Whitby

In Living Memory

2008

Over the new year period, the Whitby Pavilion was undergoing a major makeover, with the near 20-year-old Northern Lights Suite having been fitted out with a new fire alarm & lighting system recently. The pavilion had a new fire alarm and emergency lighting system fitted, along with disabled toilet facilities installed and a new entrance porch. It was hoped that this was the start of a 5-year program of improvements for the building, but sadly the full scheme of improvements never happened, due to Scarborough Borough Council failing to secure funding. In this year, Jim Ward set up his own Wildlife Rescue Centre at Spring Hill Farm, Fylingthorpe, after buying the land.

In January, Helredale Neighbourhood Council won a grant of £1,000 from 'O2 It's Your Community' and used the money to plant 10 trees on the grass verge of Helredale Road. Also in January, Whitby's last remaining dry cleaners 'Johnson Cleaners' of Flowergate, pressed its last pair of trousers after offering the service for 80 years.

February saw work start on 'critical' harbour work to coincide with other work on the marina, this phase costing £450,000. The work saw thousands of tonnes of rocks lined up against the harbour wall adjacent to the Marina car park, to slow down the process of erosion from the water. Hartelpool-based contractors Seymour Engineering carried out the work, which was completed by April. Also in Sandsend, a building and renovation project was completed in this year at East Row by Sandsend Holidays. 2 cottages, the Sea View & Meadowgates were renovated and 1 newly built, the Egton Bell.

The Egton Bell (centre), Meadowgates (left) & Sea View (right)

Whitby's Superloos were officially re-opened in March, by Town Mayor & Councillor Steve Smith, following a major facelift, which started at the backend of 2007. The revamp included the fitting of new toilet pans, urinals and showers. Whilst the facilities were closed, temporary toilets were placed at Dock End.

The end of March saw the closure of 4 Post Offices in the immediate area, with Helredale (on Abbots Road), West Cliff (on Skinner Street), with 3 villages in Fylingthorpe, Ruswarp & Sandsend all losing their post offices.

In April, the former Rafters young people's service, in the New Quay Rooms, was re-opened after receiving a major facelift, which included the addition of a pool table, large TV screens, & a snack bar and a lounge was also added whilst free internet access and a new study room were provided. The £108,000 makeover also saw the centre change names to Youth Shack and also offered a weekly drop-in service for school years 9-11 and also for sixth form students. The work was made possible thanks to grants from North Yorkshire County Council's Youth Capital Fund, Connextions of York, North Yorkshire County Council & Scarborough Borough Council & also donations from ICI and Jewsons in Whitby.

Also around this time, work on replacing 300-metres of gas main near to the bridge carrying the A169 at Sleights was underway, meaning temporary traffic lights were necessary. When this phase of the work was complete, a second phase was necessary around the corner at Briggswath. The work was carried out by United Utilities & Morgan Est, working in partnership for Northern Gas Networking.

Recycling bins to recycle glass, textiles & cardboard were placed at Tin Ghaut car park, a similar system to that which was set up at Aukland way in 2007. Also around this time a large part of the town's roads were resurfaced, and when the road markings at the New Quay Road & Swing Bridge area were repainted, they caused a bit of a stir amongst locals, some saying they were causing confusion. The new markings included a hatched area at either side of the entrance to Baxtergate, and a left turn into St. Ann's Staith, instead of it being a straight on route with a right turn to go over the Swing Bridge. The move was, I suppose, to discourage traffic from heading down St. Ann's Staith.

In April, there was a major fire around this time at Prospect Garage at Arundel Place. At the time, the garage was being used by Bulldog Engineering, run by Stan Betty, who was in the garage when the fire started.

May saw permission granted to Tuby's Pleasureland arcade in Pier Road to change their existing chip shop into a chip shop with bistro providing tables in the corner of the arcade. Also in this area, the Marine Restaurant, specialising in seafood, opened in May at Marine Parade. The premises was formerly a cafe and was bought by the present owners, who also included 4 en-suite rooms on the upper floors, to go with the 3 en-suite rooms further along Marine Parade at their sister business, The Moon & Sixpence. Also in May, what was Andersons Bistro at 3 Silver Street was re-opened as Vinyard Cafe Bar & Bistro. For the May Day bank holiday period, Caedmon School used its hard standing car parking area as a 'Park & Stride' for the first time.

The 23rd May marked the end of lots of frustration for RG Leisure (Whitby) Ltd company director Richard Natriss, as he celebrated the opening of his nightclub 'RAW', in the upper floors of the former Co-op building in Wellington Road. There was much opposition to the planning and overcoming this had taken over a year. There was to be 2 bars; the main one with dance floor and loud music and a quieter seating area called the 'Top Bar'. The name 'RAW' derives from the fact that the interior of the building was purposely designed with a raw feel, leaving exposed brickwork and steel. The architecture & interior was complete by Stuart Duckett Design of Whitby and the audio, video and dance floor lighting was installed by VIBA Sound of London.

Raw nightclub above Beez bar

It was around this time that the long-awaited skate park was officially opened on the West Cliff, on the site of the former go-kart track, that having been moved a few years previous.

On 20th June, Ian Carmichael officially opened Spinnaker Lodge's new courtyard garden, which was made possible thanks to a huge fundraising effort. Also in June, Whitby Community College turned green when the outbuildings had solar panels fitted. The panels were officially switched on on the 24th June and cost £20,000. They were paid for jointly by The Co-operative Group's 'Green Energy for Schools' scheme and the Government.

It was around this time that planning permission for a new Homebase store on the site of the former S.B. Woodworkers in Stainsacre Lane was passed, and subsequently S.B. Woodworkers came to the end of its 43-year life, as it was demolished, having been empty for around 6 years.

S.B. Woodworkers pictured here on 1st July & 20th July respectively

For more photos of the Homebase Development, click here

Phase 1 of the Railway Cottages development was complete by the summer, situated next to Windsor Terrace by the side of the railway line. Building work on this stage had taken about a year.

Phase 1 of Railway Cottages was complete by July

To view more photos of the Railway Cottages Development, please click here

On the tourism front, Whitby's very own steam bus Elizabeth was given a nice smiley face, to appeal more the youngsters, her target audience.

The development on the site of the former Harrison's garage showroom at Upgang Lane was taking shape, with a dome roof being placed on top, which led to people branding it as 'Teletubby Mansion' or similar.

The 'Teletubby' dome atop of the Union Mill apartments

In July, the former lifeboat William Riley, made her journey home, 60 miles down the coast, leaving North Shields on Thursday, where her £20,000 refurbishment had been completed, after the boat had been bought and donated to the town by Dave Charlton. The row was completed by 6 drinking buddies, the Ales Angels & also made up by RNLI workers from each leg of the journey, stopping at Sunderland, Hartlepool & Staithes. The aim of the row, which coincided with the town's annual Lifeboat Day, was to raise £50,000 for the RNLI. Dave boarded the boat at Sandsend for the entrance to Whitby Harbour, to the sound of the bell off the Rohilla, recently salvaged, ringing out at 3:00pm Sunday.

Around this time, moving upstream to Sleights, the road bridge carrying the A169 was receiving an overhaul, the first time it had had a major one in its 75-year life. The bridge's carriageway and footway was reconstructed, safety barriers were erected and the parapets were refurbished. The pavements on both sides were narrowed, resulting in the road being wider and the road being re-surfaced was certainly not premature, owing to previous surfacing work on the bridge itself, the transition from the approach to the bridge and also across the joins in the bridge was not a very smooth journey at all. This work remedied that however, much to the delight of Sleights residents. The 12-week project saw temporary traffic lights installed for much of the period, however they were lifted during the Whitby Regatta period. The work also coincided with work further up the road at Blue Bank, where more temporary traffic lights were in operation in conjunction with 12-week-long works, part of a £100,000 project to re-build a retaining wall. Work on the bridge was complete by the end of September.

Left: Sleights Bridge during works, showing how much wider the road was made, pictured in June; Right: The carriageway over Sleights Bridge, part of the A169 has been widened and a crash barrier added

Also in July, at the end of the school year, Eskdale School appointed a new head teacher in the form of Mark Taylor, previously as deputy head at St. Augustine's School in Scarborough, where he had served for 6 years, having taught maths at Caedmon School between 1990 & 2002. Mr Taylor took over the reins of the school from Glyn Bass, who was acting head but also due to retire in this year, along with co-worker Mrs Sims, who had clocked up a combined total of 60-years service at Eskdale.

From the 4th August, raw sewage waste was leaking into the harbour for 52 hours, after a pump had failed at Endeavour Wharf, after heavy rainfall. This happened whilst work was on-going by Yorkshire Water at Tin Ghaut slipway, making permanent repairs to manhole covers. Work was carried out to ensure the event was not repeated, however the same thing happened again when heavy rainfalls hit the town in December. Over the summer of this year, the attended toilets had undergone a major facelift, after the price-rise in the previous April.

Also in August work got underway on the building of Botham's Bakery, shop & cafe at Enterprise Way on a previously empty plot of land. The company said at the time they had wanted to expand for some time.

The frame work of the new Botham's premises at Enterprise Way

For more photos of the Bothams development, click here

In September, Dock End Engineering were on hand to make urgent repairs to the Swing Bridge, when the skid plate fixings and the face plate on the western leaf of the bridge, had come away from the road surface. Around this time residents began to notice that some road signs had been changed around the area, and they were indeed correct, when a scheme was drawing to a close whose aim was to de-clutter the roads from signs. The scheme was started in February and its aim was to reduce signage clutter throughout the North Yorkshire Moors National Park & the Yorkshire Dales. A total of 600 signs were replaced with smaller versions throughout the two parks, costing £300,000. Two destination/distance signs were removed from the A171 near Sneaton altogether, and distances were instead included on directional signs. A direction sign for Staithes, Borrowby & Roxby from the A171 was replaced in July, leaving Borrowby off. This was a genuine mistake was was soon rectified, with a price tag of £1,000.

The 6th September saw the One-Stop-Shop Travel Centre in the railway station, opened in 1999, closed its doors. Whitby Network housed in the coliseum were quick on the case though, stepping in to offer travel advise and making bookings for people who needed help. September also saw works lasting 12 weeks which resulted in the removal of all asbestos from Whitby Hospital, after the substance was discovered in May 2005 and North Yorkshire & York Primary Care Trust invested £80,000 into Whitby Hospital.

Moving onto October, the 1st October saw Sandgate closed to traffic while a gas main was replaced. From gas to water, a sewer collapsed outside Bino's Bistro in Haggersgate, which resulted in overnight repairs being carried out. On 24th October, Whitby's brand new shellfish holding plant at Pier Road was officially opened by councillor Herbert Tindall, who was also the holder of the harbour portfolio. The building was however in use much earlier, around June of this year.

A controversial planning application was passed at Hinderwell for the former telephone exchange to be converted into living accommodation, which would also see the single-storey building extended. Similar applications had been turned down twice previous, firstly in 1981, & then in 1984. It was in the Autumn of this year that the Green Lane Centre was officially opened.

Left: Shellfish holding plant, Pier Road; Right: Whitby's new Green Lane Centre

The 27th November saw the Whitby branch of British Heart Foundation re-open its doors after receiving a makeover, which included new lighting being fitted and laminate flooring laid. More alterations were carried out externally too, with the erection of new signage.

A report was published in November, after a year-long study of the East & West Piers & extensions, stating that the East Pier extension was in danger of collapse if steps weren't taken to remedy the situation. Detailed survey work was started in June of this year after earlier survey works were carried out, made possible due to funding of £319,000 from DEFRA, made available in 2007, to carry out investigations as a result of recommendations made in the Coastal Defence Strategy, which found that both piers had a lifespan of 10 years. The work involved drilling holes into the piers & taking soil samples. A localised boat-based, hydrographical, geophysical and seismic survey was carried out, which took around 10 days to complete.

Whitby Disablement Action Group got a new £52,000 mini-bus thanks to a generous donation of £28,000 from the Co-operative Foundation, which would be used to transport people on shopping trips or to appointments. 

In December of this year, the Moors Bus Service, mirroring the Yorkshire Coastliner route to Pickering, which was launched at the beginning of the summer, was scrapped, and instead it was decided to use it to link Whitby with the Danby Moors Centre, which incidentally, was refurbished a year previous. The Danby Beacon had also been restored in the last couple of months, being lit for the first time in 50 years. Also around this time, work totalling £80,000 was on-going on repairing the path from the top of the 199 steps to St. Mary's Church & also on installing 2 new street lights, which the £8,000 raised above the appeal for the steps campaign 2 years previous was put towards.

The 27th December marked the end of an era for the town, with the closure of Woolworths store in St. Ann's Staith, as the company ceased to trade. The store was first opened in 1930, 6 years after the chain was formed, when a smaller shop stood on this site was demolished to make way for the present building. More often referred to as 'Woolies', the store held a massive 'closing down sale', knocking up to 90% off items, even selling the shelves themselves! In 2009, the premises was later to become two independent stores, the upper floor of the store became the 'Outdoor Factory Outlet', whilst the lower floor became 'Pine Valley Outlet'. The stairs were only used as an emergency exit. It was in this year also that Newtons newsagents on Baxtergate closed down and became Harbour Delights, selling ice creams and the likes.

Left: Woolworth's store, Whitby closed its doors for the final time on 27th December 2008; Right: Newtons newsagents, Baxtergate became Harbour Delights and later K & S Dryden

Also in this year, Mount Farm in Stainsacre Lane, which was a 5/6 bedroom home with 2 chiropodist treatment rooms, was split in to 2 & 3 bed houses. Also, West End Salerooms at 3 The Paddock off Silver Street were converted to residential use. The premises was most recently David Duggleby's Auction rooms with a flat on the top floor, converted in 2006. The building was converted into 2 maisonettes, a 2 & a 3 bedroom, with a new first floor installed within the high, open ground floor to contain 2 self-contained flats. The side extensions to the building, added at an earlier date were demolished and 3 car parking spaces were created in this space, with a bin storage area built in its place.

Left: Mount Farm from Mount Farm Close; Left centre: West End Salerooms with the newly-created parking; Right centre & Right: Additions to the R.A.F. Estate at Highfield Road

It was also the year that the former Universal Garage established in 1934 on Silver Street & specialising in Renault since 1974, was demolished, after moving premises 2 years previous. In 2010, it was decided to use the site as a temporary pay and display car park. Also in this year, a fast response mini-fire appliance was made available to Whitby fire-fighters. Waterstead Crescent's The Mews was built on the site of the former Police garages. Also on the building front, additions to the old R.A.F. estate were complete in this year, with houses being built on grassy areas between the junction with Love Lane & Highfield Road.

Left: The site of the former Universal Garage in Silver Street after the site was converted to a temporary car park; Right: Waterstead Crescent's The Mew's, built in this year

Sometime in this year, Spring Vale Medical Centre was extended to add a pharmacy and new entrance. Rowlands Pharmacy moved into the extension soon after opening, prior to this the pharmacy was operating under Spring Vale Pharmacy. Also in this year, The Magpie's Kitchen shop opened at 2 Golden Lion Bank, selling tableware & cookware.

Left: Spring Vale Medical Centre extension; Right: The Magpie's Kitchen