James J Browne

Robin Hood's Bay In Pictures. James J Browne

By the way, no local calls Robin Hood's Bay by its full name and usually it is referred to as "The Bay", or just "Baytown". Discover something of its rich history through this collection of contemporary photographs. In the eleventh century the neighbouring hamlet of Raw and the village of Fylingthorpe, in Fylingdales, had been settled by Danes and Norwegians. Following the Norman Conquest, in 1069, a great deal of land in the North of England, including Fylingdales, was laid waste. Tancred the Fleming received Fylingdales from William the Conqueror and later sold it to the Abbot of Whitby. However, by about 1500 a settlement, "Robin Hoode Baye", had grown up on the coast. The village was described by Leland in 1536 as - "A fischer tounlet of 20 bootes with Dok or Bosom of a mile yn length." Leland, by the way, has often been described as "the father of English local history and bibliography". Louis I, Count of Flanders, in the period 1324-1346 corresponded with King Edward III and complained that Flemish fishermen, together with their boats and catches, were being taken by force to Robin Hood's Bay. Looking south towards Ravenscar from above the sea wall. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Whitby Abbey and its lands became the property of King Henry VIII. It was during Henry's reign that King Street and the King's Beck came into being. In the 16th century Whitby was a less significant port than Robin Hood's Bay. "The Bay" was described by a tiny picture of tall houses and an anchor on old North Sea charts published by Waghenaer in 1586. During the late 18th century smuggling was a way of life on the Yorkshire coast and the Bay was a very much a smuggler's haunt. The town was, and still is, practically a labyrinth of tiny streets and there are believed to be many underground passageways linking the cottages.