Keeping Whitby's stories afloat
Heritage tours, oral history and a free maritime museum on Church Street — run by the community, for the community.
Plan a visit
What we do
Four strands of work, one purpose: making sure the town's maritime and craft heritage is recorded, shared and kept alive.
Heritage walking tours
Guided walks through the old town tracing the whaling era, the jet trade and the working harbour.
Oral history recording
Over 400 interviews captured since 2008, preserving first-hand memories of life on and around the water.
The maritime museum
A free Church Street museum telling the story of Whitby whaling and the rise and fall of the jet trade.
Schools programme
Hands-on heritage sessions for local primary schools, bringing the town's past into the classroom.
Whitby jet collection
Pieces from funeral jewellery to high fashion, charting a craft that began on this coast.
Independent and free
Member-funded and free to visit, so the town's story stays open to everyone who wants it.
Who we help
For the town, its visitors and its children
We work for the people of Whitby first — the families whose grandparents crewed the drifters, the jet workers, the harbour folk whose memories we record before they're lost.
We also welcome the curious: visitors who want more than the postcard view, and local schoolchildren discovering that the history is theirs. Everything we do is free to access and shaped by the people it belongs to.
