by Antony J Waller

Created on: November 26, 2010

Standing on the fringes of the North Yorkshire Moors and perched on the top of 600 foot high cliffs overlooking the North Sea sits Ravenscar, the ‘town that never was’, a small village situated almost mid way between the popular seaside resorts of Scarborough and Whitby. Visit Ravenscar and you will find the infrastructure and remains of a town that not so much died but was not really born. It stands as an example of a Victorian project of endeavour and ambition to realise a dream that went awry and ultimately failed.

The village and surrounding area is a lovely picturesque and interesting place to visit. You can walk along Marine Esplanade, along The Crescent into Station Road, around Station Square and stand on the old platform. However, instead of rows of magnificent Victorian houses there are only a few isolated buildings which stand as a reminder to the dream. You can take afternoon tea at Raven Hall Hotel (formerly Peak House) and stroll through the landscaped hanging gardens, admire the views along the coast to Robin Hood’s Bay and feel the bracing sea air against your cheeks and imagine how it all might have looked if the vision had come true. The National Trust visitor centre tells the story of the town with an exhibition and displays and provides information for walks and activities in the local countryside.

The history of the local area goes back to the days of the Romans who built a small fort and signal station as part of their chain of coastal defences. In the 1600s the area became ‘industrialised’ and played an extremely important part in England’s wool and textile industry. Alum was discovered. Alum was used to make coloured dyes ‘stick’ to wool and cloth and without it the colour would simply wash out. The process of extracting alum liquor from the shale mined from the cliffs and then treating it with seaweed and human urine to obtain the alum crystals for the textile trade was a well guarded secret! By the 1860s the works had all but closed. You can visit the remains of the Peak Alum Works, a fascinating industrial archaeological site, and only a short walk from Ravenscar.

The end of the nineteenth century was the heyday of the Victorian railroad, new lines were springing up all over the country and it was the birth of the holiday and the seaside town. New resorts such as Saltburn, Hornsea and Withernsea were built on the Yorkshire coast. The Peak Estate Company, takings its name from nearby Peak Hall and the adjoining estate was set up. The railway duly arrived in 1884 and by 1897 plans for a ‘new town’ to include shops, tearooms, guesthouses, hanging gardens and attractions were drawn up. Roads, drains and a mains water supply were laid down and the land was divided into 1500 plots for building and offered for sale. The town was renamed Ravenscar, possibly to avoid confusion with the Peak District in Derbyshire or just simply to sound more attractive. Sadly the dream did not come to fruition, investors did not buy the plots of land and the town was not built. With access by rail difficult and trains often struggling to overcome the steep gradient of the newly built line, its exposed cliff top location, rocky shoreline hundreds of feet below with no sandy beach the Victorian ‘new seaside town’ failed. However, visit the area today by car, bicycle or on foot and you will certainly be guaranteed a delightful day out.

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