The Filey Dragon

The Myth

Long ago people living on the North Sea coast at Filey were terrorised by a large sea dragon. The locals discovered that the dragon had a sweet tooth, so they fed it Yorkshire Parkin -  ‘A wonderfully rich concoction of sticky black treacle, ginger and oatmeal, baked into a rich and malty all-butter cake ready to slice and enjoy with a good, strong cuppa.’ - according to Betty’s. The sticky cake glued the dragon’s teeth together. It plunged into the sea to try and wash the cake away but it had eaten too much and drowned. According to the myth the fossilized bones of the dragon then formed the rocks of Filey Brigg, a long narrow peninsula about a mile north of Filey. It is a Nature Reserve and a site of Special Scientific Interest. An underwater structure on its south side known as ‘The Spittals’ may have been used by the Romans. A ‘Dragon Ring’ installation in Filey Brigg Country Park was inspired by the myth and is used by local schools as an outdoor classroom.

Slippery Sam

In the 1930’s, during a time of media frenzy about the Loch Ness Monster, there were reports that the Yorkshire coast was being visited by a mysterious sea monster. There were multiple sightings at different locations along the coast, including by a former Lord Mayor and two well-known Labour politicians. The monster was dubbed ‘Slippery Sam’, ‘The Humber Monster’ and the ‘Withernsea Visitor’. Eye witness descriptions included ‘a huge body with numerous humps and a small head’, ‘a head like a horse or hippopotamus, big eyes and a broad snout’, ‘like a huge snake; about 40 feet long and different parts of the body rose in and out of the water with the movement of an eel’. 

Speeton Plesiosaur

A real life ‘sea monster’ was discovered in 2001 at Speeton, just down the coast from Filey. The fossilized remains of a plesiosaur were found in clay deposits dating from the Lower Cretaceous. The 140 million years old skeleton is complete apart from the head and is thought likely to be a new species that would fill a 60 million year gap in plesiosaur evolution. It was donated to Scarborough Museums and Galleries and is currently on display in the Rotunda Museum. There is also a plesiosaur sculpture in Glen Gardens. 

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www.wakefield.gov.uk/libraries

www.bettys.co.uk

https://visitnorthyorkshire.com

https://scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk/

https://northernlifemagazine.co.uk/yorkshires-nessie-slippery-sam/

Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons