Whitby
Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay are two of the great delights of the Yorkshire coast while just inland the valley of the River Esk is home to much beautiful moorland scenery and several villages of charm.
Whitby has a long and eventful history. In the days before Viking settlement fell upon Yorkshire, Whitby, then called Streanshalh, lay within the Kingdom of Northumbria and was the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery founded in AD 657.
The monastery stood on the site now occupied by Whitby’s ruinous later thirteenth century abbey, overlooking the River Esk. The earlier monastery had been the home to St Hilda (or St Hild) who was one of the most powerful and influential women of her time. A member of the Northumbrian family, St Hilda was the daughter of Hereric, a nephew of Edwin, King of Deira. She relocated here from the monastery at Hartlepool and became Whitby’s first abbess.
It is believed that in AD 664 Whitby was the setting for the ‘Synod of Whitby’, an important meeting held to decide if the people of Northumbria should adhere to the Celtic or Roman teachings of Christianity.
The meeting was chaired by Oswy, King of Northumbria, who listened to the arguments of St Wilfrid (of Ripon and Hexham) and St Colman, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, who spoke respectively for the Roman and Celtic causes. In the end it was St Wilfrid’s highly persuasive oratory skills that won the support of King Oswy and determined the outcome of the synod.
The Celtic Christianity introduced by St Aidan thirty years earlier was abandoned in favour of Roman practices. Roman Christianity became the primary religion of northern England for centuries to come.
We should remember that at the time of the synod in AD 664, Whitby was not actually called ‘Whitby’. Streanshalh or Streonæshalch (there are several spellings) was the place recorded by Bede as the site for the synod and by tradition it was later identified as Whitby. The site of this important synod would give great credence to the later abbey of Whitby.
An isolated coastal location was a typical monastery site but not a typical setting for a synod. There is a possibility that the synod did not actually take place here. Strensall, a village near the River Foss north of York, has been suggested as an alternative site, though it is still possible Streonæshalch was also the old name for Whitby and the site of the monastery of St Hilda.
In the time of St Hilda, Whitby (Streonæshalch) was the home to an Anglo-Saxon poet called Caedmon who has been described as the man “who laid the first great temple of English poetry”. Caedmon was originally an illiterate cow herder with an embarrassing inability to sing and according to legend his problem was such that he would hide away in a cow shed while his working friends entertained each other with music and singing.
One evening while hiding in the shed Caedmon fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that an angel sent from heaven taught him how to sing. The following morning Caedmon awoke to discover that his dream had come true and that he now had a marvellous gift for singing phrases from the bible in the form of verse. St Hilda, the abbess of Whitby, was impressed with Caedmon’s discovery and encouraged him to utilise his talent in spreading the word of God. Caedmon soon came to be acknowledged as a gifted poet.
In later years the monastery at Streonæshalch was destroyed by the Vikings who raided the coast in AD 870. The Vikings eventually became peaceful settlers on the Yorkshire coast and gave Whitby its name ‘Hvitabyr’ meaning ‘settlement belonging to Hviti’ from which the modern name Whitby developed.
Whitby Abbey was re-founded in 1078 by Reinfrid from Evesham in Worcestershire who came north with Aldwin of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. This is interesting because these particular monks came on a pilgrimage to the north intent on re-establishing monasteries at sites that were of significance during Northumbria’s ‘Golden Age’ of Anglo-Saxon times.
Aldwin re-established the monastery at Jarrow for example and also attempted to re-establish the monastery at Melrose, so this suggests Whitby was accepted as the site of the old Streonæshalch monastery of Caedmon’s time.
Whatever its earlier roots may have been, by the beginning of the following century, Whitby Abbey was thriving. It was rebuilt again in the thirteenth century and it is the ruins of this abbey that we see today.
The abbey’s demise and its subsequent fall into ruin is of course largely due to Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, although the bombs of a German battleship which hit the abbey on December 16, 1914 also played a role.
Whitby : the town
With its red roofed-houses and historic harbour streets, Whitby is one of the most picturesque coastal towns in Britain. It clings to the steep banks of the Esk where the river meets the sea, creating a wonderful coastal townscape with the town itself located on both sides of the river.
An active sea port since medieval times and described by the sixteenth century antiquarian John Leland as “a great fischour toune” it then only consisted of around twenty or thirty houses and a population of no more than two hundred. Its real growth came in the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth century.
One of the main influences on Whitby’s growth came from the mining and extraction of alum from the rocks in the Cleveland district to the north near Guisborough, a business encouraged there by the Chaloner family.
Coal was exported into Whitby to be used in the process of its extraction. The alum, which became a major Whitby export was used as a fixative in the dyeing process.
Whitby’s growth was spurred on through the investment of the influential local family called Cholmeley and in the 1630s Sir Hugh Cholmeley built the first piers at the mouth of the River Esk.
This was the first major stage in the development of the town’s natural river harbour. However, by this time Whitby was already thriving and important for its shipbuilding trade.
The most famous ship built at Whitby was HM Bark Endeavour, a collier-type ship known as a ‘cat’. The Endeavour took the famed explorer, Captain James Cook (1728-1779) on his journeys across the world. Cook, who was born and raised in Cleveland (his birthplace being Marton near Middlesbrough), began his sea career at Whitby where he was apprenticed to Whitby shipowner and Quaker, John Walker, who was based in offices in Whitby’s Grape Lane.
Cook, though based in Whitby, worked initially on collier ships plying their trade between Newcastle and London. The young James Cook used any spare time he could find to train in seamanship and joined the navy at the age of 27, where his navigational skills helped his career progress.
Throughout the eighteenth century and early decades of the nineteenth century whaling was another major industry at Whitby, established around 1753. Many Whitby mariners were employed in this often dangerous Arctic-based trade and it was not unusual for ships of this trade to fall foul to ill-fate and never return to their home town.
The oldest parts of Whitby and the focal areas for its earliest history are on the east/south bank of the river centred around its abbey on that side of the Esk but today the greater bulk of the town is situated on the west/north side of the river and is also worthy of exploration.
Old streets like Haggersgate, Baxtergate, Flowergate, Silver Street and the intriguingly named Khyber Pass are places to discover on the west side of the Esk and of course no visit is complete without calling into a fish and chip shop of which there are several. Whitby’s Magpie Cafe is a particularly popular outlet with a reputation for fine fish and chips if you are happy to endure a queue.
Whitby’s railway station is also in the western part of the town, up the bank, and overlooks the harbour. It was built in 1847 after the York-based ‘Railway King’ and Sunderland MP, George Hudson brought railways into the town. This had a major impact in improving transport in Whitby as for much of its history, the once poor quality roads through the neighbouring North Yorkshire Moors had somewhat isolated Whitby. In fact the sea had been Whitby’s main point of contact with the outside world.
George Hudson, along with Tynesider, Sir George Elliot played an important part in promoting the Victorian development of Whitby in the West Cliff area of the town. The developments include East Terrace, designed by the Tyneside architect, John Dobson. Another Newcastle architect, Robert J Johnson designed St Hilda’s church (1880s) which dominates the cliff on this side of the river and should not to be confused with St Mary’s church near the abbey on the opposite side.
The eastern and western sides of the Esk are linked by a swing bridge of 1909. It replaced an earlier swing bridge of the 1830s. Movable bridges existed in Whitby before that time dating back to about 1629, although the first bridge across the Esk at Whitby was mentioned in 1351 when the collection of tolls for its upkeep was granted by Edward III.
A curious feature of Whitby on the roof of a shop at the east end of the bridge is a large model of a polar bear, depicting Captain Scoresby’s Polar Bear. The story behind this is rather sad. It concerns William Scoresby (1789-1857), captain of a Whitby whaling ship Henrietta. During an expedition to Greenland the crew of his ship encountered a female polar bear and her cub.
Sadly, the mother bear was shot dead by the crew and the cub taken on board with the intention of selling it to a zoo. During the journey home, Captain Scoresby became attached to the cub and tamed it as a pet, walking it around the ship on a leash.
Back in Whitby it was tethered to railings near the bridge and on occasion allowed to swim in the Esk. Later, when the bear became more fully-grown, it escaped and caused havoc and terror throughout the town. It only became calm when Scoresby arrived with a leash. Due to the mayhem the poor bear caused, it was ruled it could no longer stay in Whitby and was given to London Zoo.
Streets on the east, old side of the town include Grape Lane, Sandgate and the cobbled, narrow part of Church Street with a modest little former town hall sandwiched between the latter two streets in a tiny market place. The town hall, built by Jonathan Pickerell in 1788, was given to Whitby by Nathaniel Cholmeley.
Grape Lane, like other medieval Grape Lanes found in old towns throughout England (such as York) likely derives from a very rude street-name. Grape Lane essentially means a place for a specific kind of grope.
In later times this street, presumably now with a more refined reputation, was home to the young Captain Cook and was the location of his lodgings, when he was not out at sea. The seventeenth century house in which he resided is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum.
There are several old yards of interest in the old part of the town off Church Street. These yards are a feature of Whitby, forming narrow passages often with a broader yard to their rear. Yards include the intriguingly named Arguments Yard (a passageway) that derives its name from a family surname rather than a place of disagreement and debate.
Also just off Church Street are Black Horse Yard and White Horse Yard. White Horse Yard is situated next to an old inn called the White Horse and Griffin where Charles Dickens once stayed.
This old coaching inn was built by Sir Hugh Cholmeley in the 1680s and a plaque notes that this was the point where the first stage coach departed from Whitby in 1781.
Nearby Black Horse Yard, alongside the Black Horse Inn, has revealed evidence of settlement going back to AD 630 as uncovered by excavations that took place here in the 1870s. Other yards include Sanders Yard (named from a banking family) as well as Clarks Yard and Bakehouse Yard.
A side alley leading off from Church Street with a descent towards the river has the somewhat intriguing name New Way Ghaut. The puzzling term ‘Ghaut’ for a narrow descending alley seems to be unique to Whitby and there were once several named ghauts in Whitby such as Alders Ghaut, Virgin Pump Ghaut and Colliers Ghaut.
The word ‘ghaut’ is thought to have been influenced by a Hindustani word for a narrow pass. It seems to have been used in Whitby since at least the late sixteenth century but perhaps derived from an older, now forgotten word. Sometimes it occurred in the form ‘goat’ and may also occur in the name of the village of Goathland.
Church Street is a focus for shops trading in Whitby Jet, a beautiful black gem stone sold in the form of jewellery. Whitby jet is famed the world over and is shiny and jet-black (hence the term) in colour.
Jet is a rock that evolved as a kind of fossilised wood, formed under extreme pressures 180 million years ago and it is technically a rare and special form of coal. Jet has been mined throughout the North Yorkshire Moors area.
Church Street is the principal street in Whitby on the eastern side of the River Esk and is complemented by the narrow Sandgate on the riverside at its north end.
Half way along Sandgate the two streets are linked by the little Market Place and linked by Bridge Street at Sandgate’s south end.
At its north end towards the river mouth from its junction with Bridge Street, Church Street is cobbled, pedestrianised and often busy with tourists in the summer season.
This northern part of Church Street which is nearest to the sea, is full of character with lots of interesting shops and old houses. At its very northern end near Tate Hill, Church Street is particularly narrow.
It is here at its north end that Church Street turns right to become Church Lane. This lane ascends the famous 199 steps leading up to the top of the cliff where they emerge at the beautiful church of St Mary alongside Whitby Abbey. The steps feature in the vampire-themed novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, who was a visitor to Whitby and set the opening scenes of the novel in the town.
In the novel Count Dracula’s coffin is washed ashore at Whitby from a shipwreck during a severe storm. He takes the form of a large dog and climbs the steps to St Mary’s church, taking refuge in a grave there.
As well as its atmospheric graveyard, this church at the top of the steps has a remarkable interior of impressive pews and panelling. It is mostly of Norman origin with some Early English additions. Bram Stoker was not the only famed writer to come to Whitby. Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and J.R.R Tolkien were also visitors to the town.
Whitby’s Dracula associations are an inspiration for Whitby Goth Weekend, a Goth subculture music weekend held twice yearly (April and October/November) and established in 1994. The event is a great boost to the town’s economy that sees Whitby filled with people in Goth style fashion and others dressed in an array of costumes including vampires, pirates and Victorian top hats.
Returning back down to the bottom of the steps we find the cobbled Henrietta Street beneath the cliff facing out to sea. Situated at its north end, where the Esk meets the sea, is the Hagger Lythe.
At this point the shoreline now becomes that of the Yorkshire coast rather than the shoreline of the River Esk. Here also is the East Pier breakwater that creates a safe haven at the mouth of the Esk. It is complemented by the West Pier just across the river.
At the opposite western or south end of Henrietta Street, off Church Lane is Tate Hill and nearby we find the little Tate Hill Pier protruding into the River Esk. There is a large, preserved wooden anchor on this pier recalling far off days.
Now, heading back into the cobbled pedestrianised part of Church Street, the south end of this street up to its junction with Bridge Street is broader and finally we leave the Church Street cobbles behind. The remaining, non-pedestrianised part of Church Street still extends for some way along the river front playing host to vehicular traffic coming to and from the Whitby swing bridge.
A little further along this part of Church Street meets the adjoining Grape Lane, and then continues southward along the eastern bank of the River Esk where there are more buildings and features of note including an old hospital built as almshouses for Whitby sea merchants.
This hospital was founded in 1675 but the present building, built of brick in Jacobean style, was constructed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and dates from 1842. It was refurbished in 1996.
Next to the old hospital are some pleasing doorways found on neighbouring houses while opposite is the Fleece Inn overlooking the river and harbour.
A little further along, a stepped path called Boulby Bank climbs up to higher parts of the town, to reach a long street called ‘The Ropery’ where once there was a rope works along which stretched a rope walk at which fibres would be twisted together to make rope.
Continuing further south along Church Street we find the Middle Earth Tavern that takes on a Lord of the Rings theme in its name with an image of J.R.R Tolkien’s character, Gollum on the pub sign. J.R.R Tolkien was known to have been a visitor to Whitby and sketched the abbey on a visit in 1910. The building dates to the seventeenth century.
Just opposite the Middle Earth Tavern is the ‘Penny Hedge’ sculpture by Emma Stothart depicting a man blowing a horn. The planting of a ‘penny hedge’ is a Whitby tradition that takes place on the morning of the eve before the Ascension.
In legend, the story goes that Ralph De Bercie, the Lord of Sneaton and William De Bruce, Lord of Ugglebarnby were out hunting in Eskdale Forest when their hounds attacked and fatally injured a wild boar, although the boar did manage to find shelter in a hermitage before dying of its wounds. A hermit who was the occupant of the hermitage prevented the huntsmen from entering and in a fit of a rage the hunters attacked the hermit and severely injured him, leaving him to his death.
Realising the seriousness of attacking a holy man, the hunters fled to Scarborough but were brought back to justice by the Abbot of Whitby. As penance they had to carry out the dying wishes of the hermit. His request was that they plant a hedge on the bank of the River Esk using sticks that they were instructed to carve from a knife costing only a penny. The hedge had to withstand three tides or otherwise the wealthy huntsmen would have to forfeit their lands to Whitby Abbey.
The annual tradition of building the ‘penny hedge’ has continued into modern times with its planting signed off with three blows of a horn and shouts of “out on ye, out on ye, out on ye”.
Further to the south, Church Street becomes Spital Bridge as it crosses the Spital Beck that joins the River Esk from the south east. Just across the beck to the south there is a good view of the Esk and its harbour from the Sail Loft Apartments.
A little further south still along the Esk into Campion Dock is the Whitehall Landing Development on the site of the Whitehall Shipyard that closed in 1902.
Whitehall Shipyard was one of the five principal shipyards in the town and employed up to 800 people at its peak in the 1880s. According to a helpful information board, competition from rival yards at Sunderland and South Shields and the restrictive nature of the Swing Bridge that prevented larger vessels passing, contributed to the demise of the yard.
Nearby just to the south of the old shipyard site, the A171 crosses the River Esk at a height near the outskirts of Whitby and from here the Esk twists its way westward and upstream, heading beneath the Larpool Viaduct and then onward towards Ruswarp, Briggswath and Eskdale beyond.
Robin Hood’s Bay
Before heading up the River Esk into Eskdale to the west of Whitby we will first continue a little way south along the coast from Whitby Abbey to Robin Hood’s Bay. This stretch of coast is not accessible by car but the Cleveland Way long distance footpath hugs the coastline here along the windy clifftops.
Robin Hood’s Bay © David SimpsonNamed coastal features along the way between Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay include East Cliff near the abbey, followed by Saltwick Nab and Saltwick Bay as well as Smugglers Hole and an outlying rock out at sea called Black Nab.
Saltwick Bay was the scene of a tragic rescue on October 30, 1914 in which a hospital ship SS Rohilla heading from the Firth of Forth to Dunkirk to help with the evacuation of wounded soldiers struck a rock. A rescue mission ensued that took place over 50 hours involving motor lifeboats from Whitby, Middlesbrough and Tynemouth.
A few of the survivors, including some crew members, successfully swum to the shore in wild seas, but most of those who survived were rescued. Of the 229 on board, some 146 survived including a woman by the name of Mary Kezia Roberts who had been a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
Further on still, to the south of Saltwick Bay are White House Point; Maw Wyke Hole and Pursgrove Stye. Then we have Normanby Batts and Bulmer Steel between which are old Whitby jet workings as we head southward and onward along the coast, passing Ness point to eventually reach Robin Hood’s Bay, a place that is reachable by car.
Robin Hood’s Bay is a place with lots of character with pretty little red-roofed houses clinging to a cleft within the rocks, almost tumbling down to the shoreline in a similar manner to those at Staithes to the north of Whitby but in an even more-muddled and memorable way.
This is a fascinating place brimming with character. Little stone steps cut between huddled houses that cluster along tiny lanes and narrow picturesque passages as we head up bank into maze-like layers of yet more stone steps and more huddled houses clinging to every available spot on the rock face that descends towards the bay.
Being so quaint this little town is popular with visitors who are drawn to its beauty and character, as well as its little gift shops and a cosy pub near the sea. To cap the experience, it is also home to a little museum as well as a dinosaur and fossil shop focusing on fossils found along the Yorkshire coast.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Robin Hood’s Bay is the question of why it is actually called Robin Hood’s Bay? Nobody really knows for sure but the inhabitants in any case often simply call it ‘Bay Town’ or ‘the Bay’.
The name ‘Robin Hood’s Bay’, which is thought to have arisen from association with popular ballads is not recorded before the sixteenth century, first occurring in 1532 as ‘Robin Hood Baye’.
Legendary theories suggest Robin Hood kept boats here to make a quick getaway from the pursuit of the law or that the abbot of Whitby asked Robin to fight off Danish pirates hereabouts. Robin is said to have thrown huge boulders down the cliffs to crush the invaders.
Fields called Robin Hood Field and Little John Field at a site called Whitby Laithes near Whitby to the north are said to be where the monks and abbot of Whitby were treated to an impressive display of archery by the two outlaw heroes, Little John was of course Robin Hood’s famed companion.
Perhaps the remoteness of the village in what was a relatively inaccessible location in times past made this an ideal place of refuge for Robin Hood and his merry band of fugitives. Maybe Robin retired here.
In more recent times Robin Hood’s Bay was closely connected with smuggling, an activity in which the villagers continued to participate into the nineteenth century, if not beyond.
The community in those times was close-knit in an almost literal sense with the tightly-packed houses said to reflect a desire for families to stick close together.
At the top of the bank, away from the old village are seaside developments connected with the Victorian age, notably the Victoria Hotel. Nearby is a car park for the vehicles of visitors, as visitor cars are not allowed into the old part of the town. Visitors must descend into the old town on foot, down a steep hill.
Robin Hood’s Bay is about four and a half miles south east of Whitby Abbey as the crow flies and there are still a further ten miles or so of coastline before we reach Scarborough to the south.
Ravenscar
There are only a few settlements along the rocky cliff-dominated coast southward from Robin Hood’s Bay towards Scarborough. The settlements that can be found such as Burniston, Cloughton and Staintondale are villages situated less than a mile from the coastal cliff edges on neighbouring roads. Cloughton and Burniston are situated furthest south towards the outskirts of Scarborough while Staintondale and Ravenscar, to the north, are nearer to Robin Hood’s Bay.
Ravenscar means ‘the rock or scar inhabited by ravens’ and this is the closest place to the sea of the villages that we have just mentioned. There are some excellent views here in this mixed moorland and coastal setting.
Ravenscar is home to the Raven Hall Hotel which developed from two combined eighteenth century houses, one of which dates from 1774. The hall was also once known as Peak Hall.
Peak Hall (or Raven Hall) later became a hotel and had been built on the site of a Roman signal station. Foundations for the signal station were discovered during the building of the hall. Discoveries included a Roman inscription, thought to be dated to the 4th century AD, which records the construction of the signal station by its commander, Justinianus.
Ravenscar village itself is slightly inland from the hotel and home to little more than a dozen or so houses as well as a church dedicated to St Hilda. There was extensive quarrying of alum in the vicinity of this village and the ruins of the former Peak Alum Works can be seen just to the north.
The vicinity of Ravensworth is also home to traces of numerous ancient tumuli including a tumulus with the intriguing name of Robin Hood’s Butts, slightly to the west, presumably another place associated in legend with Robin Hood practicing his archery.
Slightly further inland from the little village is Ravenscar’s former Beacon windmill, built in 1858 for a local landowner called William Hammond and now a holiday let. It is situated near the road heading south to Staintondale with views of the sea beyond.
Ravenscar is an especially beautiful spot on the Yorkshire coast where you can enjoy the mixture of moorland and coastal scenery. Particularly sublime is the view across the bay to the north with the little town of Robin Hood’s Bay itself at the north end of the bay. An outcrop called South Cheek or Old Peak at Ravenscar marks the southern edge of this bay.
The Cleveland Way long distance footpath passes along the clifftops here at Ravenscar and is one of the best ways to explore this particular stretch of the Yorkshire coast.
Fylingdales and Hawsker
Heading north and inland from the coast is Fylingdales, the site of an early warning radar station, designed to warn of incoming ballistic missiles established in 1962. Long famous for its huge ‘golf ball’ structures, they are superseded by the present pyramid-like structure of the early 1990s.
Fylingdales derives from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning ‘settlement of the people of Fygela’. Fylingthorpe village just west of Robin Hood’s Bay was an outlying village or ‘thorpe’ associated with Fylingdales.
North from Fylinthorpe and Robin Hood’s Bay but staying inland are Hawsker and Stainsacre, villages just off the A171 and both having Norse names. Hawsker was ‘Haukr’s Garth’, an enclosure belonging to someone called Haukr.
Hawsker was once two separate villages called High Hawsker and Low Hawsker. A former windmill of the mid nineteenth century, dating from before 1863 can be seen at Low Hawsker.
Stainsacre, north of Hawsker, was a field (or acre) belonging to a Viking called Steinn. West of Stainsacre is Sneaton derived from a Viking personal name Snjo coupled with the Anglo-Saxon word ‘ton’. Nearby are Buskley Beck, Shawn Riggs Beck and Stainsacre Beck that join the Esk to the north near the southern outskirts of Whitby in the vicinity of Larpool and Ruswarp.
River Esk : Ruswarp and Larpool
We now head upstream along the River Esk from Whitby and into Eskdale. Along the Esk south-west of Whitby we find the impressive brick-built Larpool Viaduct of thirteen arches on the outskirts of Whitby near Ruswarp. Dating from 1882-1884 it carries the Scarborough-Whitby line across the Esk. The viaduct is mentioned in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Larpool was an area south of the river, recalled in the eighteenth century Larpool Hall, now a hotel.
Larpool is a Norse name from ‘Leir-Pool’ meaning ‘muddy pool or creek’. It has a similar meaning to Liverpool in north west England, which means ‘clotted pool or creek’. Merseyside, like the Whitby area was an important area of Viking settlement. Indeed there is a village called Whitby on the south side of the Mersey near Liverpool. Situated on the Wirral, it was swallowed up by the growth of Ellesmere Port along with neighbouring Overpool and Netherpool.
Back in Yorkshire, Ruswarp, on the north side of the Esk has a name that like Larpool refers to mud. It derives from ‘hris-varp’ with the ‘hris’ element referring to brushwood and ‘varp’ being a Viking term for accumulated mud that slows a river’s flow. Ruswarp is at the tidal limit of the Esk. A mile west of Ruswarp is Briggswath on the north side of the Esk. It means ‘bridge near a ford’ as ‘wath’ was the Viking word for a ford.
Across the River Esk south of Briggswath is the larger settlement of Sleights where the A169 ‘Coach Road’ climbs up a steep bank from the valley of the Esk into the moors.
Sleights has a Viking name that means ‘flat land near water’, presumably referring to the land at the north end of the village alongside the Esk down in the valley bottom where we find Sleights railway station.
Nearby, a stream called Iburndale Beck joins the River Esk and gives its name to the village of Iburndale just east of Sleights. At the south end of Sleights village as we climb up the hill is a village pub called The Plough and nearby across the road is the Victorian village church of 1894-1895 dedicated to St John the Evangelist.
South east of Sleights is a nearby village with the delightful name of Ugglebarby. Like Sleights, Ugglebarnby has a Viking name. Called ‘Uggleberdsbi’ at the time of the Domesday Book it means ‘village of the man with an owl-beard’.
Eskdale : Grosmont
As we head west along the Esk from Briggswath there are initially no villages but just the occasional farm. The exception is the village of Aislaby less than a mile north west of Briggswath but this is situated well away from the River Esk.
Asilaby was called Asulebi in the Domesday Book and once belonged to a Viking called Asulf. There are places called Aislaby near Pickering and just north of the Tees near Yarm but the early spellings of these two places demonstrate they belonged to Vikings with the personal name Aslac.
West of Briggswath we continue to follow this pretty but relatively uneventful section of the Esk valley until about three miles further upstream we reach Grosmont. The village of Grosmont came into being as a result of railway and mining activity but its French name recalls a long-gone Benedictine priory that existed here from 1200.
The monks of Grosmont belonged to the Order of Grandmont near Limoges in France from which Grosmont was named. Today, Grosmont is a famous stop on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a heritage railway that is operated by steam and diesel locomotives. This railway dates to 1836 and was planned by George Hudson and George Stephenson to link the port of Whitby overland for the benefit of Whitby’s trade and industry.
Whitby had long been isolated from neighbouring parts of Yorkshire and other parts of the North by the neighbouring moors. Railways provided an opportunity to connect the town inland to boost its commerce and industrial development, particularly as traditional industries associated with the port such as whaling and shipbuilding had fallen into decline in the early nineteenth century.
The new railway line also stimulated the development of iron stone mining along its course and facilitated travel for Victorian tourists who came by train to explore the Yorkshire coast and moors.
One of the most significant developments in the building of this railway was a tunnel, constructed through a hill at Grosmont by navies. It is believed to be one of the world’s oldest railway tunnels. In fact the industrial settlement that developed at Grosmont was once simply called ‘Tunnel’.
The railway line linking Grosmont to Pickering was initially built for operation by horse-drawn carriages though it later came under the influence of the rail network of George Hudson (a Yorkshireman, who was a railway entrepreneur and MP for Sunderland). The line was adapted for use by steam locomotives in the 1840s.
In 1965 the railway closures resulting from the Beeching Report saw the closure of the line between Pickering and Grosmont. The Esk Valley Railway linking Whitby to Middlesbrough, however, remained in operation.
In May 1973 the Pickering to Grosmont railway was re-opened by the North Yorkshire Moor Railway Preservation Society as a heritage line. As a tourist attraction this proved to be an enormous success, providing a superb romantic means of travelling across the North Yorkshire Moors.
Today, the line is operated by both steam and diesel locomotives, with stations at Pickering, Levisham, Newtondale Halt and Goathland. Grosmont station is at the northern terminus of the line but passengers can continue their journey onward to Whitby via the adjoining Esk Valley line.
Grosmont is very much a railway-focused place. At the heart of Grosmont is Grosmont railway station and a nearby level crossing on Front Street is the focal point of the village. The street itself hosts little shops with lots of great character.
Just to the west, the Esk Valley railway enters Grosmont along the valley of the River Esk and joins the North Yorkshire Moors Railway at the northern end of Grosmont railway station.
South of Front Street and its level crossing, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway passes over the Murk Esk, a tributary of the River Esk and is overlooked by St Matthew’s church which sits on a small hill above a bend of the Murk.
Here, after crossing the Murk Esk, the railway line enters the tunnel that cuts through the hill. This tunnel is flanked by a pedestrian tunnel on its eastern side.
At the other side of the tunnel are the engine sheds of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where we can admire the locomotives and rolling stock. On our particular visit we were lucky enough to see the beautiful Sir Nigel Gresley Pacific Class locomotive in stream.
Goathland
Two miles south along the valley of the Murk Esk is Goathland, another stop on the wonderful heritage railway. It has more of a moorland setting than Grosmont and is a place with much charm.
Goathland’s name means ‘Goda’s Land’, an Anglo-Saxon name that changed in pronunciation through Scandinavian influence. An alternative idea is that the name derives from the word ‘gaut’ referring to a cleft or gorge of some kind formed by water and might be connected to ‘ghaut’, a name for alleyways in Whitby.
One of the first things visitors will notice at Goathland is that sheep roam freely throughout the village, keeping the grass neatly mowed with their constant nibbling.
The second thing visitors will notice is that the village has a split identity as the name ‘Aidensfield’ appears on certain signs throughout the village as well as ‘Goathland’.
‘Aidensfield’ is in fact a fictional village name as Goathland doubled up as this village in the TV series Heartbeat, a police drama that was filmed both here and throughout the North York Moors.
Produced during the 1990s and early 2000s the series was set during the 1960s and based on the Constable series of novels by the writer, Nicholas Rhea.
The railway station at Goathland is situated alongside the Eller Beck and is one of the most popular stops on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It has a great deal of period character.
A little nearer Goathland, two miles to the south, is a pleasing viewpoint at Goathland car park and in a remote location a mile or two west is a small stone circle called Simon Howe. Only a mile west of Goathland is the beautiful Mallyan Spout waterfall. It is accessible to walkers by a route from the Mallyan Spout Hotel in Goathland.
Heading south west along the road from Goathland the road will take us across the moors to the remote remains of the Wheeldale Roman Road which is protected by English Heritage and then onward towards Pickering and Ryedale.
An alternative route south from Goathland is to head south east across the moors where curious features include RAF Flyingdales and the fabulous natural hollow called the Hole of Horcum. Here, however we have strayed far from the Esk valley.
Egton and Egton Bridge
We now return northward from Goathland back towards Grosmont and into Eskdale once again. Set away from the River Esk to the north west of Grosmont we find the village of Egton
Egton is an Anglo-Saxon name meaning ‘Ecga’s farm’. The village pubs at Egton are The Wheatsheaf and The Witching Post. The latter of these contains a witching post.
A witching post is in fact a wooden support for the smoke hood over a chimney and is sometimes a feature of historic North Yorkshire houses. These oak posts usually incorporate a carving of the cross of St Andrew and in local superstition were supposed to prevent witches flying down the chimney.
The pub is thought to be late seventeenth century or early eighteenth century in origin with some alterations later in the eighteenth century.
Next door to the inn is a former forge building (Finkle Forge) dating from 1704 and now occupied by a commercial garage. Egton church, south of the village, half way to Egton Bridge is a Neo-Norman structure dedicated to St Hilda, dating from 1879 and designed by H.E. Smailes. It was built, apparently, using material from an earlier church though this was on a different site.
Further south still is the village of Egton Bridge on the River Esk. It is famous for its annual gooseberry fair, held every August. Prominent here is a Roman Catholic Church with the unusual dedication to St Hedda. It dates from 1867.
The situation of a prominent Roman Catholic Church here reflects Egton’s connection to a Roman Catholic martyr, Nicholas Postgate (1596-1679) who was born in Egton. Educated at Douai in France (see Ushaw), Postgate returned to England as a Catholic missionary. This was a dangerous activity at a time when Catholicism was outlawed by the reigning Queen Elizabeth I.
Postgate was captured by an exciseman while undertaking a baptism at the house of a Matthew Lyth at Littlebeck near Sleights. He was arrested and subsequently executed. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on the Knavesmire in York. Some of his remains are thought to rest amongst the relics at Ampleforth.
Egton Bridge is the home to Egton Manor at the heart of the 6,000 acre Egton estate. Egton had been the name of an extensive manor at the time of the Domesday Book and was owned by Swen before the Norman Conquest. Its subsequent post-Conquest owners included Robert, the Count of Mortain; the De Fossards and the prominent Catholic family called Salvin (see Croxdale). In 1869, the manor came into the hands of the Foster family of Hipperholme in the West Riding and a new manor house was constructed in 1893.
Glaisdale
A mile upstream from the Egtons, the River Esk takes on a more winding course near the village Glaisdale close to which we find the single-arch Beggars Bridge, a pack horse bridge of 1619 built across the River Esk.
It was built by a Glaisdale man, Tom Ferris, after he made his fortune and became a mayor of Hull. According to legend as a youth he was supposedly frustrated by the river separating him from his lover. The story goes that Tom was the son of a poor sheep farmer who fell in love with Agnes Richardson, the daughter of a wealthy Glaisdale landowner. Unfortunately, Tom’s poverty prevented his marriage to Agnes so he opted to seek his fortune at sea.
Sadly, on the day of his departure, the River Esk flooded and prevented Tom from crossing for one last farewell kiss from his lover as there was then no bridge. After making his fortune and returning to England he is said to have built the bridge that is also sometimes known as ‘Lovers Bridge’.
The details of the story are likely a legend but Tom Ferris was a real person who sailed from Whitby in 1588 and served in Sir Francis Drake’s navy. He returned to England in a captured ship which he sold and became involved in the shipping business in Hull, serving as Sheriff of Hull in 1614 and later the Mayor of Hull. He may have built the bridge in 1619 as a memorial to Agnes, whom he had married. She had died the previous year. There is a memorial to Tom Ferris in Hull’s Holy Trinity church.
A collection of three neighbouring bridges can be found in close proximity to the Beggars Bridge with a road bridge alongside just to its north and a little railway viaduct just to its south carrying the Esk Valley Line. Both of these cross the River Esk, while close by is a little footbridge across the adjoining Glaisdale Beck. Motorists crossing the road bridge will find a steep climb on the north bank of the River Esk up climbing up Limber Hill with a sharp bend half way up.
Back on the south side of the river another interesting feature of Glaisdale is the extraordinary Museum of Victorian Science close to Glaisdale Railway Station. This museum has a wonderful collection of historic gadgetry and scientific apparatus.
Glaisdale is another characterful village of Eskdale and several of the houses in the village, notably the terraces were connected with ironstone mining.
Arncliffe Terrace to the south east of Beggars Bridge and Glaisdale Station is situated on high ground with splendid views across to the neighbouring countryside. To its east is the heavily wooded valley of the Glaisdale Beck, forming the actual dale of Glaisdale stretching southward. The name of Glaisdale may incorporate an old Celtic Welsh word ‘glas’ meaning blue or green.
The dale, the railway station, the museum, Beggars Bridge and Arncliffe Terrace are all somewhat separated from the main village of Glaisdale which lies a little further along the Esk to the west.
This main part of the village is stretched out along a main street called High Street on higher ground above the south bank of the Esk with views northward across the valley of the River Esk.
Features of the village include a Methodist Chapel (1821) and the village church dedicated to St Thomas. The church dates to the 1790s but was remodelled in the 1870s.
Glaisdale’s Robinson Institute, a village hall presented to the people of Glaisdale by Thomas Robinson Esquire in 1911 was built to commemorate the coronation of King George V.
Lealholm
The next place we encounter upstream along the River Esk to the north west of Glaisdale is the picturesque village of Lealholm. Here the river flows through a wooded gorge called Crunkly Gill. Lealholm is served by a railway station on the Esk Valley Railway just north of the village.
As Lealholm is particularly picturesque it can become busy on Bank Holidays but is well worth a visit on quieter days to fully appreciate its beauty. The name Lealholm derives from the Anglo-Saxon ‘laela-hrisum’ meaning ‘amongst the twigs’ and has a lovely setting in a bend of the river.
At the south end of the village there are stepping stones across the Esk to the old Wesleyan Methodist Chapel of 1839 with its pointed Gothic windows.
The River Esk is also crossed by a road bridge of one arch at the heart of the village that is thought to date from around 1755. An especially pleasing feature of the village is Lealholm church dedicated to St James and dating from 1902. It was designed by the architect, Temple Moore.
About a mile north east of Lealholm on the Stonegate Beck above Stonegate Gill is the little hamlet of Stonegate where moorland roads can take us north to join the A171 heading to Guisborough or east to join the A171 heading for Whitby.
The road north, heading for Gusiborough, will take us past a moorland area called Tranmire, where ‘Tran’ is from an old word for a crane (the bird). Further on to the north is the Scaling Reservoir with its dam bordering the A171 road. Here, however we have again strayed away from Eskdale.
Houlsyke and Danby
Back in Esdale the next villages we encounter a mile and a half upstream to the west of Lealholm are Houlsyke and Danby. In truth Houlsyke is a little north of the river rather than on the river bank.
Across the Esk to the south of Houlsyke are the sizzlingly delightfully-named valleys of Great Fryup Dale and Little Fryup Dale formed by the Great Fryup and Little Fryup Becks.
Little Fryup is the most westerly and nearby are the scant remains of the fourteenth century Danby Castle where Catherine Parr, sixth and final wife of Henry VIII once resided. A nearby packhorse bridge across the Esk to the north was associated with the castle and is called Duck Bridge. It is thought to be named from a local family called Duck.
Danby village, on the north side of the Esk has a Viking name that literally means ‘Village of the Danes’. There is a North York Moors National Park Visitor Centre a little to the east of the village.
Across the Esk to the south of Danby is Ainthorpe, the ‘thorpe’ element of its name being a Viking term for a small or outlying farm.
Continuing upstream is Castleton, a mile west of Danby. It is named from being the site of a Norman motte and bailey castle, the remains of which can be seen in the form of a mound on the north side of the village.
As wee continue upstream, the Esk starts to approach its source near the village of Westerdale ‘the most westerly dale’ upstream two miles to the south west of Castleton, though another tributary called the Baysdale Beck is more westerly still.
In a relatively remote location near the Blakey Ridge Road a mile and a half south of Westerdale is ‘Young Ralph’s Cross’, thought to be a memorial to Ralph de Irton, a Prior of Guisborough from 1262.
There is a remnant of an older cross nearby – Old Ralph’s Cross. Ralph de Irton was later the Bishop of Carlisle. In legend the cross is associated with a nun from Rosedale abbey and a monk who are said to have had an illicit liaison for which they were punished with death.
At Castleton the River Esk is joined on its north side by the Comondale Beck with the village of Commondale further up that valley about two miles to the north west.
Commondale means ‘Colman’s valley’ and the personal name Colman is Old Irish. It is associated with Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne who is said to have stayed here on his journey to or from Whitby.
Colman was Lindisfarne’s bishop from AD 661 to AD 664 when he resigned from the bishopric following the Synod of Whitby where he had unsuccessfully spoken in favour of retaining the Celtic form of Christianity. West of Commondale we enter an area in the watershed boundary between the tributaries of the River Esk and the source of the River Leven near the village of Kildale, about three miles west of Commondale.
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