Filey

Geography

Filey is at the eastern end of the Cleveland Way, a long-distance footpath; it starts at Helmsley and skirts the North York Moors. It was the second National Trail to be opened (1969). The town is at the northern end of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail which starts at Hessle and crosses the Yorkshire Wolds. Filey is the finishing point for Great Yorkshire Bike Ride. The 70 mi ride begins at Wetherby Racecourse.

Filey has a railway station on the Yorkshire Coast Line. A second station at Filey Holiday Camp railway station to the south of the town served the former Butlins holiday camp. The camp has since been re-developed into a 600-home holiday housing development, The Bay Filey. It is one of the largest coastal developments of this kind in the UK and the first homes were completed in 2007.

In July 2007 Filey was hit by flash floods which caused major problems.{{cite news |access-date = 9 December 2007 |access-date = 29 February 2008

Average maximum and minimum temperatures, and average rainfall recorded between 1991 and 2020 by the Met Office.

History

In 1857 the foundations of a 4th-century Roman signal station were discovered at the Carr Naze cliff edge at the northern end of Filey Bay. The structure is 50 m long with a square tower 14 m wide, a defensive ditch and ramparts from a later era. Excavations at the time of the find and subsequently in the 1920s and 1990s uncovered Roman pottery and hoards of coins. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument. The find of Roman remains supports the case for Filey being the Roman settlement of Portus Felix.

The origin of the name Filey is uncertain. One theory derives it from the Old English fīfelēg meaning 'monster island' referring to the shape of a rock projection at the shore. Other theories derive it from fīflēah meaning 'five woods or clearings' or from the Old Norse fífa meaning 'cottongrass' and the Old English lēah meaning 'wood or clearing'.

The 12th century parish church dedicated to St Oswald, on Church Hill in the north of the town, is a Grade I listed building. It is the oldest building in Filey and Nicholas Pevsner wrote "This is easily the finest church in the NE corner of the East Riding" (Buildings of England). | author-link = Nikolaus Pevsner | orig-year = 1972 St Oswald's has nearly 1,500 pieces of well-preserved medieval graffiti on the roof of the tower, ranging from initials up to complicated images of fully rigged sailing vessels, including one known as a Whitby Cat. The graffiti covers around 400 years of Filey's history, and maps out identifiable people, their occupations, changes in literacy and coastal shipping, the start of tourism in the area, and even a possible record of 17th century plague. The graffiti was recorded and analysed by Historic England in 2016.

Filey was a small village until the 18th century when visitors from Scarborough arrived seeking the peace and quiet that Filey then offered. In 1835 a Birmingham solicitor called John Wilkes Unett bought 7 acre of land and built the Crescent, later known as the Royal Crescent, which was opened in the 1850s. On several occasions in the mid-19th century, the novelist Charlotte Brontë visited Filey with the aim of recovering her faltering health. In June 1852 she wrote to her father: "The Sea is very grand. Yesterday it was a somewhat unusually high tide - and I stood about an hour on the cliffs yesterday afternoon - watching the tumbling in of great tawny turbid waves - that make the whole shore white with foam and filled the air with a sound hollower and deeper than thunder.

Fishing at Filey has been a tradition for centuries, with most of those undertaking it coming from a long line of fishermen and women in their families. The fishing boats at Filey are cobles, like most of the others along the Yorkshire and North East coasts, and the catch is mostly sea trout. Limitations have been placed upon how and where they use their nets, which also trap salmon; some fear this may lead to the end of the fishing industry in Filey. In 1804, a lifeboat was procured for the town and it became a Royal National Lifeboat Institution asset in 1852. Filey Lifeboat Station is still in existence and has an inshore and an all-weather boat on station. The all-weather lifeboat was replaced in early 2021 with an Atlantic 85 vessel.

English composer Frederick Delius stayed as a boy on the Crescent with his family at Miss Hurd's boarding house (number 24) in 1876 and 1877, and then at Mrs Colley's (number 24) in 1897.

In 1931 the spire of a church was damaged by the Dogger Bank earthquake.

For more than 40 years Butlin's Filey Holiday Camp was a major factor in Filey's economy. Building began in 1939 and continued during the Second World War when it became an air force station known as RAF Hunmanby Moor. In 1945 it became a popular holiday resort and a new LNER branch line with station was constructed to serve the camp despite the topographical challenges involved. It opened on 10 May 1947 with a performance by the London International Orchestra conducted by Anatole Fistoulari with a performance by acclaimed pianist Solomon. British boxer Bruce Woodcock was convalescing at the Butlin's camp around the same time following his punishing defeat at the hands of Joe Baksi a month earlier. By the late 1950s it could cater for 10,000 holiday makers but closed in 1984, causing a decrease in the holiday makers visiting Filey.{{cite news |access-date=13 March 2013}}

Filey was historically split between the East Riding of Yorkshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire. The boundary ran along Filey Beck, north of the town centre, so that most of the town was in the East Riding. When County Councils were formed by the Local Government Act 1888, the whole of Filey was placed in the East Riding.

Filey also boasts the Grade II listed Langford Villa on The Crescent () which was often chosen by the famous chocolatier Sir Joseph Terry as his place to "summer"; it is situated next door but one to The White Lodge Hotel.

In 2018, the town was featured in the Tour de Yorkshire.

Governance

At the lowest level of governance is Filey Town Council, electing a total of thirteen councillors. These councillors are responsible for burial grounds, allotments, play areas and some street lighting. Elections to the town council are held every four years and the most recent elections were held in May 2019. The Mayor of Filey is elected annually by the members of the town council. The council is based at Filey Town Council Offices on Queen Street.

At district level, the town was part of the Scarborough Borough Council area. The town was represented by three councillors on the Borough Council. On the North Yorkshire County Council the town elected one representative. Both councils were abolished in 2023 and replaced with a unitary authority, North Yorkshire Council.

Parliamentary representation

Filey was in the Ryedale constituency until the 2010 general election when it became part of the newly formed Thirsk and Malton constituency. Proposed boundary changes to the constituencies, would see Filey be moved from Thirsk and Malton into the Scarborough and Whitby constituency.

Development

Coast & Country Housing Limited plan to build 300 houses in Filey. Scarborough council has approved plans for the £45 million housing project off Muston Road by Coast & Country. Independent councillor Sam Cross, who represents Filey on the borough council, said: "The infrastructure of the town can't cope with it."{{cite news | access-date = 13 March 2013 Coast and Country replied to the concerns by stating that the houses are being built to meet a pent-up latent demand for affordable housing and other housing within the town.

Local media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from the Oliver's Mount and via a local relay transmitter at Hunmanby. BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees can also be received from the Bilsdale TV transmitter.

Filey’s local radio stations are BBC Radio York on 95.5 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire Coast on 96.2 FM, Coast & County Radio on 97.4 FM and This is The Coast that broadcasts online and on DAB.

Local newspapers are Filey Bay Today and The Scarborough News.

Notable people

• Leo Blair, the father of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was born in Filey.
• Edmund Crawford, footballer, Liverpool & Clapton Orient
• Andy Crawford, footballer, Derby County & Blackburn Rovers
• Honor Fell (1900–1986), zoologist, was born at Fowthorpe, near Filey.

References

References

1. "Filey Parish".
2. "Filey Parish".
3. (1995). "Yorkshire : York and the East Riding". Yale University Press.
4. {{cite vob. link
5. "Route Description & Downloads {{!}} National Trails".
6. "Signing the Yorkshire Wolds Way through Filey {{!}} News from the Yorkshire Wolds Way {{!}} National Trails".
7. "GYBR {{!}} Route details".
8. "Disused Stations: Filey Holiday Camp Station".
9. Greenwood, Lynne. (26 October 2006). "Hi de Hi for a holiday home". The Daily Telegraph.
10. "Home page". The Bay Filey.
11. "Scarborough UK climate averages".
12. {{NHLE
13. {{PastScape
14. "Key to English Place-names".
15. {{National Heritage List for England
16. "Filey Town Council".
17. Buglass, J.. (2016). "Historic Graffiti on the Tower of St. Oswald's Church, Filey, North Yorkshire: recording and Interpretation. Historic England Research Report 62/2016".
18. "Filey Conservation Area".
19. (9 September 2010). "Selected Letters". Oxford University Press.
20. (3 March 2018). "Why Filey's fishermen fear they may be the last generation to cast their nets". The Yorkshire Post.
21. (2012). "Lifeboat stations of North East England through time : from Sunderland to the Humber". Amberley.
22. (30 October 2020). "Filey Looks Set to Lose it's All Weather Lifeboat Next Year". This is The Coast.
23. (3 September 2012). "'Why Filey's not getting fair shares'". The Yorkshire Post.
24. (9 August 2016). "The Filey Files". The Yorkshire Post.
25. (23 September 2015). "Rutland earthquake: 'We will rebuild', say locals as they mock 2.8-magnitude tremor". The Telegraph.
26. (3 May 1947). "Bruce Woodcock to Visit Filey Holiday Camp". Driffield Times.
27. [[Local Government Act 1888#Towns on county boundaries]]
28. {{NHLE
29. (16 April 2015). "Langford Villa".
30. (5 December 2017). "Tour de Yorkshire: Filey In - Scarborough Hosts Finish". Yorkshire Coast Radio.
31. "Filey Town Council".
32. (21 September 2016). "MP expresses mixed feelings about proposed constituencies changes". York Press.
33. (13 September 2016). "Filey to join with neighbours following boundary changes". The Scarborough News.
34. (1 May 2004). "Olivers Mount (North Yorkshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter".
35. (1 May 2004). "Hunmanby (North Yorkshire, England) Freeview Light transmitter".
36. (1 May 2004). "Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter".
37. "Local News | Filey Bay Today | Filey".
38. (19 November 2012). "Leo Blair: Barrister who began as a Conservative but followed his son into the Labour Party". The Independent.
39. "Liverpool career stats for Ted Crawford - LFChistory - Stats galore for Liverpool FC!".
40. "Andy CRAWFORD - Biography of his football career with The Rams. - Derby County FC".
41. (1987). "Honor Bridget Fell. 22 May 1900-22 April 1986". [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]].