North Yorkshire Moors Railway beating the recession

Well but least in these times of gloom and doom of recession at least Whitby and surrounding areas is staying strong. According to the figures released by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which runs from Pickering to Whitby, have revealed that the advent of the so-called "staycation" has helped boost visitor numbers to 350,000 during last year.

Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby Jet comes from the monkey puzzle

Whitby Jet comes from the monkey puzzle tree.

Whitby jet can be found on the coastline of Guess where? Yes Whitby :-) This is just the little film below explains the origins of this fine black mysterious stone which can make beautiful jewellery. It explains if you go beachcombing for Whitby Jet which is valuable etc how to tell the real McCoy from black coal stones which are worthless.

I'm going to design a new website which will have all the main historical stories about Whitby and its surrounding coastline. It's going to be in the form of a WordPress blog so that if people wish to comment on storys they will have the opportunity. I'll be including pictures and films.



If you fancy a break in beautiful Whitby take a look at Endeavour Cottage. Totally flexible short-term breaks available from two days onwards.

Old Fishermans cottage near the harbour

Whitby Holiday Cottage

This charming former old fisherman's residence, situated in the very heart of the old town of Whitby only a couple of minutes stroll from the harbour.
The cottage sleeps up to six people in total. Four on comfortable memory foam mattresses but also the facility for an extra two because there are two leather couches one of which is a leather sofa bed with fully sprung mattress. It is located in one of the most charming extremely quiet no way through old yards just facing the old outhouses, making it a quiet oasis . No steps to reach the cottage with easy parkingnearby with a free parking permit provided.
If you want to make contact with the world again from your Whitby hide away we have Internet fast speed broadband for your laptop. 32 inch flatscreen television, also telivisions in each bedroom with freeview and dvd players. Well-behaved pets welcome.

Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby Tourist Information 2010 calendar of events

Whitby Tourist Information for 2010 with a list of all the major events that will take place. This blog will be updated throughout the year


Fri 16 April 2010, Sat 17 April 2010 and Sun 18 April 2010
Including Gala Dance with the Moonlight Serenade, Fashion Show and Hairstyling,
Opening Cabaret with Lola Lamour, Dance Classes, Gala Concert, Parade,
Military and Civilian Vintage Vehicles, Victory Breakfast Party,
Living History Displays, Flea Market, Fun Dog Show
Whitby and District Tourism Association in conjunction with
Scarborough Borough Council. Advance Ticket Sales from Whitby Pavilion, tel 01947 604855. REGISTER YOUR INTEREST in the Civilian Parade / Military Parade / Vehicles civilian /
Vehicles military / Flea Market / Dog Show by emailing your name. address,
phone number, email address, website whitby1940s@aol.com or by writing to
H Collett, 22 Rosemount Road, Whitby YO21 1LB tel 01947 821734

Fri 23 - Sun 25 April 2010
Whitby Goth Weekend. See www.TopMum.co.uk for details.
Wed 21 July - Mon 02 Aug 2010 Art Exhibition ‘Fibre, Mud and Metal’

All the items are for sale. National Park Centre, Danby.
Sat 21 Aug 2010 - Mon 23 Aug 2010 WHITBY REGATTA
Sat 22 Aug 2009 - Fri 28 Aug 2009 WHITBY FOLK WEEK
One of the UK’s biggest folk events more..

Sat 16 - Thu 21 Oct 2010 Art Exhibition
All the items are for sale. Old Coastguard Station, Rbin Hood’s Bay
Fri 19 (?) Nov - Tue 30 Nov 2010 Art Exhibition ‘Artisan Christmas’
All the items are for sale. National Park Centre, Danby.

Old Fishermans cottage near the harbour Whitby Holiday Cottage

This charming former old fisherman's residence, situated in the very heart of the old town of Whitby only a couple of minutes stroll from the harbour.
The cottage sleeps up to six people in total. Four on comfortable memory foam mattresses but also the facility for an extra two because there are two leather couches one of which is a leather sofa bed with fully sprung mattress. It is located in one of the most charming extremely quiet no way through old yards just facing the old outhouses, making it a quiet oasis . No steps to reach the cottage with easy parkingnearby with a free parking permit provided.
If you want to make contact with the world again from your Whitby hide away we have Internet fast speed broadband for your laptop.
32 inch flatscreen television, also telivisions in each bedroom with freeview and dvd players.
Well-behaved pets welcome.

Television's Emmerdale stars will take a Whitby lifeboat team

Various actors from the soap opera Emmerdale will take on volunteers from the lifeboat crew from Whitby's RNLI lifeboat station in a titanic charity football match.

The Emmerdale all-star team will be taking a Whitby's lifeboat members on Sunday at Whitby's Turnbull Ground.

Craig Horrocks, a crew member of Whitby RNLI lifeboat station who organised the game, said with actors such as Kelvin Fletcher, who plays Andy Sugden and James Hooton, who appears as Sam Dingle, playing, they'll have their work cut out.
He said: "Apparently the Emmerdale team were unbeaten last season so we'll have to work hard to make sure it's not a Whitby wash-out.
"We've been playing every week since the start of the season and are pretty good though so there may be some surprises in store for them."
The football match is not the first time that actors from the popular ITV programme have demonstrated their support for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Recently, volunteer lifeboat crew members from Whitby presented a print of a painting commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of Whitby RNLI lifeboat station to the cast and crew of Emmerdale.

Their hope is the painting will become a permanent part of the set.
After the game, Chris Chittell, who plays Eric Pollard, will host an auction featuring lots including a replica print of the painting presented to Emmerdale signed by the cast; a signed football from Middlesbrough Football Club and a signed pennant donated by Arsenal Football Club.

Craig added: "We've got some great lots for the auction and local businesses have also donated some very generous prizes for a raffle.
"It should be a fun day out for both the teams and spectators and the chance to raise some funds for the charity

Thank you Alan Davidson

Old Fishermans cottage near the harbour Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby Website for tourist information, calendar of events and news Whitby

Wouldn't it be useful to be able to read uncensored unbiased reviews on Whitby ?

Genuine Whitby reviews on accommodation and attractions, like the idea ?

I've always thought that if you could login into an uncensored forum or website all about Whitby or any other holiday destination, where you could read unbiased and uncensored opinions about how good or bad the particular attractions were, this would be a great service for forthcoming tourists to that area.

When you are searching on the Internet the majority of Whitby holiday accommodation websites are run by a large holiday letting companies, or the actual services or attractions websites are written and managed by the owners with the angle to attract tourism, so they might be just a teensy-weensy bit biased!

Wouldn't it be refreshing and useful for people looking forward to visiting Whitby to be able to login to the established website and read the reviews of people who would actually visited and stayed at particular holiday accommodation, visited a certain eatery, or experienced a particular attraction in Whitby. You could then get their genuine reactions.

So with this idea in mind, I started a section on the Whitby guide, which gives everybody the opportunity to say exactly what they thought about their experience in Whitby, if they've got a few moments and the inclination.

At this early stage it is just a section of the forum which is encouraging Whitby tourists to pass their comments good or bad, it could be about holiday accommodation they stayed in, the cafeteria or restaurant they visited, shop or tourist attraction and so on. If it became popular and useful we could open this up with a category for each service, where people could vent their anger if their experience wasn't good, or sing the praises if the opposite was true.

Let's face it, it wouldn't just be useful for the tourists to read genuine appraisals, it would also make the particular businesses jump to attention if they started to read too many negative reviews, or alternatively if the reviews are good there's nothing like a slap on the back for that particular business.

This is the link is where you can leave your genuine review good or bad on your experience of Whitby and its accommodation and attractions.

Whitby Review Forum
Remember this could help Whitby improve and make a better place for tourists to visit.

Old Fishermans cottage near the harbour Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby’s Search Engine Optimisation specialist that only works in Whitby

I decided to start a Search Engine Optimisation company, but with a big difference, I am only interested in staying small and in promoting websites which are about Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. Usually SEO companies being Internet-based are happy to work with customers from any part of the world, but I decided not to go down that route for very definite reasons.
Firstly, having been in business all my life I realised that quite often people feel more confident if they know they can meet the person they’re dealing with in the flesh and can see eye to eye. There's always more confidence when you can read body language.
So even though usually Internet companies are quick to point out they can work globally, my clientele base will only be for little old Whitby town.
Secondly, being a one-man band Search Engine Optimisation Company means that I do not have copious amounts of free time which I can lavish on numerous customers. I have undertaken some successful Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for myself and other people. This has led me to the conclusion that it really helps if you like the subject you're dealing with and also have some personal knowledge which, if I focus on Whitby, will be a big fat yes to both of the above counts. I know Whitby town extremely well because I have an old cottage there, love the place, and also still find it a pleasure to work for any businesses which require my skills.
I also own a holiday cottage in the town, I do realise firsthand the importance of SEO and having your website well ranked on search engines. It literally makes the difference between success and failure if you try to market your accommodation independently on the Internet.
Most holiday accommodation is run through large holiday letting agencies, which tend to dominate the search engine rankings because obviously they have the budget to spend. This especially means for small independent holiday accommodation owners they can be pushed further back, where unfortunately not so many potential customers are surfing.
In my example I own a small old Fisherman’s cottage which can sleep only up to 6 people, but with my SEO skills I managed to keep my website on page one of Google for all the relevant key terms. This means my cottage is almost 100% booked out 52 weeks of the year, and entirely booked from my free organic listings on search engines like Google.
Okay that's great for me but I'm always slightly amazed when you find an independent owner of a hotel or guesthouse, which can sleep many more people than my cottage, that has a website that is not optimised and appears further back in the search engine ranking. Quite often these larger holiday accommodation premises are never full to capacity, so always have the potential to make more money if the customers are available. So what's the point in having your website say on page 30 of Google, where virtually no customers are surfing! To my mind it's obvious that it's worth the time and money to make sure your website is as prominent as possible, so that your hotel is as full as possible. Anyway there go the words of a very small and very full holiday accommodation owner.


Thank you Alan Davidson

Old Fishermans cottage near the harbour Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby Website for tourist information, calendar of events and news Whitby

If you choose a painting you will help the gallery restoration.

From what I've been told Whitby people are being asked to help boost the restoration of
Whitby's Pennett Art Gallery, which is situated in the Park at the top of Flowergate

If you can spare £10 you could then be invited to go to the gallery and choose a picture which will be hung in its winter collection.

Seemingly there are works by some of the biggest names from the 19th-century including Lord Leighton, works by the renowned Staithes' group and well-known marine artist George Chambers whose work appears in just two other collections in Boston and Greenwich.

a lot of the works are in need of much-needed restoration, but there is a large number of paintings which would be available for display and will be hanging in the gallery from 30 October in a display called The Lost Treasures of the Pannett.

WhitbyPennett Art Gallery

And if you're looking for accommodation at the bottom of Whitby park in a lovely old yard there is Endeavour Whitby Holiday Cottage

Whitby tourist information Whitby