as "phenomenal" by the Boston Guardian two years later: That year, water pipes were also being laid for The Drive and Dormy Avenue: By 1931, the town's population had reached 9,122..
During the Second World War, the Royal Air Force billeted thousands of trainees in the town for its No. 11 Recruit Centre. The Butlin's camp was occupied by the Royal Navy, who called it HMS Royal Arthur and used it for training seamen. Airstrike of the town began in 1940; there were fatalities on several occasions, the greatest being on 24 October 1941 when twelve residents were killed.. Fifty-seven local servicemen died in the conflict and are named on the town's war memorial.
The fabric of the town centre has also changed. North and South Bracing were built in 1948–49. Butlin's left the main amusement park and it was extensively refurbished by Botton Bros in 1966; the switchback on North Parade was demolished in 1970. Residential development has included council estates near St Clement's Church and Winthorpe,. and various private developments., paras. 18.1–18.8 and inset map 40. For the locations, compare inset map 40 with the Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map from 1970 via Old Maps (retrieved 21 May 2020). . The seafront was fully developed in the 1970s and the last of The Park built on in 1982.. In 1971, the pier entrance was remodelled; seven years later, a large section was swept away in a storm. The Embassy Ballroom and the swimming baths were replaced in 1999 with the Embassy Theatre Complex, which includes a theatre, indoor swimming pool, leisure centre and car park. By 2001, European Union grants had provided millions of pounds towards Urban renewal schemes. Most of the seafront's hotels, cinemas and theatres have been turned into amusement arcades, , shops and bingo halls.. What remained of Frederica Terrace, one of Skegness's oldest buildings, had been converted into entertainment bars and arcades before it was destroyed in a fire in 2007.
Before the 1950s, the only major manufacturing interest in Skegness was Alfred Hayward's rock factory which had opened in the 1920s. After the Second World War, some other light industry arrived, including Murphy Radio and the nylon makers Stiebels; in 1954 the bearings and packaging systems manufacturer Rose Brothers (Gainsborough) Ltd opened a factory on Church Road in a former laundry. The urban district council opened an Industrial park off Wainfleet Road in 1956 which Murphy and Stiebels moved to. Murphy's successor left the town in the 1970s, but Stiebels and the ride manufacturer R. G. Mitchell were still operating on the estate in the late 1980s, while Rose-Forgrove (which had opened a larger factory in 1977) and Sanderson had factories elsewhere in the town. The latter went into administration in 1990, and the Rose Bearings factory was sold to MinebeaMitsumi in 1992; they closed it in 2010. The ride manufacturer R. G. Mitchell was purchased in 2005 by Photo-Me International; operation resumed under the name Jolly Roger Amusement Rides, which continues to operate on the industrial estate as of 2020. According to Google Maps, in 2020 there were three other manufacturers operating on the industrial estate: Unique Car Mats (UK) Ltd (founded in 1989), Windale Furnishings Ltd (a caravan seating maker founded in 1993), and Parragon Rubber Company. A range of services have outlets on the estate, including a medical practice, two Tradesman, a solicitor, five vehicle repair garages, three other repair services and a mobile disco. There is, as of 2020, also a recycling centre and driving test centre; 16 shops ranging from a cheesemonger to tyre dealers; 12 Wholesaling in electrics, building materials, plumbing and hardware supply, and 11 other wholesalers in fields including clothing, restaurant equipment, meat and plastic sheeting. The district council have proposed extending the estate as of 2016. The council also opened the Aura Skegness Business Centre there in 2004..
Along with Louth, Skegness is "one of the main shopping and commercial centres" in East Lindsey, most likely due to it being the closest service hub for a large part of the surrounding rural area.. Management Horizon Europe's 2008 UK shopping index measured the presence of national suppliers; Skegness was the highest ranked shopping destination in the district. It also ranked highest in the 2013–14 Venuescore survey.. The High Street and Lumley Road are key retail areas,. along with the Hildreds Centre (a small shopping mall which opened in 1988),. Skegness Retail Park (developed between 2000 and 2005),. and the Quora Retail Park on Burgh Road which opened in 2017 and includes several ;. other supermarkets operate elsewhere. Occupancy rates are relatively high: in 2015, 4% of ground-floor retail units were vacant, which is less than half the national average and down from 9% in 2009.. Nevertheless, Skegness is relatively weak at offering higher value , with Lincoln and Grimsby being key destinations for high-value shopping.
In the 2011 census, 68.2% of Skegness's population said they were Religion and 24.9% said they Irreligion, very similar to England as a whole (68.1% and 24.7% respectively). However, compared to England's population, Christians were a higher proportion of the Skegness population (66.8%), and all other groups were present at a lower proportion than the national rates. There were 8 Sikhs in Skegness, making up a negligible proportion of the population compared with 0.8% nationally; Hindus composed 0.1% (compared with 1.5% in England), Muslims 0.5% against 5% nationally, Jews 0.1% compared with 0.5% for all of England, and Buddhism 0.2% of the town's population, contrasting with 0.5% nationally.
| Male | 47.8% | 49.2% |
| Female | 52.2% | 50.8% |
| Married | 45.3% | 46.6% |
| Single | 28.8% | 34.6% |
| Divorced | 12.8% | 9.0% |
| Widowed | 10.3% | 6.9% |
| One-person households | 35.9% | 30.2% |
| One-family households | 58.1% | 61.8% |
| Mean age | 44.3 | 39.3 |
| Median age | 46.0 | 39.0 |
| Population under 20 | 21.0% | 24.0% |
| Population over 60 | 32.2% | 22.0% |
| Residents in good health | 69.6% | 81.4% |
| Owner-occupiers | 54.7% | 63.3% |
| Private renters | 27.5% | 16.8% |
| Social renters | 15.7% | 17.7% |
| Living in a detached house | 32.4% | 22.3% |
East Lindsey has a high proportion of Old age residents, driven partly by high in-migration and by the out-migration of younger residents; the local authority has described this as a "demographic imbalance".. A 2005 study by the town council reported that for every two people aged 16–24 who left the town, three people aged 60 or above moved in.Memorandum by Skegness Town Council, printed in . The 2011 census showed Skegness's population to be older than the national average; the mean age was 44.3 and the median 46 years, compared with 39.3 and 39 for England. 21% of the population was under 20, versus 24% of England's, and 32.2% of Skegness's population was aged over 60, compared with 22% of England's population. This high proportion of elderly residents has increased the proportion of infirm people in the district. In 2011, 69.6% of the population were in good or very good health, compared to 81.4% in England, and 9.9% in very bad or bad health, against 5.4% for England. 28.6% of people (12.8% in 16–64 year-olds) also reported having their day-to-day activities limited, compared with 17.6% in England (8.2% in 16–64 year-olds).
As of 2011, Skegness has a lower proportion of people who own their homes with or without a mortgage (54.7%) than in England (63.3%), a greater proportion of people who privately rent (27.5% compared with 16.8%) and a slightly smaller proportion of Council house (15.7% compared with 17.7% nationally). The proportion of household spaces which are detached houses is higher than average (32.4% compared with 22.3%), as is the proportion which are apartments in a converted house (9.8% compared with 4.3%) and flats in a commercial building (2.2% compared with 1.1%). The proportion of Terraced house household spaces is much lower (8.9% against 24.5% nationally), while the proportion of purpose-built flats is also lower (14% versus 16.7%). 2.3% of household spaces are caravans or other Mobile home, compared with 0.4% nationally. Since the end the 20th century, a growing number of people have opted to live in static caravans for a large part of the year; a 2011 report estimated that 6,600 people (mostly older and from former factory cities in the Midlands) were living in such properties in Skegness..
| Economically active | 60.0% | 69.9% |
| Employed | 51.7% | 62.1% |
| Full-time employed | 27.7% | 38.6% |
| Retirees | 21.7% | 13.7% |
| Long-term sick or disabled | 7.9% | 4.0% |
| Long-term unemployed | 2.3% | 1.7% |
| Manufacturing | 7.1% | 8.8% |
| Construction | 6.9% | 7.7% |
| Wholesale and retail trade; repair of vehicles | 21.2% | 15.9% |
| Transport and storage | 4.3% | 5.0% |
| Accommodation and food services | 17.3% | 5.6% |
| Information and communication | 0.6% | 4.1% |
| Financial and insurance | 0.8% | 4.4% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 2.8% | 6.7% |
| Public administration and defence | 3.6% | 5.9% |
| Education | 7.3% | 9.9% |
| Health and social work | 11.7% | 12.4% |
| Managers and directors | 12.9% | 10.9% |
| Professionals; associate professionals | 13.9% | 30.3% |
| Administrative and secretarial | 8.4% | 11.5% |
| Sales and customer services | 12.1% | 8.4% |
| Caring, leisure and other services | 12.2% | 9.3% |
| Skilled trades | 12.9% | 11.4% |
| Process, plant and machine operatives | 8.9% | 7.2% |
| Elementary occupations | 18.9% | 11.1% |
| No qualifications | 40.8% | 22.5% |
| Level 4 or higher | 10.7% | 27.4% |
In 2011, 60% of Skegness's residents aged between 16 and 74 were economically active, compared with 69.9% for all of England. 51.7% were in employment, compared with 62.1% nationally. The proportion in full-time employment is comparatively low, at 27.7% (against 38.6% for England). The proportion of retirees is higher, at 21.7% compared with 13.7% for England. The proportion of long-term sick or disabled is 7.9%, nearly double England's 4%; 2.3% of people were Unemployment, compared with 1.7% in all of England. The 2011 census revealed that the most common industry residents worked in were: Wholesaling and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (21.2%), accommodation and food services (17.3%), and human health and social work (11.7%). The proportion of people employed in accommodation and food services was over three times the national figure (5.6%), while the proportion working in wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair was also higher than in England as a whole (15.9%). Most other industries were under-represented comparatively, with both financial services (0.8% versus 4.4% nationally) and information and communication (0.6% against 4.1% nationally) especially so.
The tourism industry in Skegness is dominated by low-paid, low-skilled and seasonal work. Compared with the whole of England, the workforce has a relatively high proportion of people in elementary occupations (18.9%), sales and customer service occupations (12.1%), Care work, leisure and other service occupations (12.2%), as well as Tradesman (12.9%), Management and directors (12.9%) and process plant and machine operatives (8.7%). There is a much lower proportion of people in professional, associate professional, technical, administrative and Secretary occupations than in England as a whole (combined 22.3% versus 41.7% of England's population aged 16–74).
A lack of more varied, higher skilled and better paid work and further education opportunities leads many more skilled, ambitious or qualified young people to leave. There is a chronic difficulty in attracting professionals to the area, including and Physician; this is partly due to the perceived remoteness of the area, seasonality and social exclusion. Skegess's poor transport links with other towns and limited public transport have also been identified by consultants as a "barrier" to economic growth, diversification, investment and Commuting. While the digital nature of the information technology sector could provide opportunities for growth, weak broadband has stymied this sector's development in the town.. Employers also find it difficult to attract higher skilled workers, including ; a report prepared for the town council cites a lack of "work readiness" among young people as a common problem facing employers.. The proportion of residents aged 16 to 74 with no qualifications was 40.8%, much higher than the national figure (22.5%); the proportion of residents whose highest qualification is at Level 1, 2 or 3 (equivalent to or ) is lower in each category than the national population; 10.7% of the population have a qualification at Level 4 (Certificate of Higher Education) or above, compared with 27.4% nationally.
In a 2013 ONS study of 57 English seaside resorts, Skegness and Ingoldmells (combined) was the most deprived seaside town; 61.5% of their statistical areas (LSOAs) were in the most deprived quintile nationally; only 7.7% fell in the least-deprived three quintiles.. The government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation (2019) place large parts of Skegness among the 10% most deprived parts of England;. two of its neighbourhoods were ranked among the ten most deprived areas in Lincolnshire. There is limited research into the causes of deprivation in the town.. A local official quoted by The Guardian in 2013 attributed high levels of deprivation to the seasonal and low-paid nature of work in the tourism industry, which constitutes a large part of Skegness's economy; and also the tendency for retirees (often in variable health) from former industrial areas in the East Midlands to move to the town and spend most of the year living there in caravans. In 2019, the town council listed several key challenges: the low-paid, low-skilled and seasonal nature of work in the tourism industry; a consequential dependency on benefits and a reduced tax base; the under-funding of public services; poor infrastructure; a lack of training for and consequent out-migration of talented young people; and difficulty attracting skilled workers.
As of 2020, trains run the full length of the Poacher Line and the Nottingham to Grantham Line to provide connections throughout the East Midlands; Nottingham, Grantham, and have direct connections, while , and require a change at Nottingham.
Opened in 1873, it was the final station on the Firsby–Skegness branch of the East Lincolnshire Railway.. The number of people travelling by car and coach probably overtook the number using the train in the 1930s, a trend solidified in the post-war years. The station was earmarked for closure in the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, but a third of the summer visitors still used it and lobbying by the urban district council preserved passenger services. The line was nevertheless closed to Cargo traffic in 1966 and the main interconnecting line, the East Lincolnshire Railway, was dismantled from Firsby to Grimsby in 1970. The passenger timetable was reduced to save costs in 1977, but a full timetable returned in 1989 and improvement works were carried out in 2001 and 2011; the latter saw the old station master's house demolished..
Stagecoach Lincolnshire is the main Bus company in the town, with regular services on routes to Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards; there are Lincolnshire InterConnect services up the coast as far as Mablethorpe and inland to Boston and Lincoln.
The main international airport serving Skegness is East Midlands Airport at Castle Donington, south of Nottingham and approximately from Skegness. Humberside Airport, near Immingham in North Lincolnshire, is approximately away, but operates a much smaller range of passenger services.
Skegness Town Council, the parish-level government body beneath the district council, is composed of 21 councillors from four wards: Clock Tower (1 seat), St Clements (7 seats), Winthorpe (5 seats) and Woodlands (8 seats). There are seven representatives for Skegness on East Lindsey District Council, which uses different wards: three councillors are returned for Scarbrough and Seacroft ward, and two each from St Clements and Winthorpe wards. Skegness sends two councillors to Lincolnshire County Council, one each for Skegness North and Skegness South divisions.
Skegness Urban District Council meetings were held at 23 Algitha Road until 1920, when the authority purchased the Earl of Scarbrough's estate office at Roman Bank for £3,000 and used those as offices; these burned down in 1928; a new town hall opened in 1931 and was later extended. In the 1950s, the council acquired for £50,000 the former convalescent home run by the National Deposit Friendly Society on North Parade (this had been built in 1927); this was converted into offices, which were opened in 1964.. The town council took over the building and it continues as the town hall as of 2019. Click on the images of the town hall.
At the first election after it was created (1997), the current seat was highly Marginal seat,. with the Conservatives receiving 42.4% of the vote and Labour 41.0%. By 2019 the Conservatives had increased their vote share to 76.7% (their second-highest nationally),. while Labour's share had fallen to 14.0%.
The same period saw support for the Euroscepticism UK Independence Party (UKIP) grow, reaching a peak in 2015, when it polled second and secured UKIP's second-highest vote share in any constituency in that election.. The constituency is estimated to have had the highest vote share in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 EU referendum, at 75.6%.Voting for the referendum was not recorded in constituencies, but counting areas; the results for the Boston and East Lindsey areas saw 75.6% and 70.7% vote to leave respectively: The estimates for constituency vote shares are from In the aftermath the town became the focus of international media attention, with Reuters labelling it "Brexit-on-Sea" and suggesting that many of its residents were "more nostalgic and more socially conservative" than those in diverse, Liberalism, urban areas, and keen to see state funds paid to the EU redirected into supporting the town. Afterwards support for UKIP fell and the party did not stand in 2019, although support for leaving the EU remained high. 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. The estimates are in
The town's water works opened in 1879. and were extended in the 1920s. To meet growing demand, Lord Scarbrough had a new borehole sunk at Welton le Marsh in 1904, with a pumping station and pipes which transported fresh water to the town; the water company was purchased by Skegness Urban District Council in 1909... The first sewerage disposal system was designed by D. Balfour as part of the Earl of Scarbrough's development scheme; a sewerage farm and works were erected at Seacroft. The development was principally funded by the Earl, with a quarter of the funds contributed by the Spilsby Sanitary Authority. A sewerage disposal works opened at Burgh Le Marsh in 1936. Responsibility for water was later taken over by the East Lincolnshire Water Board; in 1973 this merged into the Anglian Water Authority, The Anglian Water Authority Constitution Order 1973, SI 1973/1359 (sch. 3). . which was privatised as Anglian Water in 1989..
The Mid-Lincolnshire Electricity Supply Company brought electricity to the town in 1932.. The company was nationalised in 1948 and its function taken over by the East Midlands Electricity Board. Street lighting was electrified in the late 1950s. Electricity supply was privatised in 1990..
Skegness's first post office opened in 1870; it moved premises in 1888 and 1905, before moving to Roman Bank in 1929.. As of 2020, Royal Mail's Skegness Delivery Office operates there; Post Offices also operate on Burgh Road and Drummond Road in Skegness, and at Winthorpe Avenue in Seathorne. A wireless Telegraphy operated at Winthorpe from 1926 to 1939. Lincolnshire County Library Service opened a branch in 1929 which was run by volunteers. In the 1930s, the council purchased a former shop on Roman Bank and converted it into the current library, run by full-time staff. , it opens every day except Sunday.
Skegness had a signal station by 1812 and four years later a mortar-fired brass lifeline was put in place in the village. In 1825, a lifeboat was purchased for Wainfleet Haven and first launched from Gibraltar Point in 1827; it moved to Skegness in 1830. A new boathouse was built in 1864 on South Parade and rebuilt in 1892. Motorised tractors were used to pull the boats after 1926 and the last sailing boat was retired four years later.. The current lifeboat station was built in 1990.
Before 1933, the only secondary education available to Skegness's children was at Magdalen College School, a grammar school in Wainfleet. In 1933, it closed and was replaced by the coeducational Skegness Grammar School, which opened in the town and continues to select pupils using the eleven-plus examination; it provides Boarding school facilities for pupils who do not live locally. Having previously been grant-maintained and a foundation status school, Skegness Grammar School converted to an academy in 2012. At its last Ofsted inspection report in 2017, it was assessed as "requiring improvement". As of 2020, there are 456 pupils on the roll, out of a capacity of 898.. The passage of the Education Act 1944 made secondary education compulsory for pupils aged 11–15 from 1945.. The Skegness Secondary Modern School opened as a result; it was renamed the Lumley Secondary Modern School in 1956. Another school, the Morris Secondary Modern, opened in 1955. They merged in 1986 to form the Earl of Scarbrough School, which closed in 2004 and reopened as St Clements College, a community school which converted into Skegness Academy in 2010. It is coeducational and has a sixth form; at its 2020 Ofsted inspection, it was assessed as "requiring improvement". There were 893 pupils on roll in that year, out of a capacity of 1,340.
Both of the secondary schools provide education for pupils aged 16–18. Other providers of further education include the Skegness College of Vocational Training (a private centre founded in 1975);. First College, which formed in 2000 following a merger of the East Lindsey Information Technology Centre (East Lindsey ITeC) which had opened in Skegness in 1984;.. and the Skegness TEC, which in 2017 replaced the Lincolnshire Regional College in Skegness (founded in 2009).
Skegness also has a Catholic Church 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..
As of 2020, Skegness Methodism Chapel on Algitha Road holds services on Sundays and mid-morning prayers on Mondays. St Paul's Baptist Church also holds regular Sunday services. The Salvation Army has had a unit in the town since 1913 and built its citadel on the High Street in 1929;. it remains in use as of 2020. The Assemblies of God Pentecostalism Church was registered as a charity in 1996; it later changed its name to the New Day Christian Centre and moved to new premises in 2011; as of 2020 it operates on North Parade as The Storehouse Church and, as well as running church services, provides Skegness's only food bank. As of 2020, there is a seventh-day adventist church on Philip Grove.
In 2019, East Lindsey Council approved plans for a mosque and community centre on Roman Bank.
The seafront includes Skegness Pier, which houses amusements; to the south, Botton's Pleasure Beach is a funfair with roller coasters and other rides. Further south still is the Jubilee Clock Tower and the boating lake and Fairy Dell paddling pool. The western side of Grand Parade houses amusements and eateries, punctuated by the entrance to Tower Gardens, a park; its pavilion, which dated to 1879, was demolished in 2019–20 and a community centre and café built on its site. Opposite the gardens is the Embassy Theatre. The town's nightlife includes bars, pubs and nightclubs.
Natureland Seal Sanctuary, on North Parade, rescues and houses distressed seals; it also features penguins, aquariums, and other animals. The town has an aquarium (Skegness Aquarium), which opened on Tower Esplanade in 2015. Further into the town, The Village Church Farm (formerly Church Farm Museum) contains exhibitions about historical farming life. A volunteer-run heritage railway, the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, moved to Skegness in 1990 and opened to fare-paying members of the public in 2009; it operates along a length of track.
To the south of Skegness is Gibraltar Point, a national nature reserve, consisting of unspoilt marshland. It was among England's earliest bird observatories when it was established in 1949 and, as of 2020, is open to the public. Alongside walkways and paths, it has a visitor centre, café and toilet facilities.
The Skegness Boys' Brigade Band started in 1908; it was disbanded on the outbreak of the First World War. A new band was formed in 1923 or 1928, as Skegness Town Band, which later changed its name to Skegness Silver Band., who gives the date as 1923. The band continues to operate as of 2020. The Skegness Excelsior Band also operated in the interwar period. The town's amateur dramatic society, the Skegness Playgoers, was founded in 1937. As of 2020, they aim to put on two productions a year at the Embassy Theatre.
Skegness is covered by BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire.See map at Local radio stations that broadcast to Skegness are BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Hits Radio Lincolnshire and Greatest Hits Radio Lincolnshire. Coastal Sound radio (founded in 2016) is a community radio service broadcasting from Skegness to the area and beyond by way of the internet.
The arrangement, dating from 1979, is managed by the Skegness Twinning Association.
Parts of the Victorian development have been recognised for their special interest. These include the Church of St Matthew and the war memorial in its churchyard, the Jubilee Clock Tower (built in 1898 and a landmark in the town), and portions of original railings dating from the 1870s which are situated to the south and north of the clock tower; these are all grade-II listed structures. A large portion of the later esplanade, boating lake, land north of the pier and tower gardens is also grade-II listed. South Parade and Grand Parade contain 19th- and 20th-century boarding houses in the Queen Anne revival style. Modern buildings of note include the Sun Castle (1932), County Hotel (1935). and The Ship Hotel ( c. 1935).
Several notable religious figures either lived in the town or served it in some capacity: Edward Steere was curate from 1858 to 1862, For the dates, see George Clarkson was rector from 1944 to 1948, Roderick Wells was rector from 1971 to 1978, and Kenneth Thompson lived in the town.
Local sportspeople include Anne Pashley (died 2016), the Olympic athlete and (latterly) opera singer, who was born at Wallace's holiday camp in Skegness in 1935. The footballer Ray Clemence was born in Skegness in 1948.. The cricketer Ray Frearson (1904–1991) played for the Skegness team and died in the town.. Among golfers, Mark Seymour died in Skegness in 1952, and Helen Dobson was born there in 1971.
Others with links to Skegness include the poet and art critic William Cosmo Monkhouse, who died in the town in 1901, and the novelist Vernon Scannell, who was born there in 1922. The former tabloid editor Neil Wallis started his journalistic career at the Skegness Standard in the 1960s. Reginald J. G. Dutton, who created the shorthand Dutton Speedwords, chaired Skegness Urban District Council.. For the dates of birth and death, see The naval officer Sir Guy Grantham was born in the town in 1900, as was the seaman Jesse Handsley, who served on Scott's first Antarctic Expedition; The chess champion and educator John Littlewood taught at the grammar school.
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