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Whitby
Historical and geographical information
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
This
webpage about the Whitby has the
following section headings:
- Farndale
family history and Whitby
- Whitby,
overview
- Timeline of
Whitby history
- Whitby today
- Dracula
- Links, texts and books
The Farndales of Whitby
The Whitby 1 Line are the descendants
of John Farndale,
born 1636 (FAR00087) who started a line of Farndales in Whitby by the
1660s. John was the first of the Whitby Farndales. His son Thomas Farndale,
born 1682 (FAR00118) was a carpenter in Whitby. His grandson, Francis Farndale,
born 30 September 1711 (FAR00135) was a carpenter of Whitby. His
grandson Giles
Farndale (FAR00137) served in the Royal Navy. It seems very likely that he
was press-ganged at Whitby, probably in 1740 when he would have been 27 years
old. His grandson John
Farndale, born 1711 (FAR00136) lived in Whitby and sailed with Captain
Cook and the Whitby 2 Line were
the descendants of John.
The Whitby 3 Line were the descendants
of William Farndale (FAR00157),
1743-1777, master mariner of Whitby. His son Robert Farndale (FAR00197)
1772-1796 was a ship’s carpenter.
The Whitby 4 Line were the descendants
of John Farndale (FAR00198),
born 1774, a carpenter of Whitby. His son John Farndale (FAR00244)
1802-1837 was a painter, farmer, then master mariner of Whitby. His grandson
William Farndale (FAR00289)
1825-1887 was a master mariner of Whitby whose wife Ann nee Brown ran a lodge
house. His grandson Thomas Farndale (FAR00300), born
1828 was a ship’s broker’s clerk. His grandson John Christopher Farndale (FAR00308), born
1830 was a master mariner of Whitby who later moved to Cambridgeshire.
His granddaughter Mary Ann Farndale (FAR00320), born
1822 was a shawl and bonnet maker of Whitby. The Whitby 5 Line were the descendants
of John Farndale (FAR00210),
born 1788, a farmer. His son William Farndale (FAR00257)
became an innkeeper at Egton
Many of the fifth generation of the Whitby 1 Line worked in the Flowergate area of Whitby.
Other Farndales associated with Whitby
were: Ann Farndale (FAR00100A);
Mary Farndale (FAR00142);
William Farndale (FAR00152);
Ann Farndale (FAR00165);
Hannah Farndale (FAR00174);
Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00175);
Mary Farndale (FAR00186);
Mary Farndale (FAR00190);
John Farndale (FAR00196);
William Farndale (FAR00207);
Hannah Farndale (FAR00211);
Francis Farndale (FAR00212A);
Margaret Farndale (FAR00213);
Wilson Farndale (FAR00227);
John Farndale (FAR00230);
William Farndale (FAR00243);
John Farndale (FAR00265),
a sailor of Whitby; Mary Farndale (FAR00298); Peter
Wallis Farndale (FAR00343);
Hannah Farndale (FAR00348);
Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00350A);
Mary Jane Farndale (FAR00352);
Sarah Farndale (FAR00357);
Mary Ann Farndell (FAR00359);
John Farndale (FAR00365);
Jane Ann Farndale (FAR00371);
John William Farndale (FAR00501);
Louisa Farndale (FAR00518);
Mary Farndale (FAR00526);
Sarah Ann Farndale (FAR00556);
Hannah Farndale (FAR00567);
Sarah Ann Farndale (FAR00568);
Annie Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00599);
Catherine Jane Farndale (FAR00601);
Frank Farndale (FAR00616);
Mary Alice Farndale (FAR00630);
Annie Farndale (FAR00637);
George Farndale (FAR00646A),
Served in East Yorkshire Regiment in World War 1; Ethel Farndale (FAR00658); Joseph
Salvatori Farndale; (FAR00705);
Alice Jane Farndale (FAR00753);
Doris S Farndale (FAR00789);
Violet Farndale (FAR00849);
Miriam W Farndale (FAR00905);
Jean Farndale (FAR00907);
Lydia A Farndale (FAR00991)
References to the Farndale family in Whitby baptismal registers, 1768 to 1789 include 1769 October 28th Farndale, Elizabeth (FAR00193) daughter of William and Elizabeth (sailor) born 12 October Whitby; 1772 October 26th Farndale, Robert (FAR00197) son of William and Elizabeth sailor born 11 October Whitby; 1786 February 5th Farndale, Francis (FAR00206) son of Thomas and Jane Carpenter born 3rd February Whitby ; 1786 April 18th Farndale, William (FAR00207) illegitimate son of Frances spinster born 11th April Whitby; 1788 January 27th Farndale, William (FAR00209) son of Thomas and Jane carpenter born 22 November Whitby; 1789 July 16th Farndale, Margaret (FAR00213) illegitimate daughter of Frances spinster born 2nd May Whitby.
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside
town, port and civil parish in
the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on
the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage.
Its East Cliff is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, where Cćdmon, the earliest recognised English poet, lived.
The fishing port emerged
during the Middle Ages, supporting
important herring and whaling fleets, and was
where Captain Cook learned seamanship.
Tourism started in Whitby
during the Georgian period and developed with the arrival of the railway in
1839. Its attraction as a tourist destination is enhanced by the proximity of
the high ground of the North York Moors national park and the heritage
coastline and by association with the horror novel Dracula. Jet and alum were mined
locally, and Whitby Jet, which was mined by the Romans and Victorians, became
fashionable during the 19th century.
Whitby was called Streanćshalc, Streneshalc,
Streoneshalch, Streoneshalh,
and Streunes-Alae in Lindissi in
records of the 7th and 8th centuries. Prestebi,
meaning the "habitation of priests" in Old Norse,
is an 11th century name. Its name was recorded as Hwitebi
and Witebi, meaning the "white
settlement" in Old Norse, in the 12th century, Whitebi in the 13th century and Qwiteby in the 14th century.
Whitby timeline
200 CE
Until recently the only evidence
of the Roman presence in this area was a soldier’s helmet and a few coins,
which were found at Guisborough and the Signal Station on Huntcliff.
656 CE
The earliest record of a
permanent settlement is in 656, when as Streanćshealh it
was the place where Oswy, the Christian king of
Northumbria, founded the first abbey, under the abbess Hilda.
A monastery was founded at Streanćshealh in
AD 657 by King Oswiu or Oswy of Northumbria, as an act of
thanksgiving, after defeating Penda, the pagan king of Mercia.
At its foundation, the abbey was an Anglo-Saxon 'double monastery' for men and
women. Its first abbess, the royal princess Hild,
was later venerated as a saint. The abbey became a centre of learning and
here Cćdmon the cowherd was
"miraculously" transformed into an inspired poet whose poetry is an
example of Anglo-Saxon literature. The abbey became the leading royal
nunnery of the kingdom of Deira,
and the burial-place of its royal family.
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the
County of York North Riding: Volume 2 Parishes, Whitby, 1923: The
Saxon history of the town begins with the introduction of Christianity into
Northumbria. King Edwin and his kinswoman Hilda, then a child, were baptized in
627. Edwin's successor Oswy had vowed to grant lands for monastic purposes if
he should defeat the pagan Penda, and it was possibly in connexion with his
victory at Winwaed (655) that Hilda obtained
possession of her lands at Whitby and built the monastery. Here King Edwin's
headless body, which had lain since 633 at Hatfield, was brought for burial,
and here the famous synod of 'Streoneshalch' was held
in 664.
664 CE
The Synod of
Whitby was held there in 664. The famous synod established
the Roman date of Easter in Northumbria at the expense of the Celtic one
867 CE
The monastery was
destroyed between 867 and 870 in a series of raids
by Vikings from Denmark under their
leaders Ingwar and Ubba. Its site
remained desolate for more than 200 years until after the Norman Conquest
of 1066.
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the
County of York North Riding: Volume 2 Parishes, Whitby, 1923: Streoneshalch was laid waste by Danes in successive inroads
(867–70) under Ingwar and Ubba, and was said to have
remained desolate for more than 200 years ; but the
existence of 'Prestebi' at the Domesday Survey may
point to the revival of religious life in Danish times. The Danish town of
Whitby was presumably of some importance, as close to it was apparently held
the Danish Thing, and nearly all the places in the district in 1086 bore Danish
names. Whitby was geldable before the Conquest at the
large sum of Ł112.
1078
Another monastery was
founded in 1078. It was in this period that the town gained its current
name, Whitby (from "white settlement" in Old Norse). The
first recorded use of the name Whitby in the eleventh century is unlikely to
have been more than a hundred or so years old, since its origin in
Scandinavian.
After the Conquest, the area
was granted to William de Percy who, in 1078 donated land to found
a Benedictine monastery
dedicated to St Peter and St Hilda.William
de Percy's gift included land for the monastery, the town and port of Whitby
and St Mary's Church and dependent chapels at Fyling, Hawsker, Sneaton, Ugglebarnby, Dunsley, and Aislaby, five
mills including Ruswarp, Hackness with two mills and two churches.
1128
In about 1128 Henry I
granted the abbey burgage in Whitby and permission to hold a fair at the
feast of St Hilda on 25 August. A second fair was held close to St Hilda's
winter feast at Martinmas. Market rights were granted to the abbey and
descended with the liberty.
1539
Whitby Abbey surrendered
in December 1539 when Henry VIII dissolved the
monasteries.
1540
In 1540 the town had
between 20 and 30 houses and a population of about 200. The burgesses,
who had little independence under the abbey, tried to obtain self-government
after the dissolution of the monasteries. The king ordered Letters
Patent to be drawn up granting their requests, but it was not implemented.
1550
In 1550 the Liberty
of Whitby Strand, except for Hackness, was granted to
the Earl of Warwick who in 1551 conveyed it to Sir John
York and his wife Anne who sold the lease to the Cholmleys.
1580
In the reign
of Elizabeth I, Whitby was a small fishing port.
At
the end of the 16th century Thomas Chaloner visited alum works in the Papal
States where he observed that the rock being processed was similar to that under his Guisborough estate. At
that time alum was important for medicinal uses, in curing leather and for
fixing dyed cloths and the Papal States and Spain maintained monopolies on its
production and sale. Chaloner secretly brought workmen to develop the industry
in Yorkshire, and alum was produced near Sandsend Ness 5 km from
Whitby in the reign of James I. Once the industry was established,
imports were banned and although the methods in its production were laborious,
England became self-sufficient. Whitby grew significantly as a port as a result of the alum trade and by importing coal from the
Durham coalfield to process it.
1635
In 1635 the owners of the
liberty governed the port and town where 24 burgesses had the privilege of buying
and selling goods brought in by sea.
1700
Shipbuilding in Whitby increased very
rapidly during the 18th century. In 1700 113 sailboats of small tonnage were
constructed. By 1734, 130 ships of 80 tonnes and upwards were built and by
1776: 251 ships of 80 tonnes and upwards.
It was the coastal trade
which absorbed the majority of these ships and in
particular, the coal trade. Coal was shipped at Newcastle, Sunderland and
Shields for London and the east coast ports, the main part being for the
Capital. It was imported into Whitby both the domestic use and in the alum
works. In 1690, 60 tons of kelp were shipped from Berwick on Tweed to Whitby
for use in the manufacture of alum and presumably this was not an isolated
instance as the alum trade persisted throughout the century in various states
of economic decline and recovering.
1701 to 1713
The War of Spanish succession.
1731
In 1731 Whitby imported coals from Newcastle and Sunderland and wine, linen, nails, firkin staves, bricks, clog wheels (cart wheels of thick plank without spokes), and timber from Hull. There were also three cargoes of miscellaneous goods from London. 27 shipments left the port that year, one of alum for Newcastle, one of alum for Alloa and 25 for London which consisted of alum, dried fish and butter. (Willan).
1739
The War of Jenkins Ear
1740 to 1748
The War with Austrian succession
1750
Whitby about 1750
1751 to 1757
War in India.
1753
Whale fishing began in Whitby in 1753 and the vessels were sometimes used in the coal trade during the autumn and winter months and then adapted for whaling in the summer. In 1753 the first whaling ship set sail to Greenland and by 1795 Whitby had become a major whaling port.
Because of the increase in shipbuilding, large quantities of timber came into the town. Most of it was from the Baltic direct or via Hull along the coast. Whitby registered ships traded with the Baltic from Hull and London and were also engaged in the trade in the West Indies, Mediterranean, America and the East Indies. So Whitby seamen employed on locally owned ships would have picked them up at ports around the country.
There are vague hints that certain
Whitby merchants were involved with the slave trade but no definite evidence
has come to light and certainly nothing to connect the port with slave ships.
Luxury goods such as wine, tea, coffee, sugar, spices,
currents, raisins, fine dress materials and tobacco would come along the coast
from London or Hull.
One final use to which would be ships were put is that of
transport vessels in time of war. The Navy board commandeered the privately
owned vessels and paid well for their use, granting adequate recompense in the
event of loss. The crew would not fare so well if they were all pressed into
the Royal Navy.
1756 to 1763
Seven years’ war with France.
1776 to 1783
American War of Independence.
1764
Whitby benefited from
trade between the Newcastle coalfield and London, both by shipbuilding and
supplying transport. In his youth the explorer James Cook learned his
trade on colliers, shipping coal from the port. HMS Endeavour,
the ship commanded by Cook on his voyage to Australia and New Zealand, was
built in Whitby in 1764 by Tomas Fishburn as a coal carrier named Earl of
Pembroke. She was bought by the Royal Navy 1768, refitted
and renamed.
1790
Whitby grew
in size and wealth, extending its activities to
include shipbuilding using local oak timber. In
1790–91 Whitby built 11,754 tons of shipping, making it the third largest
shipbuilder in England, after London and Newcastle. Taxes on imports
entering the port raised money to improve and extend the town's twin piers,
improving the harbour and permitting further increases in trade.
Whitby developed as
a spa town in Georgian times when
three chalybeate springs were in demand for their medicinal and tonic
qualities. Visitors were attracted to the town leading to the building of
"lodging-houses" and hotels particularly on the West Cliff.
Young gives the imports for 1790 as timber, hemp, flax, ashes (for soap), and iron. He makes no mention of coal that must have featured high on the list. Exports were sailcloth (7,300 bolts), butter (1,309 firkins), hams and bacons (21 tonnes 19cwts 3 qts 10 lbs), oats (4,094 qts) ad leather (33,615 lbs). Alum and whale oil, blubber, whale fins and whale bone also formed part of the export trade.
1793 to 1815
Napoleonic Wars
1814
Whitby’s most successful
whaling year was 1814 when eight ships caught 172 whales, and the whaler,
the Resolution's catch produced 230 tons of oil. The carcases yielded
42 tons of whale bone used for 'stays' which were used in the
corsetry trade until changes in fashion made them
redundant. Blubber was boiled to produce oil for use in lamps in four
oil houses on the harbourside. Oil was used for street lighting until the
spread of gas lighting reduced demand and the Whitby Whale Oil and Gas Company
changed into the Whitby Coal and Gas Company. As the market for whale products
fell, catches became too small to be economic and by 1831 only one whaling
ship, the Phoenix, remained.
1837
Burgage tenure continued
until 1837, when by an Act of Parliament, government of the town was entrusted
to a board of Improvement Commissioners, elected by the ratepayers.
The 1837 Poo Law valuation of Whitby was
a list of every property in the township of Whitby in Yorkshire in the year
1837, that is 2,435 houses, tenements, shops, offices
and other places. The valuation included the occupier of the property, its
owner, a description and its rateable value.
In 1834, the New Poor Law came into
operation in England and Wales. As part of this, parishes were grouped into
Poor Law Unions. These were administered locally by a Board of Guardians,
elected by each parish or township, and answerable to a central Poor Law
Commission, based in London. Those families who could not fend for
themselves were either given money or food to sustain themselves (known as
out-relief) or were taken into a Union Workhouse, where the workhouse master
and his staff would take care of their immediate needs. However, the workhouse
was segregated by sex and the inmates were expected to perform laborious tasks
in return for their food and lodging, so this was an option that the poor
avoided whenever possible. The funds to pay for the relief of the poor were
collected from the population of the township or parish, according to the value
of the property they occupied. The value of each property, or more
particularly, the rent it would fetch if rented for a year, was assessed. The
local Board of Guardians would decide how much they needed in each year and
each householder was liable for a proportion of this, depending on the annual
rateable value of his property.
In 1837, the Board of Guardians for the Whitby Union came to the conclusion that the rateable values that they
had been using prior to that date was out of date. They requested permission
from the Poor Law Commission to conduct a new valuation. When this was granted,
in order to record the annual rateable value of each
property, the Board of Guardians appointed a valuer. He wrote a list of
properties with their owners, occupiers and their
rateable values, presumably by walking around the town and interviewing people.
This list was published by a local printer so that people could check that
their rateable value was correct and also that no-one
else was being charged too low a rate. A copy of the list was sent to the Poor
Law Commission and it is that copy that I have
transcribed.
A transcription has been made by me in the National Archives
at Kew. The original record is at the National Archives at Kew, in reference
MH12/14656. This is a large volume, ordered approximately in date order. It
contains the correspondence sent to the Poor Law Commissioners regarding the
Whitby Union and copies of their responses, from 1834 to 1843. The valuation is
towards the end of the 1837 section. More information relating to the
National Archives and how to view the documents they hold can be found on their
website
1839
In 1839, the Whitby
and Pickering Railway connecting Whitby to Pickering and
eventually to York was built, and played a
part in the town's development as a tourism destination.
George Hudson, who
promoted the link to York, was responsible for the development of the Royal
Crescent which was partly completed. For 12 years from 1847, Robert
Stephenson, son of George Stephenson, engineer to the Whitby and Pickering
Railway, was the Conservative MP for the town promoted by Hudson as a
fellow protectionist.
1857
1861
Whitby town from Abbey
Terrace, sketched on 3 October 1861
1871
The advent of iron ships
in the late 19th century and the development of port facilities on
the River Tees led to the decline of smaller
Yorkshire harbours. The Monks-haven launched in 1871 was the last
wooden ship built Whitby and a year later the harbour
was silted up.
From the mid 19th century all of Whitby 's major traditional
industries, wailing, alum, shipbuilding and fishing,
faced the growing challenge of changing markets add new technological
innovation. It was a town in relative decline.
The
black mineraloid jet, the compressed remains of ancestors of
the monkey-puzzle tree, is found in the cliffs and on the moors and has
been used since the Bronze Age to make beads. The Romans are known to
have mined it in the area. In Victorian times jet was brought to Whitby by
pack pony to be made into decorative items. It was at the peak of its
popularity in the mid-19th century when it was favoured for mourning
jewellery by Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert.
1880s
Whitby became a town of
two halves.
There was the impressive
grandeur of the West side of the river Esk which
housed the professional classes and accommodated a growing tourist industry.
In contrast, the east side
of the river was a place of gross inequality of income and wealth. It was in
large part a ghetto of small houses, stacked together lining narrow streets and
yards clinging to the east side cliffs. It provided accommodation for the poor
of Whitby, the destitute, the unemployed, the unskilled and skilled artisans,
who provided the labour for the towns remaining shipbuilding and fishing
industries and serviced the growing needs of the west side residents.
Flowergate, late nineteenth century
1891
In 1891 the census records
showed an average age of Whitby's population of 13,414 to be just 27 years old.
There were extremely high levels of infant mortality among those who lived on
the east side of the town.
1914
On 30 October 1914, the
hospital ship Rohilla was sunk, hitting the
rocks within sight of shore just off Whitby at Saltwick
Bay. Of the 229 people on board, 85 lost their lives in the disaster; most are
buried in the churchyard at Whitby.
In a raid on
Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, the town was shelled
by the German battlecruisers Von der Tann and Derfflinger. In the final assault on the Yorkshire coast
the ships aimed their guns at the signal post on the end of the headland.
Whitby Abbey sustained considerable damage in the attack which lasted ten
minutes. The German squadron responsible for the strike escaped despite
attempts made by the Royal Navy.
1919
The Whitby Gazette of 31 January 1919 published a
letter objecting to dark, damp and crowded housing on the east side, declaring
them to be far worse than the London slums in the East End and advocating that:
“The unhealthy houses be pulled down, the streets widened, and that Whitby
shall be made into a place of health and beauty... then will be the time for
artists to paint Whitby with its red tiled roofs that are water tight.”
1955
During the early
20th century the fishing fleet kept the harbour
busy and few cargo boats used the port. It was revitalised as
a result of a strike at Hull docks in 1955 when six ships were
diverted and unloaded their cargoes on the fish quay.
1964
Endeavour Wharf, near the
railway station, was opened in 1964 by the local council.
1971
The number of vessels
using the port in 1972 was 291, increased from 64 in 1964. Timber, paper and chemicals are imported while exports include
steel, furnace-bricks and doors. The port is owned and managed by
Scarborough Borough Council since the Harbour Commissioners relinquished
responsibility in 1905.
Whitby today
Dracula
Bram Stoker arrived at Mrs Veazey’s
guesthouse at 6 Royal Crescent, Whitby, at the end of July 1890. As the business manager of actor Henry
Irving, Stoker had just completed a gruelling theatrical tour of Scotland. It
was Irving who recommended Whitby, where he’d once run a circus, as a place to
stay. Stoker, having written two novels with characters and settings drawn from
his native Ireland, was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with
a central character called Count Wampyr.
Stoker had a week on his own to explore
before being joined by his wife and baby son. Mrs Veazey liked to clean his
room each morning, so he’d stroll from the genteel heights of Royal Crescent
down into the town. On the way, he took in the kind of views that had been
exciting writers, artists and Romantic-minded visitors
for the past century.
The favoured Gothic literature of the
period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents
and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church
surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet, a semi-precious
stone used in mourning jewellery, gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling
horrors.
Bram Stoker photographed in about 1906
High above Whitby, and dominating the
whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery,
founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much
earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild,
who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray, whose
experiences form the thread of the novel, record in her diary: Right over
the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes … It is a
most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits;
there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.
Below the abbey stands the ancient
parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of
199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the
graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some
headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies
had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for
later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in
Whitby.
On 8 August
1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End
of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book
published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest,
William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in
Romania). Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes
who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as
Dracula. the ‘son of the dragon’. The author had added in a footnote: Dracula
in the Wallachian language means Devil. The Wallachians at that time … used to
give this as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous either by
courage, cruel actions, or cunning.
While staying in Whitby, Stoker would
have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the
Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff,
carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became
the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver
sand and boxes of earth.
So, although Stoker was to spend six
more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and
customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most
dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists,
the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard
and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers all became ingredients in
the novel.
In 1897 Dracula was
published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead,
in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test
performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of
Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting
style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters,
diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter.
The log charts the gradual disappearance
of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is
left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August,
the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby
library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the
church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong. Dracula has
arrived.
Links, texts and books
Finch, Roger Coals from
Newcastle Terence Dalton, Lavenham, Suffolk 1973.
Trevelyan, GM A short history of England Penguin,
1942.
Willan, T. S. The English coasting trade 1600 - 1750
Manchester University 1938.
Young, George History of Whitby, two volumes Clark
and Medd, Whitby 1817.