The dramatic of bombardment of Scarborough by German battlecruisers on 16 December 1914 is one of the iconic moments of the Great War. In its immediate wake, posters implored potential recruits to ‘Remember Scarborough’. Over a century on the bombardment lingers in our cultural memory. It is therefore understandable that an operation that was an […]

Visit St. Mary’s Church at Sledmere and you will find a stained glass depiction of King Edwin of Northumbria. The King, now raised to sainthood, is clutching a broad sword, but it is the large stone church he is cradling that is the focus of attention. Edwin’s legacy is not only the Archbishopric of York, it […]

It was the summer of 1935 and following the death of the long time owner of the White Lodge, Dame Madge Kendal, the property was on the market. One interested party was no less than the Princess Mary, the daughter of King George V. Princess Mary was perhaps the Royal with the longest association with Filey. Her […]

It was a kingdom forged in battle and lost in battle. A kingdom that set the template for the modern Anglo-Saxon state. A kingdom that produced the greatest written text of dark age Europe. It was called Northumbria, the lands north of the Humber. In this first part we will travel from dark age beach […]

In the Victorian era Filey was famous for its high-class visitors. Archbishops and Countesses were regular sights on the Crescent Gardens. Titled landowners and minor Royalty strolled the sands. Filey was undoubtedly one of the places to see and be seen. As part of an irregular series, we profile some of Filey’s visitors, if they were prone to […]

He was the privately educated ‘resident director’ of the White Lodge Hotel at Filey. Grandson of a Baronet, son of a wealthy silk manufacturer, recently married and father of a young son. Sadly, Peter Mowat Hall’s life, like countless others, would be destroyed by the Second World War. Peter was the grandson of Sir John G. Mowat and […]

In this strangest of years, there will be no parade to the War Memorial, no lowering of heads, no solemn silence. However, the fallen of Filey will be remembered, around fireplaces, in solitary moments and, in some cases, memories, albeit increasingly distant. From the town’s first casualty in World War One, Private Thomas Jenkinson, who […]

Whilst Filey was a regular haunt of royalty, and the nobility, in the years before the First World War, the revolution in international travel, particularly in the inter-war period, took many of Filey’s former visitors to more distant destinations. Probably one of the last royal holidaymakers to Filey was Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark, […]

Despite appalling weather the 241st anniversary of the Battle of Flamborough Head was marked by a short ceremony in the garden of the White Lodge Hotel. At 7pm a rocket was fired to mark the opening shots of the battle and to remember the four hundred sailors who died when an American-French force attempted to intercept a […]

At 7pm on Wednesday 23 September a small ceremony will take place in the garden of the White Lodge Hotel to make the 241st anniversary of the Battle of Flamborough Head. The Serapis flag will be formally raised on the hotel’s flagpole, a rocket fired to make the beginning of the battle, a brief overview […]