We are now well and truly into Spring and Summer is not far ahead. Quite a number of us will be heading to our beautiful coast for a day trip or, for the lucky, a holiday.
Most of the area is in the North Yorks Moors National Park and deservedly so with the lovely coastline and beautiful countryside inland, and the National Trust owning most of the coast land between Filey and Saltburn.
But this was not always the case. Up until about 150 years ago it was known as the “chemical coast”!
I was fortunate to attend a talk given by Mr David Banks from the National Trust. He told us that until the reign of Henry VIII, almost everyone wore clothes which were either brown or green.
Henry wanted his clothes to be bright colours, but there was a snag. Coloured cloth would not stay coloured and a fixative was needed.
Sir Thomas Chaloner II of Guisborough was aware that the Germans and Italians knew how to do it and he smuggled workers from these countries into Yorkshire.
The fixative had three ingredients – seaweed, which there is an abundance of on the Yorkshire coast, human urine, and alum crystals, which can be obtained from shale which was in huge quantities on the Yorkshire Coast and the near hinterland.
Shale occurs elsewhere in the UK but not as good a quality as that found in Yorkshire and hence the best quality alum.
Quarrying began and as much as up to a quarter of a mile of the coastline was hacked away not by the ravages of the sea but by quarrying.
This is particularly evident north of Ravenscar, and north from Whitby to Sandsend. David Banks informed us that the walls to the car park in Sandsend were the original cut down walls of the working house mixing the fixative.
To obtain the alum, shale had to be burnt for a year and one may imagine the pollution!
Coal for that purpose was obtained from the Northumberland pits. There was insufficient population in the Yorkshire villages to produce urine, so it was shipped in barrels from Newcastle, Hull and London. When ship owners were asked what they were carrying the response was “Taking the Piss” which is the origin of the expression.
Seaweed was in abundance on the coast, usually collected by women.
I do not know what the chemistry is involved, but in the 1870s it was found that alum could be extracted by using sulphuric acid and the extraction and burning of shale ceased.
Today, not only is alum used in the textile industry, but also it is used (as I know from my Waterworks Committee days) as a coagulant in drinking water making debris easy to extract.
It is used in medicine, as an antibiotic, in toothpaste, deodorants, baking powder, cream of tartar, and a fixative for false teeth and numerous other commodities.
The walks along the coast have become lovely as most of the evidence of the shale quarrying has been overgrown with grass and wild flowers, even though evidence of the quarrying near Sandsend is still visible with grey shale chippings and mounds. Seeing the evidence of this centuries’ old industry makes the lovely walk more interesting.
This post was written by Hon Alderwoman Elizabeth Nash
Photo: Sandsend near Whitby. Credit: Shutterstock
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