ABC Wednesday - W is for Whitby

I first encountered Whitby in 1962. Some fifty or so teenagers, all members of Methodist youth clubs around Pontefract, descended on Staithes camp. We stayed in wooden dormitories at the top of the hill, girls in one, boys in another. We visited Whitby by train.

So enthralled was I by the town that the next year, I spent a whole week in Whitby. It was my first ever holiday without my parents. I selected a B&B on Esk Terrace from an advert in The Dalesman.





The two photos above are from 1978, but I'd made a return visit in 1974. We hadn't intended going to Whitby for our honeymoon, but it was raining in Hampshire! Our planned honeymoon destination had been the Scilly Isles and I'd booked an overnight stay at a hotel in Droitwich. It subsequently transpired that there was no accomodation to be had on the Scillies, so we just let the Droitwich booking stand and then toured. We visited Salisbury and then headed down to Lymington. There it rained heavily. The forecast suggested the better weather was up north. We called at relations near Oxford for lunch and then headed up towards Lincoln. We eventually arrived in Cleethorpes before finding a vacant B&B. It was there that the idea of ending up in Whitby crossed my mind. Next morning we crossed the Humber on the ferry from North Holland [long gone in the wake of the bridge] and came to rest in Whitby - again on Esk Terrace though not the same place.



We loved Whitby but even so, decided to cut the honeymoon short as we'd bought a carpet in the salesroom there and were subsequently running out of funds. Somehow they managed to fold it up so it fitted into the back of my Morris 1100. We nearly didn't make it up the 1 in 3 to Rosedale! Back home, we couldn't unload it immediately because the electricians were still busy re-wiring our new house!

The picture above is from 1986.



The final picture is of a print by celebrated Whitby photographer, Frank Sutcliffe. Dated 1880, I picked it up for a pittance at a jumble sale. And, before you ask, yes that is a self-portrait of yours truly in the bottom left hand corner.