Guide to yesteryear

But this week, a very different tourist guide was published. It does not purport to be accurate; in fact, it is unfailingly out-of-date. That's because Theakston's Guide To Scarborough, second edition, dates from 1841.

Dip into this pocket-sized hardback book - a near-perfect facsimile of the original, save for the glossy sleeve and new introduction - and you find yourself on a trip to the seaside, Victorian-style. These were the days when taking the waters was quite a malarkey.

"Bathing. The beautiful and sloping form of the beach affords every facility for this exhilarating indulgence," writes the author, SW Theakston.

"At an early hour, during the season, the sands present an interesting appearance, from the crowds who are going to bathe in the pellucid empire of Neptune.

"A number of machines are employed, on the South shore, (though not always ready, from the great demand for them,) and persons are in attendance to wait upon bathers.

"Two females generally attend a lady when she bathes; and if gentlemen need an attendant, one is always ready to render all the assistance which is desired.

"For those who prefer bathing on a less-frequented shore; or wish less publicly to enjoy the salubrious exercise of swimming; there are machines on the North sands, near low Peasholm, with similar attendants and accommodations.

"The best time for this refreshing exercise is after breakfast, and the charge is 1s each time."

Professor Gordon Bell of Pickering has brought this fascinating work to wider attention. Prof Bell began his career as an art teacher, before moving into educational research.

His move to Yorkshire prompted an enduring admiration for the art of Henry Barlow Carter. This led to an exhibition, Early Victorian Yorkshire, at Scarborough Art Gallery, and to the reproduction of Theakston's Guide.

Although written by Theakston, the engravings which illustrate it are based on HB Carter's pictures.

Solomon William Theakston was born in York in 1810 and arrived in Scarborough 18 years later.

"He went on to become one of the town's most successful entrepreneurs, with a string of businesses, including a library, newsroom, bookshop and stationers," writes Prof Bell in his introduction.

"By the end of the 1840s he had created the largest publishing businesses in the town. In 1845, he founded the Scarborough Gazette and a year later opened an art gallery."

Carter, meanwhile, had been working in Scarborough since his marriage in 1830. Theakston commissioned the artist to contribute 22 drawings for his guide, first published in 1840. The second edition contained 38 HB Carter drawings.

The guide was published just as Scarborough, population 9,515, was enjoying a tourist boom, partly built on the supposed health benefits of sea-bathing.

"The rank which Scarborough now holds, as a Watering-place, the various improvements which have been accomplished, and the interest connected with many places in the town and neighbourhood, render a Guide, to whatever is remarkable or interesting, an indispensable requisite to the increasing number of individuals who resort here for health or pleasure," Theakston wrote in the preface.

He begins the guide with an historical sketch of the town, followed by a look round its churches: "Probably no town in the empire, of the same size, possesses a greater number of places for the worship of God than Scarborough."

Despite such boasts, and unlike many modern guides, Theakston was ready to offer an honest assessment of his town's shortcomings. In a section on public buildings, he writes, "All our edifices, with one or two exceptions, are plain but commodious."

Among the institutions that caught his eye was The School Of Industry. "This institution, founded in 1808, is under the patronage of the Ladies of Scarborough, who ever manifest an ardent solicitude for the improvement of the lower order of their own sex," he wrote.

"The present number of girls in this school is about 90, who not only receive instruction adapted to raise their moral character, but to fit them for the domestic circle in which they will probably move."

Visitors determined to take to the Scarborough waters in 1841 did not have to do so in the bracing outdoors. The guide includes pen pictures of Travis's, Harland's, Champley's, Weddell's and Vickerman's Baths, as well as one on the General Sea-Bathing Infirmary.

"The Baths are of wood and marble, and are adapted either for plunging, sitting, or the recumbent position," Theakston wrote about Travis's Baths. "Every tide, these baths are supplied with pure sea water, and admit of every variety of temperature."

Back on dry land, the theatre, "the only place of public entertainment in Scarborough" boasts "some of the most distinguished performers of the day", he insisted. "We trust that exertion and merit will not go unrewarded, by the admirers of genius, and the lovers of the drama."

His comments on trade in Scarborough are brief but revealing. It has "a very restricted commerce" he wrote, blaming a lack of river or canal communication and "the sterile moors which almost surround it".

"But sanguine expectations are entertained by many, that the power of genius will soon overcome these defects of nature; and that by opening a rail-road to York, the whole of the West-Riding may receive many of their imports direct from Scarborough."

The ship-building industry was in decline, he noted; "only one builder is now engaged in it". In 1825 six ships were built with a total tonnage of 1,561; by 1840 only one was built, tonnage 325.

Theakston's Guide is a thorough work. It lists all the rarer plants of the district, and the zoophytes, and devotes a whole chapter to geology. A list of walks in the immediate environs of Scarborough are added at the end.

Coupled with HB Carter's classic drawings, it bears up more than adequately in comparison to its modern equivalents, even though they have the advantage of colour photography.

Theakston's Guide to Scarborough with a new introduction by Professor Gordon Bell is published by the Blackthorn Press, Pickering, price £6.95

Updated: 11:29 Monday, July 29, 2002