2005

2005

2005 saw lots of changes happen in Whitby, from the former Eves Garage in New Quay Road being replaced with apartments & shops, to the new recycling centre on the industrial estate, replacing the old skips at California Road. Smaller developments to take place in 2005 saw Woodhead the baker move into the former Burberry's shop premises in Market Place. Some time around the turn of this year, Whitby Town F.C's Turbull Ground benefitted from a new home dugout, purchased for the club by Dave Carrington, one of Whitby Town's life members purchased a dugout which was formerly used by West Bromwich Albion.

Left: The away dugout, once part of a matching set; Right: The new home dugout

In January, a new 'Supermobile' library van was launched, for use by Sleights' residents. The 12M-long van, with lower-rising entrance steps, separate lift and induction loop, visited the village on Monday's. The vehicle also boasted 2 computers offering the public free internet access.

Moving South to Robin Hood's Bay, a sculpture marking the millennium, albeit 4 years late, was installed at the top of Bay Bank. The monument, which was made out of stone, was the work of Fylingthorpe man David Duncalfe, who saw his plans passed in 1999. The £1,000 monument, reflecting the maritime history of the area, was in the shape of a globe and his original intensions were to mount it on a disk, but he couldn't source the materials he needed. Work was carried out to repair and replace paving stones at Grape Lane, followed by Sandgate & Baxtergate. A large landslide occurred at the East Cliff in January, which saw 500 tonnes of rubble hit the nab below.

The 5th of February marked the end of an era for Safeway supermarket on Flowergate in Whitby, as it was closed for 3 days before opening as a Somerfield store on 9th February, after the store, along with 143 other Safeway stores throughout England & Scotland, had been bought by the chain. The existing staff were all kept on by Somerfield in the £260M bid. Further up the same street, Bitz & Pizzas were given 6 months extra of opening 30 minutes extra a night, after the 12-month trial had expired. Also in Flowergate, a new ice-cream parlour & coffee house, 'The Old Library' opened its doors in time for Easter. It was above what was Aura Gifts in Flowergate, near to Mason's Greengrocers, in what was previously holiday accommodation. The first floor of the building was stripped and the living room became the main coffee house with the rear bedroom becoming the kitchen and the bathroom became 2 toilets.

Also during February, work was complete re-laying railway track between Grosmont & Whitby, after a delay during work to lay the last 2 miles from Ruswarp. This meant steam trains could now run into Whitby from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which joined the Esk Valley Line at Grosmont. Moving to the water, the Esk Belle II was bought by Bryan Clarkson to offer pleasure cruises. The boat, previously named Diana S, was bought from Portsmouth and taken to Hartlepool to be painted in Bryan's trademark yellow. It was licensed for 120 passengers. Also in February, plans were passed for a storage building at The Paddock, previously used by West End Sale Rooms, to be converted into 2 houses, a one bedroom and a two bedroom. Moving South, a guard house at RAF Fylingdales was built, correctly called a Piquet Post, which replaced the former wooden hut.

The 16th March marked the day of the official opening of the new recycling centre, on Whitby's Cholmley Way, which was accessed by a new road round the back of Eves. Also at this end of town, it was the end of an era for Eskdale School, as their head teacher, Dave Bradley, moved to pastures new. He was at the school for 14 years and was now moving to Darlington to become the assistant chief executive of primary, secondary & special needs schools. The new head teacher for Eskdale commenced his duties in April in the form of Keith Prytherch, moving from Northallerton, where he had served 4 years as assistant principal of Northallerton College. Over the water to Caedmon, the £500,000 Astroturf pitch was officially opened by local sports heroes Ashley Lyth, Richard Jackson & the Astroturf's committee chairman, Harry Baker on 12th May.

In March also, Whitby Disablement Action Group (DAG), got a new mini bus after nearly 3 years of fund raising. The £12,000 bus was jointly owned by them and the Good Neighbours Community Transport Scheme. In similar news, a coach was given to Whitby & District InterActive by the Variety Club. To receive the award they first had to raise £15,000 funds for a deposit. The coach, named 'Sunrise', was able to carry 17 passengers and 4 wheelchair users.

Work was underway in March at the lighthouses on the Piers. The East Pier lighthouse's lead roof was badly damaged and the West Pier lighthouse's weather vane had snapped, during high winds in January. Also in this area, Whitby Civic Society was to erect a new storm gate at the end of the West Pier to prevent access to the extension during stormy weather. The former storm gate was installed in October 1960 after a girl was swept off the extension. The new gate cost £4,000, with money coming from grants of £1,000 each from Scarborough Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council & Yorventure. £250 came from Whitby Fishermen's Society FC & £100 each from Fusco's & Whitby Licensed Victuallers' Association. The gate was blessed by Rev Terry Leathley of the Mission to Seamen on 21st October & installed in November. A pleasure speed boat, Velocity, offering passenger rides out of Whitby Harbour moved berths in March from the Harbour to Scotch Head, following criticism from locals due to noise and other boat owners, since first operating in April 2004.

April saw a zebra crossing finally installed on Upgang Lane, near to the Bowling Club & Tuckers Field pedestrian entrance, after 2 years of campaigning.

From left: The Cholmley Way Recycling Centre access road with the entrance to Eves on the right; The Recycling Centre; The Storm Gate at the end of West Pier; Zebra Crossing at Upgang Lane

Also in April, both the infant & Junior playgrounds at East Whitby School were redesigned by pupils in work costing £42,000. The project got off the ground after the 'Playground Committee' was set up in 2003, with representatives from each class. The work saw the infant playground get a tug boat & a road marked out to improve awareness of road safety. Meanwhile, the juniors got new seating with raised flowerbeds, a snakes and ladders set and a stage with seating area & football & netball areas.

Also around this time, works in excess of £300,000 were unveiled when Glaisdale's Robinson Institute was re-opened, after a major refurbishment. The work, made possible thanks to a lottery grant of £332,307 and £5,000 each from Yorventure & Scarborough Borough Council, included the roof being replaced, a new heating and plumbing system installed, along with new electrics. Also during the works, toilets were renewed, with disabled access, a new kitchen was added and an extension added, providing a storage room.

Also in May, plans were passed for the building of 5 properties at Highfield Road, between the junction of Stonecross Road & Love Lane. Also in this month, Network was closed, after being set up in 1986. Network was based at the time in Whitby's Coliseum, having moved there in 1998. It was said it would cost £45,000 a year to operate the service on a part-time basis. Whitby Civic Society installed a plaque on the wall of number 4 Park Terrace to commemorate a family of artists. The Weatherill family lived in the house between 1864 and 1923. George Weatherill lived in the house until his death in 1890.

Mickleby Village hall was given a £1,000 boost from Scarborough Borough Council's Northern Area Committee in November 2004 & a further £1,000 was promised if funding from Yorkshire Coast & Moors Area Committee couldn't be granted. They did receive £400 of the grant however, so the Northern Area Committee granted them a further £600, to make up the £1,000. Work included fitting fire-proof curtains, re-varnishing the floor, re-marking the badminton court & putting down linoleum on the floor of the make-shift stage.

The Magpie Cafe was granted permission to extend into premises next door, occupying what was previously living accommodation above a wet fish shop, which the Magpie purchased around this time. They were set to turn the first floor of the new extension into a bar area, whilst the second floor was to include seating for 40 more diners, making the total restaurant capacity of 140. The ground floor of the extension, which was previously the wet fish shop, allowed them to offer a take-away service, which saw plans passed in May. The extension also allowed the cafe to offer disabled access, with disabled toilets and a lift.

Also in May, plans were passed for three 3-bedroom houses and 2 flats on the site of the former St. Patricks Church in Church Street, which was to be demolished. Temporary permission lasting 2 years was granted for Whitby Cricket Club to site a further 2 temporary buildings following 1 which was granted around March, due to demolition of their old, wooden tea rooms - which were converted into a clubhouse with changing rooms - owing to the development of the adjacent Fairways garage.

In June, a new classroom was opened at Sneaton Castle, which was named after the late Sister Hillary. The classroom, a new 'Learning Zone', would allow children of all ages to learn about St. Hilda and her Anglo Saxon times & Whitby as an important religious centre.

The 25th June at 10:00am saw the official re-opening of Airy Hill Play Park, by 5-year old Charlotte Brown, who won a competition to design a mosaic, which would be incorporated within the flowerbeds in the park. The mosaic didn't go up though until the park's 1st birthday. Work on the park was finally started in March, after much fund raising for the near-£200,000 project, which came from various sources, including: £90,000 from Living Spaces; £70,000 from Doorstep Green; £15,000 from Yorventure; £4,500 from Scarborough Borough Council Northern Area Committee; £2,500 from the Jack Brunton Charitable Trust; £10,000 in unanimous donations & £6,966 from associations own fund raising. It was opened to the public in May. The long dream of the new play park started in 1995, when the Fishburn Park Residents Association decided that spare money from the VE Day celebrations, which included a street party, should be used on new play equipment. The Airy Hill Play Park Association was formed in 1999, allowing them to gain 'Charitable Status', which meant they could apply for major funding. The work saw the old play equipment ripped out and the whole area landscaped, with fences installed and paths laid. The play equipment came from Sutcliffe Play and was installed by Contract Leisure, whilst the bins and benches came from David Ogilvie Engineering, and were installed by Scarborough Borough Council. A small section of older swings remained, with the new equipment installed towards St. Hilda's School.

Left: The older equipment with the new path; Right: The new equipment with the new pathway

Prior to the summer of 2005, a new business was opened in the town's Church Street, called Chocolate Falls. The shop offered those with a sweet tooth the chance to dip either fruit or marshmallows on skewers into a flowing fountain of chocolate. In June, £1.5M work started on Laughton's Nightclub, which took around 4 months to complete. Also at this time, residents were up in arms over the fact that the Bog Hall railway crossing had been fenced off by Network Rail, apparently due to problems with fly tipping. This was eventually re-opened.

July saw the take-over of the ownership of Helredale play Centre, after it closed its doors after a final BBQ and disco on 1st July. The building was owned by Scarborough Borough Council, who could no longer afford to run it after announcing it had to cut £1.6M from its services to balance the books. The centre was taken over by Whitby Town Council after it got a 30-year lease of the building, which meant the town council could accept a £20,000 grant from Government Initiative 'Sure Start', which would help run the centre for the first year and to re-decorate the building and provide new play equipment. The centre was re-opened on 3rd April 2006.

Around this time, preparatory work for restoration of the 199 steps began, with the erection of scaffolding, with actual restoration starting in September and complete by the end of October.

It was agreed in July to close Fylingthorpe public toilets, as there were 3 other public toilets within a 3-mile radius. Also in public service news, 2 payphones were converted to cashless phones around this time, one of which was in Fylingthorpe, the other being at Raw. The cashless phones would instead only take either BT charge cards, phone cards or debit or credit cards. Users could also use the reverse charge function, call the emergency services or the operator, or dial a free-phone number.

Also in July, Whitby's old rowing lifeboat, the 'William Riley', was spotted on internet auction site 'eBay' and was snapped up for £1,200. The boat was built in 1908 and served Upgang Lifeboat Station from 1909, until it closed in 1934. The boat then disappeared until now, and the wheels were quickly set in motion, to try and get the boat back to Whitby, from Barnstaple, Devon where it was at this time. Mr. Charlton & his wife Sarah, former coxswain & Whitby Lifeboat press officer Pete Thompson, & Lifeboat Museum volunteer Tim Hickings, all travelled down to Devon to get the boat back to Whitby. This would not have been possible had it not been for the huge generosity shown by haulage firm Dowson Robinson from Skinningrove, who gave them the use of a lorry and a driver, free of charge. The boat was brought back on the lorry and was stood near Coates Marine for the public to see, before being taken up to a barn at Cross Butts Farm, which had been made available thanks to the owner John Morley, where the boat could be renovated.

In July also, author Gervase Phinn officially opened Whitby Museum's new £1.25M extension, with a celebratory cake being cut. Also to help with the opening ceremony was pupils from Caedmon & Eskdale schools. The 3-storey building featured a costume gallery, a lecture room & exhibition room with moving panels to display temporary exhibits. The building also allowed for a cafe to be added, although this wasn't opened with the rest of the extension, as a franchise had to be found to run it. The heritage lottery fund paid for 75% of the total cost, with the remainder coming from fund raising and smaller grants.

Whitby Museum extension seen the left of the main building

In July also, Beevers furniture & carpet company was taken over by father & son Anthony & Paul Stephenson, trading under the name 'Beevers Whitby Limited'. The company was first set up in the late 1970's by Gordon Draper as 'Cash & Carry Carpets'. David Coleman joined him in partnership and Beevers was created. Also around this time, the Coliseum started offering an internet cafe, which ran on Saturday's from 9am until 5pm. The cost of the service, run by volunteers, was £2 an hour, with additional charges for printing.

In August, a new-look play area was unveiled at Dundas Gardens, thanks to a group of mums' efforts in raising money, of which, Sharon Hutchinson was appointed chairperson. The play area, owned by Scarbrough Borough Council, had become run down and £34,000 was raised by the mums to maintain the play area, after they persuaded Scarborough Borough Council to agree to lease them the play area. With the help of Community Development worker, Lynn Booth, they went ahead with transforming the area for 4-12 year olds. New equipment installed included a slide, roundabout, monkey bars and some smaller rides for younger children. £25,995 came from Living Spaces, £5,000 from Home Group Community Fund & the remainder of the money from other sources including local fund raising.

August, as ever, saw the annual Whitby Regatta take place, but in this year, the 'greasy pole' snapped, which meant for the subsequent years, this event could not take place, after an unsuccessful appeal was put out for a new one. A new one was eventually donated by Whitby Fishermen's Club ready for the 2013 regatta.

Plans were also passed in the summer for a disused fisherman's workshop in Cliff Street to be converted into a 2-storey house.

5th September saw the closure of Church Street & Sleights public toilets, after the Church Street ones had been targeted by yobs & also had a collapsed drain. The council were going to jet the sewer on a weekly basis, to ensure that all sewage was discarded. The Sleights toilets re-opened shortly after, the Church Street ones however, were soon demolished.

Work was complete for the start of the new school year on an extension at Lythe school, which was started sometime in spring 2004, which saw their school hall extended to provide a sports hall for use by the community. The works meant the hall, designed for 55 pupils, could now comfortably hold the 100 pupils of the school. The school could now accommodate badminton, indoor cricket & table tennis. The outside area around the extension was also made into a larger playground. This was all made possible thanks to 2 grants from lottery-run organisations; 'Awards for All' & 'Grounds for Improvement', who donated £15,000 between them. Many local businesses also made donations, including £750 worth of sports equipment was donated from the Freemasons Provincial Grand Charity of North & East Yorkshire.

Preparatory work at Whitby's Lifeboat Station got underway in September, which saw the inshore lifeboat moved into the former lifeboat station in Pier Road, now Whitby Lifeboat Museum, which in turn meant the Robert & Ellen Robson had be put into storage. Another inshore lifeboat was required to be moored at Whitby Marina, owing to problems with launching from the West Pier slipway at high tide. In mid-October, Whitby's lifeboat shed, dating from the 1930's, was demolished, to make way for the new, state of the art station. The next stage of work was to remove the concrete pilings, and then extract the steel from the river bed encased within them.

Also around this time, a rocket post was replaced in Robin Hood's Bay, a similar move also happened at Ravenscar, when strong gales blew the century-old one down. 2 telegraph poles were donated by BT and they were transformed into rocket posts by Yorkshire Coastal Estates team, who worked alongside blacksmith Alan Readman, who used the original remains as templates for the new crows nest & 14 step pegs. The one near Robin Hood's bay was erected in the first field of the Cleveland Way, to the North of the village.

The 15th September saw the official opening of the Staithes Gateway Scheme by Whitby MP, Robert Goodwill. The scheme, part of a larger project costing £500,000, saw vast improvements throughout the village. It saw the car park area tidied up with 24-hour CCTV installed, a new visitor centre was built which included toilets replacing the old ones & a new outdoor play area was added. Also to come out of the project was the added accommodation space for 7 small businesses. Back in Whitby and also in September, plans were passed for the Serendipity Hotel on Abbey Terrace to be turned into 6 flats.

Staithes Gateway Centre

October saw the permanent closure of Sleights Library, which ran out of a room in the village hall on a Monday, Wednesday & Friday. The library was ultimately replaced by the SuperMobile library van, which had been visiting the village for the past few months.

It was in the Autumn of 2005 that Whitby Laundrette on Skinner Street closed its doors, and was soon demolished to make way for a 2-bedroom, 2-storey house, to be known as Tumble Cottage, built in the following year. The laundrette was owned by Wright & Draper building company.

The site of the old laundrette, seen here is Tumble Cottage, built after demolition - left: Tumble Cottage looking down Skinner Street; Right: Tumble Cottage looking up Clarence Place.

On a larger-scale construction, work was nearing completion on the new retirement homes on the site of the former Fairways Garage. A competition was run for local pupils to come up with a new name for the development. Liam Howard of Eskdale School won the competition, after his nomination of 'Fairways Court' was chosen as the best. Liam won an IPod and £100 for his school.

Top: Fairways Garage as it was before closure in June 2003; Below left: Fairways Court under construction, as seen from the Turnbull Ground; Below right: Fairways Court as it appears today

Also in October, Sneaton Village Hall was given a major facelift, thanks to a £2,000 grant from North Yorkshire County Council to spruce up the 40-year-old building. The money was spent on upgrading the heating system, replacing rotting windows, installing disabled access, upgrading the kitchen & replacing 40-year-old tables & chairs.

In November of this year, a new matrix sign was installed in Helredale Road, which flashed a '30' at speeding drivers to remind them of the speed limit. Funding for the new sign was secured by PC Nikki Burnett, through the Safer Communities Partnership.

Also in November, Whitby Albion Club in Silver Street closed its doors for good and was put up for sale, owing to high running costs, after being housed at Silver Street for 36 years. The club converted from 3 cottages in 1969, and had existed since 1919, and in 1923 it was affiliated to the FA. At the time of the closure, the club had no teams, but in its hay day it had 2 adult football teams, a junior football team, as well as darts & domino teams. Also in the same street around this time, plans were passed for Universal Garage to be demolished.

Also at this time, Yorkshire Water replaced a 9" & a 12" section of water mains between Sneaton Castle Farm & Castle Park. To avoid disruption to the water supply during the works, which were part of a £2M restoration scheme, an overland pipe was laid. The whole scheme was scheduled to be complete by spring 2006.

November saw the launch of a very popular tourist, sight-seeing bus, Old Glory. The 71-year-old bus was powered by steam and was owned by Viv Hamilton & Vernon Smith. They also owned the familiar blue Charabanc bus.

The construction of Jutland House on the site of the former Eves Garage in New Quay Road was complete by the end of this year. The £1.6M development comprised of 15 flats with 3 retail units at ground floor level. The businesses in the units were; Spec Savers, William Hill & Ethel Austin, the latter of which was replaced by Subway soon afterwards. The shops were fitted out over the summer months and opened shortly after, with Spec Savers opening in the Autumn & William Hill opening on 25th March 2006, by Channel 4's racing celebrity, Derek Thompson.

Lastly, sometime in this year, 31 Helredale Gardens, witnessed major changes, including external cladding, a rear & side extension & a new entrance porch.

31 Helredale Gardens after the work had been carried out