Whitby

In Living Memory

2009

2009 saw lots of changes in Whitby, from the opening of Homebase & Bothams on the Stainsacre Industrial Estate, and also the re-development of Pannett Park, to much smaller developments, some maybe unnoticed to many. It was in this year that the former Game Keeper's cottage, Midge Hall, at Falling Foss was opened up as a Tea Garden by Jack & Steph Newman. It was also around this year that a house was built at Hawsker, which appears to have been added onto an existing wall of a bungalow-style house by the B1447 Hawsker to Robin Hood's Bay road.

Left: The house viewed looking in the direction of Robin Hood's Bay; Right: Viewed from the other direction, the older bungalows behind

In January, the Friends of Pannett Park were awarded £1.4M from Heritage Lottery Fund & the Big Lottery Fund's 'Park's for People' programme. This meant that work could begin on re-developing the park, which included a new children's play area and memorial garden, restoration of the terracing in front of the museum, new parking spaces were to be added & the lily pond was to be restored. Better disabled access was also promised as part of the 18-month-long works. Controversy soon arose though, firstly when 12 majestic trees were cleared from near the lily pond and later, when nearly a quarter of the park's trees were marked for felling - almost 200!

Network Rail were to start a programme of work nearing £1M at Whitby Railway Station, which included the replacement of the platform barrier & new portico roof added to the North-facing entrance. Also included in the works was the renewal of the platform canopy glazing, along with all electrics & guttering. The work was to be complete by July of this year.

Also in January, 2-day-long work took place in Cliff Street to allow for connection works, which saw the road closed to traffic with access from Flowergate as far as the car park only, with 2-way traffic to that point. 2-way traffic was also necessary from the other end of Cliff Street with Khyber Pass to allow for access.

The town's branch of Thornton's in Baxtergate suddenly closed down around this time, leaving would-be customer's wondering about the sudden closure. Also around the same time, and just next door, Heron Frozen Foods closed for a short time to allow them to extend into number 53, the former Lunn Polly travel agents, inheriting a further 62.5 square metres in floor space.

Heron extension to the right of the photo with the original store to the left of the 2 uprights

In February, a play area at Ellerbeck Way was given a £20,000 boost from Big Lottery Cash and work was started on removing old and installing new play equipment, along with resurfacing the play area.

Stakesby School were awarded £300 by Kebbell Homes who had recently completed a small housing development nearby at Highfield Road. The school used the money to create an octagonal decked area with artificial grass and seating around it.

In the town centre, some of the pilings used to shore up the harbour wall on the East side, between the Swing Bridge & the lifeboat station had collapsed, resulting in Yorkshire Water drafting in a team of experts to remedy the situation. Meanwhile, Yorkshire Water installed a temporary pipe in case an alternative was needed to the main gravity sewer. The work to replace the piles was not started until April, when this had to be further delayed due to the fact of having to wait for a floating crane. This arrived in June and the work got underway. When the largest piece of concrete was removed, it was reported a small tremor was felt in Sandgate. Towards the end of this year, Yorkshire Water announced they would foot the £1M bill for the repair, although they believed it was due to dredging.

At the top of the 199 steps at Whitby Abbey, a life-sized Borghese gladiator arrived and was put into place, to replace the lost statue that previously stood on the site, which was thanks to nobleman Sir Hugh Cholmley II, who had his own cast made. The statue would be situated in the 17th century courtyard, which was to become the new visitor centre entrance, accessed from the top of the 199 steps, after works lasting 2 years. The statue would be hidden from view of the public until the official unveiling on 2nd April. The 750kg sculpture, named after the 17th century cardinal, was created by Robert Harris of London for English Heritage, who was working on a project at Windsor Castle, which happened to have a copy of the original sculpture for them to take a cast from, the original Borghese statue being in the Louvre in Paris. The bronze gladiator would be seen with a shield in one hand and a thrusting sword in the other.

Through the Winter & Spring, much needed work began on repairs to the roof of Whitby Pavilion and Whitby's Swing Bridge suffered a sequence of further faults. The bridge had to be hand-wound back into the closed position on more than one occasion, and one breakdown was the result of a stuck micro switch. For a two-week period, traffic approaching the bridge from the East were meant with both green and red traffic lights displayed.

The 14th February saw a major move for the town's Co-operative Food store, as they 'kicked out' Woodhead the baker, after issuing them with a notice to leave. The chain had been in the building since the store opened in 1991 and had 5 members of staff, 4 of which came to work at the Co-op, with the other transferring to the other Woodhead's branch in the Market Place. The co-op sold the Woodhead's brand however, until around a year later when the Woodhead's company were in financial trouble at which point the Co-op joined forces with Hughes Family Bakers of Skipton, who delivered to the store directly.

March saw the Tourist Information Centre team up with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which would see the T.I.C. selling tickets for the heritage railway, excluding special event days. The Tourist Information Centre extension wasn't really getting used and they had been looking for a use, after planning permission for a cafe was denied. The next possible use was for it to house the Scarborough Borough Council offices, but this didn't happen either, or at least, not yet, and another use was to use it as a travel office after the One Stop Shop had closed down in Whitby Railway Station.

A new classroom was opened at Ruswarp School by the town Mayor, also chairman of the schools governors, which saw Councillor Steve Smith cut the ribbon. The Mayor also made a short speech and croissants and coffee were laid on thanks to the kind generosity of Bothams.

Also in March, a  16-week-long transformation of Endeavour Fun Club had just been completed, housed in the bungalow at Airy Hill School. The fun club had been using a classroom in the main school building whilst the renovations were taking place, which included a large entrance with cloak room, a new office & kitchen, fully accessible toilets were also installed with a bigger, brighter playroom, with a brand-new, covered outdoor play area. Also to benefit from the makeover was Pebbles Playgroup, formerly Caedmon Playgroup.

Onto more sadder news, and an end of lease notice was issued to Whitby Archives & Heritage Centre of Flowergate, following failure to pay rent for 6 months. Yorkshire Congregation Union, who are trustees of Flowergate United Reformed Church, issued the notice to the centre, which owed £2,500. In April, many items were moved to the Adventure Room at the Gateway Centre in Staithes for storage, whilst the remaining items were left in place in hope of a move to Whitby Pavilion for the Archives. However, this fell through as it was found to be too small and so the remaining items were put into storage, including the collection of 150-years worth of Whitby Gazettes, which were moved into storage at the County's archives in Northallerton.

Also in March, Church Street was closed for 4 days as Tog24 got an upgrade of its three-phase electricity supply, whilst work on Sandsend seafront was undertaken, which saw the railings on the over-hanging footway replaced, costing £7,000. Esk Hall at Sleights had also recently undergone a refurbishment.

To end the month of March, Whitby in Bloom had been busy leading up to this month, firstly with the planting of the 'Crocus river' to the side of Mayfield Road, and the Sun planted on the grass bank by Larpool Industrial Estate, to the new feature installed on the New Quay Road roundabout. The feature, created by Whitby in Bloom partnered by Whitby Co-op, was a set of sails with sustainable planting with a cobbled border.

Also on the bakery front, Botham's opened their new shop with cafe at Enterprise Way on the industrial estate around this time.

To view a video of the construction of Bothams, Enterprise Way, click HERE

Left: Botham's on Enterprise Way nearing completion - February 2009; Right: Botham's just prior to opening - March 2009

In April, a new traffic restriction was brought in to cover the upper Church Street area, which would see vehicles of greater than 3.5 tonnes banned for a longer period of time, from 11am until 6pm, replaces the former 10:30am 'til 4pm restriction.

The Easter Saturday of this year marked a first for Skinner Street, when a street market took place, which saw the road closed to traffic.

New problems arouse in the sewage department, this time at Whitehall Landing after a manhole was found spewing raw sewage into the street, after a problem at the pumping station.

It was announced that 4 community projects were to get a share of a £12,000 cash boost, as a result of a new civic pride campaign from Scarborough Borough Council. Whitby's Swing Bridge centenery celebrations, an improvement scheme at Stakesby Vale Beck, the nature reserve at Linden Close, Briggswath & an art project at Pannett Park, would all benefit from the cash. £1,770 was awarded to the Swing Bridge, to go towards events planned for its big birthday, whilst £5,370 was put aside to install new lighting along Stakesby Vale Beck, along with new bins and benches, following a general clean up. £2,320 was awarded to Linden Close, to allow new decking and a viewing platform to be installed. Friends of Pannett Park were awarded £2,350 to make a piece of tactile art, to contribute towards the new children's pay area, which was about to be developed, which saw work start in May. The work involved ripping out the old children's play equipment and re-creating a much more modern, safe place to play, with bright-coloured play equipment and rubber flooring. It was the first major park project for Robert Everiss and the contractor company John Hellens Ltd.

May marked the sad occasion of the last ever location scene filming of ITV's Heartbeat, after it was announced that the show was to be axed by bosses.

West Cliff School pupil, Max Burnett cut the ribbon with Mayor Steve Smith to open the new Homebase store in Stainsacre Lane, after winning a competition which saw the store team up with West Cliff School, asking children to design their ideal garden. The store then donated plants to the school, so they could create the garden. The store opened in April on the site of the former S.B. Woodworkers, creating 32 jobs.

To view a video of the construction of Homebase, click HERE

Homebase after completion

The Big A compex, including the pub, hotel & Laughtons Nightclub, was put up for sale for £1M by Chrisie & Co after parent company Absolute Leisure had gone into administration. Whilst on the topic of the Pavilion, it is also worth noting that in June of this year, work totalling £25,000 took place, which saw a wall demolished and re-built at the bottom of the driveway owing to a small landslip, resulting in 2 car parking spaces being lost.

Onto sporting news, Harry Dunn was re-appointed as Whitby Town F.C's manager, after a successful spell at the club, having taken them through 2 back-to-back promotions and to the F.A. Vase final in 1997. He took the reins from Graeme Clark, having resigned a week earlier.

A new town mayor was elected in the form of town councillor Terry Jennison, taking over from Steve Smith. At a similar time, a new post master was found for Lythe Post Office, allowing it to re-open after around a month-long closure.

Moving slightly North between Whitby & Sandsend, a £30M, 5-star hotel had passed all stages of planning permission at Raithwaite Hall, which would see the stately home transformed into a 42-bedroom hotel, creating 100 jobs, by the Skelwith Group, who also own the £100M Flaxby Country Club, situated between York & Harrogate. The main development at Raithwaite fell within the boundary of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, but the car park was outside that, so they had to apply to Scarborough Borough Council for permission for the car park.

In June, Whitby Seafoods got a new 'Scampi Camper', to enable it to take its Scampi to places outside of Whitby. A percentage of the sales from the camper would be given to the Fishermen's Mission, to help its work to alleviate poverty and despair in the UK's fishing communities, for both active fishermen and those who have retired from the industry.

Scottish-based company Outdoor World opened 2 new stores in the former Woolworths premises, with Pine Valley on the bottom floor and The Wilderness above. The internal staircase was closed off to the public and made as a emergency exit only.

The Wilderness store in Flowergate in the former Woolworths building

From July, visitor's to the town's council car parks were able to pay using their mobile phone, by phoning a local rate number and using a cash card to pay for their parking ticket.

Also in July £50,000 from the governments Play Builder programme, together with £15,000 from Scarborough Borough Council & £10,000 from Kebbell Homes - part of the agreement with the recent housing development at Highfield Road - was set aside for a revamp of the play area at White Leys Road. It was also around this time, and not for the last time this year, that the Swing Bridge had to be closed to road traffic for one night, whilst work to the bridge's hydraulics and electrics was carried out. The bridge also had to be closed overnight on the 3rd & 18th November & also overnight on 3rd December.

Building work for a new, joint North Yorkshire County Council & Scarborough Borough Council depot at Cholmley Way, on land adjacent to the recently-built recycling centre was well underway by this time. The move would eventually see the sale of the 2 sites occupied by the council at Holly Tree Court Nurseries & Stakesby Road. The Stakesby site was used for Cleansing Services, whilst the Holly Tree Court site was used by the Parks & Countryside Services. Their was greenhouses on this site to grow plants, but these had fallen into a bad state of repair and all plants had been supplied by Manor Road Nurseries, Scarborough for the last few years. A further site at Spital Bridge was also used for Vehicle Maintenance, but had already been closed, prior to planning permission being granted in June 2007. The new site would also house the highway's gritting machines, which had been based at The Garth since the 1950's.

New Highways Depot under construction; Almost complete, taken from the opposite side; New office building; Old Highways Depot, The Garth, White Leys

Some new apartments were completed in July on Cleveland Terrace in a space left empty opposite Fishburn Road.

New apartment block replaces old house on Cleveland Terrace

The 5th August marked a special day for Pannett Park, when its new £300,000 play area was officially opened.

Pannett Park modernised play area

On a similar note, Helredale Play Centre, which closed in July 2006, re-opened after the lease was bought by Jet Coast Development from Scarborough Borough Council. A steering group was formed early in the summer which included members of Scarborough Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Coast & Moors Voluntary Action Group & Whitby InterActive, with a view of getting the centre re-opened. A £500 grant from North Yorkshire County Council was used to buy sports equipment & other items & Local couple Alan & Gemma Carrington worked alongside Jet Coast Development to get the centre brightened up, with the couple putting in a lot of hours & even some of their own cash. From September of this year, the centre would be used by the Whitby Children's Centre Activity Group. On Wednesday evenings, sessions were delivered by 4Youth, who organised an earlier community BBQ there. In December of this year, the group decided to re-name the centre 'Eastside Community Centre'.

Also in August, a boundary stone was installed at Upgang Ravine, to mark the most Northern section of the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Heritage Coast. Ammonites were carved into the stone by local woman Vivien Mousdell, which was supplied by Eskdale Stone and quarried at Aislaby.

Also in August, Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association transformed the derelict basements of two of its properties on Royal Crescent into living accommodation. The 2 one-bedroom flats, which were beneath flats owned by Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association, were converted for use by young people and the work was made possible thanks to grants from Scarborough Borough Council who donated £45,000 and also the Homes & Communities Agency, who donated £10,000. A similar move was undertaken in November at the Esplanade, where 5 empty basements were converted into 1 bedroom flats, Scarborough Borough Council footing the £125,000 bill, hoping to help them on their way of building at the time 602 affordable homes across the borough by 2011.

Whitby got a new town clerk in August, when Pam Dobson took over from the previous town clerk, Eddie Birch, who passed away in April of this year.

Over the summer of this year, Whitby Town FC had a section of wall built around the pitch, replacing old boarding and railings. It ran from the existing wall behind the Upgang Lane goal to level with the Upgang Lane end of the East stand.

Before & after the wall had been built

In September, demolition of the old Dairy buildings got underway, the land having been sold earlier in the year to Broadacres from the Co-op, the Co-op having acquired planning permission for 100 residential units. Also on the subject of the Co-op, a new £1.8M store was opened on 17th September at 5 Whitby Road, Staithes, replacing the village's old store in Jubilee Terrace. The new 26,000 sq-ft store also had 7 parking spaces for use by its customers.

Also in September, a deal was done involving the former Pavilion booking office near the top of the cliff lift, which was closed by the pavilion in May of this year, and was advertised for lease. The booking office was then incorporated into the Foyer of the pavilion. The deal meant however that the public would once more be able to purchase tickets from the building for events at the pavilion, as Chris Dickinson had bought the lease, lasting 3 years. He came to an agreement that he would work with the pavilion and sell tickets and also from January 2010, he would sell cold foot, ice creams & drinks, as well as postcards and beach goods. Also on a similar note, Bagshaws Cafe at 38 Flowergate, closed its doors for the last time.

Bagshaws Cafe 38 Flowergate

Another fire hit a barn at Sneaton Castle Farm, the last one being in January of this year, and the other being in September 2002. The one at the start of this year was blamed on a fault in an electricity junction box, but this one had turned out to be arson, just like the one in 2002. Flames could be seen all over Whitby, as they leapt 20-feet in the air, destroying 300 hay bales along with a 100 sq-metre barn.

Around this time, a corridor with lean-to roof was replaced at West Cliff School, with 60 children having to have lessons in the school hall & dining hall.

And moving further afield to Lythe, work on a new £75,000 bowling green was underway, next to the existing Sport Mulgrave. Some of the money came in the form of a £20,000 donation from the Normanby Trust & also a donation from Yorventure.

Work was to start in the Autumn of this year on Lythe Village Hall, after the committee reached its fundraising target. Work was to include repairs to the roof, create a new entrance, re-design the rear of the building and install a new disabled toilet & ramp and also install a new, more economical heating system. The Normanby Trust and the North Yorkshire Moors National Park gave generously towards the project, with donations also coming in from other trusts and individuals.

In October, resurfacing work was carried out to a lot of the town's major roads, causing traffic tailbacks. Also in October, Scarborough Borough Council got 3 new refuse collection vehicles, to be used throughout the borough.

Resurfacing in Whitby causes chaos at New Bridge & Spring Vale, which saw Flowergate Cross roundabout closed

Also in October, work on the much-talked-about Marina development got underway, with sheet piling installed on the harbour wall by the car park. The £750,000 works was carried out by Ken Ferry and was funded by Scarborough Borough Council. The piling was the first phase of a larger project, which included replacing the old toilets, dating from 1990, with more modern faculties with showers, to be used by boat owners. Work on demolishing the toilets got underway in October.

Old toilet block on Langborne Road before demolition

For more photos of Langborne Road Toilets, please click here

In October, work started on demolishing the old Dairy buildings, after being stood empty for over 2 years.

Old Creamery on White Leys Road

Fore more photos of the Old Creamery Development, click here

October also saw work in Pannett Park progressing with the work on the paths moving steadily down the park. The £112,000 work was started at the end of May when work was started ahead of schedule on the paths at the top end of the park, nearest St. Hilda's Terrace. The paths, originally from when the park was designed, took years to lay due to money troubles, but this time contractor John Hellens was hopeful to have the work completed within 5 weeks. The Jurassic Garden was also formed near Chubb Hill, depicting the Jurassic coastal aspect of Whitby, also forming a link with the fossils in Whitby Museum.

The Jurassic Garden, Pannett Park

Also on the subject of pathways, it was around this time that an access was created onto the old railway line via steps from Mayfield Road bridge. The steps were made by volunteer group 'Access to the Countryside', who also were working on the existing access from the top of Southend Gardens. Whitby residents weren't happy at the pace in which the project was progressing, and how the group were leaving the steps, which were described as an 'accident waiting to happen'.

In November, work was started at Whitby Hospital on a £1M revamp by the Primary Care Trust, which included repairs to the roof & replacement of windows. The work was carried out by Mansell Maintenance Services Ltd.

November the 7th saw the closure of the Somerfield store in Flowergate after the company was bought by the Co-operative Group earlier in the year. The Office of Fair Trading stipulated that the Co-op would have to sell either this store or their existing Langborne Road store and the company chose to sell this one. The new store opened on the 9th November as a NISA (Northern Independent Supermarkets Association) Extra, part of the Mills Group, with all staff from Somerfield transferred across.

Also in November, new glass recycling bins were appearing all over the borough, including at 6 locations in the Whitby area. These were: Church Street (near Parkol), Green Lane Centre, Chubb Hill, West Cliff (next to the cliff lift), New Bridge (Eastern lay-by) & Ruswarp Village. These were to go with the mixed glass bins already in place at Whitehall Landings, Church Street (opposite Mister Chips), Whitby Co-op car park, Whitby Rugby Club & surrounding villages.

December saw work totalling £20,000 on footpaths at Rosedale Close & Fountains Close which were to be re-paved. The work was part of a larger programme across the borough by the council, after an under spend in the 2008/09 budget.

Work was started at the end of this year on the old Engine Shed, which was required as part of the planning permission for the Railway Cottages development being built on land adjacent to it. Harrisons builders completed the work, as they also were the main contractors for the new cottages, but this work had to be started before work on the cottages was started, which had to be enforced by the planning authority, as it wasn't happening and the cottages had been started. Included in the work for the engine shed saw a new roof added, as the old one was in a poor state of repair, and open windows bricked up. This year also saw the former Walter Boyes plumbing business in Fishburn Road turned into residential properties. Also in this year, a new house was built at Birch Avenue, Sleights.

Left: Whitby old Engine Shed gets some work done to it; Centre: The former Walter Boyes Plumbing premises, Right: Fishburn Road; New house at Birch Avenue, Sleights