A community effort to preserve heritage of historic fishing village in North Yorkshire with a new Staithes Story

All the while the ever-evolving history and heritage of the North Yorkshire fishing port of Staithes was being counted, compiled and kept behind chapel walls on the road that winds from the top of the village to the banks at the bottom of the bay.

For years, local man and former Mayor of Whitby, Reg Firth was gathering any Staithes snippets from valuable art, to artefacts from the other side of what was an unknown world and photographs of get-togethers in the local pubs.

When Mr Firth died in 2018, his wife Anne continued to open Staithes Museum to the public while she was well into her eighties.

However, there was concern about what may happen to the irreplaceable collection in the future and so two years ago, a group of local people with connections to the village and the arts set about securing the future of the thousands and thousands of items in the museum which range from fossils, to paintings, wooden models of boats, letters, clocks, bonnets and sea wrecks.

In the last few weeks they achieved the target which was topped off thanks to a donation by the Marquis of Normanby.

And after a COVID enforced closure, the free to enter museum is now open for visitors and houses thousands of items with many more in storage so that the exhibits can be rotated.

Mr Linley said that even though Mr Firth died four years ago, items are still being sent to the museum.

He said: “Reg collected for all of his life and things continue to come in. Most of it is worth nothing and somebody might give you a couple of quid for it, most of it is low value, but that is what makes it different instead of a load of silver cups.”

There are, however, some pieces which are really quite remarkable and are amongst Mr Linley’s favourite pieces.

Dame Laura Knight, was born in 1877, and became one of the most popular painters of her time as well as a member of the Staithes Group of Artists

The museum spent £10,000 of the £110,000 for the whole collection on one painting by the artist and also has letters that she wrote.

There is also an exhibit of a broken bottle which was found in 1967 in Cookstown, Australia and, after inspection by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is confirmed to have been discarded as litter from one of Captain Cook’s ships.

A broken wooden sign reads “Tar of Ho” and is actually the remnants of a fishing boat called “Star of Hope” and owned by local family, the Verrills. They were amazed to see the relic from the boat which was smashed to smithereens in a storm in 1953.

My Pyrah added: “It is absolutely rich in stories and artefacts and we could not allow all of this to disappear.

“I was absolutely delighted to do it, it is a great opportunity to get involved.

“It is not a physical value, it is emotional value and cultural. I am not a resident of Staithes but it is absolutely important that we are able to show to new residents how rich the heritage of Staithes is.”

“In my career I have worked in museums all over the world and as soon as I walked into this I thought ‘wow’. This is what a museum should be like - an Aladdin’s cave of stuff and millions of memories.”