Hinderwell and the surrounding area...

Hinderwell is the most northerly parish on the spectacular North Yorkshire coastline. Our dramatic cliff scenery, fine beaches and picturesque fishing villages are unrivalled anywhere along this part of the coast. The parish is made up of five villages Hinderwell, Port Mulgrave, Runswick Bay, Staithes and Dalehouse.

Hinderwell, once an Urban Council area, is the centre of the parish. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Hildrewell, a derivation of Hilda’s Well. St. Hilda, the Abbess of Whitby, whilst traveling through the parish, was asked to intercede in a drought. Her prayers were answered and the spring which appeared has continued to bubble from the hillside to this day, near the site of the present Parish Church. The waters were said to have healing properties particularly for eye diseases, and became a small place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the farming, fishing and ironstone industries thrived in the parish, and Staithes became the principal fishing port on this part of the Yorkshire Coast. Fishing employed almost one thousand men in boat building, sail making, fish curing and the transportation and selling of fish. Staithes and Runswick Bay were ideal settlements for illegal trading, and became smugglers’ havens. The ironstone mines at Grinkle, Staithes, Port Mulgrave and Runswick Bay all became uneconomical and had all closed by the early part of the twentieth century.

The arrival of the railway in 1883 made the area accessible to tourists, and the twentieth century saw a gradual increase in the number of visitors to the parish. The dramatic cliff scenery and fine beaches, picturesque fishing villages and the close proximity to the larger tourist attractions in Whitby, Scarborough and the North York Moors National Park, has made the area a favourite with many tourists who often return to the area for further holidays. The line, and stations at Hinderwell and Staithes closed in the 1960’s. Tourism now plays a predominant part of the local economy.

Staithes and Runswick Bay have changed little of the centuries attracting numerous artists, to become the most painted fishing villages on the north east coast. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the now world famous Staithes Group of Artists was formed, whose paintings are still exhibited in many galleries throughout the country.

The Cleveland Bay horse is indigenous to the area, and has a world-wide popularity, as well as in the Royal Mews in London. The annual Horse and Agricultural Show in Hinderwell, is often referred to as the home of the Cleveland Bay, where the ancient breed can still be seen at its best.