Not really a party – this the result of serious storm damage to The Cod & Lobster public house in Staithes, captured in a dramatic sequence of photographs taken at the time. Jackie Roe-Lawton told us: “When the pub was washed away, Willis – a building firm from Hinderwell – was employed to rebuild it. My Granddad, John Tom Roe was a cabinet-maker; he renovated and rebuilt the cellar. The woman who was the landlady was so penny-pinching that she just covered over the ale barrels – and remember, these were wooden barrels, not the metal sealed ones that we have now – you had to tap the barrel to get the beer out – but she usually just took the lid off!! Imagine how much sea-water was in that brew! My Great Granddad, John Henry Roe (The eponymous barber from Barber’s Yard) was an alcoholic; so my Granddad never drank. But every lunchtime he staggered up the High Street, singing his head off, drunk from the fumes!
When the windows were replaced, Granddad took the old windows from the Cod and Lobster; fitted them in the top of his house at 3 Broomhill with the help of my Dad, Tommy Roe. They took the roof off, installed a dormer (the window from the Cod) and put the roof back on; watertight; in one day. That window was still serviceable when my husband took it out and replaced one dormer with 2 smaller in 1998!”
Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection (and believed to be from a series taken by John Tindale – Photographer – Whitby) and many thanks to Jackie Roe-Lawton for that update.
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