Bridlington: History of Yorkshire seaside town where kite festival returns in 2025 for 10th anniversary

Bridlington is a seaside town in the East Riding of Yorkshire and a stream called Gypsey Race flows through the town and enters the North Sea at the harbour.

One of the town’s popular landmarks is The Priory Church of St Mary which is a Grade I listed building on the site of an Augustinian Priory.

Bridlington is a sea-fishing port, so it is well known for shellfish and is the biggest lobster port in Europe, with more than 300 tonnes of the crustaceans landed there every year.

Every year in May, the town hosts a free two-day Kite Festival and has become one of the most popular annual events on the East Yorkshire coast and 2025 is its 10th year anniversary.

This year the event will take place on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18, 2025, where visitors can watch various kites in the sky from enormous flying frogs to sky-high snakes, large leaping lizards to a whopping whale and huge cute teddy bears, dozens of exotic inflatables.

Every year, various internationally renowned kite experts return to provide incredible kite displays for thousands of spectators over the weekend.

There will also be professional demonstrations and visitors can try out the kites available for loan during supervised sessions as well as the popular parachuting teddy bear drop sessions.

The festival will also include food, drink and charity stalls, fairground rides and children’s entertainment.

History of Bridlington

There is archaeological evidence to prove that the town was inhabited around the Bronze Age and Roman Britain era, though the date of Bridlington’s earliest habitation is unknown.

In the fourth century AD, Count Theodosius put up signal stations along the North Yorkshire coast to alert residents of Saxon raids.

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In 1133, Walter de Gant founded an Augustinian priory on the land which was confirmed by Henry I in a charter.

Throughout centuries, several succeeding kings approved of and extended Walter de Gant’s gift, including King Stephen who granted an additional right to have a port and King John in 1200 gave permission for a weekly market and an annual fair, while Henry VI allowed three annual fairs in 1446.

Henry V visited the priory to offer gratitude for victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor of Bridlington remained with the crown until 1624, when Charles I passed it to Sir John Ramsey, who had recently been dubbed Earl of Holderness.

Sir George Ramsey sold the manor to 13 of the town’s inhabitants in 1633, on behalf of all the manor tenants.

The town grew and grew both in size and significance around the site of the dispersed priory. In 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria of France landed there with troops to support the Royalist cause in the English Civil War, before moving on to York, which became her headquarters.

The town was originally split into two settlements: the Old Town and the Quay area where the present-day harbour is located.

The port was used to transport corn and land fish and the 1826 Corn Exchange can still be seen in the Market Place.

From the early history of Bridlington, a small fishing port grew up near the coast, later known as Bridlington Quay. Following the discovery of a chalybeate spring, the Quay developed in the 19th century into a seaside resort.

The town’s first hotel was opened in 1805 and it soon became a popular destination with industrial workers from the West Riding of Yorkshire.

In 1837, an Act of Parliament enabled the wooden piers to be replaced with two stone piers to the north and south. A new railway station opened in October 1846 between the Quay and the historic town.

The area around it was developed and the two sections of the town were combined.

During the Second World War, Bridlington suffered many air raids that resulted in deaths and a lot of damage from the bombs. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had training schools in the town collectively known as RAF Bridlington, with one unit, No. 1104 Marine Craft Unit, continuing until 1980.

The seaside town’s tourism declined in the 1960s which reduced the number of pleasure steamers working from the harbour. By the end of the decade, just three were operating.