Staithes:
Staithes is a seaside village
in North Yorkshire, England. Roxby Beck, a small river running through
Staithes, is the border between the Borough of Scarborough and
neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland. Formerly one of the largest and
most productive fishing centres in England by the North Sea, Staithes
is now largely a tourist destination thanks to its picturesque
appearance.
In 1745-1746, Staithes most famous
resident, the young James Cook, born in Marton near Middlesbrough,
worked in Staithes as a grocer's apprentice where he first gained his
passion for the sea. He later moved to nearby Whitby where he was
apprenticed learning his seamanship from a local Whitby family. Later
he joined the Royal Navy. William Sanderson's shop, where Cook worked,
was destroyed by the sea, but parts were recovered and incorporated
into "Captain Cook's Cottage". This has been the residency of a local
Staithes family for several generations.
At the turn of the 20th century, there
were eighty full time fishing boats putting out from Staithes, locally
pronounced Steers as it is known by the Staithes village folk. A
hundred years later there is only one left as a father and son fishing
operation. Three generations of the Hanson family currently work the
lone full time fishing boat. There is a long tradition of using the
coble, a traditional locally made fishing vessel, in Staithes.
The beauty of the village has always
lent itself to art, as shown by the village's long history of well
known painters. The village was home to a small group of twenty to
thirty artists known as the "Staithes group" or the "Northern
Impressionists." The group contained renowned artists such as Edward
E. Anderson, Joseph R. Bagshawe, Thomas Barrett and James W. Booth and
was inspired by other impressionists such as Monet, Cezanne and
Renoir. Dame Laura Knight became the most famous member of the
Staithes Group; she and her husband and fellow painter Harold Knight
kept a studio in the village.
Staithes is noted for its sheltered
harbour, bounded by high cliffs and two long breakwaters. A mile to
the west, Boulby Cliff is the highest cliff in England. For a brief
period Boulby Cliff was mined for alum, a mineral used to improve the
strength and permanency of colour when dying cloth. This mining was
relatively short lived as a cheaper method was developed soon after
the boom in alum mining. The ruined remnants of the mines can still be
seen from the cliff top when walking the Cleveland Way between
Staithes and Skinningrove.
Staithes
Staithes has long been a destination
for geologists researching the ancient Jurassic, often fossiliferous
strata in the enormous cliffs surrounding the village. In the early
nineties a rare fossil of a seagoing dinosaur was discovered after a
rockfall in the cliffs between Staithes and Port Mulgrave to the
south. This fossil has been the focus of an ongoing project to remove
the ancient bones of the creature. Port Mulgrave remains one of the
best places on the northern coast to find fossils of ammonites and
many visitors spend hours cracking open the shaly rocks on the
shoreline in the hope of finding a perfect fossil specimen.
The Village of Staithes
The permanent population of the village has dwindled due to more
than half of Staithes cottages being owned by outsiders, mostly from
big cities such as Leeds and York and now increasingly further afield,
all for holidays and breaks in Staithes. During the winter, when there
are fewer visitors, it can seem like a ghost town. Though fewer than
half of the cottages in the old village are occupied, the traditions
of the village have not yet died, many of the local women still wear
Staithes bonnets, some can still be bought today in the gift shop in
Staithes for the annual nightgown parade. The Staithes Fisher Men's
Choir is also still going strong. There is active local participation
in the local Royal Navy Lifeboat Institute as lifeboat crew members,
with the Porritt Family providing many of the past and present crew
members
