# Butlins Station (Filey)



## dobbo79 (Feb 26, 2011)

Ok so i know this has been done recently but i also visted the site a bit ago. Unfortunatley my memory card did not save the pics so a revisit was in order - would be rude not to considering it is literally down the road from the good old parents house. Onyl my second report so go easy on me 

So armed with a little digital camera (im only a beginner  ), a pair of wellies...and....erm.....my mum ..off we went...

Here is a bit of WIKI history :

Filey Holiday Camp railway station was a railway station built by the London & North Eastern Railway to serve the Butlins Holiday Camp just south of Filey, in the then East Riding of Yorkshire, England. (Filey became part of North Yorkshire in 1974.) The station was officially opened on 10 May 1947 by Lord Middleton, Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire.[1]

The station was situated at the end of a short branch line off the Yorkshire Coast Line. It had four long terminus island platforms to cater for the large number of holiday makers arriving and departing from the holiday camp each Saturday during the holiday season. The station was located to the west of the A165 and was connected to the holiday camp by a private subway under the road. Passengers were taken to and from the station by a road train using this subway. Passenger numbers dropped significantly as more people arrived at the camp by car and the station closed to passengers on 17 July 1977.

Now on with the pics (sorry for the large content)





Not exactly a grand entrance... by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The Gate leading to the station




Steps away from the station by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The Steps




Slippery pathway back to the steps by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Mind your step - its a bit slippery




the view that greets you by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Not exactly a pretty picture - view of the staition concorse where the road train would turn around




End of the line by claire.dobson, on Flickr
End of the Line - this service terminates




"The train now approaching platform 1" by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The view onto the platform




A gas light holder had finally given up by claire.dobson, on Flickr
A light Post finally given in..




"Stand clear of the buffers" by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Stand clear of the buffers




Logs anyone by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Logs on the Platform




Down the platform by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Looking down the platform




Light posts still remain by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The old Lamposts on the platform are overshadowed by the new wind turbines further down the old trainline which approaches the station




Given in to the elements - this lamp post lays down by claire.dobson, on Flickr




"Stand Clear - Runaway train heading this way" by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Buffers in which a runaway train went through..




Runaway train by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The runaway Train which ran into Butlins Station as 35mph, dmaging the buffers and knocking over a wall of concrete weighing at least 5 tonnes




The subway by claire.dobson, on Flickr
The Entrance to the subway which goes under the A165 road, obscured by Mother Nature and on closer inspection a very large, deep, puddle!




"tickets please" by claire.dobson, on Flickr
I can only presume this is the foundation to some kind of ticket booth, maybe for the roadtrain




Overgrown Subway under the A165 by claire.dobson, on Flickr
Entrance to the Subway - I wasnt ruining another pair of wellies wading in here to get into the subway..possible to do though, but not on this visit

Thankyou for Looking


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## darrenwindle (Feb 26, 2011)

eally nice pics there Claire. Such a shame theres only the bare structures left such as the platforms... But that subway would be a very nice photo op deinately.


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## phill.d (Feb 26, 2011)

Nice one Claire. Blimey that subway entrance is much more overgrown than when i visited in 2008. The standing water is much deeper too. 







The subway is worth taking wellies for. There seems to be old relics from Butlins days stored at the far end. 
I still can't work out what they were part of.


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## dobbo79 (Feb 26, 2011)

Yeah Phil...from what i could see the farmer (possibly) had banked up the entrance to the subway with mud thus making the water gather more here..ive seen pics of the tunnel and apparently there are old toilet sistons (or however you spell it) shoved in here...obviously the other end is now blocked as Primrose Valley have developed their new Tourers entrance and its all grassed over..

To be honest i cant see the entrance lasting much longer...i could hardly see through the trees to it..and i didnt have my steamboat to plough through either lol....another time...i might even get my scuba gear out haha


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## phill.d (Feb 26, 2011)

dobbo79 said:


> Yeah Phil...from what i could see the farmer (possibly) had banked up the entrance to the subway with mud thus making the water gather more here..ive seen pics of the tunnel and apparently there are old toilet sistons (or however you spell it) shoved in here...obviously the other end is now blocked as Primrose Valley have developed their new Tourers entrance and its all grassed over..
> 
> To be honest i cant see the entrance lasting much longer...i could hardly see through the trees to it..and i didnt have my steamboat to plough through either lol....another time...i might even get my scuba gear out haha








Just dug out this old shot from January 2009. 
It looks like your predictions about the subway not lasting much longer are well founded


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## dobbo79 (Feb 26, 2011)

phill.d said:


> Nice one Claire. Blimey that subway entrance is much more overgrown than when i visited in 2008. The standing water is much deeper too.
> 
> [The subway is worth taking wellies for. There seems to be old relics from Butlins days stored at the far end.
> I still can't work out what they were part of.



Ive just spent the best part of an hour and a half trawling through the old pics of Butlins trying to find what these relics are..to me they look like some form of seat...maybe from an old fairground ride but i cant find anything on them


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## nij4829 (Feb 26, 2011)

good pics, nice to see this place again. keep it up


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## TK421 (Feb 26, 2011)

Nice one Claire, glad to see you got a second chance to capture this place on camera, its a peaceful site. Great photos


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## woody65 (Feb 26, 2011)

has the banking down to the tunnel on the station side has been removed? because you could not see the tunnel from the station before. the stuff in the tunnel is from PV not butlins, they are the table surrounds from the swimming pool restaurant before they rebuilt it, PV when first taking over the land and tunnel in the early 80s used to store there land train in the tunnel(not to be confused with the butlins one)


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## dobbo79 (Feb 26, 2011)

woody65 said:


> has the banking down to the tunnel on the station side has been removed? because you could not see the tunnel from the station before. the stuff in the tunnel is from PV not butlins, they are the table surrounds from the swimming pool restaurant before they rebuilt it, PV when first taking over the land and tunnel in the early 80s used to store there land train in the tunnel(not to be confused with the butlins one)



Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh thankyou woody - i was actually thinking maybe these were from PV and was actually looking at old "playarama" pics (the old playground that used to be on the clifftop at PV) - Least that has shed some light on it...now we know - the banking does seem to have been removed as Picture 15 (the entrance to the subway) was takien from Platform 4 (zoomed in of course)..i do remember the PV road train being stored in the tunnel (a family friend used to drive it) but back in those days i did not realise that the tunnel went all the way through..sadly now the portal at the other end is underground and built under a nice, grassy bank...


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## Foxylady (Feb 27, 2011)

Really interesting report. I love seeing all the various odd remains and the history behind it. Nice one, Claire.


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## woody65 (Feb 27, 2011)

dobbo79 said:


> Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh thankyou woody - i was actually thinking maybe these were from PV and was actually looking at old "playarama" pics (the old playground that used to be on the clifftop at PV) - Least that has shed some light on it...now we know - the banking does seem to have been removed as Picture 15 (the entrance to the subway) was takien from Platform 4 (zoomed in of course)..i do remember the PV road train being stored in the tunnel (a family friend used to drive it) but back in those days i did not realise that the tunnel went all the way through..sadly now the portal at the other end is underground and built under a nice, grassy bank...



i remember the old playground on the front with the trampolines, you used to have to go through a old turnstile to get in? place was a death trap, always blood everywhere 

the swimming pool used to have a glass fiber roof or was it asbestos? and was in the corner of PV. i seemed to remember on the butlins side had gates. last year the tunnel portal had opened up, they had a fence around the hole?


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## dobbo79 (Feb 27, 2011)

haha woody very true about the blood...was a kids haven wasnt it..i remember the trampolines as i hurt my foot on one..
When we were down there yesterday it seems that PV are extending yet again..this time to the right of the tourers entrance..and this if you look is the area of the old butlins boating lake. The outline can clearly be seen on google earth/google maps....seems all traces of Butlins are slowly been eaten by Primrose Valley... Its funny that the only part of Butlins left is the part that people know least about...and this is slowly being eaten by mother nature...


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## Zotez (Feb 27, 2011)

What a strange site, its amazing that somewhere that was once full of activity has ended up like this.


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## terrier (Mar 1, 2011)

Keep meaning to stop at this place everytime im in the area, the whole Filey Butlins thing really fascinates me.

I remember years ago some bloke called Trevor Guy (i think) opened a fun park on the former site but never lasted long, last i heard of him he went bankrupt was in court for stealing church artifacts.

Thanks for the pics.

Terrier.


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## dobbo79 (Mar 1, 2011)

terrier said:


> Keep meaning to stop at this place everytime im in the area, the whole Filey Butlins thing really fascinates me.
> 
> I remember years ago some bloke called Trevor Guy (i think) opened a fun park on the former site but never lasted long, last i heard of him he went bankrupt was in court for stealing church artifacts.
> 
> ...



Yeah Terrier - thats correct, i looked up a bit of history..Trevor Guy bought the park in Oct 1985 and Sold a 40 acre part of the site to Primrose Valley. He was going to demolish the site and build holiday bungalows but then decided to carry it on as a holiday park, so after refurbing (painting basically) all the chalets and the amenities he opened Amtree Park in a big Ceremony in May 1986 (Ernie Wise was the guest of honour).

Visitor numbers were extremely low so to save money many amenities were closed down and remained closed until the complete closure. Amtree Park finally closed its doors completely in July 1986 - after around 6 weeks of operation.

Demolition began slowly in 1988... I sound really boring now dont i lol


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## terrier (Mar 1, 2011)

Not at all boring! Amtree park...yeah thats what it was called, thanks for the info Dobbo 

Terrier.


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## TK421 (Mar 1, 2011)

Interesting stuff Claire about the attempted reopening of the park, clearly My Guys optimisim outweighted the reality of the package holiday, I holidays the year before last at Pontins at Southport for a few days, it was beyond grim. Still, I am glad the station still exists (sort of), and I love how you have found a picture of the loco overrunning the buffers, well done that woman!


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## dobbo79 (Mar 2, 2011)

Here is the story on the Runaway Train...
Seems the signalman at the Triangle Junction was a hero that day

http://www.hunmanby.com/harrycrash.html


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## Trinpaul (Mar 8, 2011)

Very long platforms, looked at from a certain angle and they go on forever!


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