Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North
Yorkshire, England:
In
1626, a Mrs Farrow discovered a stream of acid water running from one
of the cliffs down to the south of the town. This gave birth to the
Scarborough Spa Waters and attracted a flood of visitors to the town
from all over the UK. Scarborough became Britain's first seaside
resort, a position boosted with the coming of the railway in the
1840s. Scarborough and its Castle on the cliff top changed hands seven
times between royalists and parliamentarians during the English Civil
War, of the 1640s, enduring two lengthy and violent sieges. Following
this disaster much of the town lay in ruins.
Scarborough is a family seaside resort going back to the Victorian era
where travellers, ladies and gentlemen visited the coastal town of Scarborough to take
the benefits of its
spa waters with a quick dip in the ocean from a bathing machine. Today its known as the Queen of the
Yorkshire Coast and situated just 22 miles from the famous
historic fishing port and seaside resort of Whitby on the
North Yorkshire Coast. Filey and Bridlington are just a short
excursion to the
south of Scarborough and York inland to the west is one hour by car or 45 minutes by
local Scarborough train services.
The modern town lies between
10 - 230 ft above sea level, rising steeply northward and westward
from the harbour onto limestone cliffs. The older part of Scarborough
town lies around the harbour, sandy beaches and is protected by a
rocky headland. Scarborough is served by Scarborough railway station,
with services from / to York, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool on the
North Trans Pennine Way route and from Hull via Bridlington and Filey
on the Yorkshire coastal railway line. The dramatist, Alan Ayckbourn,
is based in Scarborough where he has lived for a number of years. He
has produced some sixty plays in Scarborough and is the artistic
director of the famous Stephen Joseph Theatre, where almost all his
plays receive their first performance. The town also plays host to the
annual National Student Drama Festival, which takes place at the
Stephen Joseph Theatre, the Spa Centre and other venues around the
town.
Scarborough served as a commercial port
and shipbuilding centre and the herring fishing trade thrived here
along with Whitby`s fishing industry. Though much of Scarborough town
has changed or evolved over the years, there are many parts of
Scarborough town that are now gone forever. They include the Promenade
Pier in the North Bay, Scarborough's well-loved aquarium, the cottage
in which Anne Bronte died was demolished to make way for the building
of the now Grand Hotel, and the site of the Holbeck Hall Hotel before
it slid slowly into the sea in 1993, as the cliffs gave way.
Places to visit in Scarborough:
Anne Bronte
accompanied by her older sister Charlotte and their friend Ellen
Nussey, arrived in Scarborough on 25 May 1849. She was very ill, her
advanced tuberculosis having been diagnosed in January only a few
weeks after the death of her other sister Emily. The family had also
suffered the loss of their brother Branwell in the previous September.
Anne died on 28 May and was buried in Scarborough by her own wish, to
spare Charlotte the unbearable task of accompanying her coffin back to
their home in Haworth, and her elderly father the anguish of
conducting the funeral of his third child to die in the space of nine
months.
Scarborough was Anne’s favourite
watering place, where she had enjoyed happy times in the past with the
Robinsons, in whose family she was the governess. Though a cure was
not a possibility, she hoped that the sea air would give her a chance
to regain a little strength. The trip had however been put off as she
was too ill to travel, but it became obvious that if there was to be
any chance of the sea air providing some respite from her illness,
there must be no further delay.
Anne, Charlotte and Ellen took rooms at
Number 2, The Cliff, known as ‘Woods Lodgings’, on St Nicholas Cliff.
On Anne’s last evening there was a glorious sunset and the three women
sat in the window of their sitting room to enjoy the scene - ‘grand
beyond description’.
On 26 May she drove on the sands in a
donkey-cart. On the following day, Sunday, she was dissuaded from
going to church, but walked a little in the afternoon and sat on a
seat in a sheltered and comfortable spot near the beach.
Anne Bronte Final Resting Place
The following morning however it was plain
that a change was taking place. A doctor was sent for, but there was
nothing he could do, and she died, peacefully and serenely, at two
o’clock in the afternoon. Her last words to her sister, who was almost
overcome with grief, were ‘Take courage, Charlotte, take courage’.
