As you enter the Staithes Museum, the first exhibit shows the tools of the fisherman’s trade - labelled, not in English, but in Staithes Dialect. It’s your opportunity to take a dip into the rich linguistic tapestry of our village, a local speech often considered more than just a dialect - a living language that has survived with "great tenacity". The isolation of Staithes before the arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed many ancient characteristics of its speech to persist.