This post is a big departure for me.  I rarely stray out of the United States. There are so many fascinating things to discuss here. Also, as interesting as they are, I know very little about other countries’ histories. I’m curious about other places though and, occasionally, even I feel a little wanderlust!

WordPress assures me that Old Spirituals has regular readers in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales and I want them to engage with all of us here in the U.S.  I’m encouraging our friends in the British Isles to leave comments to suggest interesting turn-of-the-century crimes, events, fashions, etc. from your area that we might cover here. Winning suggestions will get a free copy of my newest audiobook, Grievous Deeds, from UK Audible!

With that, let us travel together to the seaside village of Filey, located on the Yorkshire Coast of England. Filey has been a hub of commercial fishing activity for hundreds of years.

As you might expect, Filey was populated largely by the families of fishermen at the turn of the century. The lives of the people were intimately connected with sea and the area flourished, thanks in part to the Flamborough lighthouse, which became operative in December of 1806. Even today, its bright light sweeps across the North Sea, warning passing ships of the perilous coastline.

A young man living in the village of Filey at the turn of the century might chafe at the relatively few opportunities he had to earn more money. To supplement his earnings, he might turn to a dangerous occupation called egging. This involved scaling the cliffs between Filey and Flamborough Head to collect sea bird eggs during May and June.

The eggs could be eaten by themselves, in omelets, cakes, and candies. Apparently, these eggs were especially valuable to tanners and shoemakers to enhance the gloss applied to leather.

From the mid 1700s until 1954, egging was a common practice amongst young men. Though many people in the British Isles consider gull eggs to be a delicacy and the government has, in times of emergency,  recommended supplementing the limited number of hen’s eggs with gull eggs, egging is strictly limited in the United Kingdom today.

The gull eggs are quite beautiful, don’t you think?

Less than 100 licensed gull eggers are operating in the UK and they are only permitted to collect a limited number of eggs from select sites during the season. Conservation organizations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust demanded an end to egging, citing the activities of unlicensed egg collectors.

Most of the information and pictures in this post are from www.exploringfileyspast.co.uk and www.filey.co.uk.

The Flamborough Lighthouse is really neat. I was looking for a video of the lighthouse at night and this was the best one I found. It was taken from Bridlington, six miles south of the lighthouse.  Filey is about 14 miles north.