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Filey
Filey is a place of many memories for me. It was here as a small child that we always came for our
annual Summer holiday to Mrs Barrett's boarding house and sat on the beach all day long come rain or shine.
That isn't mandatory nowadays and most of the boarding houses have long since gone but Filey remains an absolute gem.
The town is set afront the magnificent Filey Bay, a long stretch of beautiful
sand with Filey Brigg
to the North, then Coble landing and a central more commercial
developed section and finally to the South the magnificent beach backed by cliffs
running all the way down to Flamborough Head.
That probably means nothing to anyone who hasn't been there so let's look in some detail.
Filey Town
The town itself is set in the middle of the bay running up and on top of the cliffs.
It seems almost caught in a timewarp being gentle without being genteel, retaining
much of its character from the holiday peak of the 60's and early 70's. There are
no large hotels, but quite a few small ones, tons of holiday cottages and still
a good smattering of B&B accommodation. There used to be two cinemas, but one's
now a large pub and goodness only knows what the other one is. There's a couple of pubs, but none of them are anything to write home about, a handfull of decent
eateries and lots of good chip shops and greasy spoons. I noticed The Star has been
refurbished recently and a restaurant added, so maybe that will improve things.
The majority of the town
is flat and easy, and much of the cliffs have been terraced into gardens, with narrow
paths and ginnels everywhere. There used to be a tiny theatre on the cliffs called
the Sun Lounge, but that's "The Rendezvous" cafe nowadays
doing a fine line in chips with everything.
Parking used to be a nightmare, but the council built a huge car park at the Southern
edge of the town and it's all OK now. There's also a big car park to the North on
the Brigg, but be warned that both are fanatically patrolled by wardens so don't be
tempted to chance it. There's quite a lot of parking directly on the sea front,
but you have to be an early bird to get it.
Filey Brigg
The North end of Filey Bay is formed by Filey Brigg. This is a headland which has
been very heavily eroded on the bay side leaving a wonderful rock platform full
of rock pools and the weirdest path imaginable along it. It gets cut off when the
tide comes in, but it's not really too dangerous as the cliffs are soft boulder
clay and quite climbable. There are paths down the end of the brig and down the
side about half way along but the Health and Safety fascists have erected
signs about "No Safe Access". Both paths are perfectly usable in reasonable
conditions by reasonably fit and able people, so don't let the signs put you off.
The path down the end is a bit of a scramble so don't try it with puschairs, toddlers,
whingers or granny in a wheelchair. Once you get outside
of the bay round the end of the headland it's a very different environment with sheer
cliffs and no escape route. If you get caught there as the tide comes in you're
in serious trouble.
Kids love the brigg for the rock pools along the way, they're shallow, safe and
teeming with sealife, and nets can be bought from the nearby shops at coble landing
for a couple of quid. Serious sea fishermen can generally be found at the end of
the Brigg as can birders. Not quite sure what they turn up to watch but there's
certainly plenty of Shags about. There used to be a small cafe at the end of the
bridge, but that's now closed and the site is occupied by a bird watching shelter
which always seems to be closed. When I visited in June '07 there were about 20
dead Guillemots and Razorbills lying about, plus another couple of very weak ones.
Never seen that before and hope never to see it again.
The fields on top of the Brigg used to be farmland, but in the early seventies it
was turned into a country park incorporating a camp site. It's also the end of the Cleveland
Way, which I walked as a youth and still believe to be the best long distance footpath
in the UK. The park has a small cafe and shop, reasonable toilets and plenty
of space, but being on top of a cliff it can be very windy.
The Beach
The Northern end of the town is marked by a deep ravine leading to Coble Landing.
This is a slipway where the local fishermen keep their Cobles. Cobles being small
wooden fishing boats which clearly show their descent from Viking longships. There's
also some tacky amusements, little huts selling seafood and ice cream, and all the
usual tat you expect at the seaside.
Heading south from Coble landing you have the main central section of beach which
is a dog free zone in high season and is ideal for families. It's such a massive
beach it never gets crowded, and is backed by a massive sea
wall giving plenty of shelter from offshore winds. At the Southern end of the central
beach you get another ravine leading up to Filey's main car park, and at this point
countryside begins and the beach is undeveloped, still perfect sand and backed by
low cliffs of boulder clay. Walking along here is a treat (dogs allowed) and you
can walk all the way down to the great little cafe at Hunmanby Gap and beyond to
the end of the beach and the start of the Flamborough Cliffs.
As you head South along the beach there's a fair sampling of WWII vintage pillboxes
and even a few rather lovely Art Deco houses among the cliffs. There's also the
way up to Primrose Valley, one of those awful Haven holiday camps which just might
be worth a visit if you have to entertain small kids. There also used to be a Butlins
camp next to Primrose Valley, but that closed in the early 80's. It then fell into
the hands of a local "businessman", and after reopening as Amtree Park it closed
again six weeks later leaving a lot of people seriously out of pocket. Now, about
twenty years later, Amtree Park is finally being redeveloped. It's being turned
into a new village of posh holiday homes at very posh prices. They're building about
seven hundred homes, plus a hotel, leisure facilities and the like just at
the point where the housing market seems to have peaked. And they're marketing them
to property investors. Good luck to them.
Having seen the first few houses of the new Amtree Park go up, it's not to my taste.
They're all ersatz local cottage style as if they're trying to create a fake Flamboro,
a surrogate Speeton or a couterfeit Cayton. Call it what you will, the houses look
utterly twee. Here was an opportunity to create great architecture, to do something
really unique, and instead we've been given a poor pastiche of a local village.
Just a word in passing about Hunmanby Gap. This is a way down to the cliffs near
the inland village of Hunmanby. It's constantly in danger of eroding and
the cafe is only still there by a miracle, but the food is top scram for hungry
walkers. I moaned earlier about the lack of decent pubs in Filey, but if you visit
Hunmanby village two miles inland, the balance is redressed with half a
dozen truly excellent pubs, all allowing children, serving good beer and decent
food. If you just want to explore this area, Hunmanby makes an excellent base. In the centre of the village
there's The Buck, The Cottage and the White Swan, down a side street is The Horseshoe,
just on the edge of the village is The Railway, and just outside it The Royal Oak.
Finally as you reach the far end of the beach, there is one magnificent little gem
that few visitors ever see. Climbing the steep footpath up the cliffs towards Speeton,
you come to St Leonards Church, a tiny Saxon chapel with no aisle. A real little
gem, very reminiscent of the chapel on the battlefield at Towton. From here you
can walk to the main coast road, have a quick pint at the Dotterel or catch a bus
back to Filey.
Filey Bay looking back from Speeton
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