Whitby for the Regatta we wont forget

This is a spur of the moment posting on Whitby fans on  Facebook, about stories and pictures from your past in Whitby. 

http://www.facebook.com/whitbyfans
About 20 years ago Pauline and myself were in Whitby for the Regatta. We were having lunch in the Black Horse pub on Church Street, when a hippy style guy called Lenny approached us in the pub trying and successfully selling us one of his own paintings of Whitby. It turned out that he was a bit of a drunk and this was his way of paying for his beer. To cut a long story short we ended up spending the day with Lenny and his 18-year-old girlfriend and having our full sized portraits painted in exchange for copious amounts of alcohol for him.

The picture above is Lennyright, Pauline middle and me on the right. The following day we are holding Lenny's portraits of ourselves, which cost is quite a few pints of beer!

And the picture below when his girlfriend on the right, along with our friends the glasses of beer :-)

Lenny was in actual fact in our opinion a very good artist and lover of Whitby. A few years later I met him again in Trafalgar Square in London, he was still drinking big-time and still painting people's portraits as a street artist.

PS it was the only time Pauline and myself drank alcohol to some degree all day! But what a heady excitement Whitby regatta day we had, well worth the headache !

As anybody seen Lenny in Whitby recently?

A very memorable Whitby regatta experience

In 1990 Pauline and myself were in Whitby for the Regatta. We were having lunch in the Black Horse pub on Church Street, when a hippy style guy in his 30s called Lenny approached us in the pub trying and successfully selling us one of his own paintings of Whitby. It turned out that he was a bit of a dropout drunk and this was his way of paying for his beer. To cut a long story short we ended up spending the day with him and his 18-year-old girlfriend and having our full sized portraits painted in exchange for copious amounts of alcohol for him.

Lenny was in actual fact in our opinion a very good artist and lover of Whitby. Six years later I met him again in Trafalgar Square in London, he was still drinking big-time and still painting people's portraits as a street artist.

PS it was the only time Pauline and myself drank alcohol to some degree all day! But what a heady excitement Whitby regatta day we had, well worth the headache !

The picture will follow when I have scanned it tomorrow.

Grand Turk has been sold

Seems a shame that the Grand Turk has been sold, it looked good in the harbour. I never realised it was up to sale.


Anyway it's been sold and it will be heading for France on Monday, 15 March so if you would like to take a last look this is your last opportunity.

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