Britain's oldest cliff lift closure: memories of magical seaside trips
Scarborough'S Spa Cliff Lift. Courtesy North Yorkshire Council.
Britain's oldest cliff lift closure: memories of magical seaside trips
OUR family car in the 1940s was a Morris 8, 1935 model.
We enjoyed many family trips aboard the humble Morris: Leeds, Bridlington and Scarborough were regular destinations.
Bridlington and Scarborough both boast fine harbours, round which to wander and gawp.
Added excitement was guaranteed if the ‘Yorkshireman’ was at her moorings.
This former tug (I think) had a loud horn and slightly grimy but elated passengers.
The billowing emissions from its funnel would have ‘outsteamed’ Flying Scotsman.
Around Flamborough Head on board this characterful vessel was the highlight of a day out at ‘Brid’.
Scarborough'S Spa Cliff Lift. Courtesy North Yorkshire Council.
You can keep your 20-storey cruise liners!
Scarborough boasted the wondrous North Bay Railway and the water splash; North Marine Drive with thunderous seas crashing over it – kids would play ‘dodge the breakers’, an ill-advised practice; the miniaturised naval battles on Peasholm Park lake; and the cliff lifts.
I’d be subdued all the way home if these lists weren’t 100 per cent ticked!
It was the recent Press Camera Club photo of the lovely Saltburn ‘funicular’ which I only ever rode once, that sparked memories of excursions in the Morris because a priority experience at Scarborough was a trip on the equivalent, of which there were five when I was young.
Until this year, there was just one cliff lift still operational there [it was shut down over safety concerns last month].
Scarborough Spa Cliff Lift. Google Maps
Ascending and descending in the Scarborough funicular was one of the main attractions.
I have to level with readers that in my youth it was the rides themselves in this contraption and the way it operated that drew me, not simply descending or rising with a purpose, ie getting from A to B up or down a slope.
Forget the beach and sand between toes, amusement arcades, shops, donkey rides complete with deposits; they all failed to thrill, and I was never into crazy golf, candy floss, or plastic windmills on a stick.
It was the up and down experience that mattered.
I’d have stayed on all day! They always gave me a bit of a lift. Can these vehicles be listed, eg Gradient 1, Gradient 2* and Gradient 2? I wish they’d erect one up Clifford’s Tower motte.
Middlethorpe Drive,
Recommended reading: