Day 12: Whitby

My Whitby Airbnb hosts are Dave

And his wife Bidi.

Bidi is a fine example of a Millennium woman. Apart from doing all the usual things women do running a home, Bidi is an actress, an artist, a sound installation creative and thanks to Scarborough Borough Council's daft policy of closing Tourist information offices in their jurisdiction (Filey, Scarborough and potentially Whitby), my unofficial fount of all Whitby knowledge.

She gave me a list of everything I should see and do in the town and between 10am and 5.30pm I managed to do all but one.

I chickened out of the boat trip in Mary Ann Hepworth, Whitby's old lifeboat, as I am a seasick sailor even in calm weather. Unlike Dave, who has citations from his service in the lifeboat crew in the 70's and sails historic boats both here and abroad.

Oh, and did  I mention Bidi also works in the Sandgate Sweetshop and is a sugar pusher? She even has a jar of sweeties on the breakfast table!

Their unusual home, though difficult for a beginner to find, is gorgeous. It is in White Horse Yard off Church Street.

 

Whitby is full of Yards. In Sussex we call them Twittens but these have exciting secret gardens, workshops and cottages hidden away inside them. I spent a super morning in the maze of tiny shops in Church Street and Sandgate.

 

 

And investigating the yards

Next stop was to climb the 199 stone steps to the ruined Benedictine Abbey.

 

Yep, our old friend Henry the Eight loved building castles (ask Morgan) and loved destroying abbeys. The views from the top are literally breath taking. It's all those steps.

There are resting places on the way up.

Looks like a bench doesn't it? But according to Bidi it is to rest coffins when they have to be carried all the way to St. Mary's church at the top.

The Church of St.Mary the Virgin was built by the monks as a place of worship for the townsfolk. Inside they still have box pews, some designated for the poor, for strangers, for the life boat crew and the Church maid.

The sandstone headstones in the church yard, like the church in Scarborough, had become so weather worn that most were now unidentifiable. Sad.

 

Back into the warren of narrow streets and a visit to the Whitby Jet Heritage Centre to look at the last remaining jet workshop.

I thought that jet was actually coal but surprisingly it is warm and light to the touch and made from the monkey puzzle tree.

The Jet jewellery is black and set in silver. Once Queen Victoria set the fashion for it after the death of her beloved Albert, every other woman in the realm wanted some too. There are jet shops all over the town.

Captain James Cook was 18th century explorer. as a cartographer he mapped Newfoundland and was the first European to travel to Australia and New Zealand. Interesting to think that today I walked the same streets as he did. Whitby celebrates him in the Captain Cook Memorial Museum

And the cook Memorial on West Cliff...  I liked the seagull on his head.

All this walking made me ravenous.

I had Gluten Free Fish and chips from the Nationally famous Quayside restaurant last night.

So now I needed something different, and I found it in Skinner Street. Cranberry Swamp is an unpretentious retro restaurant specialising in gluten free food.

The chef Sarah told me that she originally planned to avoid all gluten products but her customers were turned off by the awful excuse for GF bread. She provides non GF bread now too. Her cakes are fab.

Sadly I wolfed down her best selling cinnamon cake before I remembered to take a picture.

Skinner Street is different again. I found lots of bric a brac and curiosity shops: a Dalek (yes for sale) and fabulous steampunk shoes.

Bram Stoker used Whitby Abbey as his inspiration for Dracula. So... in an age where literature and American TV and film is fascinated by vampires, your mate count Drac was rather conspicuous by his absence.

I found his cape in a charity shop

And the Abbey and Whitby Bookshops (book-a-holics beware of this addictive independent book shop) photos sell books about him.

And oddly, jars of Dracula Teeth jellied sweets are available, but the Dracula Experience on the quayside looks abandoned. Does he only come out during Goth Week in October?

With places still to visit from Bidi's list I went to the art gallery and museum in Pannett Park.

Thankfully it is run by volunteers because the way things are going with other libraries and museums in the country we will soon be left with a bank of computers and a handful of postcards in lieu of a museum. This one is marvellous. Lots of maritime artefacts of course,

There are bygones, a little bit of Roman, jet, dolls houses, medical instruments, ships in bottles and light bulbs, and in the new wing, 19th and 20th century wedding dresses.

I could have spent hours in there but there were still a few 'must see'/ 'must do'.

In the beautifully planted flower beds and mature trees of Pannett park there were areas of wild flowers: cowslips, violets and primroses.

And this...

This was made by Bidi's brother, a tree surgeon - with a chain saw.

One more thing on my list and I'm done

The Whale jaw Bone Arch symbolises the awake industry that was once so much a part of Whitby's maritime history. It shares a space with the Captain Cook Memorial  on West Cliff.

Back in the harbour and on my way home I passed the amusement arcades. I wondered how long it would take me to lose 50p worth of 2p coins. I can tell you, nine and a half minutes! Mind you I won 48p - almost enough for a tub of ice- cream.

And Finally... I have saved the best til last

This morning in St. Mary the Virgin church on top of East Cliff, a volunteer had invited me to come back at 7pm to watch the change ringers.

John, this evenings Bell Captain was so welcoming. He showed me how the bells worked and got his team to demonstrate several different peals.

St. Mary's have ten 'young bells' - only 60 years old. They go from Number 1 bell,  a treble, to Number 10 the tenor that literally weighs a ton.

The change ringers range from the youngest at 15 years old to their oldest member Audrey.

She is 82. She only started ringing when she was 78 just because 'she thought it would be interesting'.

Audrey tries a lot of interesting things. At 80 she did a parachute jump. This year at 82, she plans to wing walk on behalf of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. WOW!!!

BEST BIT.....

At 8.10 this evening on 12th May 2016, whilst the ringers had a tea break, John let me ring number 3 bell. The bell that rang over all of Whitby was rung by me. What a bucket list moment. I was beyond thrilled!!!!