54º29N 0º37W. Port and resort town in North Yorkshire, N England, UK; on the North Sea coast, 27 km/17 mi NW of Scarborough; birthplace of William Bateson and Storm Jameson; the Synod of Whitby (664) affected the course of Christianity in England; former seaport and whaling station; Captain Cook sailed from here on his voyage to the Pacific (1768); plastics, boatbuilding, fishing; 13th-c abbey; St Mary's Church (12th-c).
Whitby is a historic town in North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England.
History
Many interesting fossils have been found in the Whitby area including entire skeletons of pterodactyls.
Saxon Whitby
In about 657, Oswiu or Oswy, the Christian king of Northumbria, fulfilled a vow by founding a monastery there. One of them was at Streanæshealh, later known as Whitby Abbey. Under her influence, Whitby became a centre of learning, and the poetry of Cædmon is amongst the earliest examples of Anglo-Saxon literature.
In 867, Danish Vikings landed two miles west of Whitby at Raven's Hill, and moved on to attack the settlement and to destroy the monastery. next Whiteby, (meaning the "white settlement" in Old Norse, probably from the colour of the houses) and finally Whitby.
Late Medieval and Tudor Period
According to Langdale's Yorkshire Dictionary (1822) and Baine's Directory of the County of York (1823), even up to the reign of Elizabeth I Whitby was little more than a small fishing port. In that year Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, including Whitby's Abbey.
Chaloner secretly brought some of the Pope's workmen to England, and over the following years developed a thriving alum industry in Yorkshire.
Whitby Abbey and St Mary's Church
Over the centuries, the town spread both inland and onto the west cliff, whilst the east cliff (sometimes called the Haggerlythe) remains dominated by the ruins of Whitby Abbey and Saint Mary's Church.
In St Mary's Church is a very fine memorial to General Peregrine Lascelles. He was a native of Whitby, died in 1772, and his epitaph in the St Mary's says he was
The West Cliff
The west cliff has its own landmarks - a statue of Captain James Cook, who sailed from the town, and a whalebone arch, commemorating the once large whaling industry. There is also a new science museum - the 'Whitby Wizard'. The whalebone arch is the second to stand on this spot, the original (a larger version) is now preserved in Whitby Archives Heritage Centre.
Modern history (since 1605)
Among the resulting alum producing centres, several were established close to Whitby, including that near Sandsend (now Sandsend Ness), just three miles from the town, in 1615. 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.
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.
In 1753 the first whaling ship to 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.
Whitby was the site of the Rohilla disaster of October 30, 1914; most of them are buried in the churchyard at Whitby.
Also in 1914, Whitby was shelled by German Battlecruisers Von der Tann and Derfflinger, aiming for the signal post on the end of the headland. Whitby Abbey sustained considerable damage during the attack.
Whitby jet
The black mineral jet is found in the cliffs around Whitby, and has been used since the bronze age to make beads and other jewellery. The Romans mined jet extensively, and Whitby jet was at the peak of its popularity in the mid-19th century, especially after it was favoured as mourning jewellery by Queen Victoria. Whitby Museum holds a large collection on the archaeological and social history of jet.
Whitby and literature
One unusual feature of Whitby is the Dracula museum - a large portion of Bram Stoker's famous novel was set in Whitby, describing Dracula's arrival in Britain, on a ship washed ashore in the harbour, and how Lucy watched from the churchyard as the sun set over the nearby headland of Kettleness, but did not know how many steps she climbed to get there. Stoker's story incorporated various Whitby folklore, including the beaching of the Russian ship Dmitri, which became the basis of Demeter in the book.
The novel Caedmon's Song by Peter Robinson plays in Whitby, too. Whitby also features heavily in the novel Possession, by A.
Michel Faber's novel, The Hundred and Ninety Nine Steps is also set in Whitby.
The present day
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.
Whitby also hosts the twice-yearly Whitby Gothic Weekend, a festival for members of the goth subculture.
The town was awarded "Best Seaside Resort 2006", by Which Holiday ?
The town is served by Whitby railway station which forms the terminus of the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough, formerly the northern terminus of the Whitby, Pickering and York line.
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