When living in England for many years I often vacationed and stayed in Robin Hoods Bay. I was a keen hiker, and often walked to Ravenscar and back on the cliff top path. Yes, I was aware of the proposed town and agree that access to the non-existent beaches was probably a large factor in it's not being followed through. An exceptional area of Great Britain and well worth a visit. Now living in Tennessee, I miss those walks and English Pubs!
I found this on it.... Ravenscar, home to one of the best hotels near Whitby, is a village with a difference. The Victorian era was a time of great expansion. At the turn of the 19th-20th Century, new railways lines were being established throughout the UK, and Yorkshire was no exception. By this time, Scarborough was already a booming example of the new seaside resorts which were turning towns across England into prime holiday destinations, and it was thought that Ravenscar could be transformed into a place that would be able to compete against its neighbour for the custom of visiting tourists. The sleepy village - until this time known locally as ‘Peak’ - suddenly became a hotbed of activity, with roads, houses and even a sewage system being built in preparation for the great onset of visitors from the surrounding area and beyond. For all their grand plans, however, something the Victorian entrepreneurs behind the scheme did not take into account was the limits imposed by the rugged Ravenscar landscape. It soon became apparent to potential investors that the village could not, after all, be another Scarborough; the promised new railway line did arrive, but trains initially struggled to make it up the steep hills that characterise the area. The clifftop location - unsurprisingly - proved to be susceptible to strong gusts of wind, meaning that it would not have been the ideal spot for sandcastles and donkey rides!
Finances and fibs stopped it. They lied and said there was a beach, then expected people to build their own houses before the developers would build roads or utilities. The developers appear to have had no intention of building it, just to make money administering the sale of plots. Eventually everyone pulled out. Surprised the video doesn't just say it, seeing as it was made by the National Trust with the couple who discovered everything above and wrote a book on it. I think this video doubles as something of a teaser trailer for the book / website.
One hundred years from now, without sufficient records, some archeologist will be making up explanations as to why the "residents" abandoned the village and the "houses" disappeared without a trace.
I just found this in my recommendations, and thought that it was a Tom Scott video from reading the title. This is exactly the sort of video that fits Tom Scott’s channel perfectly. The footage is excellent and the story behind the place is very intriguing.
Great and very interesting video, used to visit Ravenscar when I was a kid with my dad, we would climb down the cliff to collect winkles, this was around 1966/67/68 .Remember one year the place was covered in flies, you couldn"t walk without standing on them.Good old days.
An excellent presentation! Living, as I do, in Whitby, Ravenscar is a favourite place for an afternoon walk. Fascinating to see it from the air, thank you...and I loved the music too 🙂
Wow that music is hauntingly beautiful. Stunning landscape but I'm biased I'm from the Yorkshire (the best place in the world)! where there is everything and the the people are so friendly. There is no where else in the world quite like it makes me so proud.
I lived in Middlesbrough in my youth and walked the N. Yorkshire Moors many times but I knew nothing about this. I knew the Falcon Inn but had no real idea of what lay beyond. I now live in New Zealand and am unlikely to visit the UK again so i would like to see more videos like this especially ones that are so well researched and imaged.
I hope we’re not referring to the myth of global warming, mainly referring to the excess undulating terrain and lack of decent access to good beaches and lack of harbor.🇦🇺
What a brilliant video, credit to everyone that put this together. Fantastic aerial shots with brilliant bullet points of info. I loved the overlay of modern and historic map. This was riveting , mesmerising history at it's best 10 out of 10.
This came up in my RU-vid recommendations and I’m so glad it did. It’s a superb video that deserves more views. The clues to this failed real estate deal are all visible in the landscape.
An excellent video.I have camped in Ravenscar many times when walking the Cleveland Way.The village has a character of its own due to the empty wide roads and scattered Victorian buildings.
2 and 1/2 years late to the party, but have to agree with all the positive comments below - fantastic footage and editing. Thank you for enriching my drab Sunday :-)
As a wee lad, I had several holidays in Fylingthorpe.We used to go Tom the outdoor swimming pool at the Ravenscar hotel, but we knew nothing of the town that never was until I learned of it many years later.
Outstanding! Great video, caption info and map overlays. Perfectly informs the watcher of all pertinent details. Superb example of how to do this sort of historical “docuvid”
When the Scarborough road races were held i used to camp at one of the farms which had a three legged cat and we visited the Raven Hall hotel bar for a couple of pints, we also used The Bryerstone for meals and games of pool. When I took up mountain biking after a motorcycle accident I used to cycle the old railway between Whitby and Scarborough, I love this area of North Yorkshire as much as Redcar where I am from.
Take Beautiful drone footage, a great story and the perfect soundtrack, combine that with excellent editing and you create this stunning video, of shear delight to watch, I agree with others, it is SUPERB, the music choice was exquisite, and just makes this video stand out as one of RU-vid's Hidden Gems just waiting to be discovered and I am so glad I did, ADORED THIS. well done Skyshots
Breathtaking film. I have walked the Lyke Wake Walk twice, from Osmotherley to Ravenscar. 45+ miles across the moors in 24 hours, by the time I got to the end I wasn’t in any fit state to take in the scenery. This has made me want to walk there again
Absolutely loved this. I stayed in a holiday cottage every year at Ravenscar for about 20 years straight, it is a true gem. I absolutely love the place. It was only in the last 10 or so years I have become really interested in the history of Ravenscar and the "Town That Never Was" so to stumble across this when I was looking for Ravenscar videos was fantastic. The quality of this video is outstanding and having looked at your great website I have earmarked my plot to buy before Christmas. Thank you for the effort you have put in this and I look forward to reading the book and seeing how this interesting project develops.
Loved every minute of this, really professional, informative and interesting, I can well imagine there’s thousands of people from that area that wouldn’t of had a clue about the grand plans for a town. Thank you so much, really enjoyable.
I live in a town called Lee-on-the-Solent down on the "Sarf Coast", this place was originally developed in the 19th Century by a man called Sir John Charles Robinson, the same man who promoted Ravenscar. He was a little more successful in Lee; perhaps the warmer weather and views over to the Isle of Wight (just 5 miles away) had something to do with it.
I agree with your opinion, here we are the 7th of may and still suffering freezing weather and snow storms and when the wind blows it's the last place on earth you want to be.
An outstanding piece of video production - informative, lets the imagination work on the grounding of solid information, first-class videography, and very good pacing of events. Thank you, from someone who is mainly interested in railways and remembers that railway in the years immediately after its closure - the late '70s.
@@EllieMaes-Grandad Thanks. You're right, of course. Bad grammar. I should have written ". . . and remembers that railway in the late '70s, not long after its closure", or something like that. Thanks.
Absolutely brilliant video, drove past many times on my way to Scarborough. Next time I will definitely stop and have a good look around. I knew about the Alum and Brick Works. But not the proposal to build a town. Love this kind of history film. Well done.
I am from this area and finding any sort of information about this is so difficult, happening to stumble across a recommended video has enlightened me!
Thanks, a mystery solved for me. Been going there since I was a toddler in the 50s and it always seemed strange. There was a beach at Kettleness down an old path. My grandmother liked afternoon tea at the hotel and I was last there in 2012 when my son left Fyling Hall School in RHB (we lived in Saltburn). A speculator's scam I think?
I visit regularly to watch the seals (from a distance). I must admit I always thought the landscape was unnaturally managed, and now I understand why. Wonderful video..
The name Whitby mentioned in the descriptions reminded me of the shipwreck of "General Carleton of Whitby" that has sunk in 1785 in the Baltic Sea close to the Polish coastal village Dębki. It has been discovered in 1989 and thoroughly examined by the Polish Maritime Museum in the years 1995-1998. Information on this wreck and some items recovered can be found here: theknittinggenie.com/2015/01/09/the-story-of-the-wreck-of-the-general-carleton/ This Wikipedia entry (in Polish) contains the names of the crew of whom only 3 survived: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Carleton
7:14 that plot 178 has bought 3 more plots around him and is a wonderful location for a house. I'm surprised given the lands previous approval for development that it has not been developed in more recent times.
Ah, the coastline and countryside around the Tyne & Weir area is absolutely some of the most beautiful in the British isles. Why is it not more popular? Because when it rains it comes down wickedly cold, and often horizontal with enough venom to lash the skin from your bones! But on the rare occasion you get a fine day there's no place more beautiful in the world. Absolutely worth spending years exploring if you're tough, or a few days visiting in the sun if you're incredibly lucky.
Going by other sale prices in the area, looks like it would barely hit £500k. Barely get you an entry level house back in London or the South coast. I'm just down the road in York. Wasted 4 years of my life in this Northern wasteland. House prices are cheap up here because no one with any ambition or goals wants to be here. Can't wait to get back down South to civilisation.
i have worked on some of the properties up there, fixed a roof one winter to have to go back a few days later and fix even more after high winds took a heap of tiles of it ,also fixed the garage roof of the cottage to the south of the place on its own again due to high wind damage, its like a train hits you when it blows from the east so that might well be a good reason why Ravenscar was never built. Also what would the good people do for jobs?
I have seen similar ares in the United States. Rio Rancho estates in New Mexico is one. (huge) I have also seen smaller ones where the money did not keep up with the dreams. The face that Ravenscar over advertised the fact there was access to the beaches would be a deal breaker for most people.
Land slides and receding is starting to speed up at an alarming rate. Roughly 3.5 foot receding a year due to the 0.5mm a year tilting effect from north to south of the uk.
This is very well done, I am no wiser as to why it never proceeded but its an interesting place. Rough guess it would be really cold in the winter. Greetings from Sydney Australia.
