Scarborough, Filey and Robin Hood's Bay
Above: Scarborough The Northern Echo
Iron Age tools from around 500 BC have been found on the rocky headland where Scarborough Castle now stands, demonstrating Scarborough's antiquity. The Iron Age settlement on Castle Cliff was followed in 370 AD by a Roman signal station, one of a number along the Yorkshire coast (See Whitby - Saltburn). The Signal station consisted of a square tower set within square courtyard, but it is difficult to separate the Roman remains from later medieval chapels within the castle. Roman signal stations on the east coast were designed to protect the coast from the ravages of Anglo-Saxon pirates from southern Jutland and Frisia but around 500 AD the Romans had vacated the country and the Anglo-Saxons established a settlement at Scarborough. Over four-hundred years later they were succeeded by the Vikings.
Scarborough's Viking name is first mentioned in Viking sagas. In the 'Kormakssaga, Flateyjarbok' Scarborough is called Skarthborg and in the 'Orkneyingasaga' it is referred to as Skarthabork. The 'borough' in Scarborough derives from the Viking word 'Borg' meaning 'stronghold' and Scarborough means Skarthi's stronghold. According to the 'Kormaksaga' two Viking brothers called Thorgils and Kormak went harrying in Ireland, England and Wales and established a stronghold called Scarborough on the English east coast. Thorgils was known to his brother by the nickname 'Hare Lip', or in the Viking language 'Skarthi' . It is probable that 'Hare-Lip' gave his name to Scarborough.
The brothers Kormak and Thorgills were in the service of King Harald Grafeld, who was king of Norway from 960-965AD. This dates the Viking foundation of Scarborough to the mid tenth century. Kormak and Thorgils accompanied the king's expedition to Bjarmaland or Permia in northern Russia in 966AD. It is known that the expedition to England immediately followed this and that Kormak died in the year 967AD. This dates the Viking foundation of Scarborough more precisely to 966 or 967 AD. The Vikings were not the first to settle at Scarborough. There may already have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement on the site and there was certainly a Roman signal station here.
Scarborough Castle was built around 1130 by William Le Gros, Earl of Albermarle in the reign of King Henry I. Le Gros defeated the Scots at The Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in 1138. The castle was captured by Henry II who rebuilt the keep between 1158 and 1168 and the castle became a Royal castle. Further improvements to the castle were carried out by King John, Henry III and Edward I. Around 1312 Scarborough Castle was given to Edward II's favourite Piers Gaveston. The unpopular Gaveston was besieged in the castle by the barons, captured and carried to Oxford for execution.
It was not Scarborough Castle's last siege. In 1536 the castle was held by Sir Ralph Evers who held the castle for the king and withsoood the siege of Robert Aske during the Pilgrimage of Grace. In 1653, during the reign of Queen Mary, the castle was taken by Thomas Stafford but he was later captured by the Earl of Westmorland and beheaded on Tower Hill.
During the Civil War in 1644, Scarborough castle's commander Sir Hugh Cholmey switched his allegiance from the Parliamentarians to the Royalists and had to withstand a siege by Parliamentarians who eventually captured the castle in 1645. A colonel Boynton was put in charge of the castle but like Hugh Cholmley he swicthed sides - this time from Parliamentarian to Royalist , but he was eventually defeated in yet another siege in 1648. The last siege of all was the shelling of the castle by German bombers during the Second World War..
(Play Scarborough Fair Midi tune above. Tune played by John Simpson)
Henry III established a fair at Scarborough by charter in 1235and it was held in the town until 1788 and is now only remembered in the famous folk song.
Scarborough's development as a holiday resort began in 1620 when spa water was discovered by Elizabeth Farrow, who claimed that the water had beneficial qualities. She was perhaps influenced by the succes of the spa at Harrogate. The Gentry flocked to Scarborough to sample the qualities of the water's qualities and Scarborough's development as a resort began, given an extra boost by the development of the railways in the 1850s and culminating in the growth of the busy coastal town with all its amusements and fun fairs that we know today. Visitors to Scarborough's healthy resort included Anne Bronte of Haworth, who retired here and died on 28th May 1849. She is buried in the churchyard of Scarborough's St Mary's Church.
Around twenty mile of coastland separate Scarborough from Whitby to the north. There are few settlements along this rocky cliffland coast, including Ravenscar - 'The rock or scar inhabited by ravens' which lies half way between, but the most notable place in the area is Robin Hood's Bay about five miles south of Whitby. It is a place full of character, with pretty little houses clinging to the rocks, it resembles the village of Staithes to the north of Whitby.
The most intriguing thing about Robin Hood's Bay is why it called Robin Hood's Bay ? Nobody really seems to be sure and the inhabitants sometimes call it Bay Town. Legendary theories suggest that Robin Hood kept boats here to make a quick getaway or that the abbot of Whitby asked Robin to fight of Danish pirates here - Robin throwing huge bolders down the cliffs to crush the invaders. Perhaps Robin Hood retired at Robin Hood's Bay ?
Filey to the south of Scarborough is famous for Filey Brigg a pointed pin-shaped rocky reef where the Romans are thought to have anchored their ships. Filey's name is thought to mean the Five leys - 'the five meadows or forest clearings'.
South of Filey is the great nose like peninsular called Flamborough Head where the wolds meet the sea and where the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire meets North Yorkshire. In Iron Age times the peninsula was the site of a great fort which was protected on the land side by an ancient earthwork . The area was later settled by an Anglo-Saxon called Flein who gave it its name - Flamborough means Flein's fort. Danes later settled in the area and the defensive earthwork of the earlier Iron Age became known as the Danes Dyke.
Bridlington in East Yorkshire lies on the southern side of Flamborough Head.
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