Hide

Bridlington, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1829.

hide
Hide
Hide

BRIDLINGTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1829.

"BRIDLINGTON, a market-town giving name to a parish in the wapentake of Dickering, in the east riding, 203 miles from London, by way of Lincoln, 238 by way of York, from which it is distant 40 miles, 32 from Hull, and 12 from Great Driffield; is situated about a mile from the sea, along the southern declivity of a small elevation, with a country around it rich and fertile. The town consists of one long main street and other smaller ones, all characteristic of an old town, being narrow and irregularly built. The principal object worthy attention here is the priory, founded by Walter de Gaunt, in the early part of the reign of Henry I. which stands at the east end of the town. It appears once to have been a noble and magnificent structure. It had two towers at the west end, which have fallen down or been destroyed, and as the transepts at the east end have also disappeared, the remaining part appears only to be a fragment of the ancient building. Of the walls and buttresses nothing remains except an arched gateway, about 120 yards from the body of the building to the west. A large room above this has served as a town-hall, and the lower part as a prison. The trade carried on here is chiefly retail, exclusive of a considerable manufacture for hats. There are besides, several corn mills, on a stream called the Gipsey; seven wind-mills, and a steam mill for grinding bones. A chalybeate spring issues near the Anti-mill, about a quarter of a mile from the Quay; and in 1811 an ebbing and flowing spring was discovered in the harbour by Mr. Milne, to whom Bridlington is indebted for its baths, and Flamborough for its light-house. The places of worship here, besides the parish church, are chapels belonging to the Wesleyan & primitive Methodists, Baptists, Calvinists and Quakers. The Rev. George Smith is the incumbent of the church living, which is a perpetual curacy in the gift of Sir Francis L. Wood, Bart. and the Rev. Alexander Cooke. Here is a free grammar school, founded in 1637; a charity school for girls, endowed in 1671; and two handsome school-rooms capable of receiving two hundred children, upon the national system. The views around here excite considerable interest; and that from Bessingby Hill will bear comparison from the most fastidious travelled observer of the picturesque. The market-day is on Saturday, and the fairs are the Monday before Whit-Sunday and the 21st of October, for horses, cattle, woollen cloth and toys. By the parliamentary returns for 1821, the entire parish of Bridlington contained 5,034 inhabitants, and the township, including the Quay, 4,275 of that number."


"BRIDLINGTON QUAY, in the parish of Bridlington, and about a mile from that town, is a neat, handsome little town, and the principal street, which runs direct to the harbour, is remarkably broad. The northernmost pier, has an agreeable platform commanding a beautiful view of Flamboro' Head, the bay is of course much frequented, and when the wind is unfavourable for doubling Flamborough Head, the former is often crowded with coasting vessels. The Quay is undoubtedly an agreeable place, and the resort of company to it during the bathing months is very considerable. The mineral springs here are reckoned efficacious for several diseases, and there are many attractions here for persons who have a taste for the peaceful and sequestered scenes of life, in preference to the gay and captivating charms of the more fashionable watering places. The constant encroachments of the sea on this coast have disclosed numerous fossil remains, and among other interesting objects is the head of an Elk, with branching horns of surprising dimensions, measuring eleven feet from tip to tip; it was found in the vicinity of Bridlington, and is now in the possession of Mr. Walter Wilson of this place."

[Transcribed from Pigot's National Commericial Directory for 1828-29 ]
by Colin Hinson ©2007