The Robin Hood's Bay Marine Laboratory was a marine scientific research and education unit in North Yorkshire, England, from 1912 to 1982. Purchased in 1998 by the National Trust, the previous structure was demolished, and the present building constructed to the style of the old coastguard station and opened as a visitor and interpretation centre.
Site The village of Robin Hood's Bay (known locally as Baytown) is situated on the north side of a wide sweeping bay about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast of England. Baytown rests on mud banks that cover layers of limestone and blue shale. At low tide long rocky scaurs can be seen and there is an abundance of fossils to be found. Originating in the early 16th century, the village rapidly became one of the most important fishing centres on the Yorkshire coast, reaching its zenith in the mid-19th century, before its rapid decline following the introduction of steam power. The coming of the railway in 1885 and the consequent influx of tourists and visitors, compensated for the decline of the local fishing industry. The village is a mixture of four storey town houses and split-level cottages, on a very steep three-in-one hill leading down to an area known as the Dock and the Wayfoot on the edge of the sea.
History In 1907 Walter Garstang was appointed professor of zoology at the University of Leeds. Recognised as one of the country's leading marine scientists, Garstang had been assistant director of the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, and in charge of the association's Lowestoft Laboratory while directing Great Britain's part in the International Fishery Investigations of the North Sea. Walter Garstang first visited Robin Hood's Bay at Easter in 1909, with T.H. Taylor, his assistant lecturer and demonstrator in zoology, and Ll. Lloyd, his first advanced student (and later to be his reader in entomology and protozoology). Ll. Lloyd, who had known the area since boyhood, later recalled that they stayed at the Bay Hotel "and its verandha, the sea washing its wall at high tide, was our Laboratory" where they sorted and examined the great variety of animals collected from the shore and rock pools. In 1912, in cooperation with Alfred Denny, professor of zoology at Sheffield University, Walter Garstang established a marine research facility in Baytown, in an old building at the Wayfoot previously used as the coastguard cottage, and owned by Mrs. Martha Storm, a member of the long-established local fishing family. Jointly funded by Leeds and Sheffield Universities, the facility was known as Yorkshire Universities Marine Laboratory, and was used as a summer base for fieldwork, teaching and research by the Departments of Zoology and Botany. Initially for a two-year trial period, the two universities agreed to the annual outlay of £4 each for rent and up to £10 each for upkeep. The minutes of the Faculty of Pure Science of the University of Sheffield on 12 March 1912 record the following resolution that was carried unanimously: That the Faculty approves of the proposal to extend the work of the Department of Zoology by co-operating with the University of Leeds in establishing a small marine Zoological Laboratory at Robin Hood's Bay. The Report of the Faculty of Pure Science, for 1912–1913 stated that:
The Faculty notes with satisfaction that the Marine Zoological Station at Robin Hood's Bay continues to be a source of strength to the Department of Zoology. Advanced students and members of the staff of the University have worked there during the past session for periods amounting in all to about four months, and the work done has included investigations incorporated in a thesis for the M.Sc. Degree, and the collection of marine animals for the Zoological Museum. In 1914 they agreed to continue the arrangement and to rent for a further £3 annually the adjoining large room, previously occupied by an auctioneer, and formerly being the coastguards' rocket apparatus room. In agreeing to the expansion, the Leeds University Finance Committee suggested that any funds required for additional equipment should be raised by private subscription. Walter Garstang was confident that he could acquire the necessary funds. Martha Storm had been willing to sell the premises in 1914, but it was not until 1922 that the buildings were jointly purchased by Leeds and Sheffield for the sum of £220. There were very few permanent facilities at the laboratory, so when the classes travelled over from Leeds and Sheffield they had to bring all the equipment they needed with them and carry it down from the top of Bay Bank. In 1912 the young Lionel (Leo) Walmsley, son of the local artist J. Ulric Walmsley, and later to become a well-known novelist, secured the post of curator-caretaker of the lab at five shillings a week. There were no specified hours attached to the post and this allowed him to continue working as an uncertified assistant teacher at the local school.
Literary references In his autobiography So many loves (1944) dedicated "To Sam", Leo Walmsley describes the laboratory, shore collecting and life with the students and researchers. In the autumn of 1912 S.E. Wilson B.Sc. arrived at the laboratory. A University of Sheffield post-graduate researcher who had recently been appointed Assistant Curator of the Zoological Museum, Sam Wilson was studying a parasitic crustacean (listed by Walmsley as "Spanknotrophus") and its nudibranch host Doto coronata. He became Walmsley's mentor and lifelong friend, encouraging him to study and to write. In Walmsley's words:
They had bought the old Coastguard Station, which forms one of the village ramparts against the sea by the Slipway. They were equipping it with benches and tanks for keeping live marine animals, and wanted someone to act as a sort of curator-caretaker, preferably someone who knew the beaches and would be able to assist in the collection of specimens. I got the job. They could only pay five shillings a week, but ... there were no specified hours... the Leeds professor Walter Garstang ... certainly looked like a real scientist. He was untidy and always wore rough tweeds and heavy boots. He didn't mind wading into pools. And:
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