[img] Fair Isle Cottage, Tin Ghaut, Whitby
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Fair Isle, Tin Ghaut, Cockpit Yard (link)
For a long time I kept coming across the name Fair Isle Cottage, Tin Ghaut, but no definitive information on where it actually was. Fair Isle is an old name for the area more-or-less between Tin Ghaut and the Tattie Market, between Grape Lane and Alders Waste Ghaut, the area now occupied by the Tin Ghaut car park. Fair Isle Cottage is an obvious name for a house in this area, just as Crossgate Cottage at 163 Church Street is named after Crossgate, the old name for the part of Church Street between Bridge Street and Grape Lane.

Fair Isle Cottage, Tin Ghaut is listed in various census returns, family members' wills and property assignments that I have copies of.

In 1908 Elizabeth Newham Wellbury was living at Fair Isle Cottage when she married Benjamin Garminsway Marsay who was living at 162a Church Street.

In 1951 my great-grandmother's uncle William Hutchinson Marsay is listed as living in Fair Isle Cottage when he sold 162/162a Church Street to my great-grandmother Harriet Marsay Harker, who was at that time living next door at 163 Church Street.

However, I've never found any map that showed which building on Tin Ghaut was Fair Isle Cottage, and all the Census returns and Street Directories confusingly list the Marsays and the Wellburys as living at 6 Cockpit Yard!

However, there is one building on Tin Ghaut that is also accessible from Cockpit Yard, the large house at the very end. Photos of Tin Ghaut show it to be a prominant building, and if you count the buildings in Cockpit Yard it is the sixth building, so could easily be 6 Cockpit Yard. For a long time my gut feeling was that this was Fair Isle Cottage.


Then, I discovered this photo: (source)


Tin Ghaut

It is detailed enough and clear enough that you can see a name plate on the house at the end.


Fair Isle Cottage
So this confirms that Fair Isle Cottage is the large building at the bottom of Tin Ghaut, and is the same building as 6 Cockpit Yard.

Fair Isle Cottage in 1893


Tin Ghaut seen from the river
Fair Isle Cottage is the jettied house on the right.

Site of Tin Ghaut and Fair Isle Cottage today
Tin Ghaut entered the river where the concrete infill wall now is. Fair Isle Cottage was in the area between the white lines in front of the parked cars, where the lamp post is.

Site of Fair Isle Cottage today


Authored by J.G.Harston - Last update: 08-Jul-2014