I have been reading around the churches and religious establishments of Whitby for future outreach sessions…there is a lot! In the Archives, we have collections dedicated to individual ones that can take some time to trawl through but as I’m planning just a glimpse into their history I was guided by the trusty volunteers to the ‘green boxes’!
Boxes 13/13a are loaded with information about the religious establishments of multiple religions including Christian, Methodist, Roman Catholic etc. They hold historical particulars, special religious services and community gatherings that the churches have been involved in or supported.
There are photographs and postcards; a mixture of documents that would be interesting to mooch through of a morning or afternoon, discovering a few old memories. I have also used the discovered information on certain events to research further on the digital Whitby Gazette – such as the repeated event of collapsing walls of St Michael’s Church, its closure in 1973 and eventual demolition in 1977 and the 13th Centenary of The Synod of Whitby in 1964. Amazing that the date of Easter was settled on Abbey turf back in A.D. 664!
Claire Marris Archive Development Officer
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