What was Staithes like when the village was still a close-knit fishing community, when chapels were packed on Sundays, families knitted and sang together, and the carnival could seem almost magical to a child who had never seen anything like it before? This is the sort of question behind a new oral history project at Staithes Museum, which aims to record the memories of local people: the everyday stories, memorable characters, customs, family traditions and little details tha

For generations of people in Staithes, Marie Lowden was simply “the Toffee Lady”: the woman on the High Street who made and sold her own crackly toffee. But behind that familiar village memory was a woman who had already lived several lives before she began selling sweets — and who, in later life, became a remarkably prolific published writer. There are some people who become part of a place so completely that their names almost become attached to the landscape. In Staithes,

In this blog post, I'll tell you a bit about my favourite romance in the history of Staithes. The Secret Staithes Diary of Enid Lucy Pease Robinson, edited by James Hart and published in 2010, is a unique first-hand account of life in Staithes during the summer of 1901. Written by a 20-year-old woman from the prominent Pease family of Darlington, the diary was discovered at an auction in West Sussex nearly a century after it was written. The "Secret" Nature of the Diary The j

Taken from the Staithes Museum Newsletter issue 12, April 2025 On April 12, 1901, a fierce North Sea storm threatened the lives of Runswick Bay's fishermen, all of whom were out at sea. With no able-bodied men ashore, the women of the village - wives, daughters, and sweethearts - took it upon themselves to launch the lifeboat to rescue their loved ones. Twenty women hauled the three-ton lifeboat across the beach and into the tumultuous waters. While the rowing was undertaken

Among the many treasures in Staithes Museum’s collection is a fascinating handwritten account of the village’s past, titled History of Staithes, by Annie Weatherill Cole (née Crispin). This document, found in a ring binder during our cataloguing process, provides a vivid, firsthand glimpse into the everyday lives, traditions, and industries of Staithes in the early 20th century. Annie’s history captures a time when fishing, shipbuilding, and mining were the backbone of the vi