Hide

Flamborough, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1835.

hide
Hide
Hide

FLAMBOROUGH:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1835.

"FLAMBOROUGH, a parish in the wapentake of DICKERING, East riding of the county of YORK, 4 miles E.N.E. from Bridlington, containing 917 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of the East riding, and diocese of York, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and £1400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Archbishop of York and Sir W. Strickland, Bart, alternately. The church is dedicated to St. Oswald. There are places of worship for Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. Some writers sup pose this parish to derive its name from the Saxon Fleam-burg, and assert that Ida, the Saxon, landed at the Head; others infer that its appellation originated from the "flame," or light, anciently placed on the cliffs, to direct mariners in the navigation of the German ocean. Though in ancient times the place was of some note, the Danes, in their hostile attacks upon England, frequently making it one of their principal stations, it can only at the present time be considered as a fishing village. Flamborough Head is a lofty promontory overlooking the village, forming a magnificent object, and one of the greatest natural curiosities in the kingdom. The cliffs, which are of limestone rock, white as snow, extend in a range from five to six miles, and rise in many places to an elevation of three hundred feet perpendicularly from the sea. At the base are several extensive caverns, formed by some mighty convulsion of nature, or worn by the action of the water. The scenery is very grand and imposing. On the extreme point of the promontory, at the distance eastward of nearly a mile and a half from the village, and at an elevation of about two hundred and fifty feet, a light-house, with revolving points, was erected in 1806. In the summer season, these cliffs are the resort of a vast number of aquatic birds, from various regions, to build their nests and rear their young; boys are frequently let down the rocks by means of ropes fastened to stakes, and bring away with them bushels of eggs for the use of the sugar-house at Hull. Some vestiges of Danish structures are still visible in the parish; viz., an ancient ruin at the west end, called " the Danes Tower," and the intrenchments around it, denominated " Little Denmark.""

[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1835]