The Whitby Cast

We start a village walk, and a brand-new farm vending machine serving fresh milk and ridiculously good milkshakes in reusable glass bottles. It’s a small thing that says a lot about rural North Yorkshire right now - innovation and diversification. Then we head to the livestock mart, where the buzz isn’t only about animals, it’s about people getting off isolated farms and talking face to face. Next...

Join Emma and Ceri for a proper Whitby catch-up, from guilty confessions to the kind of local chaos that only happens when a town’s key link grinds to a halt. Plus flash floods and fresh planning debates.

We swap seaside confessions that start with a “secret flake” at Clara’s before digging into Whitby’s bigger headaches, from banking access and summer traffic to the swing bridge failures, before finishing with local updates, weekend plans and a chat with our work experience student Sophie. 

We celebrate a brilliant week for Whitby, from two award-winning butchers to a teenager raising thousands for a local disability charity. We also head to the RNLI boathouse to hear what really drives summer callouts, what cold water shock does to the body, and how the lifeboat crew stays ready year-round.

We hand Jimmy from Sunbeam a ukulele and ask for a Whitby Anchor jingle, so you can guess how this starts. Jimmy joins us ahead of Sunbeam’s tenth anniversary gig at the Royal in Whitby, and we get into the real story of building a band from scratch: the early pub gigs, the cover sets held together with lyric sheets, and the moment the sound shifts with a full five-piece line-up. We talk about wha...

From a rainy afternoon in an office at Whitby Lobster Hatchery, we talk with Whitby Lobster Hatchery's Joe Redfern about the practical work behind conservation aquaculture and what it takes to support a real fishing town while rebuilding marine wildlife.  We dig into the hatchery’s core process, including how “buried hens” are brought in with legal dispensation, how V-notching protects breedi...

Drama isn’t just for the stage, it’s rehearsal for real life. We sit down with Chris Colebrookw from Colebrooke Productions to hear how a local Whitby performing arts school grew from a handful of children into a bustling community of young performers and adult learners, and why Chris is stepping away from his day job at the Whitby Pavilion to put his energy where it’s needed most. Chris also shar...

We catch up on the week’s most local stories, from rural crime worries in Glaisedale to the creative North Yorkshire Open Studios.  Andrew Snaith joins us to celebrate Whitby Town’s centenary, reliving Wembley 1997 and looking ahead to a summer rebuild and a stronger bond with the community. 

A week of Whitby stories runs from an unexpectedly viral Penny Hedge clip to serious local questions about care, public services and wildfire risk. We share what we’re hearing around town, then chat to Archie ahead of the Fish and Ships weekend.

We catch up on a packed Whitby week that swings from hidden local gems to the arguments that flare up when a small town hits peak-season pressure. We share what we’ve heard on traffic, camping, schools, and community support, then look ahead to one of Whitby’s strangest and best-loved traditions. 

After our first full week running The Anchor, we’re back with The Whitby Cast - Week Two, to share the surprises, stories, and moments that made us laugh out loud while we tried to keep up. We discuss marine litter and whether Whitby should rethink crabbing when plastic lines and buckets keep getting left around the harbour. We chat about our rural crime reporting why a morning dog walk can make y...

Meet Emma Ryan and Ceri Oakes who have created a new online newspaper for Whitby.  We share a few memories from our early days in the newsroom and why it shapes what we value most about local journalism. Accuracy, high standards and asking the questions everyone wants to know. You’ll also hear what’s on our reporting list this week, questions around Eskdale School, Whitby RNLI shout figures and th...