Bridlington Through Time
Mike Hitches
Amberley Books
Working your way south along the Yorkshire coast, Bridlington is the last of the four great resort towns after Whitby, Scarborough and Filey. It has been in use as a port from prehistoric times – the documented history of Bridlington and nearby Flamborough Head starts with Bronze Age earthworks and continues through Roman times via the evidence of Roman coins and a Roman road. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book (at one time Bridlington was the property of the first Norman king of England, William the Conqueror). Bridlington has been an important centre for fishing and for collecting shellfish since its earliest days. Charlotte Brontë’s first sight of the sea was when she visited Bridlington (also called Bretlington and Burlington at the time) in 1839. The sea had an enormous impact on Charlotte and in her novel Villette a place called Bretton is featured which is almost certainly Bridlington.
Charlotte Brontë was not the only person who first saw the sea when they came to Brid, as it is often affectionately called these days. As a result of the recently completed railway links from Hull, Scarborough and York, Bridlington came into its own as a seaside resort in the Victorian era – many of its finest buildings (in places such as Royal Prince’s Parade, Marlborough Terrace and the Crescent) were built during this period. Bridlington has remained a popular tourist destination ever since – it’s a great place for families seeking a traditional seaside holiday with its long wide beaches, it’s also brilliant for anglers with North Sea fishing expeditions, and for excursions bia boat tours and cruises.
Bridlington Through Time is the latest in Amberley Books Through Time series and was written by Mike Hitches, who now has around 30 titles covering local history to his name. As well as being a writer and historian, Mike is a nurse at Bridlington Hospital and lives in nearby Filey, so he has the local knowledge required.
Mike’s latest excursion explores the pictorial history of Bridlington and uses a variety of sources including old paintings and drawings, early black and white or sepia photos, postcards from various eras, and modern colour digital photography and prints – these make up the bulk of the book. The pictures are supplemented by explanatory text which provide context and, in some cases, a bit of historical background.
This book is going to appeal mainly to people who live or have a strong association with the resort. It will also appeal to other local historians as a useful source of information about the town. As someone who doesn’t know Bridlington well (though I did a little sailing there in the late 1970s) the pages that worked best for me were those that showed ‘then-and-now’ pictures of the same scene (particularly when taken from a similar viewpoint).
On a side note, I’m a keen amateur photographer myself and I nearly always find the presence of cars in my pictures of buildings a real nuisance. But one of the strange things about the human mind (or perhaps it’s just mine) is that photos from days gone by with cars in are almost always attractive – even though the vehicles themselves look old-fashioned and less sleek than modern ones. Maybe in another 50 years photos taken today with modern cars in will seem just as attractive as photos taken 50 or more years ago do today.
You can order Bridlington Through Time direct from the publisher at a 10% discount (and free P&P in the UK) by clicking this link.
