Whitby is famous for having the first English poet called Caedmon.
He lived here at the time of St. Hilda. She built the Abbey here,
which is now in ruins. Recently they've found about 200 saxon
graves just outside the Abbey grounds.
Whitby is also famous for a few other things as well. The date for
Easter was set here by the Synod of Whitby at the time of St. Hilda.
Captain William Scoreby, a whaling captain, invented the crows nest on
sailing ships...there is a monument to him here, it looks like a wooden
barrel strapped to a mast.
Also, a very famous explorer lived here, although he was born at Marton
near Middleborough, his name was Captain James Cook and he made three
voyages of discovery. His most famous ship, the Endeavour, was a Whitby
cat, a flat bottom sailing ship as was the Discovery and Resolution.
They built them flat bottomed so that they could run them ashore so they
could unload the coal and cargo onto the beach at low tide.
If you're interested in Dracula, in Brahm Stoker's novel, Dracula's ship
ran aground on the beach in the harbour, the biggest one of the two,
and Dracula ran off as a black dog up the 199 steps.
Whitby is a small fishing port and in its heyday sailing ships used to
leave here for the whaling grounds, and Scottish fishing fleets used
to fish for herring. They used to say the harbor was that full of fishing
boats that you could cross the harbour by just walking across the boats.
Whitby from the air and the edge of the
North Yorks National Park
The river is called the river Esk, it is the only
salmon river in Yorkshire. Beyond is the Moors; heather, woodland,
nice for walks and peace and quiet, and some lovely places to visit.
Goathland is one where you can catch a steam train and travel along the Esk valley. Goathland
is the place where they film the tv series Heartbeat. If you like walking,
you can walk across the Moors, but be careful because the weather can soon change, so go
prepared.
Ruins of Whitby Abbey
