Whitby Information Website is being approached in a different direction to the usual ones online, I hope.
I have a holiday cottage in Whitby and I absolutely love the place, but the one thing that I’ve noticed about the most prominent Whitby Information Guides on the Internet is (without trying to sound too derogatory for the sake of it) that they can to be quite clinical with the usual tourist information, and lacking character and fun.
My Mission statement to use the modern terminology is to inject into the new Whitby Guide exactly what you’re getting from this editorial directory you are reading at the moment, the human touch with real people and original articles, expressing emotions and feelings about the place and the events that take place each year.
The first project I want to undertake is to highlight the television programme Heartbeat, which Yorkshire television unfortunately recently announced that it would no longer be continuing, because of the cost cuts caused by the recession.
There was quite a large tidal wave of unhappiness in Whitby and Goathland village at the announcement a few months ago, because a lot of the businesses realised that for the last decade and a half this programme has been scheduled every year on prime time television usually 8 PM on a Sunday evening, obviously there could be no better advertising than that!
In fact there have been numerous petitions around the area to try and get Yorkshire TV to change their mind, but obviously this is extremely unlikely.
One thing I found quite amusing was only the other week I was in Whitby for the hundredth centenary of the swing bridge, and because my holiday cottage is almost booked out throughout the year, ironically I usually have to stay in other accommodation. So Pauline my partner and myself had booked rooms in the hotel next to Whitby Swing Bridge, so we got a good view of the event.
The following morning we went round the corner to a local cafeteria called the Grapevine, and I was bowled over by the amount of memorabilia all connected to Heartbeat in the cafe.
Literally one half of the cafeteria walls were covered in pictures from the programme, policeman’s helmet’s truncheons and all things connected. The owner of the cafeteria had a petition in the window saying it was extremely unfair of Yorkshire television because the area needed jobs from the tourism. This obviously is true but you cannot blame the television programme they are not responsible for keeping the area popular, it was a by-product of a very good program.
Anyway for our new Whitby guide, we are going currently contacting the management of some of the actors who appeared on the programme, with very positive results so far. I am asking the actors for personal interviews regarding their experiences in and around Whitby whilst filming.
Strangely enough Heartbeat is also filmed in Otley near to Leeds but because in the programme the fictitious Aidensfield (which is actually Goathland village) is supposed to be next to Whitby.
So poor Otley never gets any of the credit for its beautiful surrounding scenery. In fact knowing both areas quite well it’s quite funny to watch some scenes in the programme when say one of the policemen leaves the police station which is actually in Otley supposedly driving a couple of miles down to Whitby, and in the next scene is there in minutes ,he would actually have travelled 84 miles the distance from Otley to Whitby! The magic of television.
I have been lucky enough to appear in a number of episodes of Heartbeat myself as an extra, and can happily report that the crew on this particular program were a very friendly bunch.
Our second project on the programme and its connections with Whitby is to keep in touch with the various websites dedicated to Heartbeat and form a kind of portal between them so that when the fans of the programme arrange fun days out to look at locations etc, we can keep everybody informed, so they can all meet up together. We are encouraging people to join our new forum on the website, so they can make friends not just about the programme, but about all aspects of Whitby and the surrounding areas.
So as you can see we are going to encompass as much as we can of this fine programme, which I’m sure is going to go on being one of those timeless classics on television.
In my next article about The Whitby Website, I will discuss another aspect we’re going to try to develop, which is the history of the old town.
Obviously most people realise that one of the biggest attractions in the area is Whitby Abbey, at the top of the 199 steps with its fine view over the harbour. We are currently getting together some, then and now pictures, and will be writing articles about how Whitby is transformed from a working fishing town, to one of the major tourist attractions in the United Kingdom.
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