My Favourite Place
Everyone has a favourite place, often it’s a place that has good memories for you. For me it is a North Yorkshire seaside village called Robin Hoods Bay. It is in between Whitby and Scarborough and is a very old fishing village that is famous for its fossils, its smuggling history and that its the end of the gruelling Coast to Coast walk. Today I went over to Robin Hoods Bay to visit my last remaining Grandparent who we all call B, she’s my Mum’s Mum and is a ripe old age of 88.
She lives in a cottage dating back to 1653 (that’s 357 years old) which is on the very edge of the cliff overlooking the sea with great views of the amazing Ravenscar headland. If anyone has been to Robin Hoods Bay you may recall it has a very steep bank leading down to the sea, but B merrily walks up it every day to go about her busy schedule.
(NB. the pics in this post are from the last few years trips)
You can see the location of the cottage here, and the relatively new seawall (about 30 – 40 years old) propping up what used to just be a muddy cliff which was at risk of collapsing and taking lots of cottages with it.
From the small balcony to the side of the cottage you can sit in the sun and look out to sea. Today we sat on the balcony in the sun all day chatting and putting the world to rights. One thing I love about spending time with B is her amazing memory of the past and today she told me about what it was like when it was announced in 1939 that war had broken out when she lived in Hull, what it was like when the bombings were happening, how she met my late Grandpa and how he went off to Texas to train fighter pilots, and what it was like working as a tracer at Reckitts in Hull before she got married. No wonder there used to be full employment back then as her role was to trace the designers technical drawings which would then be filed away (basically an old fashioned version of a photocopier or scanner).
My family have had cottages at Robin Hoods Bay since the 1940’s so it has always been a holiday destination for my family and myself as a kid. My Aunt and Uncle will also come back to Robin Hoods Bay from Vancouver to visit. Now we take our kids there and do exactly the same things that I used to do like going onto the scars to find crabs and sitting outside The Laurel having a drink at lunch time.
My sister and I always used to get a bottle of coke with a straw and a bag of crisps which we used to love, and now we do the same with Miles and Ethan who love The Bay as much as I did and still do. It’s one of those places that you can just turn up at and just feel at home. I also love to go in the winter months when the weather is bleak, the sea is rough and there aren’t so many “day trippers”.
Here are a few pictures of Robin Hoods Bay and why I love it so much.
