Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre is exploring the history of the Herring Girls

Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre is exploring the history of the Herring Girls, who flocked to the town in the late 19th century to work for a pittance packing barrels for salt pickling to be shipped all over the world. In the exhibition, they follow some of the sad stories of girls from Scotland's fishing communities like Margaret Thompson, who died here aged 21 and is remembered with a headstone that stands alone. There are paintings, photographs, newsreels and newspaper features, such as one from the New York Times in 1937, as Sylvia Pankhurst came to Scarborough to paint the girls and investigate their working conditions.