Whitby daily living

I recently talked about our daily routine in the Midlands. We have rather less of a routine at Whitby. Visiting is still novel enough that it feels like a holiday. We tend to set out on our 160 mile journey just after breakfast and arrive just after lunch. This assumes our journey is uneventful with no traffic delays.  Our first task is to stock up with food and drink for the week going to the nearest supermarket. We go to Lidl which is the nearest and avoids us crossing the river which is sometimes a bottleneck. The main alternative Co-op supermarket is clearly visible from our window about 200 yards away but down a steep hill and with awkward parking.

A fairly common small expedition is to the Pavilion. This is an all purpose theatre, cinema, exhibition with a small café. As this is by the coast it is pleasant to sit and watch the hypnotic arrival of waves. This is dependent on the state of the tide; if it is low then there is an expanse of sand. We have been to the cinema which is pleasantly old fashioned

Our flat on the first floor of a Georgian building has a gorgeous view over west Whitby, the Esk river moorings and up onto the moors. The downside is that the location on the brow of a hill means steep walks to Whitby shops. In fact the shops start about a hundred yards away but descend rapidly down to the river.

We look out our window to bus and rail stations but they are a steep walk away. We have so far used the Scarborough to Teeside service to visit both Scarborough, Middlesbrough and Guisborough. Guisborough is a little market town about 10 miles south of Teeside. I lived and worked on Teeside for a year, travelling back to the Wirral at weekends, and I’m not in any great hurry to revisit Darlington and Stockton.

Immediately opposite us is Pannett park which contains a small arboretum, a play area and the town museum and art gallery. The play area is in demand by Alex and Ellen. The museum is packed with interest including the rather gruesome “Hand of Glory”. This mummified hand cut from someone executed as a criminal was thought to contain supernatural powers. There are also a wealth of other exhibits including much on James Cook. There is a model of the town as it was in the 19^th century; very different to today. Technically where we live wasn’t even part of Whitby town then.

I often think that Whitby majors on James Cook and Bram Stoker author of Dracula. The town has a dedicated James Cook museum . There is the Dracula Experience which I have no intention of visiting. There are various artefacts from the past of Whitby. The most famous are two whale bones forming an arch at one end of West Cliff, the main road above the beach. The beach is reached down a steep cliff; so steep there is a lift from beach level to road level. The Pavilion is tucked under the cliff with only its roof visible from road level.

Whitby is also famous for Jet, a semi precious stone, formed of fossilised wood of the monkey puzzle tree. There is a street dominated by Jet jewellers and their workshops on the far side of the river. I personally find Jet rather sombre. Apparently it was very popular in the Victorian era. Being fairly soft Jet is fairly easily worked and our daughter-in-law, Lindsey has made some jewellery from Jet she found on the beach. Jet is found washed up on the beach all along this coast. The problem is that it looks a lot like coal and needs experience and expertise to identify.

There is a long beach stretching for several miles north to the aptly named Sandsend. However the beach is covered at high tide. This means that the beach recreation is limited.

I mentioned the railway station. The national network runs north westward to Teeside.  More interestingly it connects to the North York Moors heritage railway at Grosmont with the line then running to the south side of the National Park at Pickering. Steam hauled trains do run into Whitby off this line during the summer season

Car parking is a big problem in Whitby where there are many visitors. A Park and Ride system helps.

A rather strange pyramid dominates part of the moor. This is Fylingdales radar station, the ballistic missile early warning station. The radar scans both for missiles coming direct from the east but also for missiles coming around the earth the other way. Although the radar identifies satellites in low earth orbit it hasn’t got the range to look out to geostationary orbit some 22000 miles out.

There are many special events to encourage tourism. Perhaps because of a vague connection via Dracula there are two Goth weekends plus attempts to widen to other distinctly offbeat categories such as Steampunk