Summary
Although it is yet
to be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, there seems to be more than just
coincidental evidence relating to an earlier settlement near to, or even under,
St. Oswald’s Church. The evidence found during the excavations of 1924 to 1926
point to some form of building lying in a similar orientation to the church
whilst much of the other features located within the foundations of the Buck
Manor House give further credence to the idea that an established, sedentary
settlement was there before the church was built. The excavations under the
guidance of Sister Xavier also provide tantalising clues about the previous uses
of the site and manage to suggest some logical ideas about some of the more
confusing aspects of the earlier excavations such as the fireplaces and ‘kilns’.
The document
connected to Ralph de Nevill (see Appendix 1) gives another hint and it
might be worth speculating here that the area referred to as ‘Le Hoc’ could be
Filey Brigg. This would certainly go a long way to explaining the Spittals
there – even the surveyor of the excavations, R.M. Robson thinks that the
quarried stone was removed from ‘the Doodles’ on the Brigg (see Appendix 3).
Although this work
has answered a few questions about early Medieval Filey there is still a massive
amount that remains an enigma and only further work will begin to give us a
deeper insight into Filey in the past.
Bibliography
CLAY, P.T. 1927. Excavation
summary: Visit of East Riding Antiquarians Society. Unpublished.
CRIMLISK, J. (ed.) Un.
Archive Folder: Church Farm Excavations 1924-1926. Unpublished.
FARMER, P. 1977. The
Excavations at Queen Street, Filey. Scarborough Archaeological & History
Society: Scarborough.
OTTAWAY P, BRICKSTOCK R, CARROTT
J, COOL H. E. M., DOBNEY K, GAJOWSKI R, GARSIDE-NEVILLE S, GAUNT G. D. HALL A,
ISSITT M, JAQUES D, LARGE F, MONAGHAN J. 2000. Excavations on the site of
the Roman signal station at Carr Naze, Filey, 1993-94. Archaeological
Journal: London. vol. 157, pp. 79 – 199.
PRICKETT, Rev.
M. 1835. A History of the Priory Church at Bridlington.
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
ROBSON, R.M. 1926.
Excavations North Side of Filey Parish Church. Unpublished letter.
SHAW, G. 1886. 2nd
Edition: Rambles Around Filey. Shaw & Gray Publishers: Grimsby.
The Filey Bay Initiative is
wishes to than Dan Eaton for giving his permission to reproduce his report on
this site.
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Index