Last Trip to Whitby Museum, 1977

Whitby Museum revisited after 48 years.....Last visit in 1977, when doing the Cleveland Way with Mum, Dad, Nick and Matt. I remembered seeing these tattooed heads, which were repatriated to the Maori and New Zealand in 1998.........a gruesome trade in these heads was started by Captain Cook's botanist, who apparently took one home to England and started a craze. My 11 year old self was fascinated, but didn't grasp they were someone's relatives....
 

Art Nouveau Tiles on Whitby Shop

 

                                                                  Better in colour!

 

Found By Fire.....Fylingdales Stones,

I was fascinated by the top stone, revealed after moorland fires burnt back the peat in 2003....I recognised the same pattern on chalk drum-shaped stones from Folkton on the Wolds....and the pattern is found on Orkney. What did these shapes and symbols mean, or were they just easy to scratch onto rock?!

See the excellent article 

                         http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/folkton.htm

 

Bronze Age

Bronze Age Weapons at Whitby Museum

 

Whitby Stone Heads

Stone heads from Whitby Museum

 

Sailmaking

In Whitby's sail lofts sails were handmade, rigged and stitched, back-breaking work. (Whitby Museum)

 

Whitby Abbey

I was going to draw the bowhead whale bones in Whitby, where everyone has their photo taken, but my 21st century sensibility was disturbed by the site of the harpoon on top....this collection of whaling tools from a bygone trade with macabre purposes...."flensing" knives, "strand" knives, blubber spades, a lance and harpoons...(Trip to Whitby Museum, last visit in 1977 with Mum, Dad, Nick and Matt , walking the Cleveland Way!)