East Yorkshire Folk Tales

Ingrid Barton gathers legends from the East Yorkshire coast, the Wolds, Holderness and neighbouring stretches of the North Yorkshire shore. The collection ranges from animal lore and sea stories to accounts of saints, village oddities, ghosts and local villains.

Among the tales are the story of how Filey Brigg became a dragon, mermaids associated with Staithes, and the love story linked to Beggar’s Bridge. Other chapters recount medieval hauntings, fairy gifts, the Screaming Skull, the Drumming Well and the Hand of Glory. Historical traditions involving press gangs, smugglers, pirates and wartime danger sit alongside older beliefs, giving the county’s landscape a distinctly local cast of legends.