View of Grosmont Church, School and Whitby Railway Bridge from the Lime Kilns, 1848 (hand...

Artist: John Cooke Bourne (1814-1896) ‘Published in Aid of the Fund for Endowing Grosmont Church, on stone by J. C. Bourne, published 1st January 1848 by R. Sunter, York, C. F. Cheffins Lithog. London.' The Whitby and Pickering Railway ((W&P) founded in 1832 and defunct by 1845) was built to halt the gradual decline of the port of Whitby on the east coast of England. Its basic industries of whaling and shipbuilding had been in decline and it was believed that opening transport links inland would help regenerate the town and port. Henry Belcher, a solicitor from Whitby, was an investor in the Whitby Stone Company and a shareholder in the Tunnel Inn in Grosmont. He was also the man behind the Whitby to Pickering Railway. He wrote two booklets: 'The ancient Priory of Grosmont' and 'The Scenery of the Whitby and Pickering Railway'. The proceeds from booklet sales funded the new church, dedicated to St Matthew. In 1839 Belcher organised a two-day church fundraising bazaar in Grosmont and laid on special trains to carry visitors to the bazaar, thought to have been the first passenger excursion train services in the world. The South Cleveland Iron Works, who had a smelter at Grosmont, some 10 km south of Whitby, exported Iron ore and iron products through Whitby along the W&P.