The Golden Age of Yorkshire Resorts 1800-1914

A fascinating exploration of the history of the select coastal resorts in Yorkshire catering for the well-to-do in their Victorian and Edwardian heyday.

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The Yorkshire coast has been attracting holidaymakers for centuries. This book is the first to delve into the world of moneyed visitors to the county’s seaside resorts, showing what attracted such people and why places like Scarborough, Filey and others remained select resorts until the beginning of the twentieth century. Many visitors before 1900 came from the upper reaches of British society, whether aristocracy or commercial and industrial magnates. But some Yorkshire resorts also catered for an international clientele – the French royal family had visited Scarborough, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse stayed at Filey, while the Maharajah of Cooch Behar took a suite at the Hotel Metropole in Whitby.

Using original research based on letters, wills, diaries and journals, together with newspaper reports, this book takes an in-depth look at the wealth and lifestyles of high-class visitors to the Yorkshire coast and includes chapters on their houses, luxury hotels, leisure activities and the ways in which both men and women of means shaped the resorts they visited or to which they retired.

Generously illustrated with photographs and plans, The Golden Age of Yorkshire Resorts 1800–1914 provides a long-overdue survey of how the wealthy of the past spent their time at the coast.