Scarborough Fish in Mediaeval monasteries. by John Rushton.

Yorkshire saw the foundation of many Norman monasteries, mostly in the 12th century. The prayer-full lives of the monks and nuns were intended to be governed by rules of poverty, chastity , and obedience. Some ate no meat and others maintained Lent, many holy days, and days of the week when rules of fasting applied. Fish bulked large in their diets. Most had fish ponds but they also needed sea fish .York St Mary's abbey drew on fish from Hornsea and St Leonard's Hospital on Hedon. Rosedale and Yedingham Priories went to Whitby. Watton Priory probably drew on Flamborough.

Many Yorkshire monasteries regularly sent agents to buy fish at Scarborough. Others acquired houses here which paid rents in half lasts of herrings, including Malton Priory,and St Giles hospital at Beverley. Malton Priory had its own herring house, bringing wood from Goathland for packing fish. There was a "Prior of Malton lane " near the harbour .Other monasteries acquired houses, most of them on the Scarborough sands including Byland Abbey, Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Kirkham Priory and St john's Pontefract. (John Rushton)



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• The Borough of Scarborough formed in the 12th Century
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• Scarborough ships in the baltic - an article by John Rushton
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
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• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• Was there a roman port in scarborough? By John Rushton
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
• Fighting the Scots in Scarborough Waters in the early 16th century. John Rushton
• The history of the herring fishing in the North Sea
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• Stories of human interest from the sea port of Scarborough
• Tunny fishing in Scarborough in the 1930's
• Martin Frobisher and Scarborough

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