HISTORY

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WHIT BY.

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III.

Containing the History of Whitby, from the diffolution of the Monaftery to the end of

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the year 1776.

HEN the Monaftery of Whitby was diffolved, the town was divided into three parts; all of which, taken together, contained but a very inconfiderable number of inhabitants. One of these parts, confifting only of about ten or twelve houfes, ftood above the hill, on or near that plat of ground where Streanfhalh had formerly been, in the days of St. Hilda and the Northumbrian Kings. Thefe houfes were inhabited by the menial fervants and other dependents of the Abbot, who affifted in tilling fuch land in the neighbourhood of the Monaftery as was not lett out to tenants: And fish being in thofe times of Popery an article of very great confequence, fome of them probably were alfo employed in providing that useful commodity for the Monaftery, though it is certain most of the fishermen at Whitby, even in those days, for the convenience of fishing, had their habitations below the hill.

Another part of Whitby stood below the hill, on the eaft fide of the Efke, where ten or twelve more ftraggling houfes, placed in an irregular manner, at a confiderable distance from each other, formed a forry ftreet, then called Kirkgate, but now commonly known by the name of Church-ftreet, beginning at the lower end of the Green-lane, and terminating at the bottom of the Church-ftairs. Beyond that street, to the northward, was a place called Haglathe, from a lathe, barn, or ftore-houfe, which had been built there. as a repository for fuch neceffaries as were wanted in the winter feason of the year by thofe inhabitants who had their refidence below the hill, that place having long before the building of this lathe been known by the name of the

Hag,