Postcards from Filey

'Flither pickers' collected limpets along the shore.
They sat in the bait shed, quickly 'skeining' them 
as their husbands loaded the bait hooks. 
Each line had 280 hooks.  Each man had 3 lines. So three men
on one cobble would have a connected line of 2,520 baited hooks ready to fish 

Looking down at modern Filey from the top of Filey Brigg

Two of the oldest fishermen's cottages in Filey from around 1696, now used as the Filey Museum

Filey guernseys had the initials of the fisherman
knitted into the welt so rescuers could identify the body if  lost at sea 

Filey fishing guernseys (pronounced gansays) were knitted in the round with no seam. They could take 6 weeks to knit on 5 ply wool.  Each  was different and each town followed a different pattern 

Filey fishermen would unload the catch and lay it along Cobble Landing to be auctioned to local fish dealers

Fishermen's cottages in Filey were frequently decorated with  a cobble at sea.
Nearly a dozen Filey cottage doors still have similar scenes

Some 200 years Filey fisherfolk came from just 12 families.  Intermarrying was common, as was boat sharing so if a boat went down, the water often claimed the father, son and brother in one tragic night.

T’Oard Ship is now a private house and the owner told us its name means ‘The Old Ship’. This was the earliest known inn in Filey and once smuggler-fishermen used to bring their illegal booty from their cobbles directly up the cliffs to store them here. 

Next door is ‘the new inn’. This inn, too, was used by the smuggler-fishermen for storage. It was used as an early Coroner’s Court and here the bodies of drowned Filey fishermen were bought to prepare for burial.

Further along the street is the building for the first Urban District Council built in 1898.  The caretaker had a cottage to the right.  The fire brigade was in the smaller building to the left.  A bell, a fire warning, was fitted to the roof to warn of fire.  And a siren fitted to warn of bombs during the war.  The Town Council now has its offices here.

This is a wonderful old Victorian Royal Mail wall post box from the middle of the 19th century. It has V R and not E R as its regal signature.  It still operates today and stands on a corner of Queen street, which was once called King street. 

With fishing on the wane tourism reared its profitable head in Filey.   A Birmingham solicitor built an entire crescent of glorious Victorian terraces high on the hillside with gardens tumbling down to the water in the middle of the 19th century.  They attracted royalty and are still elegant and beautiful today.  Filey has such a pretty waterfront.

A hire company would rent these canvas cabins out to Filey bathers during the summer.

This is an Edwardian bathing chalet typically used in Filey  back in the day.

Magnificent men in fragile flying machines set up a flight training centre in a hangar where Butlin’s Filey Resort came to be built just a few decades later.  They designed planes and trained pilots on this southern stretch of Filey Beach just prior to WW1, often landing to bonfires set up on the sands at low tide.  

Billy Butlin of the Butlin Resorts 

Filey's Butlin Resort was the largest in the UK.  It operated just like the resort in the movie, 'Dirty Dancing'. It was here in Filey that Paul McCarney sang for the first time in public as a youngster, winning a competition with his brother on one of their summer holidays.  He sang Long Tall Sally.    

This is the house the Billy Butlin built for himself at Filey.
It is now a couple of holiday homes.  

A WW11 gun emplacement along Filey Beach.  Many down the coast have been washed into the sea.  

Deepdene, on prime real estate on the waterfront.  This is our home in Filey.  

Filey Town Crier and his lady escort announcing the daily events while we sat opposite,
 drinking coffee and taking photographs

Sunday afternoon bands and singers in the Crescent Garden are typical entertainment along the lovely Filey waterfront.