After building three model tramways with live overhead I wanted a change as I find, with my sight problems, it can be a chore at times. Ravenscar Pier will still run a tram but it will be narrow gauge and will have a battery trailer, so there will be no overhead.
The Ravenscar Estate Company bought the area adjacent to Peak Village in North Yorkshire for £10,000 in 1895 with the idea of creating a new seaside resort to challenge those of the nearby towns of Whitby and Scarborough. A railway line was being built to link the two towns, and Peak was at the central and highest point.
Peak was re-named Ravenscar in 1897 and roads were built, sewers laid, a brick works built and plots of land sold to city dwellers who liked the idea of living by the sea overlooking Robin Hood's Bay.
The plan was badly researched as the route down the 600 ft cliffs to the rocky beach is precarious and the area, although beautiful, is very exposed and subject to sea frets. The Ravenscar Estate Company ceased trading in 1913 having built less than a dozen houses but it had altered the area for ever. The wide roads remain and the houses built for the new town look out of place in the middle of open countryside.
The Ravenscar House Hotel was built to house the city dwellers visiting to choose their plots. Outside, the overgrown station stands next to the railway line, closed by the Beeching cuts, which is now a bridleway.
As the Town was being developed, the Ravenscar Estate Company built a short pier complete with narrow gauge tramway for the residents to enjoy. It also gave access to the pleasure steamer trips the Company planned to run from the pier head to view Robin Hood's Bay from their steam ship 'Isabelle' which was purchased second hand for this purpose.
An access road and sea defences were constructed along the coast from the village of Robin Hood’s Bay and some shops, the Managers house and tram depot were built across the road on the landward side of the sea wall. The depot was complete with the Manager's office from where he could oversee the Pier and its customers.
The pier was poorly built and was badly damaged in a storm in the 1920's. The remains were eventually washed away by heavy seas, along with the sea wall, the road and the buildings, and nothing now remains.