Robin Hood's Bay

Yorkshire’s answer to Looe island, with its alleyways, bolt holes and secret passages for smugglers of days gone by to evade the excise men.

A visit to Robin Hood’s Bay in 1979 provides an opportunity to reveal the skills of amateur filmmakers Doug and Norah Brear of Wakefield in making a mini documentary of a well-known place. This is a fine example of the genre, providing a history of the fishing village and highlighting many of its fascinating features with its links to smuggling.

The Brears, members of Wakefield Cine Club, made over 60 films between 1960 and 1985, many shown at film shows across Yorkshire by their friend and fellow filmmaker Roger Spence. This is the first film that Doug made using super 8 film, although he thought that standard 8 was superior. With its fishing industry now long gone, the beguiling village of Robin Hood’s Bay, despite the absence of any known connection with the legendary outlaw, has become a popular tourist attraction; and all the places featured in the film remain more or less as they were back in the 1970s.