WHITBY

town, borough of Scarborough, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. The old North Sea port town is clustered on the east side of the harbour at the mouth of the River Esk, where it breaches the forbidding cliff line. Opposite, on the West Cliff, Victorian seaside resort development took place. On the East Cliff, above the town, is an abbey founded as early as 656. The plowboy Caedmon, acclaimed as the first poet in the English language, died there in 680. Whitby prospered during the Middle Ages as a fishing port and was incorporated by the end of the 12th century. Herring has been its economic mainstay, and for a time it was an important whaling port. It has produced many fine sailors; the most famous among them was Captain James Cook, whose wooden ships built at Whitby took him on voyages around the world (176975). A range of local minerals have, in succession, also been of economic importance. In the 17th century the alum shales that outcrop on the cliffs nearby were burned with seaborne coal from Newcastle. Whitby ironstone was shipped to Tyneside before the discovery (in 1850) of the Cleveland ore field. Since the 1950s methane gas and deep-seated deposits of potash have been opened up in Eskdale, behind Whitby. The town serves an extensive, if thinly populated, farming area in Eskdale, set amid the North Yorkshire Moors. Its harbour and moorland surroundings attract many tourists. Pop. (1991) 13,640.