Spital Beck
Spital Beck is a small watercourse that enters the River Esk in the upper harbour at Whitby, in North Yorkshire, England.[1] The beck has its source to the south-east of Whitby near Stainsacre, in an area which is thought to have been the site of an Iron Age settlement.The area was so named because a local hospital, run by the same monks who inhabited Whitby Abbey, was built near the mouth of the beck.[20] The timber pond in the beck at the east side of Spital Bridge was used to store wood imported from the Baltic states.[25] Because of the tidal system which flows into the beck, it hosts a small saltmarsh ecosystem, the only one of its type on the 100-mile (160 km) stretch of coastline between Middlesbrough and Spurn Head.