Robin Hood’s Bay and a method of keeping lobsters all year round

As I rounded the North Cheek along the Cleveland Way, Robin Hood’s Bay, in all its glory, lay before me. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as the tide was out, revealing many fingers of rocky scars stretching into the sea. Scores of tourists roamed the exposed rocks, like curious ants exploring their newfound playground.

The Bay Town itself was almost hidden from view, tucked away behind the protection of the massive sea wall built in the 1970s, which is currently undergoing a major facelift.

I called in for a coffee at the National Trust’s Old Coastguard Station, then struggled to find the correct path through the maze of ginnels—why is the Cleveland Way the only path signposted?

A while ago I came across this fascinating map, made in 1790 by Emanuel Bowen :

The writing reproduced on this image is obviously illegible. However, you can click on it to open it in a new tab, where you’ll have the option to zoom in for better readability.

The note referring to Robin Hood’s Bay is interesting:

“In this bay (which is about a mile broad) is a Village, the most noted for the Fishing Trade of any in these Parts; especially for Crabs and Lobsters, having a peculiar method of keeping them when taken, near the Shore in a Machine they call Hully, which is in shape like a great Chest bored full of holes, to let in the sea, which at high Water always overflows it. In it are kept vast quantities of Crabs and Lobsters all the Season; which they take out, more or less, according to the quickness or slowness of their Markets; with these and other sorts of Fish particularly Herrings (which they catch here in great quantities) they supply the City of York and all the adjacent Country.”

This description of a “Hully” was taken from an earlier work of 1700 by Brome¹A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words- obsolete phrases, proverbs, and ancient customs, from the fourteenth century, by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, 1852. Vol. 1. Page 466..

On the scar known as the Landing Scar, there is at least one example of a rock-cut recess for storing a hully²RAPID COASTAL ZONE ASSESSMENT YORKSHIRE AND LINCOLNSHIRE Project Overview, Thematic Discussion of Selected Aspects, English Heritage Project 3729 PHASE 3 HUMBER FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY. September 2014 Report No.422. Plate 86. .

• 1
  A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words- obsolete phrases, proverbs, and ancient customs, from the fourteenth century, by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, 1852. Vol. 1. Page 466.
• 2
  RAPID COASTAL ZONE ASSESSMENT YORKSHIRE AND LINCOLNSHIRE Project Overview, Thematic Discussion of Selected Aspects, English Heritage Project 3729 PHASE 3 HUMBER FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY. September 2014 Report No.422. Plate 86.