Heritage Sea Wall Trail in Scarborough opened by playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn

Located on the sea wall around Marine Drive, the trail is a series of etched granite storyboards which tell the story of the town’s history, designed by pupils from Scarborough’s schools

The idea for the project came from the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre in 2019, and they were awarded £40,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund at the start of 2022.

The Maritime Heritage Centre worked in partnership with the Archaeological and Historical Society and the Scarborough & District Civic Society to deliver the project and permission to use the sea wall was granted by Scarborough Borough Council.

Project manager Huw Roberts, a Trustee of the Maritime Heritage Centre, said: “Scarborough possibly has the most colourful and varied history of any British town of comparable size, but its heritage is not widely known, especially by the vast majority of the town’s visitors.

“Whatever was happening in history, ancient or modern, Scarborough has been up there making the news. We wanted to tell that story.”

Covid hit just as the public consultation was about to start, so organisers looked for another way to enable people to engage.

Mr Roberts said: “We went online to ask the people of Scarborough to help us to design the project and they responded wonderfully.

“We also asked local schools to engage with us on the design of the project and help was given by four of these.”

Each of the 29 storyboards carries a graphic designed by pupils from Gladstone Road and Friarage primary schools, Scalby School and Scarborough Sixth Form College.

The project is thought to be unique and it is the partnership’s hope that it will attract more visitors and help the town’s economy to recover after the pandemic.

Neither is the project finished yet. The next step is to gather ‘Scarborough Memories’, stories from Scarborough’s past, perhaps passed down the generations in local families.

The project will once again reach out to local schools for help in achieving this.

The Sea Wall Trail will be supported by an app which will include an audio element for those who are sight impaired as well as providing more information relating to each storyboard.