Whitby

In Living Memory

2002

This year saw a few major changes to Whitby, including the re-development of the bus station, the housing development at the former Whitehall Shipyard, to be called Whitehall Landings & other smaller developments including the basement of Fishburn Park Post Office being turned into a 2 bedroom flat and the first and second floors into 1 bedroom maisonettes. Also in the area of Spital Bridge, Chequers was built, owned by Eddie Astin. Also during this year, Sunflower greengrocers opened at 9 The Parade & also opened a shop sometime later in Station Mews. The shop at The Parade was later converted to Nick's Pizza takeaway before changing owners & becoming Gino's Pizza takeaway around 2008.

Gino's Pizza takeaway, formerly Sunflower Greengrocers, later Nick's Pizza takaway

In January, Whitby Community College sixth formers benefitted from a new common room, in part of the school which originally was the school hall. The refurbishment saw a mezzanine floor added with 10 new computers included, in a £28,000 project.

The 92 bus route, operated by Arriva, was axed due to falling passenger numbers. The bus route included Stakesby Road, and had many people up in arms about the decision to remove the service. The 99 service, run by an independent company near Egton, ran down Stakesby Road a few times throughout the day, and the 93 service operated by Arriva, covered other areas that the 92 previously covered, including the area around the Pavilion.

Yorkshire Water supplied a van to Whitby Network, to allow them to deliver items to those in need, and also donated a new computer, for Network to use.

Whitby Albion Club in Silver Street was refurbished, at a cost of £10,000, paid for by John Smith's Brewery. The clubhouse now had seating for 120 people and new lighting had been installed.

Work started in January to widen the footpath at St. Anne's Staith, and improve kerbs and drainage, as part of a £270,000 scheme. It also included re-surfacing the road, which was carried out in March. Also part of the scheme was cliff stabilisation works on the cliff by the road to Sandsend, and also work around Sandsend Beck and Port Mulgrave.

A 4 bedroom house 'Amrosa' was built to replace a 'The Bungalow' at Stainsacre Lane, to the South of the cemetry.

Amrosa, Stainsacre Lane replaced 'The Bungalow'

Permission was also given to Trailways cycle hire of Hawsker to lay a railway track by the old station platform and store railway carriages on it.

In the last week of January, the East Pier extension link bridge, installed after the Second World War, was removed, due to health & safety reasons. At the same time, a hand rail was installed along the Western edge of the newly installed footway down to the East Pier, which was completed in April 2001.

East Pier extension link bridge 2 weeks after removal

Also in January, permission to convert the old church hall building in Silver Street, which Whitby Albion Club used from 1978 to 2001 as part of their clubhouse, to flats was given the go-ahead. A 2nd floor was added to the interior and 4 flats were formed at first and 2nd floor level.

The taxi ranks on New Quay Road & Langborne Road, installed temporarily after the old rank on Langborne Road had to move owing to work by Yorkshire Water, were told they could stay permanently.

In February, emergency calls made from Whitby would no longer go to Whitby's control room in Whitby police station, but instead to a central control room in Northallerton. The new system was called 'Airwaves'.

Also in February, the building used by S.B. Woodworkers at Stainsacre Lane, was put up for sale. The building was built for S.B. Woodworkers in 1965 and extended in 1973 at a cost of £60,000. Ruswarp Market was re-opened after almost a year, following the Foot & Mouth outbreak. The market was opened for dairy & store cattle first, with the fat stock market opening four days later.

G.L.E. Estates were given the go-ahead to build a block of flats off Station Avenue, to the West of the old railway station buildings. The building was to comprise of 2-bedroomed and 3-bedroomed flats, with forecourt parking and visitor parking across the other side of a new access road. The block was called 'Pemberton House' and also new houses were erected between the old station and the flats called 'Bridge Mews'. The main station building and the rest of the houses built around it was collectively called 'Beechings Mews' with 1-7 being in the old station building, 8-10 being in a new building to the rear of the station, incorporating the old waiting shelter as a car port, and numbers 11-13 being new builds to the East of the station building. To the South-east of these, 7 bungalows were built, which were to become 14-20 Beechings Mews. 'Jefferson House' similar in style to Pemberton, was built the following year.

Permission was also given for a detached house to be built on land adjacent to the Royal Mail's Sorting Office, to replace residential garages. There were concerns from residents of St. Hilda's Gardens, but these didn't have any impact on the planning decision. The new house was to be a guest house, called 'Hailwood House'. Demolition of the garages was already in progress when permission to build was granted.

Left: Bungalows, 14-20 Beechings Mews; Left Centre: 11-13 Bridge Mews; Right Centre: The houses at Bridge Mews & flats (Pemberton House, built 2002, & Jefferson House, built 2003) to the West of the old West Cliff Station buildings; Right: 6-10 Bridge Mews with the old waiting shelter being used as a car port;

Right: Hailwood House, built on land previously occupied by residential garages

Work begun in the latter part of February on the Swing Bridge, with 2 phases, the first phase split into 2 sections. The work saw the bridge close to road traffic for 4 separate days throughout the works, which were to be carried out between the 20th February & 31st May. Section 1 of phase 1 was to balance the bridge wheels & main pivot bearings. Work on section 1 was complete by May, with work costing around £100,000. Nearby, £250,000 was spent on work to strengthen Endeavour Wharf, which included installing 18-metre long, interlocking sheet piling, with ground anchors to secure the piling.

In February also, the Air Cadets were given a new home in the shape of a brand new pre-fabricated building to the rear of Caedmon School. The building, which was 3 times bigger than their old home in Stonecross Road, housed 2 class rooms, kitchen, toilets & a hospice. The building was funded by Reserved Forces & Cadet's Association.

A little further afield, in Staithes, the extension of the old Co-operative store in Jubilee Terrace was complete. The extension, costing £190,000, saw the store size increase from 644 sq-ft to 958 sq-ft. Only parts of the store closed at a time to allow work to be carried out, ensuring the store remained open throughout the work. The Co-op in Whitby also had an extension built, which extended the warehouse at the store in Langborne Road. The extension was part of a £800,000 project which also saw the store spruced up, including relocating the kiosk, having new signage and a new, dedicated hot food area.

Co-operative store's extension in Langborne Road

In the early part of March, the Whitby campus of Yorkshire Coast College at St. Hilda's Business Park launched its 'Flexible I.T. learning facility'. Re-paving of New Way Ghaut was carried out, which would be completed in 2 phases. The first phase was to be completed before the new financial year, and the final part in the new financial year. The work was estimated to cost £13,343 and was paid for by Whitby Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme. The whole of the works were complete in May. The yard gives access to 7 cottages off Church Street, the section of path leading to the harbour, was re-paved in 1998.

More 20mph zones were added to the town, in Abbots Road, with 5 speed humps due to be added later in the same year, & Fishburn Park also with speed humps. The ones on the section of Windsor Terrace nearest the town centre were in the form of 2 humps to allow fire engines to straddle them. There was also a set of these installed near the foot of Spring Hill Terrace. The 20mph zone ran from the one-way section of Spring Hill, to the junction of Windsor Terrace with Station Square, and to the traffic lights at the top end of Waterstead Lane in the other direction. There was also plans to install a flat-topped-hump at the entrance to the bus station, making it easier to cross for pedestrians with a disability, but this wouldn't be carried out until after the new bus station was complete.

20mph speed limit with speed humps in Waterstead Lane

2nd March also saw the Mini Endeavor, built by Parkol Marine, touch the water for the first time, minus her sails. The boat was 2-fifths the size of the original and was launched from Eskside Wharf. Also in March, Whitby Archives & Heritage Centre moved from their home in Grape Lane to the back rooms of the Trinity United Reformed Church in Flowergate. The official opening of the new premises was on 2nd July. Later still, in August, it was announced the centre would start charging a small entrance fee, 80p for locals for a year-long ticket, and £1 for tourists for each time they visited or 80p per child.

Loading bays were painted on to the road at Haggersgate & Pier Road, with disabled bays also in Pier Road. It was realised a few weeks later however that there was a slight problem with the system, and so it was changed to allow any vehicle to use the loading bays between 6pm & 6am and also 2 yellow boxes were painted onto the road to stop people parking, opposite the entrance & exit of the fish market in Pier Road. A 3rd box was painted at the end of Haggersgate & Pier Road, between the 2 bends in the road to stop motorists parking on the narrow corner. This wasn't painted until July however.

Left: Mini Endeavour being launched into the water; Right: Yellow boxes painted in Pier Road, this is one of them on the exit from Haggersgate

The new visitor centre at Whitby Abbey was finally opened. Cholmley house, dating from the 17th century was where the visitor centre was housed and was the final piece of the jig-saw in the £5.7M Abbey Headland Project.

Seaton Gray, Bell & Bagshawe solicitors of Flowergate was closed down by the Law Society.

In April, West Cliff School had an extension built, replacing a portable building. The new building was to house an infant classroom, costing £75,000, which was sourced from Government funding. The bricks matched the original building, dating from around 1940.

The re-opening of Whitby's Indoor Pool was delayed due to the roof above the changing rooms needing some attention. It re-opened on 20th May after a closure of 6 months, which involved work replacing the reception area, to include the new sports centre which was currently being built. The pool was closed again in August for a week to allow for smaller-scale works to be completed.

 2 new shops were formed at East Row, Sandsend, to the North of the beck. The buildings had previously been used as public toilets and were converted to 2 retail units, which were owned by the Marquis of Normanby.

Three 4-bedroomed houses were to be built on land next to Sleights Hall in Coach Road. Barisland Homes Ltd was carrying out the work, which was also converting Sleights Hall into flats at the same time. Sleights Sports Field had new toilets built around this time after receiving a £500 grant from the North Yorkshire County Council Coast & Moors Area Committee. The previous toilet was just a urinal behind a corrugated iron screen, which flowed into Little Beck. The field was obtained in 1925 when local people raised money for it and is held in trust for use by local people. Also on the subject of Sleights, work on a new roundabout got underway around this time at the junction of the A169 & the A171 at Bannial Flatt's to replace the former 'T' junction, which was prone to traffic build ups in the summer months. The work was complete by the summer of 2002.

Houses in Coach Road, Sleights

The roundabout at Banniel Flatt's to replace the former 'T' junction, a small piece of grass land has been laid to the left of the photo to slow cars down on the approach from Guisborough

The Captain Cook Museum in Grape Lane was re-opened in May following its extension costing £463,800, £350,000 of which was received from the English Heritage Lottery fund. Whitby & Sleights Library's dropped the fine on late return books for children in a 3-month trial period, in a bid to encourage more children to borrow books.

Transco had completed its work on replacing the gas supply in the West side of town, and now it was starting in the East side. The last section complete was Church Street, which was complete by June. The total work cost £72,000 to complete, which saw iron gas pipes replaced with polyethylene ones.

Eskdale Stone of Aislaby was re-opened, allowing them to quarry stone for use on the repair of Scarborough's East Pier & harbour wall. The quarry was allowed to operate for 2 years only and a yard at Selly Hill was used for cutting the stone.

A new cafe was opened at Abbey House and was operated by Youth Hostels Association. Around this time, building works started at Whitehall Shipyard, to develop the site into 153 houses & flats, by Harrison Developments. The former Shipyard Nightclub building, damaged by fire in August 1993, was to be later turned into 2 houses & 6 flats as part of the project.

In June, both Airy Hill School & Whitby Community College received funding towards helping the disabled. Airy Hill received £21.700 to provide a disabled toilet & shower & Whitby Community College got £87,250 to install a lift & ramp access to their communications block. Whitby's Mobile Library was back on the road again covering a 20-mile radius on a 3-week rota.

David Duggleby, Fine Art Auctioneers, bought the auction house in The Paddock off Bairstow Eves, Fine Arts & Furniture. Eves bought the service station at Castle Park off Arundale, together with all staff. They took the move after selling their garage at New Quay Road to developers at around the same time. Work also started in June transforming the old bus station. The first phase of the project was to tidy up the retaining wall bordering Bobbies Bank, and install 4 shelters, a covered walk way and a toilet.

In July, the 92 bus service operated by Arriva, was re-instated after being withdrawn in January of this year.

Also in this month Whitby Community College was granted 'Technology College' status, which meant it would receive an extra £100,000 a year for the next 5 years from the government, to spend on equipment. Also at the college, it had teamed up with Cisco Systems in May, to offer sixth form and mature students the chance to take part in computer networking courses in the future. The course, delivered and assessed online, is recognised by companies world-wide.

Also on the school scene, work started in July on a £150,000 extension at Stakesby School, to the rear of the school hall. The extension was to house an I.T. Suite and was sectioned off from the hall by a 'retractable acoustic wall', which could be opened up from the hall side should more space be needed in the hall. The extension was designed by local architect Neil Duffield and built by Harrison's of Glaisdale. The extension was complete by November. Around the same time, the School Rooms underwent a refurbishment, only to get vandalised a few months later.

Meanwhile, a refurbishment at Egton School was complete, allowing the school to re-open after closing in January. The children had been taking their lessons in portable buildings and the village's cricket pavilion, which was used as toilets & kitchen area. The £220,000 refurbishment, from the Government's Department Of Education & Skills & the York Diocese, included 2 old classrooms being merged into 1 and a new extension being built to provide a new classroom. A new modern kitchen & storage room was also created, along with a new entrance hall.

Also in July Endeavour Wharf was to be used as a temporary car park for the first time, to aid in the parking problems at busy weekends. But planning permission meant it could only be used for this purpose for a maximum of 28 days per year, otherwise a 'Change of Use' planning application would have to be submitted.

Also to note in July, a property investment & hotel company, English Rose Hotels Ltd, bought the building belonging S.B. Woodworkers in Stainsacre Lane. The company also owned Rayners Opticians & Snappers Seafood Restaurant in Wellington Road at the time.

Scarborough Borough Council's offices were to move from their old home in Back St. Hilda's Terrace to Skinner Street. The move meant that telephone lines had to be laid under the road, as there were too many to run over-head. The new office opened on Monday 22nd July, with the old one closing on Wednesday 17th July. The Thursday & Friday, the telephone lines were operating as normal, but if a member of the public wanted to see someone, there was a temporary reception desk at the Tourist Information Centre.

On a smaller scale, a plan was passed for the extension of number 71 Helredale Road.

In late July/early August, Whitby Hospital's Abbey Ward was closed for 3 weeks due to staffing issues. Patients from the ward had to be moved to Mulgrave Ward.

Also involving young people, albeit slightly older, XL Training Services Ltd closed their premises in Stakesby Road on 1st August. The company, contracted by North Yorkshire Learning & Skills Council, offered people, mainly aged between 18-24, the chance to train in sectors including Mechanics, Customer Service, Retail & Health Care. The closure came after the tenant company had gone into liquidation.

In August, building work began on a housing development that had encountered many planning obstacles on the way. Mayfield Gardens at Upper Bauldbyes, was the site for development for Barratt Homes. There was to be a total of 22 houses built, ranging from 3-bedroom 'Maidstone' style to 5-bedroom, 3-storey 'Malvern' style.

Shackleton Close & the development at Upper Bauldbye's, Mayfield Gerdens;

In the summer of this year, the boiler of a house in Stainsacre blew up, causing extensive damage to the house.

Left: GK - The house after the boiler explosion; Right: The house after a re-build

The former Burberry's factory was converted into Shambles Bar in this year, after the building was inhabited by Brompton Clothing. The building was the home of Town Tailor's before the days of Burberry's, and prior to that it was the old Market Hall.

The building about the become The Shambles Bar

In September, a Working Men's Club was to be refurbished, in a £1M make-over. The Resolution in Skinner Street was given the make-over, which saw the member's club moved from the ground floor to the lower ground floor & a new function room created, to hold up to 150 people.

2nd September was the official opening of the new Registry Office on land at Tucker's Field. The office was opened by Chairman of North Yorkshire County Council, David Ashton. Building work began at the start of the year, on the £300,000 building, which was to replace the old Registry Office in Esk Holme, Upgang Lane. The new office actually saw its first wedding on 30th August.

Old & new Registry Offices: Esk Holme & Tuckers Field

Two semi-detached houses were also given the go-ahead at land on The Ropery, to the South of 27 Boulby Bank.

Land to the South of 27 Boulby Bank, Evelyn House is built

28th September saw the re-opening of a Sandsend snooker club, after £14,000 was spent on it refurbishing it. The Pyman Insitute at Sandsend had seen member numbers fall drastically after becoming very cold, with only Calor gas fires as a source of heat. The institute, having 2 snooker tables, had a new heating system fitted, new wiring installed and a suspended ceiling was introduced. To make this happen, £8,900 was donated by Yorventure & £5,000 came from donations and fund raisers. The hall was built in 1900 on land donated to the people of Sandsend, Lythe & Newholm-cum-Dunsley by the Marquis of Normanby.

Sneaton Castle Farm suffered a suspected arson attack in late September, causing £50,000 of damage, which saw a whole barn burnt to the ground. Luckily there were no animals in the 120ft-long barn at the time.

Left: Sandsend's Pyman Institute, refurbished in this year; Right: Sneaton Castle Farm, the scene of a suspected arson attack in this year

In October, phase 1 of work to Whitby's Swing Bridge was complete. The first section of the work was complete in May, with the 2nd section left until after the summer season.

Plans were passed to build 3 2-storey cottages on land, recently stabilised, at the end of Henrietta Street. Fish processing sheds were occupying the land at the time, but the business was being located and the sheds demolished due to the location being inaccessible. Another plan also passed around this time was at number 10 Carr Hill Lane, where an old builders garage was due to be demolished and  converted into a house. 3 more houses were also to be built on the site, known as Garbutt's Yard.

Left: The cottages at Henrietta Street to the left of the photo; Right: The former Garbutt's builders yard, Carr Hill Lane. The former garage is now a house (left) & 3 more houses to the right have been built

Main work on Whitby's bus station got underway in October, after services had temporarily moved from the bus station to Langborne Road, where 3 shelters were installed. There was 4 stands created and each stand had allocated services running from it. A new drop-off stop was created outside of Boyes store and the stop at the bottom of the approach to the telephone exchange was unaffected.

Plans were passed in October also for Greenwood's, of Bridge Street, to extend into a Widow's rented flat. This meant the business could expand, siting staff facilities on the 2nd floor, with retail space on the first.

In November, Robin Hood's Bay Fire Station opened a new computer suite for use by local people. The computers, all with internet access,  were made possible thanks to a £40,000 grant from the Learning & Skills Council, North Yorkshire, and also gave people the chance to receive varying levels of computer training. There was also a black & white laser printer installed, a A3 colour printer, a scanner & a digital camera to use. A 21" monitor was fitted to one of the computers, for use by people with visual problems. Also installed was a hearing loop, although the centre wasn't too well equipped for the disabled, as the only means of reaching it was by way of a flight of stairs.

Back in Whitby, a drilling platform appeared in Whitby Harbour near the lifeboat station, to test the strength of the harbour bottom and to see if it would support sheet piling and a permanent mooring. This was the first of any work undertaken on the building of the new lifeboat station for Whitby, which was built a year later.

Also in November, work at Whitby Community College started with the demolition of 2 pre-fabs, which were previously 3 Modern Foreign Language classrooms, to make way for the new £475,000 'Normanby Wing', which was to adjoin onto the Learning Centre, which was built in 1997. The new building was to house 2 air-conditioned computer rooms, with 50 computers in total, also with 2 Modern Foreign Language rooms. There was also a aural language room added, with separate booths. The contractor for the work was Ruston & Hotham from Filey. The building was officially opened by Lady Normanby in October 2003.

 At the back end of November, the long-awaited speed humps in Abbots Road were finally installed. Also in this year, a traffic-light-controlled crossing was installed in Castle Road near what was then the Handyman Store. Also, 3 Zebra crossings were installed at The Parade, between each of the 2 traffic islands on the junction with White Point Road.

Abbots Road with its 20MPH zone installed earlier in the year, with the speed humps; The Parade with its zebra crossings

In December, Whitby Trinity Centre acquired a new mini-bus thanks to Blue Peter, to transport mainly older people to and from the centre and out on shopping trips twice a week.

December saw the start of phase 2 of work to Whitby's Swing Bridge. The Resolution, in Skinner Street was re-opened in December following a £1.2M refurbishment since its closure in September. The lower-ground floor members club was not due to re-open until the new year of 2003 however.

Whitby's Indoor Pool was closed once again in December and was not due to re-open until February, to tie in with the opening of the Sports Centre. The pool required maintenance works to be undertaken.

Also in December, the sign for Boots Chemist in Baxtergate was changed from a blue oval sign with white text to a white rectangular sign with blue text.

Also in this year, the housing development, Castle Links, at Sneaton Castle's former playing fields was complete, with the main road through the estate given the name of Chancel Way. This was linked only via footpath to the new houses at the top end of Westbourne Road, so as not to create a rat-run. Work on the development was started around February 2000.

Houses on Chancel Way viewed from Castle Road