Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Esk, where the North York Moors meet the Yorkshire Coast, and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. It is from York and from Middlesbrough.
From the Middle Ages, Whitby had significant herring and whaling fleets, and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship. He first explored the southern ocean in HMS Endeavour, built in Whitby. Alum was mined locally, and Whitby jet jewellery was fashionable during the 19th century.
Tourism started in Whitby during the Georgian period and developed with the arrival of the railway in 1839. The abbey ruin at the top of the East Cliff is the town's oldest and most prominent landmark. Other significant features include the swing bridge, which crosses the River Esk and the harbour sheltered by grade II listed east and west piers. There are statues of Captain Cook and William Scoresby, and a whale bone arch on the West Cliff. Whitby has featured in literary works including Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
History
Priests and harrying
Whitby was known in the Anglo-Saxon period as Streoneshalh, meaning "Streon's nook of land". The modern name, which first appears in the Domesday Book, means "Hvíta's farmstead", from Old Norse Hvítabýr.A monastery was founded at Streoneshalh in 657 AD by King Oswiu or Oswy of Northumbria, as an act of thanksgiving, after defeating Penda, the pagan king of Mercia. At its foundation, the abbey was an Anglo-Saxon "double monastery" for men and women. Its first abbess, the royal princess Hild, was later venerated as a saint. The abbey became a centre of learning, and here Cædmon the cowherd was "miraculously" transformed into an inspired poet whose poetry is an example of Anglo-Saxon literature. The abbey became the leading royal nunnery of the kingdom of Deira, and the burial-place of its royal family. The Synod of Whitby, in 664, established the Roman date of Easter in Northumbria at the expense of the Celtic one.
The monastery was destroyed between 867 and 870 in a series of raids by Vikings from Denmark under their leaders Ingwar and Ubba. Its site remained desolate for more than 200 years until after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. After the Conquest, the area was granted to William de Percy who, in 1078 donated land to found a Benedictine monastery dedicated to St Peter and St Hilda. William de Percy's gift included land for the monastery, the town and port of Whitby and St Mary's Church and dependent chapels at Fyling, Hawsker, Sneaton, Ugglebarnby, Dunsley, and Aislaby, five mills including Ruswarp, Hackness with two mills and two churches.
When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, Whitby was recorded being partially waste and a small settlement lying within the Langbaurgh Wapentake of Yorkshire. Further details reveal the state of Whitby's economic and agricultural decline which were due to the depredations of William the Conqueror's army during the Harrying of the North in 1069–70.
In about 1128 Henry I granted the abbey burgage in Whitby and permission to hold a fair at the feast of St Hilda on 25 August. A second fair was held close to St Hilda's winter feast at Martinmas. Market rights were granted to the abbey and descended with the liberty.
Dissolution, blubber and Cook
Whitby Abbey surrendered in December 1539 when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. By 1540 the town had between 20 and 30 houses and a population of about 200.The burgesses, who had little independence under the abbey, tried to obtain self-government after the dissolution of the monasteries. The king ordered Letters Patent to be drawn up granting their requests, but it was not implemented. In 1550 the Liberty of Whitby Strand, except for Hackness, was granted to the Earl of Warwick who in 1551 conveyed it to Sir John York and his wife Anne who sold the lease to the Cholmleys. In the reign of Elizabeth I, Whitby was a small fishing port. In 1635 the owners of the liberty governed the port and town where 24 burgesses had the privilege of buying and selling goods brought in by sea. Burgage tenure continued until the entrusted government of the town to a board of improvement commissioners, elected by the ratepayers.
At the end of the 16th century Thomas Chaloner visited alum works in the Papal States, where he observed that the rock being processed was similar to that under his Guisborough estate. At that time alum was important for medicinal uses, in curing leather and for fixing dyed cloths and the Papal States and Spain maintained monopolies on its production and sale. Chaloner secretly brought workmen to develop the industry in Yorkshire, and alum was produced near Sandsend Ness from Whitby in the reign of James I. Once the industry was established, imports were banned and although the methods in its production were laborious, England became self-sufficient.
Whitby grew significantly as a port as a result of the alum trade and by importing coal from the Durham coalfield to process it.
Whitby grew in size and wealth, extending its activities to include shipbuilding using local oak timber. In 1790–91 Whitby built 11,754 tons of shipping, making it the third largest shipbuilder in England, after London and Newcastle. Taxes on imports entering the port raised money to improve and extend the town's twin piers, improving the harbour and permitting further increases in trade. In 1753 the first whaling ship set sail to Greenland and by 1795 Whitby had become a major whaling port. The most successful year was 1814 when eight ships caught 172 whales, and the whaler, the Resolution's catch produced 230 tons of oil. The carcases yielded 42 tons of whalebone used for 'stays' which were used in the corsetry trade until changes in fashion made them redundant. Blubber was boiled to produce oil for use in lamps in four oil houses on the harbourside. Oil was used for street lighting until the spread of gas lighting reduced demand and the Whitby Whale Oil and Gas Company changed into the Whitby Coal and Gas Company. As the market for whale products fell, catches became too small to be economic and by 1831 only one whaling ship, the Phoenix, remained.
Whitby benefited from trade between the Newcastle coalfield and London, both by shipbuilding and supplying transport. In his youth the explorer James Cook learned his trade on colliers, shipping coal from the port. HMS Endeavour, the ship commanded by Cook on his voyage to Australia and New Zealand, was built in Whitby in 1764 by Thomas Fishburn as a coal carrier named Earl of Pembroke. She was bought by the Royal Navy 1768, refitted and renamed.
Whitby developed as a spa town in Georgian times when three chalybeate springs were in demand for their medicinal and tonic qualities. Visitors were attracted to the town leading to the building of "lodging-houses" and hotels, particularly on the West Cliff.
Rail and jet
In 1839, the very early Whitby and Pickering Railway opened, connecting Whitby to Pickering, with a mixture of horse haulage on level sections and cable haulage on steeper sections. In 1845 the York and North Midland Railway bought this line, extended it to York, and gradually converted it for the use of steam locomotives. This line played a part in the town's development as a tourism destination, and George Hudson, who promoted the link to York, was responsible for the development of the town's partially-completed Royal Crescent. For 12 years from 1847, Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson, engineer to the Whitby and Pickering Railway, was the Conservative MP for the town promoted by Hudson as a fellow protectionist.In 1854, the line from York and Pickering became part of the North Eastern Railway. In 1865, this company completed its Esk Valley Line, using the earlier line as far as Grosmont, where it diverged to follow the Esk Valley as far as Battersby, where separate lines linked to Northallerton and Middlesbrough.
In 1883, the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway opened from Loftus to Whitby, providing a second link from Middlesbrough to Whitby, via Redcar. It ran close to the cliffs to the north of the town and served a station at Whitby West Cliff before descending on a steep gradient to join the Esk Valley Line just west of its terminus. Two years later, in 1885, the Scarborough and Whitby Railway opened, following a coastal route from Scarborough and requiring construction of the red brick Larpool Viaduct across the Esk Valley at a high level. It joined the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway just to the south of the latter's Whitby West Cliff station, and any trains between Scarborough and Whitby had to reverse at West Cliff. Both lines were operated by the North Eastern Railway from their opening, and eventually acquired by it.
The black mineraloid jet, the compressed remains of ancestors of the monkey-puzzle tree, is found in the cliffs and on the moors and has been used since the Bronze Age to make beads. The Romans are known to have mined it in the area. In Victorian times jet was brought to Whitby by pack pony to be made into decorative items. It was at the peak of its popularity in the mid-19th century when it was favoured for mourning jewellery by Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert.
The advent of iron ships in the late 19th century and the development of port facilities on the River Tees led to the decline of smaller Yorkshire harbours. The Monks-haven launched in 1871 was the last wooden ship built in Whitby, and a year later the harbour was silted up.
20th century
On 30 October 1914, the hospital ship Rohilla was sunk, hitting the rocks within sight of shore just off Whitby at Saltwick Bay. Of the 220 people on board, 74 died in the disaster, with 33 of those being buried in Whitby Cemetery.In a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, the town was shelled by the German battlecruisers Von der Tann and Derfflinger. In the final assault on the Yorkshire coast, the ships aimed their guns at the signal post on the end of the headland. Whitby Abbey sustained considerable damage in the attack, which lasted ten minutes. The German squadron responsible for the strike escaped despite attempts made by the Royal Navy.
The former Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway closed between Loftus and Whitby West Cliff station in 1958. The section between West Cliff and Whitby stations remained open for use by trains from Scarborough until 1965, when the line from Scarborough closed. In the same year, the line between Malton, Pickering and Grosmont closed, severing Whitby's direct connection to York and points south, although the section between Grosmont and Pickering subsequently reopened as the preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The trackbed of the Whitby to Scarborough Line, including the Larpool Viaduct, is now used as a footpath, bridleway and by cyclists.
During the early 20th century the fishing fleet kept the harbour busy, and few cargo boats used the port. It was revitalised as a result of a strike at Hull docks in 1955, when six ships were diverted and unloaded their cargoes on the fish quay. Endeavour Wharf, near the railway station, was opened in 1964 by the local council. The number of vessels using the port in 1972 was 291, increased from 64 in 1964. Timber, paper and chemicals are imported, while exports include steel, furnace-bricks and doors. The port is owned and managed by Scarborough Borough Council since the Harbour Commissioners relinquished responsibility in 1905.
A marina was started in 1979 by dredging the upper harbour and laying pontoons. Light industry and car parks occupy the adjacent land. More pontoons were completed in 1991 and 1995. The Whitby Marina Facilities Centre was opened in June 2010.