Whitby and its wildlife!

alan — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:02:34 +0000

Whitby is usually known for its tourists but they will not the only thing descending on Whitby this summer, as these quirky snaps will prove.

As Britain’s insect wildlife flourishes in the heat these creepy creatures were snapped by sharp-eyed residents.
Freelance photographer Robert Townsend, spotted an awe-inspiring dragonfly in the garden of Lisa Truman, on Cherry Close in the Stakesby area.
Mr Townsend believes the bug to be a very rare sight in the town as they are normally to be found in wet, boggy areas like marsh land.
After a bit of research it turns out that the flying beast could in fact be the female Southern Hawker dragonfly, Aeshna cyanea.
In Sleights, Gazette reader Janet Vandy captured this bug-eyed beast (inset bottom), identified as a Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar.
“I thought you might be interested in this caterpillar, it certainly had attitude,” she said.
The Elephant Hawk got its name because of the caterpillar’s resemblance to an elephant’s trunk.
Known as the Deilephila elepenor, the adult moth is bright green and pink in colour and can be found throughout Britain and Ireland.
Meanwhile up on the moors, the mysterious creature (main image) was spotted by Emma Atkins of Whitby on a family day out.
Emma, along with her husband Duncan and son Jordan, spotted this pink-spotted creepy-crawly at Ralph’s Cross, next to the Lion at Blakey Ridge, one of the highest points on the North York Moors.

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Whitby’s History and Tourist Attractions

alan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:59:06 +0000

Whitby's History and Tourist Attractions

My favourite resort has to be Whitby, the beautiful fishing town on the North Yorkshire coast.

I love the ride over the North York moors ,a vastly expansive Moor, with lovely villages like Goathland the Heartbeat village nestling among the heather. Driving down from the moor the village of Sleights is a pleasant cluster of shops and houses, and then it’s over a small bridge and a glimpse of the cascading River Esk before arriving in Whitby. I never tire of its timelessness and charm, the red rooftops falling into one another ,seagulls crying, the harbour, and the smell of the sea. My next project is to start a dedicated website to the history of Whitby and its present-day tourist attractions. This is just a brief description of why I love that place by Alan Davidson Blog

Whitby Abbey itself dates back to the 7th Century when the town was first established and was founded by a Northumbrian Princess called Hilda. Today within the abbey itself, you will find a shrine for St Hilda. The first abbey that was built on this site was in fact destroyed by a party of Vikings, but it was then rebuilt by the Normans and stands now as a testament to their building skills and is well worth a visit.

Just in front of the abbey you also have the parish church of St. Mary which has a Norman tower and an 18th century interior, the work of local shipwrights. The miniature whale bone arch in picture 3 forms part of a nearby gate. There are good views of the abbey and St. Mary’s Church from the West Cliffs.

You get a magnificent view looking down over the town and its harbour. you can see the view that inspired the fertile imagination of author Bram Stoker, who stayed in the Royal Hotel on the western side of Whitby while writing his famous novel Count Dracula . One of the most popular stories ever told, Dracula has been re-created for the stage and screen hundreds of times in the last century.

The old town itself has many tourist attractions and is a beautiful setting with the old cobbled streets and red rooftops. There are also trips out to sea, last visit, I had a two-hour cruise on a large yacht called on Specksioneer a Dutch vessel, the name means the top part of the harpoon. It took us to Robin Hood’s Bay and we saw porpoises jumping in and out of the water! You can also have a trip on Whitby’s old life boat which was built in 1938, and is called Mary Ann Hepworth, which is a shorter trip to see Whitby from the sea.

Whitby is also famous for its jet a local, semi-precious stone, (formerly fossilized wood). When polished it is shiny black in colour – hence the phrase ‘jet black’. Whitby Jet comes from the monkey puzzle tree and during the reign of Queen Victoria, protocol dictated that only Jet jewellery could be worn at court during periods of official mourning. This royal endorsement confirmed the status of Jet as the material of choice for mourning jewellery and fuelled the expansion of the Jet industry in the late 1800’s. Never was this more so than in the period following the death of Victoria’s husband Prince Albert from typhoid fever in December 1861.

The little film below explains the origins of this fine black mysterious stone which can make beautiful jewellery. It explains if you go beachcombing for Whitby Jet which is valuable etc how to tell the real McCoy from black coal stones which are worthless. Whitby Jet

One of Whitby’s most famous sailors is James Cook who was born in 1728 in the village of Marton,now a suburb of Middlesbrough. This is where the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum now stands, in the grounds of Stewart Park, and a granite urn marks the spot of the actual cottage where he was born.

Captain James Cook was one of the world’s finest explorers and navigators, who in 1768, sailed on the Endeavour, and in 1770 was the first European to sight, explore, and chart Australia’s east coast. He named the land he found “New South Wales”, and claimed it for Britain and King George III.
Whether you see Whitby by car, by coach or on foot, I am sure it will weave its magic and you will want to return time after time.

Whitby Guide 2010. HD filmed trip through Whitby

Blu Ray cinema plan for Whitby

alan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:47:48 +0000

Blu Ray cinema plan for Whitby

WHITBY Pavilion Theatre will soon have its own cinema.

As part of a county-wide scheme, backed with £400,000 of lottery funding over three years, the North Yorkshire Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme will supply digital cinema-standard projection equipment and high definition Blu Ray kit to the venue. Screenings are expected to begin later this year.
People will be able to enjoy a modern digital cinema experience including live opera, theatre and sport satellite events beamed across the UK without having to travel long distances.
Jeremy Hartill, executive manager of Whitby Pavilion told the Whitby Gazette: “This is fabulous news for the venue and the town.
“The Pavilion Theatre is ideal for a cinema.
“We hope to get a regular audience from the town and look forward to bringing the digital cinema experience to Whitby.
“We are hoping to announce start dates in our autumn brochure.”

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Grosmont company snaps up steam engine

alan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:33:07 +0000

AN iconic steam engine is set to stay at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) for the foreseeable future after it was snapped up for an undisclosed sum by a volunteer driver from Grosmont.

The British Railways 9F locomotive 92214 – one of the batch of steam locos to be built for British Rail in 1959 – was bought by Grosmont-based company PV Premier Limited, owned by Stuart Whitter.
It was built at Swindon works in 1959 at a cost of just over £33,000 and was engineered to haul heavy freight.
At the time it was known as a spaceship as a result of its huge size and shape.
Its hauling capability makes it an ideal engine for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which has some of the steepest inclines on Britain’s rail network and which operates trains comprising eight carriages on hourly journeys between Pickering, Levisham, Goathland and Grosmont.
The NYMR will now begin detailed discussions with the new owners with the aim of seeing the locomotive remain on the railway.
The heavy freight locomotive has been the subject of a painstaking restoration from a South Wales scrapyard, from where it had been condemned to its present superb condition by the 9F Locomotive Charitable Trust, from whom the locomotive was purchased.
Mr Whitter has been a volunteer driver on the NYMR for 30 years as well as being a professional rail traction engineer and major international projects consultant.
Other key players in the purchase are company secretary Valerie Walter and Danny Dymott who have been widely involved in planning and funding the aquisition.
Mr Whitter said: “The locomotive is already proving a great success and is drawing the crowds at the North Yorkshire Moors.
“This massive yet graceful machine attracts people to flock around it whenever it enters a station and is a definite bonus for visitors to the railway.
“It makes its presence felt wherever it goes.
“We are looking forward to working with the NYMR and fellow volunteers to maintain the locomotive to the same very high standard the 9F Trust have set, to ensure that this fabulous machine continues to entertain and educate future generations.”
Since the locomotive arrived on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway several weeks ago as a guest engine, it has proved to be popular with many visitors enquiring about its timetabled running.
It has been the subject of a painstaking restoration by the 9F Locomotive Charitable Trust, from whom the locomotive has been bought.
Philip Benham, general manager of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, said: “We are delighted to hear that the engine has been purchased by a local firm.
” In order for the engine to become a permanent resident on the line, we now need to enter into detailed discussions with the new owners to iron out the various arrangements.
“We would also like to pay tribute to the outgoing owners for their help in keeping this wonderful engine steaming.”

All on board for an old Bus Trip from Whitby

alan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:30:52 +0000

All on board for an old Bus Trip from Whitby

Two old buses are being lovingly restored for trips around the North York Moors National Park. One is a 1946, green and cream Leyland coach which is known as the Heritage bus, tours the south-west corner of the North York Moors. The bus travels between Thirst and the Hemsley calling a picturesque villages of Kilburn, Coxwold, Ambleforth , Hawnby and Hutton-le-hole along the way as well as Sutton Bank National Pack Centre. . From Whitby people can hop on board a beautiful 1958 Bedford coach to get to the Moors National Park Centre and the wonderful views from Danby Beacon. The vintage bus departs from Whitby at 11 AM every Sunday morning from 25 July through to 29 August plus bank holiday Monday. Janet Armstrong, the National Park authority transport project officer said both buses offer people the chance of a great day out with some fabulous views of North York’s Moors. They are also good value for money and help people and help keep congestion on a narrow moorland roads to a minimum. Timetables for the heritage and vintage buses can be found in the morbus network timetable available from the National Park and visitors information centres and also online at www.northyorkmoores.org/moorsbus

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Do NOT get cheated by an unscrupulous electrician!

alan — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:19:01 +0000

Do NOT get cheated by an unscrupulous electrician!

I went to a old ladies house recently and was absolutely horrified by the fact that she was about to have a very expensive, not to mention very invasive rewire on a bungalow. This lady was obviously in a late 70s and I’ve been a widow for almost 10 years and she was exactly the kind of fodder for a conman. In actual fact I’ve been called to replace the battery in the burglar alarm panel, but whilst I was there we got chatting and she told me that the power had been switched off because the lights were fusing and she’d had an electrician. He had told her that the wiring was substandard and dangerous and this ad obviously scared her into a complete so-called emergency rewire the following week.

On a quick inspection of the fuse box within a few minutes it was obvious to me that this building had been rewired in the late 1970s in PVC double insulated cable and everything was earthed and safe !!!!. Okay the consumer unit was a little out of date with rewire able fuses instead of circuit breakers and the main earthling to the services was a little out of date, but overall it was fine.

She told me that she could not switch the lights on because they continually fused, but I investigated and literally within 10 minutes it turned out to be one of the obvious things it usually is, in this case was just a metal lamp holder which had baked the wires inside itself because it was in an enclosed lampshade collecting the heat. I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but when you’ve been in the job for many years you usually know very quickly what the problem is and in my case this could be a electrical installation, a security alarm or a CCTV system. It’s very rare you cannot pinpoint the fault quickly because you’ve seen it so many times before it’s obvious. I fixed the fault switch the power back on and everything was back to normal and she didn’t have to spend her quoted £2600 on a rewire that wasn’t necessarily!

It’s so annoying what kind of world is this! You get not just a conman but sometimes some a jobs worth electrician comes along and says your installation is over 20 years old and you need a complete rewire Rubbish!

Even if it’s over 30 years old very often the wiring is earthed and double PVC insulated which has not deteriorated and is fine. Things might not be up to code their standards, but you should not be told you have to change things which might not be up to current day standards and wiring regulations, because they were fine when they were installed and they are still safe.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t point out things which could be improved like a new consumer unit with earth leakage protection breaker and current overload breakers. And I might suggest also that new main earthling would be a good idea, but it’s best to put this in its true perspective and point out it’s not dangerous and it certainly doesn’t warrant a full rewire etc

Anyway on this occasion a little old lady is happy because she’s got a new battery in her alarm panel and the power is back on and she only had to fork out £50 which is much cheaper than £2500 she’d been facing!

Next time I might start on security alarm companies don’t get me going with their misleading contracts making people believe they have bought the equipment when they’re basically renting it and when the security alarm triggers for any reason, they’re forced to have an engineer out every time because it has a locked out with a engineers code ! I could rant on forever, it’s not just individuals it sometimes companies which also have unscrupulous codes of practice which are just geared to extract money from their vulnerable customers.

AD Alarms. www.adalarms.co.uk We specialise in CCTV and Security Alarm installations established 1984. We are a family run business based in Bradford West Yorkshire and Whitby North Yorkshire. Friendly free advice on the telephone telephone (01274) 614650 E-mail sales@adalarms.co.uk

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AD Alarms CCTV Security Alarms Whitby and Bradford

alan — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:10:09 +0000

CCTV cameras offer both a very powerful visual deterrent, especially if the monitor is left in a visible public area, like the check-in part of the hotel foyer. And they also offer a very practical deterrent, in the fact that everything is being recorded and you can monitor it from any location..We also install security alarms which once again can be monitored from any location by also adding on a telephone speech dialler, which is a device which rings you up on your landline or mobile if the alarm is activated. There are even now telephone speech dialler is to work wirelessly and do not need a telephone line.

CCTV - Security Alarms - Whitby

Telephone speech diallers can be added to any existing Security Alarm and can ring up to 9 mobile or landlines and play your personalised recorded message. You are effectively monitoring your own premises free of charge from any location in the world.

Auto Dialler

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E-mail alan@adalarms.co.uk- Telephone (01274) 614650 – Mobile (07813) 779273

Tailoring installations to customer needs and friendly service are the watchwords at AD Alarms. We specialise in CCTV for commercial premises like hotels and shops and also the domestic market. We can network your CCTV over the Internet so it can be monitored and controlled from any location, by using the web browser on your laptop or even your mobile phone. Have the peace of mind that your premises are always been recorded with the time and date for evidence.

- Bradford Burglar Alarm Installers – Bradford Electrician

Friendly free advice on the telephone to arrange a site visit just contact

Do not get cheated by an unscrupulous electricians!

Often the electrical installation is perfectly safe but you’re advised occasionally that you need a complete rewire! And what you’ve really got is an unscrupulous company boosting their profit margin! Read this real-life example. Electricians

AD Alarms Mission Statements

As a company we aim to provide all our customers with a value for money service, installing CCTV and Security Alarm equipment to their specific requirements.

We also strive to make sure that the customer fully understands how to use their Burglar Alarm, CCTV and Digital Video Recorder by giving them clear and easy to understand instructions.

Where our expertise also is very important is giving our customers advice before they buy their CCTV Burglar Alarm equipment and have it installed.

Example 1 CCTV Installation

Often commercial companies when having CCTV installed understand the specifications they require, but with the domestic market this is often quite the opposite.

With a house CCTV installation we find one of the commonest mistakes is that people on a restricted budget often buy inferior quality cameras which means that the recording quality is not good enough during the day and a lot worse at night time, making identification of any intruder very difficult or impossible. This basically renders the system useless and with a little more advice and understanding beforehand the customer would have probably invested more into their cameras even if this meant reducing the quantity of cameras rather than quality. In fact with a limited budget we usually advise reducing the quality of the Digital Video Recorder (DRV) rather than the CCTV cameras because after installation the cameras are fixed to the premises and harder to upgrade and replace. Secondly poor quality cameras will never perform where a smaller hard drive on the DVR will still record in high-quality even if it’s for a shorter period of time ,than a superior machine.

Example 2 Burglar Alarm Installations

Once again we find commercial companies often understand exactly what they require but with a Domestic Security Alarm the customer needs more advice.

Reliable Wireless Security Alarms are now available with the advantage of quick installation and the ability to move the detectors quickly to different positions. But the main disadvantages are to obtain the same reliability and quality as a “Wired Security Alarm” the cost for the wireless equipment will be greater and of course you do have to replace the batteries in each detector after a specific period of time.

Example 3 Electrical Installation Work.

In the domestic market a household electrical wiring installation that is say, up to 40 years old, often the customer is advised on a complete rewire, when in actual fact all the circuit wiring is double insulated PVC with no deterioration to its insulation qualities and it also contains the important integral earth wire.

This would mean it would be possible to bring the household electrical installation backup to current regulations if necessary, by installing a new consumer unit and mains earthing and bonding. So by saving the customer a great deal of expense and upheaval to their premises in comparison to a full rewire.

We strive to make sure you get the best installation for the budget available because we believe a customer who is informed can make the best decision for their requirements and budget.

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Tractors tear up the sands of Whitby in aid of cancer research June 22

alan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:48:18 +0000

Tractors on Whitby Pier in aid of cancer research

The 3 Coasts Tractor Tour, organised by former Great Ayton resident David Harrison, has been running since 1996 and has raised pounds 40,000 for various charities over the years. About 30 tractors are involved, all built from 1940 to the early 1970s. They travel from Liverpool to Whitby and back over six days and will be on High Green at 10.30am on Tuesday.

The tractors parked on Whitby pier, and then went down onto the sands at 5:30 PM to have some fun, do some wheelies and tear along the sea making waves. But it was all in a good cause and was great fun.

Funds will got to The Prostate Cancer Trust.

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Whitby third best UK resort in Which? Guide

alan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:49:47 +0000

Whitby third best UK resort by Which? Guide

Whitby as being voted the third best UK resort by an independent survey of 4000 people by Which ? guide and managed to beat Scarborough which was voted in fifth position.

The two resorts were singled out for their scenery and proximity to the countryside.
Blackpool was chosen as the nation’s all-time favourite seaside resort, with Brighton close behind.
Bournemouth came fourth.
Rochelle Turner, Head of Research for Which? Holiday, said: “Resorts like Whitby and Scarborough have so much to offer and although nobody can guarantee good weather, you can be confident you’ll have a great time at the Great British seaside.”
Whitby is no stranger to winning top awards because in 2006 this beautiful resort was voted Britain’s best in a poll of seaside destinations by Holiday Which? – part of the Which? network.

These are the top 10 results according to Which independent survey

! Blackpool, 2 Brighton, 3 Whitby, 4 Bournemouth, 5 Scarborough, 6 Newquay, 7 Torquay, 8 St Ives, 9 Skegness, 10 Great Yarmouth

Living in the Whitby yards of yesteryear

alan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:00:34 +0000

Whitby Yard

Living in the Whitby yards of yesteryear

What life was like in Whitby, in the old yards when the town was not a tourist attraction but a working fishing port. I was given permission to photograph and use material from the Whitby Museum which I thank for their help http://www.whitbymuseum.org.uk/

Also drawing the yards of Whitby before they had gone forever ! by Albert T Pile 1882 – 1981

Whitby is one of the few medieval towns, the outline of which one can clearly see, underpinned by later developments. For their own safety people like to live close to one another and from these origins grew Whitby yards and the community life.

First and foremost, it was community life. You were part of group that knew and cared about you, as you did about your neighbours. People tended to live in the one house for the whole of their life, often continuing with a married son or daughter assuming the household responsibilities and caring for their ageing parents. There was a friendliness and a sharing of one’s joys and troubles with the other residents. Perhaps they knew most of your business, but then you would in turn be were aware of their goings on. Loneliness was hardly possible. The widowed man might find his washing quietly done for him, or maybe some kind of baking left on his doorstep. The newly confined mother would have few worries about the care of her other children as they would be with a neighbour. And in due course she would repay the kindness by a like service. It was a disciplined life, for the fear of what others might think often restrained underhand actions. One was part of that community and had something to live up to. Not that the yards people were saints, one had to show a great deal of restraint, particularly if the offenders happened to be related.

A Whitby Yard

One might say it was a hard life, but on the other hand if one was brought up to those conditions then one knew no other. Perhaps the hardest part was the water supply. In the old days there was a pump in a near yard. Much later piped water was led to a communal tap in each yard where one filled the daily buckets. It was often their children’s job to get the water in before going to school. The drinking water stood in a spotlessly clean white enamel bucket and that was for domestic use in a zinc one. On one side of the kitchen range there was a boiler which also had to be filled. This came into its own on bath night when mother would scoop out water with a huge enamel mug and pour it into a two handled zinc tub in front of the fire. And in you went, youngest

Sanitation

Well within living memory the earth closet was an acceptable form of lavatory in the yards. The little houses were called pettys, perhaps from the French petit. Further up the coast they were called nettys. Earth, or sand was used by them and a bit shovelled in from time to time. There were regularly emptied into carts which in their own turn were emptied into the sea or river. Houses in yards which overhung the edge of the river conveniently had their pettys situated directly over the water, all moored according to the state of the tide.

The conversion to water born sanitation started in the late 20s, but it was a very long time until the yards had water closets. Even then, they were all situated outside the house, which necessitated many a cold journey on an evening.

Close up on the heels of water closets came piped water into the actual houses. Great luxury! It was cold water, of course hot water systems remained an aspiration only to dream about.

Heating

The yard houses were warm. Built as they were, the houses were fairly sheltered from the biting winds of the North East Seaboard and not being detached there was not much heat loss from them as modern houses. In previous centuries they were even warmer, since they were divided into tenements and more people occupied each dwelling

As they all had their own fire there was much more heat generated. The principal fuel was coal, for was not Whitby a coal port between Newcastle and London? The coal wharves lined the river and it was a fairly cheap form of heating. It was however, somewhat dirty and the chimney sweep was a regular visitor. His visits were a major event, for the room had to be cleared as near as possible and everything was covered with the sheets. Many people in Whitby today remember Sammy Lambs chimney sweep activities in the days before vacuum sweeps. After the sweeper cleaned up the chimney the resultant soot had to be removed by the careful housewife from every nook and cranny, carpets beaten outside, floors washed, curtains changed, even the very walls swept. All this had to be done in the early morning, for the fire was often the only source of heat cooking.

Lighting

An extra heating bonus was the oil lamp for it gave out pleasant warmth as well as its light. Candles were the only form of illumination and even when gas lighting eventually came it was usually installed only in one room, the kitchen, so one still went to bed by candlelight. Lighting the gas mantle was a very tricky business, for the mantles were extremely brittle and could be broken very easily by the touch of the match.

Electricity was a much later blessing. Can you imagine life without electricity?

Washing

Yes, the washing derives a paragraph to itself. Water you have, if cold. Gas may be. But no electricity. On washday one always had to get up at least an hour earlier than usual. First of all the fire had to be kindled beneath the copper, firmly built with a brick surround. Then the copper had to be filled goes without saying. In later times one had a gas boiler,oh ! very modern. There was a poss and tub and the washboard, sunlight soap and steam. The whole operation took place in the one yard wash house, each housewife had her particular time for action. Incidentally, the clothes were much dirtier because of the grime from the coal and soot laden atmosphere in which one lived.

Poverty

The social history of Whitby is one of comfortable middle-class living alongside those were very poor indeed. But despite the extreme poverty, Whitby people were very good at making the best of things and did not air their poverty publicly. Respectability was important and most people tried to keep some “Sunday best” clothes. In years within living memory there was much parish relief known as “the pan crack” because when one had absolutely nothing else one could always scrape a bit from the crack in the pan. But it was a minimal handout and carried a social stigma with it.

Romantic looking as the artists may have found it Whitby were undoubtedly substandard. Not all the houses had staircases inside; access to the upper floors was often by way of wooden steps and galleries outside. One can go on patching up indefinitely, but the day comes when the structure simply cannot take any more. Roofs leaked, floors rotted, plaster fell off. People would joke about how well their houses were ventilated, and not just by the Windows either. The landlord might come and fill in the cracks and again he might not.

Old Whitby Harbour

Perhaps the state of the upkeep of the houses left much to be desired, but that was the landlord’s responsibility, not the people who actually lived in them. But for their part they did their best to keep them clean, turning out the mats and scrubbing the floor with vigour every week. Not only that, they also scrubbed the yard steps from top to bottom. Many of them finished the job by donkey stoning the edges of the steps neatly. (Ask your granny what donkey stoning is?)

We have said that their houses were warm. The cockroaches knew and appreciated this. So did the mice. And there were rats as well.

Such housing conditions bred disease. Many children had close cropped hair for good reasons. Even summer saw the isolation hospital filled with children suffering from diphtheria, scarlet fever and allied diseases. When the first houses were built on a council estate the difference in the children’s health was very soon noticeable. Children as well as plants need sunshine. It was the coalition government of the early 30s that brought about slum clearance throughout the country. There were more slums cleared in the first five years preceding the second war than there had been in the Fifties years before that time.

Who, 50 years ago, could possibly foresee the future boom in the tourist trade and Holiday Cottage Industry? We were recovering from the effects of a very costly war and there simply was no money about to convert all properties which were highly insanitary, to put it mildly.

It may be that in clearing the area piecemeal a few houses were sacrificed which might well have been saved, but that is a moot point. The housing that was put up after the demolition is extremely sturdy, and there were no rats now.

Cats

Despite the poverty, Whitby had a large population of cats. The mice and perhaps the rats would keep them occupied and being a fishing port there was always enough fish grabs to keep the pussy is happy.

One wonders if cats always abound here, long before they named ships “coal cats” and there is a connection. It is certain that Captain Cook, aboard his ex-Whitby boat the Resolution, had a superb cargo of around 25 cats.

Sources

I have used three main sources in the addition to the word-of-mouth memories.

The first was A Valuation of the town of Whitby, taken in 1837 just after Queen Victoria came to the throne, ” by the order of the commissionaire’s under the new Paula Law Act” This was taken by two appraisers with John Bovill, block and master maker, acting as referee. Although this list gives the names of the people and specifies the yards in Church Street, it does not mention separate yards in Crape Lane, Bridge Street, Sandgate, Cliff Street, or Flower gate. It does mention the type of dwellings and as they were very largely tenements we therefore find that there are many more people crammed into small yards down later surveys. They give a rateable value for each tenement and this was used in com paring the probable extent of the holding. At the time the township of Whitby was only small and that of Ruswarp impinged on it. Skinner Street was in this latter area it is not included in the survey.

The second source was The Whitby Director, published privately in 1899, at the end of Victoria’s reign, rateable values are not given, but the occupation of the householders is shown. This is extremely informative. A very great proportion of householders are women and this must be because the men folk were at sea. Whitby is and always has been an essential matriarchal town. The tradition was that the women ran the homes and brought the children up while the men went to sea. The women were managers in charge of domestic economy, and very well they did too.

The occupation of some men, who were doubtless at home when the survey was taken, is showing as seaman, whilst others are called mariners. There is a subtle distinction here as the latter were those who had risen in rank, perhaps to mate, or second mate, those who had got their ticket was shown as a master mariners.

For a third source I have to thank Whitby Council, who allowed me to pour through their rate book for the year of 1934. This is a very comprehensive list, although we do not learn the occupation of the tenants. The rateable value is given and from this one can assess a fair idea of the size and value of the property.

Various factors, the war, clearance of alleged slums, and the building of new housing estates outside Whitby have greatly changed the face and the character of the town, and we are not, therefore, attempting to list the yards that still stand today.

The name of some of the yards have changed from that time to time and it is not always easy to identify them. For instance Capplemans yard, in Church Street is clearly shown both in 1837 and 1899, but there was no trace of it in the 1934 lists, its name having been changed to Stanley Place. Often it was the owner of the yard that decided to change the name. I have done my best to identify all of the yards, but I am only too conscious that there will be some that slipped through the net.

Houses which were empty at the time of the surveys have not been included.

As one beavers away at the seemingly endless list of yards and names, flights of fancy takeover and the names become real people. Did Martha Jackson, for instance have 12 children and did she become a scold? Small wonder if she did. Was Henry Burton a good sober workman, or did he like the bottle? Were the six women who lived in Cockpit yard all solitary, or were their menfolk at sea? For an average township of the time there were extraordinary numbers of women householders listed. One hopes that they were not all widows. There were also a great many women who owned properties. Were they easy on their tenants? Maybe they understood how difficult it was to find the rent, even though it was only a shilling or two a week. Did other women have invalid husband’s, perhaps injured at sea? Were some of the men left to look after their bairns when their wife had died in childbirth? May be Mary next door helped out?

These were all real people and the mind has to make them arise from the flat pages of the valuation books. The valuation refers only to the property, but the human souls who lived and breathed in Whitby can never be rightly assessed save in the mind’s eye.

All the best Alan Davidson

Endeavour Cottage in Whitby

Tephone 01274 614650

www.endeavourcottage.co.uk

Mobile 07813779273

E-mail alan@endeavourcottage.co.uk

Endeavour Cottage two-minute stroll from the harbour Whitby Holiday Cottages

A Whitby Yard

first. So if you had two or three younger brothers than the water was not exactly pristine by the time your turn came.