Skinningrove in the 80s - Chris Killip photos - Sunday Times article

[Malaguena]

Apologies if it's been posted before but I couldn't see it anywhere. Afraid it'll be behind a paywall but really interesting photos if you can get to it.

Names mentioned and photos shown are Leso, Blackie, Bever, Toothie, Richard and Whippet !

Chris Killip’s 1980s photographs of the fishing village of Skinningrove

The documentary photographer and Harvard professor cemented his reputation capturing the young men of a fishing village near Middlesbrough. Four years after his death, the full collection is being published

www.thetimes.co.uk

When the photographer Chris Killip first pitched up in Skinningrove, a remote fishing village in northeast England between Middlesbrough and Whitby, in 1982, he didn’t get the warmest of welcomes. “Like a lot of tight-knit fishing communities, it could be hostile to strangers,” he recalled.

Killip, who had grown up on the Isle of Man, gained the locals’ trust after befriending a young fisherman called Leslie Holliday, or “Leso”. “Leso and I never talked about what I was doing there, but when someone questioned my presence, he would intercede and vouch for me with, ‘He’s OK.’ ” In 1986 Leso drowned at sea, aged 26.

The images Killip took of the fishermen between 1982 and 1984 helped seal his reputation as one of Britain’s greatest documentary photographers. In 1994 he became a professor of photography at Harvard University and was department chairman from 1994 to 1998.

Before he died aged 74 in 2020, Killip returned to Skinningrove for the first time in 30 years. “I was shocked by how it had changed, as only one boat was still fishing. The place seemed like a pale reflection of its former self,” he said.

 

[pierrequiroule]

Cheers. You might enjoy this poignant video made in 2013.

 

[FishofContemplation]

Skinningrove wasn’t a fishing village in the 1980s any more than say Redcar was. It might have been in the 1880s. But not since. Mining dominated in the first half of the 20th century and after that closed everyone either worked in the abattoir or in the steel works up the top at Carlin How.

The former employer has gone totally and the latter mostly which is why it’s struggling now, although it still has the best beach on the North Riding coast imho.

 

[Concrete Dreams]

If Skinningrove was in Cornwall, it would be filled with Michelin restaurants, delis and astronomical house prices. The broadsheets would drool over it as the best holiday spot in the UK.
It is a great location with a wonderful beach, possibly the best in the area, but it suffers from awful socioeconomic problems and heavy drug use.
Killip's photos are brilliant and he worked so hard to be accepted by the community so that he could capture it in such an honest and accurate way.

 

[JackG]

 

[fmttmadmin]

You can visit Chris Killop's exhibition at Land of Iron museum in Skinningrove and even experience a trip into the hillside in a mine shaft.
Best to book ahead of your visit it says because tours are restricted in numbers to a dozen at a time.

Land of Iron

Website of the Land of Iron

landofiron.org.uk

 

[Jonny_Rondos_Disco_pants]

If Skinningrove was in Cornwall, it would be filled with Michelin restaurants, delis and astronomical house prices. The broadsheets would drool over it as the best holiday spot in the UK.
It is a great location with a wonderful beach, possibly the best in the area, but it suffers from awful socioeconomic problems and heavy drug use.
Killip's photos are brilliant and he worked so hard to be accepted by the community so that he could capture it in such an honest and accurate way.

I was told that the row of houses on the front only has one occupant, the rest are Air B&Bs. It could be a lovely little place with some TLC

 

[fmttmadmin]

I was told that the row of houses on the front only has one occupant, the rest are Air B&Bs. It could be a lovely little place with some TLC

There are a great deal of Air B &Bs now and that entire coast now from Whitby to Saltburn has a lot of 2nd homes too - for better or for worse. And they aren't cheap to stay in.

 

[borolad259]

Chris Killip's photos (and the youtube video linked to above) are just about my favourite photographic works.

 

[Redwurzel]

It certainly is a different place - steel fabrication works on the top, mining museum, caravans, old terraced houses, small deep valley, top 10 UK beach round the corner.

I have been to the museum twice once in 1983 and then when it was modernised in 2023 - I enjoyed it but it was my sort of thing - industrial and social history.

The cafe/restaurant was pleasant in the old stables, but we did not go any further into Skinningrove.

 

[pierrequiroule]

I was told that the row of houses on the front only has one occupant, the rest are Air B&Bs. It could be a lovely little place with some TLC

As Chris alludes to in the above video, the locals kept the place looking scruffy as they feared it would be turned into a tourist haunt. They'd already fought off one attempt by the council to move them to a 'reservation'. It looks like they eventually lost the battle.

 

[Norman_Conquest]

Skinningrove wasn’t a fishing village in the 1980s any more than say Redcar was. It might have been in the 1880s. But not since. Mining dominated in the first half of the 20th century and after that closed everyone either worked in the abattoir or in the steel works up the top at Carlin How.

The former employer has gone totally and the latter mostly which is why it’s struggling now, although it still has the best beach on the North Riding coast imho.

What’s the criteria for a fishing village?

I do understand what you are saying about locals going into different industries but there’s always been plenty of boats on the front at Skinningrove used by part time fishermen.

 

[NorthumberlandBoro]

It's a unique place.
Where else could you lose your false teeth down the pub toilet only to get them delivered to you days later by a villager.