Whitby Museum

Eccentric 19th-century collection of fossils, jet jewellery, ships, and curios in Pannett Park.

Whitby Museum has been run by the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society since 1823 and still has the unreconstructed feel of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities. The collections are an eccentric joy: dinosaur and ichthyosaur fossils from the local Jurassic coast, Captain Cook material, ship models, Whitby jet jewellery, a Roman milestone, and a famous "Hand of Glory" — a real mummified hand once supposedly used by burglars.

The mascot, Clarence the stuffed crocodile, has been in the collection since at least the 1820s. Labels are old, glass cases are tall, and there is a working library upstairs. Charmingly resistant to modernisation. In Pannett Park, a short walk west of the harbour, and a perfect rainy-day visit.

things to do museum
A story
Among the holdings is the so-called Hand of Glory — a mummified human hand once carried by burglars who believed candles made from a hanged man's fingers would render sleeping householders unable to wake. It is the only confirmed example in Britain.