The coastline and cliffs of Robin Hood's Bay
From A Home Tour Through the Manufacturing Districts of England, in the Summer of 1835 By George Head published 1836
The approach to the village of Robin Hood's Bay is by a steep descent, which, commencing at the parish church and extending a full mile, becomes, for the last three or four hundred yards, so precipitous, as to be all but inaccessible to wheel carriages of any description; so that the inhabitants may be said to be secluded, by local causes, from the adjoining country.
Having taken no pains to inform myself of the disposition of the villagers, it was with some hesitation that I dismissed my vehicle at the door of the principal inn, being led involuntarily, owing to its small size and the appearance of the street, to question its respectability. But a more kind, respectable, well-conducted, and amiable person I never encountered than my hostess of the Mason's Arms; under whose tranquil roof I sojourned for two days, and then departed with regret.
No place of human abode can be conceived more wild in its appearance than this village, where the tidy little edifices of the fishermen are perched, like the nests of sea gulls, among the cliffs; the communication from one street to another being, in some places, entirely cut off", so that access is obtained by a plank bridge thrown over a gully. Nevertheless, every individual dwelling is characteristic of the neatness of a seafaring proprietor, him whom early habit has taught the true principles of the economy of space, and to whom the contrast of rough and perilous hours abroad the more endears the delights of home. Among such a population, I had no reason to repent my visit. Such is the precarious position of many of the houses among the craggy eminences, that one is inclined to wonder they have not long since been washed away. Twenty years ago a considerable number were abandoned, and afterward actually swept off by the waves ; and now the sea has undermined the rocks in many places under their foundations to such a degree, that, with an in-shore swell, the sound of the tumbling waters resembles a distant discharge of artillery. These cliffs, formed of the deeper lias shale, afford a better resistance than those of loam, which support the devoted town of Kilnsea, elsewhere described; nevertheless, the whole shore within the bay appears of the same substance as the cliffs above, exhibiting a flat surface worn smooth by the attrition of the waves, and divided by longitudinal and transverse fissures, so as exactly to resemble an artificial pavement. The entire area is covered by multitudes of periwinkles of unusual size. In every part these shell fish are scattered in the utmost profusion so that the only pains necessary to gather them is to sweep them with a common broom into a heap, and carry them off; and in this manner, in the proper season, boatloads are collected and sent to Yarmouth. The herring fishery here, as well as at most other parts of the coast, affords the principal source of livelihood for the inhabitants, and has been, during the present year, attended with unusual success : large quantities have been sold to the French fishermen, who bring their own salt and cure them on the spot, as at Hartlepool, Whitby, and other places.
I observed vast quantities of varech or seaweed on the beach, which, notwithstanding its efficacy as a manure, was suffered to lie and rot, swarming with maggots ; however, the steepness of the ascent to the fields above, renders it perhaps impracticable to cart it thither. It occurred to me that, in situations like the present, wherein it is required to surmount a short and steep acclivity, the substitution of a mechanical purchase for horse power is seldom applied, though generally in such cases it might be used with advantage: for instance, in the steep streets leading from the Thames in London, the whole length of the strand, and eastward, as well as in many other places that might readily be mentioned. At all events, the quantity of manure that on the present occasion lay unapplied to useful purposes, within the space of three or four hundred yards, was at least forty wagon loads.
On leaving the village, I engaged the service of a man and his cart to transport my luggage to a point of rendezvous, on the turnpike road, with the stage coach to York; and as the old horse leaned steadily on his collar, I walked up the hill, and entered into conversation with the proprietor. He was intelligent and inquisitive, his numerous questions all tending directly, one way or other, to increase his little stock of knowledge ; he was, besides, not only a self-taught artist, affectionately devoted to his profession, but a poetaster, possessing at the same time an enviable privilege namely, provided all the world were deaf to the harmony of his rhymes, the means of ensuring their immortality. By his hand many of the tombstones in the churchyard were engraved; and as to these, without interfering with the department of the muses, I may honestly say that better specimens of handicraft, even in more civilized parts of England, are not to be found.
OTHER ARTICLES
• The Womens work in the Filey fishing industry
• The fishermen and fisheries of Robin Hood's Bay in 1838
• Scarboroughs Old Town and its connection to the sea
• The history of the Scarborough fishing industry
• Whitbys early history - a fishing town
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• Characters of the Filey fishing industry
• Events and newspaper clippings from Scarborough
• Thomas Hinderwell - history of Scarboroughs fisheries
• Smuggling of contraband along the Scarborough coast
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• Shipbuilding at Scarborough - the wooden barques and schooners
• Filey fishermen in 1862 - yawls and cobles
• Losses amongst Filey fishing cobles
• The Allen and Truman Scarborough fishing families
• Primitive Methodism amongst the Scarborough Filey and Flamborough fishing communities
• Charles Dickens account of a shipwreck at Filey
• Flamborough Head - ancient fishing village
• Scarboroughs Lifeboat - the huge storms of October 28th 1880