History
Although the Bridlington Links Golf Club opened it’s doors on the first of May, 1993, the farm land the course inhabits has a much longer history.
Bridlington was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement. Its name is derived from 'Beohrtel's ton', which translates as 'a farm belonging to Beohrtel'. Similarly, the nearby village of Sewerby takes its name from the Viking tongue and means 'Siward's farm or village'.
Bridlington is a coastal market town and its most important historic feature is Bridlington Priory. The priory was founded in 1120 for Augustinian canons by Walter de Gant but of the present remains, nothing dates before the 13th century. Bridlington Priory was largely destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its last Prior, William Wode was executed at Tyburn for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The church of the priory, dedicated to St Mary remains in full, escaping the destruction that followed the Dissolution of the Monasteries, because it was the Parish church of Bridlington. Some of the stones from the old priory were used in the construction of Bridlington's piers.
There has been a harbour at Bridlington for over 800 years, though the present harbour was built between 1816 and 1848, firstly with the North Quay, and then, some years later the South Quay was added.
One of the best known characters associated with the priory was John of Bridlington, who was born at Thwing, a few miles to the north west in 1362. He was famed for working miracles and after his death in 1401 was made a saint by the Pope.
During the Civil War, Bridlington was used as a landing place by Queen Henrietta, Charles I's queen. She landed at Bridlington on February 22nd 1643 to escape the canon fire of Parliamentarian ships.
It was only fourteen years later that a Quaker called Robert Fowler set sail from Bridlington to America with eleven Quakers and with absolutely no experience of sailing. Remarkably they landed safely in America only a few miles from their intended destination. In the following century Bridlington was under attack from the Anericans, when the Privateer John Paul Jones was engaged in a sea battle in which his ship was sunk just off the Bridlington coast. Jones escaped!. John had also launched attacks at Alnmouth Northumberland and at Skinningrove further up the Yorkshire coast.
Notable houses in the neighbourhood of Bridlington include the Elizabethan Burton Agnes Hall which was built in 1598 six miles west of Bridlington . Burton means the farm on the burgh or fortified manor. Agnes is Agnes de Albermarle who witnessed a deed at Burton Agnes in 1175. Sewerby Hall with its gardens is a 19th century parkland hall just to the north of Bridlington.