Staithes
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Staithes is an English village at the most northerly point of the North Yorkshire coast ( ) . Roxby Beck (a small river) running through Staithes is the border between North Yorkshire and neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland. Formerly one of the largest and most productive fishing centres in North-East England, Staithes is now largely a tourist destination thanks to its picturesque appearance.
At the turn of the 20th century, there were eighty full time fishing boats putting out from Staithes (or Steers as it is known by the locals); a hundred years later there is only one. Still a father and son fishing operation, three generations of the Hanson family currently work the lone full time fishing coble (a traditional locally made fishing vessel).
Staithes is noted for its sheltered harbour, bounded by high cliffs and two long breakwaters. A mile to the north, 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 has long been a destination for geologists researching the ancient Jurassic (Lias), 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 specimen.
Besides its human residents, known to other nearby villages as "Steersers", it has a very large population of gulls and other seabirds nesting in the cliffs. Visitors frequently complain of being unable to sleep at night because of the cries of these birds.
The permanent population of the village has dwindled due to more than half of the cottages being owned by "outsiders", mostly from big cities such as Leeds and York and now increasingly further afield. During the winter when there are not many visitors in the village it can seem like a ghost town. This is a particularly nice time to visit if you are able to brave the stormy weather blowing in from the wild North Sea. Though less than half of the cottages in the old village are occupied by Ringers, the traditions of the village have not yet died: many of the local women still wear Staithes bonnets, and the Staithes Men's Choir is still going strong.
[edit] Art in Staithes
The beauty of the village has always lent itself to art as shown by the village's long history of well acknowledged 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.
[edit] Links to Captain James Cook
In 1745-1746, Staithes's most famous son (born in Marton near Middlesbrough), the young James Cook 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 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.
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