02 March 2010 Another lovely day
Yesterday and today have been warm, dry and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky. Has Spring arrived? Is the winter weather over? It certainly wasn’t just a few days ago, when very heavy rain flooded the River Esk over the fields and the very high tides drove big waves up against the sea wall at Sandsend. All that is hard to believe today, as the wildflowers start to bloom and the birds bask in the sun and sing with a bit of urgency.
26 Feb 2010 Events, events, events
Many event organisers have now published their programmes for the 2010 season and these are being added, bit by bit, to the What’s On Events List on this website. Dozens of events are already listed and hundreds more will be added as they are published.
20 Feb 2010 Moortop snow walk
Yesterday’s snow was a bit of a surprise, but today the sun is shining brightly and we drove to the slopes of Danby Beacon, above the village of Lealholm. There must be enough warmth in the sun to warm the tarmac of the roads, keeping even the minor roads open. We walked a section of the old ’stage coach road’, which used to run from Whitby to Stokesley. This must have been a real white-knuckle ride when it opened in the late 18th Century, costing 16 shillings (80p in today’s money) for the whole journey - or just half price if you sat on the roof!
As we walked in the sunshine, we tracked the Grouse and the Hares which had used shared the same path as us. We also admired the beautiful Esk Valley below and the magnificent moors stretching as far as the eye could see. From the top of Danby Beacon we could see all of the locations on the summit view finder, and even make out Captain Cook’s Monument on distant Easby Moor on the western edge of the National Park. Then down to Lealholm for a hot drink, before calling in at the National Park Centre just outside Danby.
15 Feb 2010 Pannett Park almost ready
As the first Snowdrops flower and the dawn chorus becomes a daily event, work in Whitby’s Pannet Park is almost complete. The £1 million Lottery-aided year of major hard landscaping would have been complete by now - had it not been for the most severe winter in 30 years! This set back the completion by a few weeks but the finishing touches are now just being completed. Some tarmac is still being laid on a few of the paths, but most of the park is fully open to the public again. The new Commemorative Garden has a wood rib sculpture to frame the view of Whitby Abbey and is a lovely place to sit and remember. More exciting is the Jurassic Garden, which reflects the extinct wildlife now to be seen inside the neighbouring Whitby Museum. Given a few weeks of ‘reasonable’ weather the last of the machinery will be gone and the serious replanting can begin, with 4,500 shrubs and trees going in this month alone. Roll on Spring! more…
10 Feb 2010 More press praise
Once again this area has hit the headlines in three different national publications. Two of our local hotels were named in the Top 25 Places to Stay in the UK, according to the TripAdvisor website: Broom House at Egton Bridge (more… ) and The Waverley Guest House in Whitby (more… ). Interesting to note that not a single London hotel made the top 25! Stephen Ward , who runs The Waverley with his wife Julie, said that it was particularly good as the TripAdvisor survey uses only the votes of people who have actually stayed there.
In the Travel section of the Guardian (Saturday 31 January) it was the Woodlands Hotel in Sandsend, Whitby which made their Check In feature with the line:
‘Food presentation is faultless… it is a whistles blowing, klaxons blaring, corder of a meal’. more…
Our coastline has been well covered in several series of the BBC TV programme ’Coast’, but now one of our local hotels has been given a feature article in this month’s copy of Coast magazine. Based in the house where Lewis Carroll once stayed 150 years ago, La Rosa Hotel on Whitby’s West Cliff is the place to ‘enter a world of romance and eccentricity’ where the great author himself might feel at home. more…
05 Feb 2010 Fast turnaround on footpath repairs
A popular footpath to Mallyan Spout waterfall in the North York Moors National Park was reopened 2 weeks ahead of schedule thanks to the efforts of the National Park Authority’s field staff.
The recent heavy snow and subsequent meltwater uprooted several trees across the footpath making it impassable. An emergency closure order was put on the path while the Authority carried out the necessary repairs. Karl Gerhardsen, the National Park Authority’s Head of Recreation and Access, said: “We knew this was a popular route with walkers and – with the snow melting fast – there would be many people wanting to get down to the waterfall to see it in all its glory. We therefore made re-opening this route a priority and managed to turn the repairs around in less than a week.”
Now that the snow has melted, the Authority will be carrying out routine footpath inspections to assess any damage but is asking members of the public to also report any obstacles or difficulties they come across. Karl added: “Whether you’re a seasoned walker or just looking for a short ramble to stretch your legs, there are some great walks in the North York Moors and with spring fast approaching, now is a lovely time to be out and about. We’re doing what we can to find any trouble spots caused by the snow, but with 1408 miles of public rights of way, extra pairs of eyes are always welcome! We’d be grateful if people could let us know of any fallen trees, landslips and the like that have made a route difficult or inaccessible.” To report a problem path please complete the feedback form on the Authority’s website at www.moors.uk.net/prowform, email paths@northyorkmoors-npa.gov.uk or call 01439 770657.
03 Feb 2010 Thaw again
Don’t worry, it’s gone again (apart from the moortops) and all the main roads remain open.
31 Jan 2010 Snow again
Yesterday we all woke up to a cold, calm sunny morning - and 3 inches of snow again! As ever, all the main roads were kept open and life continues as normal. A stroll on the beach at Sandsend was quite special, with big waves rolling into the bay. At high tide in Runswick Bay it was quite spectacular, with no beach to be seen, just white waves breaking onto white snow-covered cliffs and white farmland above. Fearing snow and ice on the modern public access road, we walked down to the old village on the even steeper and much narrower path which once was the only village road. How on earth did they manage this gradient when we still had ‘proper winters’?
I bought a copy of the 2010 Tide Tables, sold in aid of the Runswick Bay Rescue Boat, to help me plan all my coastal visits around Whitby for the rest of the year. The ‘Spirit of Runswick’ was launched in 2007 and is the 5th boat to serve the local community. When the RNLI Station at Runswick was closed in 1982, local people set up their own organisation to provide a rescue boat for the bay. The operating costs are over £5000 annually and this is raised by the local community’s many fundraising events. Their next outdoor public event will be a Welly Wanging [Throwing] competition on Sat 01 May 2010.
24 Jan 2010 After the snow
A week ago the temperature rose, the snow melted and people in the villages were able to move freely again. Only now are the stories of life in the snow emerging. There is the family near Littlebeck who had continuous snow cover for 28 days, had to leave the car a mile from home at the top of a hill and yet still managed to walk to the car and drive the children to their primary school without missing a day. Or the village shop in Lealholm which had bags of other peoples’ shopping arranged all over the floor, just waiting for a neighbour with a tractor or 4 x 4 vehicle to deliver it to those without. Or the chap from Egton who went to Whitby on the Esk Valley Railway to do some vital shopping, only to find on the return trip that ‘half the village’ was also on the train. Or the family who left Goathland to spend Christmas week in Wales, but they had to stay away for 4 weeks because their lane was still blocked with deep snow. Or the day several weeks after Christmas when the bin lorries finally reached one village for their first bin collection since mid December - in fact, three bin lorries travelled in convoy, collecting whichever coloured wheelie bin or bins the residents had put out. Now that’s what I call a Good Idea!
18 Jan 2010 Slow thaw continues
A trip from low-lying Whitby to the moorland village of Goathland soon made the point that not all the snow has gone. The moortops are still white, but with the long Heather now sticking up through as it just begins to thaw up here at about 200 metres (c600 feet) above sea level. The snow and ice from the bottom of the valley may have melted away into the River Esk, but this slow thaw has the advantage that the Esk is not overwhelmed by all the snow melting at once.
The Goathland Plough Stots had their Day of Dance this weekend, a tradition which dates back hundreds of years when our winters were so hard that the fields were too frozen to plough. This enforced idleness meant the farm labourers had to start performing to earn a crust. They are the oldest long sword dance team in the country and their numbers are flourishing. More…
12 Jan 2010 Beware imitations of www.VisitWhitby.com
Please do not be confused by a new website with a domain name very, very similar to our own. The new site has absolutely nothing to do with this site, nor any of the community-based organisations in and around Whitby which created and run it.
It is said that ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, so we are sincerely flattered that others are trying to profit from our success by passing themselves off as this not-for-profit Community Interest Company. Please send them a very clear message by supporting only www.VisitWhitby.com and no other. Thank-you.
11 Jan 2010 UK grit from Whitby
The past week saw widespread snow and ice which closed 10,000 schools throughout the UK and caused major disruption for everyone. But just 10 miles from Whitby the staff at Cleveland Potash Mine worked night and day throughout Christmas and New Year, to produce more road salt than ususal to keep Britain on the move. One mile down and four miles out under the North Sea, the UK’s deepest mine brings potash (an agricultural fertiliser) to the surface, with road salt as a by-product. The other major supplier of road salt is in Cheshire.
All main roads remained open throughout the Big Freeze and on Saturday there was still snow on the beach at Tate Hill Sands and at Sandsend. Today a slow thaw seems to have begun in this area of Yorkshire, with the 2 to 4 inches of snow beginning to collapse into rivulets of icy water.
04 Jan 2010 When we had Proper Winters
Some of us are old enough to remember when we had Proper Winters, with enough snow and ice to close the roads from Whitby and the Esk Valley to England for weeks at a time and we all relied on the Esk Valley Railway as our only lifeline - but that was decades ago before we were aware of Climate Change and its many implications.
Just now we have 2 or 3 inches of snow in Whitby (and more on higher ground) but all the main roads are open thanks to the County Council snowploughs and grit-spreaders. Our newspapers may be delivered a bit later in the morning than usual, but the buses and trains are all running as normal. The snowy landscape is breath-taking beautiful and it’s great to see locals and holiday makers enjoying the snow with their little sleighs and their big snowmen. Winter sports, anyone? Keep an eye on the weather here by visiting our sister site, www.WhitbyWeather.com
01 Jan 2010 Happy New Year everyone!
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Sun 27 Dec 2009 Our White Christmas
The thaw began on Saturday, but I doubt if the North Sea had warmed up much for the Boxing Day Dip. There were still patches of snow on the grass above the beach, as the brave swimmers took to the water to raise money for charity. That’s about 10 days of lying snow since it began on Fri 18 Dec, with overnight temperatures down to -6 C and occasional top-ups of more snow as the days went by. Main roads to, from and within Whitby have remained open throughout, with just occasional short interruptions until the next snowplough cleared the way. In Whitby and at sea level, almost all of the snow has now gone, but the outskirts of the town and the villages beyond are still fairly white, while the high moors remain under several inches of snow.
Want to know just how well insulated your house is? The next time you have had a fresh snowfall, just look up at your roof and compare it with your neighbours’ roofs. The one with the most snow on top is the roof which is loosing least heat, thanks to a good thick layer (12 inches) of loft insulation!
Thu 24 Dec 2009 Happy Christmas Everyone
Wherever you happen to be spending Christmas, everyone here at VisitWhitby.com wishes you a warm, happy Christmas and a healthy New Year!
Sun 20 Dec 2009 Holidays Abroad Anyone?
I have just returned from a lovely few days in the Lake District, to find that Whitby and the North York Moors are looking lovlier than ever in a fabulous winter wonderland of snow. All the local main roads are open and passable with care. If you still need convincing, the BBC News tells me that several major UK airports are closed because of snow, hundreds of flights have been cancelled or delayed, 5 Eurostar trains have broken down in the Channel Tunnel and thousands of travellers have been disrupted, French ferry ports are affected by bad weather and the UK Borders Agency is taking industrial action. Are you really sure you want to go overseas to get away from it all? Why not just stay in the UK this Christmas and have a wonderful holiday in the Whitby area? Contact some of our advertisers on this website and ask them about late vacancies and special offers…
