Scarborough Yorkshire's Largest Seaside Resort By Steve Allanson

Scarborough spans two extensive bays separated by a promontory on which sits the famous castle. The town is one of England's first seaside resorts and was famous for its spring water cures in the 18th century. The spa link remains to this day in the Spa complex although today entertainment, functions and conferences are more important than "taking the waters". Indeed the spring and its waters are no longer accessible, being buried beneath a modern road roundabout.

South Bay

The south bay is where the town centre stretches down to the seashore and is also home to the harbour and most of the traditional amusement arcades, fish and chip shops etc. The beach is small but sandy and stretches southwards to the Spa complex with it's hotels, entertainment venues, function suites etc. The old pool is no more and is now filled in and landscaped into a fascinating star map best seen from the esplanade above.

The northern end of this bay is dominated by the town centre and the amusements arcades etc. Not to everyone's taste but nevertheless a traditional part of a British seaside town. The harbour itself is a working fishing harbour with regular landings.

North Bay

The north bay is dominated by Peasholme Park where on summers evenings they still reenact WW2 sea battles using models on the lake, and at the other end the Sea Life Centre. This bay used to be relatively undeveloped but in recent years has seen large scale additions of flats etc. The beach has some stretches of sand but also an extensive amount of rocky outcrops - great for rock pooling and hunting for crabs, starfish etc. Beware the tides though - I can still recall being stranded, as a child, on these rocks by the incoming tide (luckily we were carried ashore on the shoulders of some adult and the only loss was an abandoned T Shirt).

The Castle

The town itself is interesting and retains much of its medieval layout. There are plenty of pubs, restaurants, theatres etc. At the western end of the town you will find the norman motte and bailey style castle which sits on top of the cliffs which dominate the town, particularly when viewed from the south.
The castle was built by William le gros in the reign of King Stephen, a time of civil war between the supporters of Stephen and those of his rival Matilda. Matilda eventually succeeded Stephen. The castle saw action on a number of occasions in subsequent centuries including an attempt by Robert Aske to take the castle in the reign of Henry VIII. During the more widely known civil war in the 1600's the castle exchanged hands between royalist and parliamentary forces several times finally falling to parliament in December of 1648.

The castle originally had grounds of over 60 acres but coastal erosion over the centuries eventually reduced this to just 16 acres. This was one of the reasons why in the late 19th century the town council commissioned the building of the Marine Drive to link the two bays with a roadway which was to go right around the headland. Eventually finished 9 years late and massively over budget the Drive was nevertheless to prove a huge success both in terms of adding to the attractiveness of the town and preventing further erosion from the wild north sea. Further defenses were not required until 2002 when, with an uncannily similar set of circumstances major defenses were added - although late and over budget.

St Mary's - The Bronte link

Another of the towns significant landmarks is St Mary's, a 12th century church which is the burial place of Anne Bronte of the famous Haworth Bronte sisters. The current building, although very impressive is not wholly original. The towers and much more of the original fell into disrepair after being damaged in the sieges of the 17th century. The present tower was built in 1669 and the church was significantly added to in the 19th century.

Bombardment

During the 1914-1918 war Scarborough was attacked on several occasions by the Kaisers fleet. One one occasion 12 trawlers were sunk by German submarines and in the most famous attack of 1914 over 500 shells were fired into the town by 3 German ships. Extensive damage was caused to the fishing fleet, the town, the castle and the lighthouse. The town was again attacked late in the war when in 1917 a submarine surfaced close to shore and peppered the town with shells.

Scarborough Accommodation

Scarborough's most impressive hotel remains The Grand Hotel which dominates the sweep of the South Bay but there are many more quality hotels, guesthouses, B&B's and self catering accommodation. More details of all this Scarborough Accommodation can be found at Best-Yorkshire-Accommodation.

Steve Allanson is a freelance web designer, management consultant, photographer and author.

Details of Yorkshire accommodation including Scarborough can be found at Yorkshire Accommodation [http://www.best-yorkshire-accommodation.co.uk]

Details of Steve's Yorkshire website design services and free high quality image downloads can be found at Yorkshire Web Design

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