Filey and its early fishing industry
From an early history book 'Yorkshire' By John Bigland, 1815
Filey is a fishing village, situated in both the North and the East Ridings, the church being in the former, and the town in the latter, at the distance of eleven miles south-east from Scarbrough, and about two miles and a half nearly east from Hunmanby. The situation of this village on the shore of a spacious bay, having on the land-side a pleasant and fertile plain, rising from Hunmanby towards the sea in gentle swells, and covered with luxuriant crops, is very agreeable. Though Filey, when seen from the Wolds, seems to stand in a very deep valley, it is elevated near a hundred feet above the level of the sea; and the sands being smooth, firm, and extensive, it is resorted to as a bathing place by many who prefer its retirement before the elegant amusements and livelier scenes of Scarbrough. A deep valley or glen which separates the church from the village, and runs to the sea, gives to the place a romantic appearance. Near the bottom of this dale, which is from sixty to ninety feet in perpendicular depth, is a spring of excellent water; and a stone bridge, which forms the communication between the two opposite declivities, affords a commodious road to the church. The village being chiefly inhabited by fishermen, is but indifferently built; but a row of handsome lodging-houses has been erected for the accommodation of strangers who resort to this place during the summer season.
Filey contains between 5 and 600 inhabitants, the greater part of which population is composed of the fishermen and their families. The fishery, indeed, is carried on here with great spirit and success; and not fewer than eight five-men boats are usually sent from Filey to the herring fishery at Yarmouth; a greater number than is employed by any other fishing-town on the Yorkshire coast, except Staiths, eleven miles to the north-west of Whitby.
At the north-eastern extremity of the bay is an extraordinary ridge, or mole of natural rocks, called "Filey Bridge", which projects near half a mile into the sea, and is overflowed at high water, but is left perfectly dry when the tide is low. These rocks are a great protection to the bay in tempestuous weather, as the sea often breaks against them with such violence, that the foaming waves may be seen from Flambrough-head and Scarbrough. Upon the beach, to the southward, are found cornelians, which indeed abound along this coast, with pebble of various kinds; and pieces of amber have sometimes, though rarely, been met with in walking on the sands.
OTHER ARTICLES
• An early history of Filey and its fishing community
• Famous fishing families - the Whitby Storr family and the Leadleys
• The history of the Scarborough fishing industry
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• The fishermen and fisheries of Robin Hood's Bay in 1838
• Primitive Methodism amongst the Scarborough Filey and Flamborough fishing communities
• The history of the herring fishing in the North Sea
• Captain Cook and his early life in Staithes and Whitby
• Flamborough Head - ancient fishing village
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
• Trawling and overfishing - Filey fishing
• Robin Hood's Bay - The Storm family website
• Filey fishermen in 1862 - yawls and cobles
• Sea shanties and the filey Fishermen's choir
• Haddock Legend, And Herring Fishery in Filey
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• aThe coble boats of Filey Flamborough and Runswicks Bay
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
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