Filey

Filey (ˈfaɪli) is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located between Scarborough and Bridlington on Filey Bay. Although it was a fishing village, it has a large beach and became a popular tourist resort. According to the 2011 UK census, Filey parish had a population of 6,981, in comparison to the 2001 UK census population figure of 6,819, and a population of 6,870 in 1991. Filey was historically mainly within the East Riding of Yorkshire, although until 1888 a small part of the town, including its parish church, was in the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1974 the town was transferred to the new county of North Yorkshire. 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 ride begins at Wetherby Racecourse. Filey has a on the Yorkshire Coast Line. A second station at 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. 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 metres long with a square tower 14 metres 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.