History of Scarborough

The history of Scarborough is inextricably bound up with the geology of the area.

It was a geological event which created the headland and the two wide sweeping bays that formed the foundation of the town's prosperity in the middle ages. The headland was an ideal site for a royal castle the presence of which brought trade to the town. The south bay became a safe harbour for merchant ships plying the eastern seaboard.

By the late 16th century Scarborough was on the wane, the long peaceful reign of Elizabeth I reduced the strategic importance of the castle and the harbour was almost derelict. Scarborough was reduced to little more than a fishing village but geology once again provided the opportunity for prosperity and growth.

In c1627, Mrs Farrow, a local gentlewoman, noticed a spring bubbling up from the cliff at the south end of the south bay, `thereupon did both try it herself, and persuaded others also, that were sickly, to drink of it: finding that it did both loose the belly, and also amend the stomach and cure some distempers`.

The spring water was filtered through the rock of the cliff side picking up magnesium sulphate along the way. The water had a similar effect to modern proprietary medicines like Andrews's Liver Salts. Mrs Farrow had discovered a cure for constipation, an ailment that afflicted many wealthy people at that time. Scarborough was reborn as a fashionable spa town visited by the great and the wealthy from all over the country.

In 1698 the Corporation built the first sea wall, a cistern for the waters and a house for the governor of the spa. In 1737 a landslide buried the spring and the spa building but the spring was dug out and the building replaced by a much grander one, `The Spaw-House, lies S. by E. from the cliff-terrace at the distance of about 700 yards. This building was raised to it's present form, in the year 1739`.

When sea bathing as a cure for illness was added to drinking Scarborough triumphed mineral waters over the inland spa towns like Tunbridge, Bath and Buxton, `...... long before Dr Russel plunged a single patient in the sea at Brighthelmstone (Brighton), Scarborough had been celebrated for it's waters, it's air, it's situation, it's cures`.

The wealthy visitors had to be provided with goods and services so by the late 18th century Scarborough had a theatre patronised by the best actors of the day, several circulating libraries, assembly rooms in St Nicholas Street where the wealthy met to dance and play cards, and a host of tailors, shoemakers, drapers and grocers catering for the summer trade.

Doctors also thrived in Scarborough as large numbers of sick and elderly people flocked to the town in search of a cure. Two key members of the Scarborough Philosophical Society, Dr Travis and Dr Harland had medical baths on the Cliff and in New Road respectively.

Success in business or in the professions brought wealth and increased leisure time which could be spent pursuing the fashionable science of geology. The abundance of easily available specimens along the coastline encouraged the collecting of fossils and fostered the desire for a museum in which to display them. The result was the formation of the Scarborough Philosophical Society and the building of the Scarborough Museum (it later became the Rotunda Museum), in disciplines that developed in the later 19th 1829. The members of the Philosophical Society were interested in learning, rather than education, and were not restricted by the demarcation lines between academic century. They explored the natural sciences, archaeology, history and philosophy in addition to geology.

Some of the wealth brought in to the town by the summer visitors found it's way into educational institutions such as the Amicable Society School built in 1729, the School of Industry founded in 1808, the Infant School opened in 1827 and the Lancasterian School built in 1810. All these institutions were supported by public donations and were dedicated to teaching the children of
the poor.

By the 1840's Scarborough also had a Mechanic's Institute, a Horticultural Society and an Agricultural and General Library. The pursuit of knowledge was readily encouraged in both seasonal visitors and townsfolk alike leaving a legacy of fine buildings and a place in the history of science quite extraordinary for a small seaside town.

Quotes taken from The Scarborough Guide, 1825, Sedman & Weddill, printed by J. Ainsworth, Newbrough Street, Scarborough.