It’s no secret that Whitby Jet has quite the history. It’s been a huge part of our town’s heritage with the British gemstone forming over millions and millions of years ago. In fact, Archaeologists have discovered evidence of Whitby Jet as far back as the Bronze age. We know that the Romans, Saxons and Vikings all admired the stone with artefacts found that date back to these times. Although these periods throughout history valued the beauty of Whitby Jet, it was the Victorian era when the demand was huge!
How is Whitby Jet Made?
We’ll have to take you back to the Jurassic Era to explain how Whitby Jet is formed. The gemstone began its life as an Araucaria tree, which is now more known as the Monkey Puzzle or Chilean Pine. A lot of the trees were swept in to the sea becoming saturated with water and falling to the seabed. They became stuck in the sedimentary mud and over a long period of time were buried under layers of dirt. As you can imagine this caused a huge amount of pressure and there was very little oxygen causing for fossilisation to occur and Whitby Jet to form.
Queen Victoria's Influence
It’s the Victorian age where Whitby Jet’s part in history becomes really interesting. After Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria solely wore the British gemstone as a way to mourn her much loved husband. She was a very influential figure with many wanting to copy her look. Travelling to the seaside town couldn’t be easier with the introduction of the train and a love for holidaying by the English coast. The British population took the steam train to Whitby in search of Jet, which as you can imagine increased the demand of the black gem.
It was quite the workload for the craftsmen in Whitby to produce such quantities. So quickly more workshops started to open selling the in demand gemstones. It has been reported that at one point over 200 workshops were dotted around our small town. It’s hard to imagine. To produce enough jewellery and household items many began mining for Whitby Jet even though it was a dangerous role to undertake. It was legal to mine during the Victorian times and it drastically changed the landscape forever. Today, it is forbidden to mine Whitby Jet with everyone (including us) relying on natural erosion to craft their jewellery.
Lots has changed since the 1800s with the workshops also being quite hazardous to work in. They were filled with dust and dangerous practices however, the detail produced was incredible. The reason we know is due to our impressive antique collection that we have restored to look brand new. It’s so good to keep the memory of this era alive through pieces from this period. Even with our new designs, we always nod to the traditional techniques that were used during this time as well as implementing new concepts that have developed since.
