WHITBY has four piers and their stories are told in a new book, Whitby in 50 Buildings by Colin Wilkinson. Indeed, Tate Hill Pier may be the oldest non-religious building in the town as it was first mentioned in 1190, when it was made out of fallen cliff rocks to protect boats in the harbour.
The West Pier, which juts out into the sea on the opposite side of the river, was properly constructed in the 1630s under the direction of the local MP, Sir Hugh Cholmley, of Abbey House.
During the Civil War of the 1640s, Sir Hugh initially sided with the Parliamentarians and in January 1643 dashed his army of 500 men, plus cavalry and dragoons, across the snowy moors to the Tees Valley as he had heard his distant cousin, Colonel Slingsby Guildford, was amassing a Royalist army of 700 men at Guisborough and preparing to march on Whitby.