1988

1988

Various plans were passed by the authorities in this year including for alterations to take place at the Duke of York pub in Church Street, which allowed for the lower ground floor to converted to an additional bar lounge, providing that the tables and chairs that were previously on the forecourt of the pub were removed. Also on the pub scene, the Dolphin in Bridge Street was granted permission to add a 2-storey extension to the rear of the building to provide a toilet block and rear fire escape. Also on the pub scene, it was in this year that Whitby's Own Brewery opened in the town by brewer Duncan Evans & his wife, managing director, Joan.

The 18th January marked a special event for the town - the silencing of the Hawsker Bull fog horn, near Whitby High Light. The fog horn was established in 1903 and was sited atop of the former Low Light building. Trinity house who owned the fog horn felt it was no longer needed as a navigational aid. The beginning of this year also saw the placement of 4 telescopes in the town, along with 4 in Scarborough and 2 in Filey.

By the end of January, work was complete by Grace Steeple Jacks UK on replacing the spire on top of St. Hilda's R.C. Church at the bottom of Brunswick Street with a fibre glass spire. Also around this time, two shops on Flowergate had to be closed temporarily to allow essential repair works to be carried out. The Sutcliffe Gallery was suffering from a combination of wet & dry rot, with problems starting in the cellar and one wall, and so the chance was taken, whilst the shop was closed, to make minor alterations, which included adding a new stairway and installing a new shop front. During the work, a new gallery display area was created on the first floor. Until Easter, when the gallery was re-opened, the business was running at a reduced size at number 4 Flowergate. All the woodwork had been treated and the affected areas had been replaced where necessary. The other shop to be affected was ironically, on the other side of Flowergate in the Oxfam premises. That shop was suffering from dry rot and this shop was re-opened by mid-February.

Also around this time, it was announced that £51,629 had been set aside by the Scarborough Council Housing Services Committee for improvement of soft surfacing at various children's play parks across the borough. These in Whitby included play areas at White Leys & St. Peter's Road. Pannett Park would benefit from re-surfacing around the play equipment in a separate scheme where £3,000 was to be spent on the surface as decided by the Borough's Leisure & Amenities Committee. All the work was due to be completed before April of this year. The following grants were agreed around this time by the same committee: £5,000 towards the appeal by Grosmont Scouts Club to build a £23,000 pavilion; £4,400 at Trinity House for the development of a sports hall; £1,000 to Grosmont School Room to provide new toilets; £200 to Lythe Village Hall to buy a short mat bowls carpet, costing £780; £800 for Whitby Yacht Club to provide new toilets at a cost of £1,947; £900 to Fishburn Park Community Centre to contribute towards the £2,750 cost of buying equipment & to provide storage accommodation; £800 to Whitby Community Centre to contribute towards the cost of the refurbishment of the kitchen.

A new factory had been built and was due to open at the end of January in Cholmley Way. Cowens window company of Coach Road, Sleights were to move into the factory opposite Dalewood House, where building work had started in June 1987, as they had outgrown their former home.

Also in Sleights around this year, a new housing development was added to the single house that stood at 2 Smiddyfields. A further 10 houses were built, after planning permission was granted in this year. 1 Smiddyfields was never built, and the plot seen in the photo below would presumably be where this would be, if ever built.

Smiddyfields, Sleights

February saw the opening of a home for mentally handicapped adults in a former hotel at 5 North Promenade by John & Valerie Obeng-Frimpong. The new care home was to provide both long-term care and also short-term, respite care for up to 11 residents at a time.

February also saw the Trinity United Reformed Church, Flowergate open the cellar as a meeting place for young people. The Long Room, would be open initially only on a Tuesday & Thursday morning & Thursday evening while work was being carried out on the building. The Thursday evening session, all young people aged 16-30 could attend, but the other two sessions were aimed at the unemployed aged 16-30, allowing them to meet and chat. Manpower Services carried out the work, which would enable the centre to open everyday, with a session designed specifically for those aged 14-16.

Work expected to cost £20,000 got underway on the retaining wall at Stakesby Vale beneath Harrison's Garage, which had to be partially demolished and re-built, as a lean had developed towards the top of the wall, which had only been built 5 years previous.

Wall at Stakesby Vale

Also around this time, Fishburn Methodist Church re-opened after being closed for 18 months thanks to a major fund-raising effort, raising almost £14,000. By January 1987, work including repairing collapsed drains and roof guttering had been carried out. In April 87, the Botton Community Programme of the Manpower Services Commission was asked for help, to renovate firstly the upstairs of the church building, and secondly the two church halls. A mother & toddler, which was set up not long before, used one of the halls for its meetings. The work included installing damp proof courses, re-plastering & re-wiring work, new flooring fitted, new heating system installed & a new kitchen fitted in the old boiler house.

March saw the completion of an extension to Ruswarp Village Hall, to allow it to offer a large hall or a small hall for hire, each with their own kitchen & toilet facilities and with the large hall boasting a stage. The £18,000 project was undertaken by Manpower Services Commission and a grant of £5,600 was given by Scarborough Borough Council.

In the spring of this year, the public conveniences near the Salmon Leap hotel in Sleights were closed for good.

In April, a few changes to town centre shops occurred, starting in Flowergate where Edward Harland & Sons estate agents, who had a branch in Flowergate had been taken over by the building society Abbey National, resulting in a change of name to the shop front. Also, down to Bridge Street, Greenwoods had a refurbishment, as did the former Hardy's Bakers & cafe at 70 Baxtergate, which was to become a permanent retail premises for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Moving onto May, work was resumed on a continuation from earlier phases of a major cliff stabilisation & sea defence project at Whitby's West Cliff. Work, by Kier North Eastern, was complete by the end of November 1989 and involved bringing in 9.000 tonne barge-loads of boulders from Norway, which would create the new rock-armoured sea-wall with promenade, which would also extend to Upgang Ravine. The first task of this phase of the work was to re-survey the cliff to get a clear picture of the work to be done. New drainage was also installed in the cliff as part of the works and the slopes re-graded and grassed, with treatment & stabilisation of rock faces. The total cost of this final, major phase of work, was £2.7M.

Also in May, planning permission was granted for East Whitby County Primary School, as it was then called, to extend the building in two places to provide two additional classrooms. One of the extensions to be built was to the South West of the school building, in the infant section. The other was to the rear of the school in the junior section, which basically filled in a gap between two extensions added in the late ‘70’s, around the time when the flat-roofed corridors around the school were added and three classrooms were also added down the whole western side of the school.

A business was sold off after Whitby Confectionery Company had gone into liquidation. The business in Old Goods Yard, Station Road, Whitby was to become the site of the Co-op staff car park in around 3 years time.

Around this time, 50 Flowergate & 1 St. Ann's Lane were shown some attention and not a minute too soon, after standing empty for many years. 50 Flowergate, a 3-storey, 18th century building was last used as a cycle repair shop. In 1983, the building was issued with a listed building repairs notice, but the then owners had begun negotiations with the Northern Heritage Trust. Subsequently the trust bought both buildings but lack of funds prevented any work being carried out. The buildings were then bought by Eskdale Investments Ltd of Doncaster who carried out the repairs to the buildings, which included providing a shop unit in each building and basically to re-build 1 St. Ann's Lane, still with 2 storeys.

Just down the lane, at St. Ann's Staith, Gatsby Restaurant opened on 20th May, serving Italian cuisine with a 'Hideaway' carvery on the first floor. The renovation to the building, which had been empty for 2 years, cost £60,000.

Fishburn playgroup was launched from Fishburn Methodist Chapel thanks to Mrs Collinson. The group met on Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings from 9 until 12.

Work was started on the 1st June, estimated to cost £296,712 at Endeavour Wharf, which would see the wharf extended with construction of a relieving platform, coupled with an under-water refuge area for local fishermen. The idea first came to light in 1967 and finally the idea was turned into reality with work was expected to be completed by November of this year.

The 30th June saw Whitby Snooker Centre closed the doors to its home on the 3rd & 4th floors of the Angel in New Quay Road. The snooker centre had been in operation for around 18 months and at its peak had 500 members. Proprietor Don Dunwell needed to spend more time at his other venture, the Angel Hotel and the snooker centre was bought by Scarborough-based Laughton's Nightclub. Also around this time, work was underway on refurbishing two retail units at 26 & 27 Baxtergate.

In July, a house at Folly Gardens, Green Lane was causing a stir, after the owner had gone ahead with building alterations against the wishes of the planning department. Plans were submitted, and, after being deferred, a second set of plans were submitted, but required modifications. Building work was started which saw out buildings demolished and a 2-storey extension added to the original house.

Also in July, the Whitby Harbour Committee approved plans for an office building to be housed at the Fish Quay to be used by Alliance Fish (Whitby) Ltd. Also in July, alterations to the George Hotel were also given the go-ahead after the building was bought earlier in the year by Manxguard Ltd. The alterations were to the ground-floor facade of both the Station Square & Baxtergate frontages, with the Baxtergate entranceway re-instated in its former position.

Moving North, Hinderwell Tennis & Multisports Club was officially opened on 16th July, thanks to equal grants of £4,700 from both the Sports Council & Scarborough Borough Council, with other money towards the total £10,925 of the project coming from local fundraising. Tennis courts had existed at the site for over 50 years, but had fallen into a state of neglect.

The 29th July saw the Elsinore Hotel in Flowergate re-open after a major refurbishment programme, which had seen the hotel closed since earlier in the year. The refurbishment included merging the two bars into one and installing an open fireplace. Another major improvement was to add a catering kitchen to allow the new tenants, Len & Pam Macknight, who took over the tenancy in 1986, to serve bar meals at lunch times. The tenants moved into the First In at Fishburn Park whilst the work was being carried out, which had received a refurbishment the year before. Also to receive a refurbishment recently was the Cutty Sark, which saw work carried out in 1985. All 3 pubs were owned by Camerons Brewery.

In August, plans were passed for a factory unit to be built on the site of the former Eskdale Hospital at Cholmley Way, for Eskdale Stone Supplies. Plans for a dormer bungalow with integrated garage to be built at Plot 4, Links View, were also passed.

Hall & Ride regulations set by bosses at United Bus Company were to be applied rigidly for the first time, much to anger of locals, especially those living in Runswick Avenue, as the road was included in the regulations, meaning the buses could now only stop at official bus stops.

The 13th August saw the official opening of a £30,000 purpose-built changing room block for Whitby Town F.C at the Turnbull Ground, also housing an office & committee room. The building, measuring 60' by 30', was built by volunteers with support from a Manpower Services Commission team from Botton Village Community Programme Agency. The building housed an official's changing room, as well as home & away changing rooms.

Whitby Town F.C's changing room block

New signage was installed at the top approach to Blue Bank on the A169 travelling towards Whitby. The signs, costing £4,000 were of a blue background with white lettering, warning drivers about the 1 in 5 descent and to select a low gear with signs throughout the descent of the hill instructing drivers to remain in a low gear. The signs came after separate incidents of a runaway lorry & a runaway coach had occurred within months of each other. Luckily no-one was killed but just after these signs were put up, another lorry ran away and this resulted in local villagers to request an arrestor bed be installed.

The 10th September marked the end of an era for British Rail as this date saw the closure of its booking office. Advances in technology was partly to blame for the closure as tickets could now be booked onboard trains. Tickets could also be booked at two travel agents in Whitby though from the 15th August at both Getaway Travel of Grape Lane & Coliseum Travel of Station Square. This created an overlap period to iron-out any teething problems.

Also in September, permission was granted for outbuildings at Larpool Hall to be converted into 6 homes.

Also in September, the Trinity Community Bus was handed to Trinity House by Help the Aged, who had donated half of the money towards the cost of the 10-seater bus with tail lift, with the other half of the money being raised within a year through various fundraising.

Years of hard fundraising were finally rewarded as the Mission to Seamen building was given a major facelift. The building, Haggersgate House, dating back to around 1750, had £28,000 spent on it during the 2 month-long work.

In the month of October, a new refrigerated assembly & despatch centre was opened at the Associated Co-operative Creameries dairy in Whitby, as part of a £1.2M improvement scheme. The centre, officially opened on 6th October by Bill Allison, chairman of North Eastern Co-operative Society, who at the time jointly owned the dairy with Co-operative Wholesale Society. It was also around this time that the dairy acquired a new pre-fabricated building, causing a stir with local residents, who said the factory was going to far.

Also in October, Whitby Town F.C manager Pete Creamer resigned and was replaced by Harry Wilson, former Seaham Red Star manager.

In October, Eskdale Fisheries at the junction of Iburndale Lane & Road Sleights, had a new conservatory added to their fish & chip shop, to provide a cafe.

Eskdale Fisheries, Iburndale Lane, Sleights with its conservatory built in this year

Also in this month, work was started on the building of Helredale Play Centre as it was to called at the time, now re-named Eastside Community Centre by Scarborough Borough Council's Employment Training Team. Proposals for a play centre were first put forward in 1986 as a result of the borough council's 'Right To Play' document. The building was to provide indoor activities as well as provide storage space with toilets & a kitchen. An fenced adventure playground was also planned for the centre, along with a separate conventional playground to be open all hours. An all-weather sports surface was also to be provided, with a ball-retaining fence & floodlighting.

This month also saw Scarborough Borough Council donate £1,150 towards the cost of work to repair St. Patrick's Church in Church Street. The work included replacing the roof & windows and was estimated to cost £13,160.

On the 24th November, the Greengates building, Grape Lane was officially opened 18 months after the Youth Trust took over the ownership. The building was opened the following week to the general public. Earlier in the year, at the end of January, a new coffee bar was opened in the basement of the building. £10,000 was donated from the J. Paul Getty Jnr charitable trust.

Whitby gained a new lifeboat in the shape of the City of Sheffield, which arrived in the town on 29th November. The new boat replaced the former lifeboat White Rose of Yorkshire, which had served the town for 14 years previous. The new Tyne Class boat, costing £566,000 which took 18 months to build, was 14M long with a top speed of 17 knots. £420,000 of this amount was raised by the from the 'City of Sheffield lifeboat appeal'. The former lifeboat left Whitby in December to serve various stations as a relief boat, after all the crew at Whitby were trained for the new boat. The official naming ceremony for the new boat took place on 28th July 1989 by H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent.

In December, a house at 30 Henrietta Street was demolished after it had been leaning to one side after a land slippage decades earlier. The owner of the house, who lived next door to it at number 28, re-built the house to the same design as the old one, once pilings had been put in place. The house had been evacuated in April of the previous year after inspectors deemed it unsafe.

30 Henrietta Street, demolished at the end of this year & re-built after pilings were installed to reduce the chance further landslips

It was around this time that unleaded petrol was available to buy at the town's pumps. Eve's garage on New Quay Road was the first garage in the town to sell the eco-friendly petrol alternative to leaded petrol. The cost per litre was around 36 pence, 5 pence cheaper than leaded.

December also saw the grand opening of the ground-floor extension at premises of the Fishermen's Society Football Club on The Cragg. The club was formed in 1975 and the building was bought in 1976, but it wasn't until 1982 however that the club actually opened.

Also in December, at Smiddyfields in Sleights, planning permission to build a house at plot 9 was passed, much to the anger of the former owner of the plot, who lived at Birch Avenue at the time, sold the land.