Staithes or Steers

I've always used Staithes but knew a few lads from Loftus back in the day and they all called it Steers.
 
I worked with a lad at ICI who lived in Loftus,born/brought up in Staithes and he always pronounced it steers!
 
Mrs Gnome's grandma was from Boulby Barns Farm right on the top of Boulby Cliff, relatives from Staithes in the day they all call it Steers. As does Mrs Gnome.
 
FartingGnome said:
Mrs Gnome's grandma was from Boulby Barns Farm right on the top of Boulby Cliff, relatives from Staithes in the day they all call it Steers. As does Mrs Gnome.
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Was the farm an Alum House - 200 years ago?

i.e building for producing Alum as shown on villages by the sea TV programme. The local rock was mixed with urine to produce alum (a colour fixant for textiles). A shaft was built from the the Alum House down through the cliff to a cave at the base of the cliff for ships to collect Alum. Alum was the start of Teesside's chemical industry.
 
Redwurzel said:
Was the farm an Alum House - 200 years ago?

i.e building for producing Alum as shown on villages by the sea TV programme. The local rock was mixed with urine to produce alum (a colour fixant for textiles). A shaft was built from the the Alum House down through the cliff to a cave at the base of the cliff for ships to collect Alum. Alum was the start of Teesside's chemical industry.
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I think they went back even further than that. I went down to the remains of the one at Ravenscar 20 odd years ago and from memory that was Tudor.
 
Never heard it called steers until a horse called Staithes was running. The commentator was saying steers.
 
As I am posh I pronounce it in Queens English, Staithes. Wooley backs from that way, I'm talking about Loftus, Whitby etc at work used to pronounce it Stayers.
 
Redwurzel said:
Was the farm an Alum House - 200 years ago?

i.e building for producing Alum as shown on villages by the sea TV programme. The local rock was mixed with urine to produce alum (a colour fixant for textiles). A shaft was built from the the Alum House down through the cliff to a cave at the base of the cliff for ships to collect Alum. Alum was the start of Teesside's chemical industry.
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There are old alum works down the cliffs directly below Boulby Barns, Mrs Gnome's dad used to play football there when he was a kid visiting the grandparents apparently, seems a bit precarious to me but as they say the length of the drop doesn't matter as long as you don't fall off. Also they used to supply milk to Staithes and maybe outliers - horse and cart in those days.

The Alum started in the East Cleveland area in Elizabethan times, used to be pretty much a monopoly of the Pope but that got difficult after Henry VIII's break with Rome and deposits were found initially in the hills behind Guisborough I believe, then more all the way from Carlton in Cleveland all the way along pretty much what's now the Cleveland Way down to Scarborough
 
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