Whitby

Whitby's story begins on the East Cliff, where a double monastery for men and women was founded in the 7th century under the abbess Hilda. It became a royal nunnery of the kingdom of Deira and a centre of learning, where the cowherd Cædmon became the first known English poet, and in 664 the Synod of Whitby settled the date of Easter in Northumbria in favour of the Roman reckoning. After the Norman Conquest William de Percy refounded the abbey as a Benedictine house in 1078. Henry VIII's commissioners closed it in 1539, and by 1540 the town had only about 200 people.

The sea made Whitby's fortune. Its ships carried coal and its yards built them: James Cook learned his trade on colliers sailing from the port, and the Endeavour, which he took to Australia and New Zealand, was built here in 1764 as the coal ship Earl of Pembroke. The first whaling ship left for Greenland in 1753, and by 1795 Whitby was a major whaling port, though by 1831 only one whaler remained. Alum was mined along the coast, and in Victorian times jet, the black fossil from the cliffs and moors, was carved here into fashionable jewellery.

Visitors had come since Georgian times, and the railway, which arrived in 1839, turned the town into a popular resort; Bram Stoker set part of Dracula here. In December 1914, during the First World War, the town was shelled from the sea. The jet trade declined at the end of the 19th century, the coastal railway lines closed in 1958 and 1965, and fishing and tourism became the mainstays. Today both cliffs are being eroded quite rapidly.

Few small towns have such a literary reputation. Cædmon's hymn, composed at the abbey, is among the earliest English poetry, and Bram Stoker discovered the name Dracula in the town's old public library before setting the count's arrival in England here, drawing on local folklore such as the beaching of the Russian ship Dmitry. Since 1993 the twice-yearly Whitby Goth Weekend has drawn people in Gothic and Victorian dress, and since 2008 the Bram Stoker Film Festival has been held each October. The television drama Heartbeat often set its stories in the town.

Music and the sea shape the calendar. Whitby Folk Week has run for more than four decades, and the three-day regatta each August brings rowing races to the harbour. The town has had a lifeboat since 1802, and its volunteer crews operate an inshore boat and a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat launched in 2023.

Local folklore is rich. Legend says St Hilda turned the area's snakes to stone, explaining the ammonite fossils found on the shore, and three of these "snakestones" appear in the town's coat of arms; one genus of ammonite is named Hildoceras in her honour. The statue of William Scoresby Sr, the whaler who designed the crow's nest, stands by the inner harbour, and Cook's statue looks out from the West Cliff.

Whitby parish had about 13,200 people at the 2011 census, with a mean age of about 42. Its population swells with visitors in summer and at festival weekends.

The economy rests on fishing, tourism and some manufacturing. Fresh fish still comes into the harbour, and from May to August small open boats are licensed to net salmon off the harbour entrance. Eight shops still sell jet jewellery, mostly to tourists, and the marina pontoons in the upper harbour serve pleasure boats. Many jobs are seasonal, and the town is busiest on fine summer weekends, when roads and car parks fill.

Residents live on both banks of the Esk. A high-level bridge built in 1980 carries through traffic over the Esk Valley, away from the swing bridge. Public transport is limited: a few trains a day run up the Esk Valley to Middlesbrough, and buses link the town with Scarborough, York and Middlesbrough. The erosion of the East Cliff is a continuing local worry.

Fish is Whitby's food. The steady supply of fresh fish has filled the town with chip shops, especially along the west side of the harbour, and the Magpie Café has been described by Rick Stein as the best fish and chip shop in Britain. The commercial catch is no longer herring but cod, haddock and other fish caught within 12 miles of the coast.

Kippers are the town's speciality: split, salted and smoked herring, a reminder of the herring fleets that sailed from Whitby from the Middle Ages. Fortune's smokehouse, past the foot of the abbey steps on Henrietta Street, still smokes them. Salmon, netted off the harbour mouth from May to August, is a seasonal catch.

The east side's Church Street holds old pubs, cafés and tea rooms, one at the foot of the abbey steps, and the west side has pubs on the streets just back from the river. Real ale and pub food are the usual evening options.