The American writer Louise Beebe Wilder evocative description of snowdrops came to mind on a windy, but sunny, stroll past St. Oswald’s Church. Although there is still a bite in the wind, the sunshine and the sight of snowdrops and the emerging green stems of the daffodils, are the harbinger of warmer days to come.

Snowdrops at St. Oswald’s

Filey’s beautiful twelfth century church, set upon a hillside overlooking both the town and the bay, has been at the centre of Filey life for 900 years.

This ancient place of worship is dedicated to St. Oswald, King of Northumbria. One of the founders of Christianity in the north. At its zenith the Kingdom of Northumbria stretched from the River Humber to Edinburgh, essentially most of modern day northern England and a large part of southern Scotland.

Oswald was referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as being at one point the ‘Bretwalda’ or Emperor of Britain. Oswald was killed during 641 and, because he was fighting a pagan horde, soon after his death he became Saint Oswald.

The Church Ravine that separates the town from its church is the old boundary between the East and North Riding’s of Yorkshire. Hence the phrase ‘it’ll not be long before he’s in the North Riding’ (i.e. the graveyard), if a Filonian was seriously ill.

In the nineteenth century St Oswald’s Church was restored, the results were mixed, while the fabric of the church ensured its future, some ancient features were lost. A fire in 1908 destroyed the organ and the present day version dates from this time.

Between 10.30am and 12.30am the church is manned by volunteers and on most days visitors are more than welcome to enjoy the church. The graveyard has over a thousand burials and some of the gravestones are fascinating windows into past lives and livelihoods.

Commonwealth War Graves at St. Oswald’s

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Unlike overseas burials, families in the United Kingdom were able to choose the last resting place of their relatives. Although there are a handful of substantial war cemeteries in the UK, the largest example being the large 5,000 grave Brookwood site, the vast majority of the graves overseen by the CWGC are in individual churchyards spread across the length and breadth of the country.

At Filey St Oswald’s the CWGC has twenty-five registered graves. Not all lie beneath the standard white headstone so recognisably that of the CWGC. Six of the graves date from the Great War, whilst nineteen come from the Second World War. There are eleven soldiers, nine sailors and five airmen. Whilst the bulk, fourteen, are Filey men, there are also three Polish soldiers and two Canadian airmen. The Polish graves are recognisable by their slightly conical shaped tops that mark them out from the usual Commonwealth burial markers.

The three Polish war graves are recognisable by their conical shaped headstones

On a number of family graves, Filey men who were killed on active service, but are buried or commemorated elsewhere, are remembered with inscriptions on family graves. One example being Charles Bailey who was killed when the battleship HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

There are a myriad of stories surrounding the service personnel remembered by the CWGC. Many died defending the home front, others were drowned at sea or made it home to Britain, only to succumb to wounds received on the front line. The website of the CWGC can be searched by surname or location. It is a fascinating and truly humbling archive.

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