Esk Valley Through Time

The River Esk rises in the Cleveland hills and flows east to Whitby, on the east coast of Yorkshire. Today, most of the course of the river lies within the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, an outstanding area of countryside that surrounds the ancient seaport of Whitby. During the nineteenth century, this part of Yorkshire was mostly wild and inhospitable - a landscape of narrow valleys and steep hills rising to moorland heights with small hamlets scattered here and there. Despite the pauci