Other significant features include the swing bridge, which crosses the River Esk and the harbour sheltered by grade II listed east and west piers.

[9] When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, Whitby was recorded being partially waste and a small settlement lying within the Langbaurgh Wapentake of Yorkshire.

In 1550 the Liberty of Whitby Strand, except for Hackness, was granted to the Earl of Warwick who in 1551 conveyed it to Sir John York and his wife Anne who sold the lease to the Cholmleys.

[5] At the end of the 16th century Thomas Chaloner visited alum works in the Papal States[14] where he observed that the rock being processed was similar to that under his Guisborough estate.

At that time alum was important for medicinal uses, in curing leather and for fixing dyed cloths and the Papal States and Spain maintained monopolies on its production and sale.

Chaloner secretly brought workmen to develop the industry in Yorkshire, and alum was produced near Sandsend Ness 3 miles (5 km) from Whitby in the reign of James I.

[22] HMS Endeavour, the ship commanded by Cook on his voyage to Australia and New Zealand, was built in Whitby in 1764 by Tomas Fishburn as a coal carrier named Earl of Pembroke.

[25] The black mineraloid jet, the compressed remains of ancestors of the monkey-puzzle tree, is found in the cliffs and on the moors and has been used since the Bronze Age to make beads.

[28] The advent of iron ships in the late 19th century and the development of port facilities on the River Tees led to the decline of smaller Yorkshire harbours.

At the lowest level of governance Whitby has a town council which, for election and administrative purposes, is divided into six electoral wards represented by 19 councillors responsible for burial grounds, allotments, play areas and street lighting.

[53] On the west side the cliff is much lower and has a deep capping of boulder clay over a sandstone base making it less stable and liable to slippage.

[51][57] Tourism supported by fishing is the mainstay of Whitby's economy in an isolated community with poor transport infrastructure and restricted by building constraints in the surrounding North York Moors National Park.

Demographic changes, Whitby's relative isolation from the region's main growth areas and decline in traditional employment sectors pose an economic challenge.

[60] The town has a variety of self-catering accommodation, holiday cottages, caravans and campsites, and guest houses, inns, bed & breakfast establishments and hotels.

[69] The east coast has limited conventional energy generation capacity, but Whitby is the closest port to a proposed development on Dogger Bank, ideally placed to provide the offshore wind power industry with support vessel operations and logistics.

[citation needed] Whitby is on the Yorkshire Coastliner bus route to Leeds, Tadcaster, York, Scarborough, Bridlington, Pickering and Malton.

[80] In February 2018 it was decided to redevelop the hospital site at a cost of £12 million into a "health and wellbeing hub" with an urgent care centre and 19 inpatient beds.

[97] The swing bridge spanning the Esk divides the upper and lower harbours and joins the east and west sides of the town.

On the West Cliff is a statue of Captain James Cook who served his apprenticeship in the town, and a whalebone arch, commemorates the whaling industry.

[107] On the outskirts of town to the west is the 19th-century Sneaton Castle built by James Wilson who sold his sugar plantation where he had over 200 slaves and moved to Whitby.

[115] The ancient Penny Hedge ceremony is performed on the eve of Ascension Day commemorating a penance imposed by the abbot on miscreant hunters in the Middle Ages.

[116] The hunters using a knife costing a penny had to cut wood in Eskdaleside and take it to Whitby harbour where it was made into a hedge that would survive three tides.

[125] Part of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was set in Whitby, incorporating pieces of local folklore, including the beaching of the Russian ship Dmitry.

[126][127] Elizabeth Gaskell set her novel Sylvia's Lovers partly in the town which she visited in 1859[128] and Lewis Carroll stayed at 5, East Terrace between July and September 1854: his first publications may have been published in the Whitby Gazette.

[133] James Russell Lowell, the American writer, visited Whitby while ambassador in London 1880–85, staying at 3 Wellington Terrace, West Cliff.

[138] In the British Television drama series Heartbeat (1992–2010), set in the 1960s Yorkshire, the plot frequently takes place in Whitby over the seasons.

A trilogy of young adult novels, The Whitby Witches, makes much of the town's setting and history, embellishing local traditions whilst incorporating them into the narrative.

[148] Whitby Town F.C., formed in 1892, is a semi-professional football club which plays in the Northern Premier League at its 3,200 capacity Turnbull Ground on Upgang Lane.

Its latitude means that it is influenced by predominantly westerly winds with depressions and their associated fronts, bringing unsettled and windy weather particularly in winter.

Onshore winds in spring and early summer bring mists or low stratus clouds (known locally as sea frets) to the coast and moors.