✨ Brian Bilston LIVE in Filey ✨ Known as the Banksy of poetry, Brian Bilston brings his witty, life-affirming poetry to the Evron Centre Concert Hall. 📅 Sat 9 May | ⏰ 7.30pm 🎟 £20 via WeGotTickets or Filey Post Office A rare chance to hear the enigma himself! 📚🎤

🌿 Dive into Yorkshire’s wild beauty with local author & photographer Sarah Banks! She joins us at @FileyLitFest to talk Wild Swimming Walks Yorkshire — 28 incredible swim spots, safety tips & inspiration. 📍 Sat 9 May, 4.30pm | 🎟 £5

The 2026 segment of this season's talks has at last been finalised ... until the weather, police or pay TV get hold of the fixture list that is. Anyway, sharpen your pencils and see you at noon in the Record Cafe over the coming months. #Bradford #SportHistory #Sportingtalks

Festival favourite Kathryn Ferry returns with her latest book, 20th Century Seaside Architecture — an exploration of Britain’s iconic seafront buildings, from lidos and piers to hotels, bandstands and amusement arcades. 🏖️ 📍 Evron Centre, Filey 🗓 Saturday 9 May 2026 ⏰ 3pm 🎟 Tickets via WeGotTickets

We’re thrilled to welcome multi-award-winning author Annabel Abbs to Filey! ✨ Author of Frieda: The Original Lady Chatterley, Windswept, 52 Ways to Walk & The Walking Cure. 📍 Evron Centre, Concert Hall 🗓 Sat 9 May 2026 | ⏰ 1.30pm 🎟 £5 via WeGotTickets #AnnabelAbbs #AuthorTalk #FileyEvents

The author and creator of a beautiful hand drawn guide to the Yorkshire coast is scheduled to speak at Filey Literature Festival on Saturday 9 May. Tickets on sale now for what promises to be a fascinating talk.

Once the preserve of the rich and famous; a walk through the public gardens, Filey Literature Festival explores the great outdoors.

Friday night at Filey Literature Festival is our maritime history slot. Peter Moore tells the story of the one of the most famous ships ever to sail the seas, the Whitby-built Endeavour, as he states: the ship that changed the world. 8 May 2026, tickets on sale now #MaritimeHistory #NavalHistory

Tickets for the opening night of Filey Literature Festival 2026 are on sale. Withernsea’s second best poet brings a dose of East Coast Fever to … well the east coast.

It's nearly time to open the first page of the 2026 Filey Literature Festival. Over the coming weeks we will be revealing this year's line up. As usual it will be communal, coastal and a little crackers. Ladies and Gentlemen: Clear your diaries!

Many sports have sought to replicate the success of the famous Scarborough Cricket Festival, holding summer festival games in an attempt to attract holidaymaking crowds. Perhaps the most successful was the annual rugby festival, hosted by Scarborough RFC for seventeen years, here is its story.

A railway that was never built, frozen in time. The tiled maps of the North Eastern Railway, an extract from my recent book 'On the Tracks of the Flying Scotsman'.

On Saturday, we have the first Sporting Lunchtime Lecture of 2026 and it is a familiar face to Bradford City fans, as long-standing City Gent editor Mike Harrison speaks about the art of the front cover of the City Gent fanzine. Noon at the Record cafe, see you there!

Not much doing up the allotment

A day of snow showers and dramatic skies. An ever changing panorama. #filey #yorkshire

Happy new year from Scarborough’s best (only to be fair) Italian bar

There’s nowhere better than Bradford’s Darley St Market for random purchases: a bottle of Rumanian brandy, Italian fennel sausages and a sarnie with black German ham in it.

In the 1850s cricket games took place between Wurtzburgh and Reichenhiem, Schunk Brothers & Co. and S. Barsdorf. This wasn’t Hamburg, Berlin or Cologne. It was Bradford. Yorkshiremen representing German companies, playing the quintessentially English game, in a heavily industrialised environment.

The world's leading rugby historian gave the late November sporting lunchtime lecture. Listen to Dr Tony Collins talk on the career of Roy Francis, an innovator and leader of post war Rugby League. The remarkable story of a black man from Wales who revolutionised coaching. #RugbyHistory

Delighted to have an article published on the Schiller-Verein Club in Bradford. The bust of the philosopher Schiller gazes out across Rawson Square: Germanic Bradford, a Gothic dream, classical music, warehouses of Little Germany & romanticism that inspired the writing of the Bronte sisters.

On Saturday I'm telling the perhaps unlikely story of German's and cricket in 1850s Bradford and the first step towards the famous Bradford Cricket League. Noon at the Record Cafe, North Parade, Bradford. Free entry as ever, just buy a pint or a cuppa. #CricketHistory

It's peace in our time! After intensive shuttle diplomacy, we have resolved our issues with La Liga ... so here's Rob's April talk bringing a touch of Spanish sunshine to North Parade.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott is back! The suspended club president is set to be reinstated. It's all change at Scarborough Cricket Club, Sunday's meeting of club members voted in a new board to take the historic club towards a new future. #Cricket #Yorkshire #Scarborough

On the eve of Sunday's crisis meeting the board of Scarborough Cricket Club resigns en masse. Another twist in a dramatic winter at North Marine Road. Suspended club president Geoffrey Boycott poised to return. #Cricket #Scarborough #Yorkshire

A week on Saturday, the unlikely story of German cricket in 1850s Bradford. Come along to the Record Cafe, Bradford at noon on 13 December to hear about the German roots of league cricket in one of Yorkshire's largest cities. #CricketHistory #GermanCricket #YorkshireCricket #Bradford2025

From Montevideo to Manchester, Tokyo to Turin, the appeal of football cards knows no bounds. Yet how many people are aware that this global obsession has its roots in Bradford? Baines Cards produced millions of collectors cards depicting sporting personalities and clubs. #FootballHistory

Today at noon, the latest sporting lunchtime lecture at the Record Cafe, Bradford. And it’s free!

As the sun barely clears the horizon and the days are short, a promise of sunlit horizons. Etch the dates on the inside of your eyelids. #CountyCricket

I've added a few more images to the piece about the men named on the Scarborough Cricket Club war memorial. An ongoing obsession, but the men are worthy of our remembrance. #CricketHistory #WW1

The line up of speakers for the 2025/26 Sporting Lunchtime Lectures is complete. See you at the Record Cafe, Bradford at noon on Saturday for the latest instalment.

Will Geoffrey Boycott be reinstated as Scarborough Cricket Club president? A special general meeting of the members is finally scheduled for 7 December. #cricket #Yorkshire #Scarborough #GeoffreyBoycott

Join me at Brompton-by-Sawdon, for a presentation on a forgotten element of the Bombardment of Scarborough. The dramatic story of a minefield that would claim 20 ships. It is a story that is still on going, as the divers of Scarborough Sub Aqua Club hunt for five missing ship wrecks. #NavalHistory

The busy world muffled beneath a blanket of snow. The brief pause before the council truck appears to turn the pure white snow into slush.

On Saturday 29 November the Sporting Lunch Time Lecture series continues with the remarkable story of Rugby's Forgotten Black Leader, Roy Francis. Dr Tony Collins brings this remarkable story to life at the Record Cafe, Bradford. #Bradford #RugbyLeague @officialbullsrl.bsky.social

Two Belgian brothers, and their Armistice Day trip to record the graves of Scarborough Cricket Club members who died in the Great War. #CricketHistory #Scarborough #WW1

On Armistice Day Frank and Tom Depoorter visited and photographed the graves of five of the men named on the Scarborough Cricket Club War Memorial. I've added the images to the page dedicated to the memorial. A post about Frank and Tom's trip to the graves will be posted next week.

On a dark March night, 100 bombers attacked Scarborough. A huge parachute mine landed in North Marine Road, bringing with it death and destruction. A hidden history, one that lies beneath the feet of thousands of cricket fans as they enter the North Marine Road ground. #WW2 #CricketHistory

On Remembrance Sunday, here are the stories of two men who should have been on Scarborough Cricket Club's War Memorial; it is hoped that an addenda plaque will be added when the existing memorial is relocated at the ground. #WW1 #CricketHistory #Scarborough

At last, the sporting lunchtime lectures return for the 2025/26 season. Saturday, high noon at the Record Cafe, North Parade, Bradford. Capital of Culture. You'll Never Sing That ... and it is free. #SportHistory #Bradford

The bun fight goes nuclear at Scarborough Cricket Club ... Geoffrey Boycott Accused of Gross Misconduct #Cricket

Today's news that Geoffrey Boycott has been suspended by Scarborough Cricket Club, following allegations that he supplied confidential information to a club member who is part of a bid to overthrow the committee, my post of the club's AGM gives the backdrop to the crisis that is engulfing SCC.

Ghost sign lit by the morning sun in Bradford.

A few days left to grab 20% off my book ‘On the Tracks of the Flying Scotsman’. Follow the link to Great Northern Books.

As we approach Remembrance Sunday, it seemed an appropriate time to rewrite my article on Scarborough Cricket Club's war memorial. I've tried to put it in its context and have expanded some of the stories of the men listed on the memorial. #CricketHistory #WW1

A drama beneath towering chalk cliffs, retold via a rediscovered hotel visitor book. A Hull trawler and Foords Hotel, Filey. #MaritimeHistory

The bizarre story of a cricket club’s balloon and its journey across the North Sea. An inadvertent cricketing message in a bottle. #scarborough #germany #cricket

I’ve been busy updating the stories of the Scarborough Cricket Club members featured on the club’s recently rediscovered war memorial. Some images of the men and their final resting places have been added. Quite a bit more to do and, as ever, any additional information would be gratefully received.

Organising the 2025 Sporting Lunchtime Lecture programme at The Record Cafe has been tougher than normal, due to the happy fact that Bradford City's home games are a bit frantic. But here we go for the new season!

Sunny evening in Crown Heights. Home of good beer, good vibes and my daughter Rosie. We toasted Bradford City’s continued reign at the top of the league. #peckedbythechickens #brooklynbantams

The Hudson River derby. NY Red Bulls 2 NYCFC 3. Family links to the Red Bulls previous iteration, the NY Metrostars, meant that I was rooting for the Red Bulls. But my heart wasn’t in it. #hudsonriverderby #NewYork