WHITBY

WHITBY DIARY

The Y6 children enjoyed a wonderful five days in Whitby, York and the North York Moors in October. Here is their diary of the five days.

Monday: We left school at 8.30 a.m. in our Eagle Coach and headed north on the M5, M42, M1 and A64 roads. The journey to York took about three and a half hours and we arrived at 1.00 p.m. We had lunch in the Minster Gardens, then made our way to the Minster Education Centre. We split into two groups. One group had a tour of the Minster while the other group was in the Centre, then we changed over. The guides told us about the history of the Minster buildings and about the people who work there. The first Minster was begun in Anglo-Saxon days, but the building we saw was mainly built in the middle ages. It took 250 years to build and has not been changed much since then. It is a very beautiful and wonderful building with lots of colourful glass. There are 2 million pieces of glass in all the windows. It has the biggest stained glass window in the world in the East Window (more glass even than in Gloucester's East window), a window called the Heart of Yorkshire window and the rose window in the South Transept, rebuilt after the fire in 1984 when the South Transept was hit by lightning.

After our time in the Minster, we made our way back to the coach and set off for Whitby. We arrived at the Youth Hostel in time for dinner at 6.30 p.m. After our meal we made our beds and unpacked.
In the evening Mr Harris took us on a walk around the town. We returned to the Youth hostel via the 199 Church Stairs.

We finally got to bed at about 10.00 p.m. and went to sleep fairly quickly.

Tuesday: In the morning we travelled to the village of Robin Hood's Bay. We spent the morning on the beach rock pooling and completing a beach hunt. We had the expert help of the NYM guides. We also had time to fossil hunt and an art challenge. Our picnic lunch was eaten overlooking the bay. We even had time to enjoy an icecream and buy postcards and gifts. Later we walked around "Bay" and learnt about the life of the village in the past and now. Robin Hood's Bay is a fascinating village with many stories about fishing and smuggling in the past. It is a very different place compared to Minchinhampton.

In the afternoon we returned to Whitby and began the town study byvisiting the whalebone arch and the tunnel. We walked along the harbourside past the fish market. Mr Harris took us along the pier to the lighthouse. We even saw 'Heartbeat' being filmed. After crossing the swing bridge we walked down Sandgate and into the Market square on up Church street then we climbed up the church stairs again! All these activities were aimed at helping us look, observe and learn about Whitby.
After the evening meal we walked down into Whitby and met Mr Collett who took us on a town trail telling interesting stories at different places in the town.
Again we climbed Church Stairs to reach the Youth Hostel. Mrs Savage made delicious hot chocolate and we went to bed and straight to sleep!

Wednesday: We enjoyed the coach journey across the moors to Danby where we visited the North York Moors Centre. When we got to the centre we had a lecture about the NYM and life on the moors. We learnt about how the moors were managed and about conservation, recreation and the problems that the moors face - pollution and the problems that tourism gives. The moors have 11 million visitors a year, and Goathland is very popular because the television programme "Heartbeat" is filmed there.
With the North York Moors Wardens guiding us we walked across footpaths until we reached the river where we carried out our river study. Everyone enjoyed learning about river features and life in the river. Everyone enjoyed the long playtime when we returned to the Moors Centre Outdoor play area.
It was a glorious day so lunch was eaten at Danby Beacon. Here we could appreciate the view and the heather moorland.
After a short coach journey we arrived in Goathland. We walked from Goathland village, across the common along the Monks' Trods into Darnholme and on to Goathland station where we watched the cross over of two steam trains. We returned to the village of Goathland where we met the coach and journeyed back to Whitby.
The evening was spent completing our booklets, playing games, reading and watching a presentation of the photos taken throughout the week.

 

Thursday: In the morning we completed our Whitby town study by observing the views North, South, East and West from the churchgrounds. We also completed a study of the Church and found out many interesting facts about the church, its history and its contents. We visited the town again passing the Market Place and crosing the River Esk via the swingbridge.
After meeting the coach we travelled across the moors to Eden Camp, the Second World War Museum, based in an old prisoner of war camp near Malton. It has a great deal of information about life during the war, and we learnt about the way people lived during the war years. Each hut (there were 25 huts) was about a particular part of the war - the blitz, the evacuees, the Home Guard, how the war started., etc. We also watched a puppet show based on the 1940s music hall. It was a brilliant museum, and we stayed there for five hours.

In the evening we had a talent show, quiz and prizegiving.

Friday : This was our last day in Whitby so we had to get up earlier this morning. After breakfast, we finished our packing and loaded the coach with our luggage. We then walked from the Youth Hostel into Whitby via the donkey road. We went 'Fortunes' to see how the famous Whitby Kippers are smoked and some of us bought kippers to take home.
We were given time to go shopping before meeting up at the Market House. Mr Harris then walked us to the Bandstand near the fish market and surprised us all by purchasing fish and chips for everyone (the famous Magpie Cafe fish and chips!).
We climbed up the Khyber Pass to the Whale Arch where we met the coach.

First stop on route was at York. We spent three hours at the National Railway Museum - the highlight of the week for Mr. Harris - that had lots to see and learn about trains and railways. We had a very interesting talk about the famous Flying Scotsman train.There was a lot to see and look at in the museum, including Queen Victoria's Royal Train, steam engines, models and a room called the Magician's Road, where we could build bridges, pull the signals, play with different railway items and have a good time.

We finally arrived back at school at 9.00 p.m., glad to be home but having had a great time. We had learnt a lot and had a wonderful five days.
Thank you to Mr Harris for organising the week and to the staff, Mrs Savage and Mrs Dyer who came with us.

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