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It is nothing
short of a truly long drive from Hertfordshire to Whitby in North Yorkshire
on the north-east coast of England, with the historic town of York en route,
47 miles away. Bonnie Parker and her son Connaugh requested a lift and in
fact, on the way back on Sunday, we stopped in York for tea and a bit of
moseying around the town. Our accommodation in the town at the
Backpacker's
Hostel at Harbour Grange, Spital Bridge, could best be
described as adequate, even comfortable. Being in the town centre itself, it
is a short walk from restaurants and the town's main attractions. Nowadays
it is a fishing port and tourist destination, at the mouth of the River Esk
and spreads up the steep sides of the narrow valley carved out by the
river's course. At this point the coast curves round, so the town faces more
north than east.
The history of
Whitby dates back to 657, when Oswiu or Oswy, the Christian king of
Northumbria (one of the kingdoms in the early Middle Ages), fulfilled a vow
by founding a monastery there. In 655, he defeated Penda, pagan king of Mercia
(roughly in the Midlands) and granted 12 estates for the purpose of building
monasteries. One of them was later known as Whitby Abbey. In 867, Danish
Vikings landed two miles west of Whitby and moved on to attack the
settlement and to destroy the monastery. It was only after the Norman
Conquest of 1066 that the monastery was refounded (1078). In 1540, Whitby
had consisted of only around twenty to thirty houses and had a population of
about two hundred inhabitants. In that year Henry VIII dissolved the
monasteries, including Whitby Abbey. Even up to the reign of Elizabeth I in
1558, Whitby was little more than a small fishing port. At the end of the
16th century, a thriving alum industry developed in Yorkshire, owing to it
being abundant in areas around North Yorkshire. Alum was used as a dye-fixer
for wool. Up to this period the Vatican had maintained a virtual monopoly on
the production and sale of the product. With this, two new, rapidly growing
activities were promoted in the port of Whitby, the transport of the alum
itself and that of the coal necessary for its production.
Over the
centuries the town spread inland and onto the West Cliff, whilst the east
Cliff remains dominated by the ruins of Whitby Abbey and St. Mary's Church.
Several alum centres were established close to Whitby and with this, the
town's wealth increased and Whitby began to grow, extending its activities
to include shipbuilding, using the local oak as raw material. Taxes on
imports entering via the port raised the necessary finance to improve and
extend the town's twin piers, thereby improving the harbour and permitting
further increases in trade. In 1753 the first whaling ship set sail from
Whitby to Greenland. This initiated a new phase in the town's development,
and by 1795 Whitby had become a major centre for the whaling industry.
The modern Port of Whitby,
strategically placed for shipping to Europe, with very good proximity to the
Scandinavian countries, is capable of handling a wide range of cargoes,
including grain, steel products, timber and potash, used in the manufacture
of soap and as a fertilizer. Whitby has a fish market on the quayside, which
is not set to any particular day of the week, instead taking place when the
need arises.This ready supply of fresh fish has resulted in an abundance of
"chippies" in the town. |
