Out of the seventeen shops in the three streets, up to about ten’s main customers are expected to be tourists; gift shops have a big percentage, others are shells shop, jewellery shops, craft shops and others of the similar type.
The other seven shops deal with local people as well as tourists, most of these are food shops selling fish and chips for taking away and café, tea room… others are a clothes shop, book shops and a shop selling hand-made bags.
This is not a surprise since there are eight self-catering accommodations for tourists, mostly holiday cottages and four catered accommodations for tourists like hotels, an inn and bed-and-breakfasts in the three streets. However, despite it being a fishing village, only five private houses for permanent exist today.
The large numbers of visitors cause a lot of problems. One of theses huge problems is that they wipe out the permanent residences out of the area. Noise could be one of the reasons why but the two main reasons is that people buying second-houses would push house prices up so locals could not afford it. Being a honeypot also mean that shopkeepers would want to make profits out of the visitors instead of permanent residences. This is why most of the shops in Robin Hood’s Bay sell goods for tourists but not convenience goods. Locals would find life much more inconvenient because of that since they cannot buy what they need nearby – no-one would want to do an hour drive for a box of washing powder!
Visitors who go to Robin Hoods Bay by car would also need somewhere to park their cars, it is very likely that they would park in a resident’s parking space if the car park is full. This must have annoyed the residence a lot but building a car-park would destroy the scenery which makes it a real problem.
The place would also be crowded with visitors especially in the middle of the summer or weekends. Trees, plants could also be damaged by careless visitors.
Facilities such as lavatories, pay phones, picnic sites, holiday cottages, inns, hotels, car parks, caravan parks, tourist information, museums, education centres had been provided for visitors for their conveniences them and help them to enjoy their visits.
I have positive opinions towards the sea defences that had been built in Robin Hood’s bay , the look of the coast had not been spoilt greatly by these. From the sea, it looks so natural that you cannot tell they are man-made defences! For if not the defences were there, the whole village would be lost.
Small settlement though Robin Hood’s Bay is, I think the large sum of money that had been spent to preserve the coast from further attack by the sea does worth it because Robin Hood’s Bay is more than a settlement! It is one of the few historical places that had Jurassic remain in England, if they don’t preserve these places, England would left with no places to prove it’s history and teach it’s people of their old custom, culture and history.
Besides, Robin Hood’s Bay is also a honeypot that brings in a lot of visitors every year. The visitors spend their money as well as their day during the visit which would bring income for the village and gives it’s economic a positive effect. This would also provide jobs for locals such as shop-keepers, hotel-hosts, museum guides, etc.
Robin Hood’s bay had change enormously over the years. The old Coastguard Station no longer has a coastguard in, instead, it has become a shop.
In the sixteenth century as by 1540, 50 cottages recorded in the village by the shore but people had probably settled in there before that. The oldest stone houses that can still be seen today are 400 years old!
Robin Hood’s Bay had relied on fishing industry since then. But as time goes, the demand for fish grew and people started sailing bigger boats to land bigger cantches; without a proper harbour and with a rocky bay, Robin Hood’s bay could no longer shelter the boats. And the bigger fleets started to be based at Whitby and Scarborough.
In the mid 1800s, Robin Hood’s Bay had came to rely on tourists, they had to cater for the tourist’s needs. In 1885, the railway came into Robin Hood’s Bay an since then more tea shops, museums, holiday cottages had been built. On the other side, the number of permanent residents and facilities like butchers and bakers had went down.
Today, Robin Hood’s Bay is protected by the North York Moors National Park Authority. Strict rules are applied on the buildings to ensure new buildings do not look out of place in order to keep the character of Robin Hood’s Bay.
Physical features of Robin Hood’s Bay had also changed during the causes of the years. the coast lines kept cutting back by the Sea, so more and more sea defences like conquer walls, blocks of granites had been put into place.
