THE Flamborough “climmers” were a hardy breed: just take a quick look at our main photograph today if you doubt that.

The cliffs at Bempton are known as a haven for sea birds, and are today managed as a reserve by the RSPB. Back in the 19th century, however, the birds’ eggs were seen as fair game – to anyone with the guts to go out and harvest them. Those men were the climmers.

Our photograph of them comes from a new book, Images Of Yorkshire Through Time, by Whitby-based local historian Alan Whitworth.

“At Flamborough, and Bempton in particular, climmers used to scale the dizzy heights with only the aid of a flimsy rope to collect birds’ eggs, which they then sold to the nineteenth century visitors,” Alan writes in the accompanying caption.

Images of Yorkshire Through Time consists of almost 100 pages of photographs of old Yorkshire, often juxtaposed with modern photographs taken from a similar perspective.

The aim of his book, Alan explains in his introduction, is to try to gather together, in photographic form, a collection of places, people and things that everyone considers to represent the White Rose County and its people’s traits.

That’s a pretty wide remit: so in Alan’s book you’ll find everything from images of miners at work, to the railways; stunning rural landscapes to Yorkshire characters such as the climmers.

Our other photographs today, all from Alan's book, show:

• Farndale on August 27, 1926 when the village gathered to celebrate the anniversary of Low Farndale Methodist Chapel.

• The Fylingdales “golf balls”. These were built in 1964 amidst much uproar and protest, Alan writes. “Designed to perform the task of keeping world peace, when they were taken down (to be replaced by a solid state phased array radar pyramid) there was, ironically, almost as much uproar calling for their retention.”

• Brass bands are as much a part of Yorkshire's heritage as Yorkshire Puddings, Alan says. The photograph shows the Whitby North Eastern Railway Brass Band in 1907. "Did they entertain the passengers during times of delay, I wonder?” Alan asks cheekily.

• Whitby harbour, below. “It was at Whitby that ships were built to furnish Captain Cook in his maritime endeavours,” Alan writes. The great captain wouldn’t have felt out of place in the Whitby in this photograph, we can’t help feeling.

• Images of Yorkshire Through Time by Alan Whitworth is published by Amberley, priced £14.99.

York Press: Whitby harbour

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