Mike Laycock finds out about Whitby's past as a jet jewellery centre.

IT GAVE us the phrase jet black. The jewellery became a symbol of Queen Victoria's mourning after her beloved Albert died. And it was made in scores of little workshops across Victorian Whitby, using pieces of the semi-precious stone found lying on the beaches of the Yorkshire Coast.

Now a restoration jeweller, Hal Redvers-Jones, has opened the Whitby Jet Heritage Centre in a mission to explain jet jewellery and its part in the town's history.

The centre is situated in the heart of the old town, near the bottom of the 199 steps leading down from the abbey and church.

I always try to approach this picturesque coastal port down those steps. You can park easily near the abbey, and take in superb views of the historic ruins and of waves crashing down on the beaches and cliffs along the bay, before climbing down past a jumble of historic cottages with their pantiled roofs.

The small but interesting jet centre is a re-creation of one of 200 jet workshops which Hal says were once situated in the attics of homes across Whitby.

He had the idea of the centre eight years ago, when a Whitby builder discovered a false wall in the attic of a property he was renovating. He removed it to find a complete jet workshop, as it was when it was abandoned many years ago. It included a range of grindstones, operated by foot treadles and used to grind and polish the raw, dull jet material into the gleaming, shiny jet used in jewellery.

Hal made careful drawings and then removed the equipment and set it up again in a room alongside his jet jewellery shop.

Information panels tell how making jet jewellery was riskier than you might have imagined. Sometimes, the grind stones would shear off, and on one occasion in 1883, an unfortunate 18-year-old called William Locket was killed when a fragment struck him in the chest, piercing a lung.

Hal says new information panels and an audio-tour are planned this summer. Alongside the workshop is Hal's shop, where there are beautiful examples of jet-black jewellery he has made.

Fact file:

Whitby Jet Heritage Centre is near the foot of the 199 steps down from Whitby Abbey. Admission free.

Further information:

01947 821530.

Updated: 08:58 Saturday, April 30, 2005