, Whitby · Whitby Jet specialists, since 1979
Whitby Jet specialists · since 1979 · family run, second generation 01947 821 201 · 7 Sandgate, Whitby YO22 4DB
C W Sellors Whitby · Sandgate · est. 1979
7 Sandgate · Whitby · since 1979 · Whitby Jet since 1999

Whitby Jet, since 1979.

C W Sellors was founded in 1979 by Christopher William Sellors, at twenty-one, in his parents\u2019 Derbyshire garage. In 1999 the family acquired W Hamond, The Original Whitby Jet Shop, at the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps. Today the business is run by Chris\u2019s daughter Rebecca Sellors, Managing Director. Whitby Jet on the counter at 7 Sandgate, the Derbyshire workshop a phone call away.

Book a private viewing On Whitby Jet
Since 1979
Founded by Chris Sellors at twenty-one
27 years
On Whitby Jet, since 1999
4.4 ★
149 Trustpilot reviews at the Whitby boutique
Family run
Rebecca Sellors, second generation
7 Sandgate · Whitby Jet on the counter

The Yorkshire pantile shopfront, two minutes from the harbour.

Memento Vivere · Whitby, North Yorkshire
1979
Chris Sellors founds the business, at twenty-one
1999
Acquires W Hamond, founded 1860, at the foot of the Abbey Steps
2 gens
Chris to Rebecca Sellors, Managing Director
186m
Years, the age of the fossil-wood seam at the cliff face
What is on the counter

Four lines of work. One family bench. Forty-seven years of practice.

Whitby Jet

The fossil-wood gemstone the Sellors family have worked since 1999.

Bracelets, brooches, pendants, lockets, cuff-links, mourning pieces and a contemporary line. Every piece carved from licensed seam-stone gathered between Robin Hood’s Bay and Boulby, lathe-turned at the Derbyshire workshop, then hand-polished to the mirror-like finish that no other jet in the world can match. The family acquired W Hamond, The Original Whitby Jet Shop (founded 1860), at the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps in 1999, with one stated intent: to bring worldwide attention to the history, heritage and beauty of Whitby Jet.

British gemstones

Blue John from Castleton. Fluorite, serpentine, the rest of the British seam.

Chris Sellors’ original 1985 boutique was the Blue John Gallery, Bakewell. The family remain one of the few UK jewellers cutting and setting Derbyshire Blue John (a banded purple fluorite mined only at the Castleton seam, the single place on earth it occurs) and pair it with Whitby Jet on the same bench. Cumbrian fluorite, Cornish serpentine, and limited-stock Scottish granite pieces sit on the same counter.

Bespoke & bridal

Designed in CAD, cast in Derbyshire, fitted in Whitby.

The Ashbourne workshop houses the family’s in-house CAD designers and goldsmiths. Engagement and wedding bands from sketch, heirloom remodel, signet rings, monogrammed pieces. Every commission designed in CAD, signed off in person, cast on site. Lifetime guarantee on workmanship. The Whitby boutique handles fittings, sizing and consultations face to face, with the workshop a phone call away during the bench day.

Watches

Tudor, IWC, TAG Heuer, Breitling, Chopard, Hamilton.

Authorised dealer status across the watch portfolio. New pieces stocked in depth across the Whitby and Derbyshire boutiques. Pre-owned watches authenticated and serviced in-house at Ashbourne before resale; servicing on new pieces handled through each brand’s UK service centre. Strap and bracelet adjustment fitted in Whitby across the counter.

From the workshop, recently

Three pieces. Three different weeks at the bench.

Commission a piece
Victorian mourning brooch
Faceted Whitby Jet cabochon · gilt-leaf oval mount · mid-Victorian remount on the bench
Blue John signet
Castleton Blue John oval cabochon · eighteen-carat gold claw setting · cast in Ashbourne
Contemporary jet pendant
Teardrop Whitby Jet · fine silver chain and bail · new commission, twenty-twenty-six
Heritage · 1860 · 1861 · 1979 · today

Queen Victoria\u2019s mourning, Whitby\u2019s industry, the Sellors family\u2019s inheritance.

In 1861, Prince Albert died and Queen Victoria took to Whitby Jet for the rest of her life. The Royal Court mandated jet as the only jewellery permitted in mourning. By 1871 over a thousand craftsmen worked the material in Whitby, in cottage workshops on Sandgate and Church Street, half a mile from the harbour, on the same cobbles the boutique sits on today. The trade quietened in the twentieth century. In 1999, Chris Sellors acquired W Hamond, The Original Whitby Jet Shop founded in 1860, at the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps, with one mission: to bring the heritage back to the world.

Chris Sellors’ stated mission, when he took on W Hamond in 1999, was to bring worldwide attention to the history, heritage and beauty of Whitby Jet.
Professional Jeweller, in memoriam · 2023
The Museum of Whitby Jet
Opened by the Sellors family in 2018

A small museum a short walk from the boutique, telling the 186-million-year story of the fossil-wood seam alongside the trade that still works it. Free to visit when the boutique is open.

  1. 1860
    W Hamond opens at the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps in Whitby. The Original Whitby Jet Shop, and the inheritance the Sellors family later acquire.
  2. 1861
    Prince Albert dies. Queen Victoria takes to Whitby Jet for the rest of her life and the Royal Court mandates jet as the only jewellery permitted during court mourning.
  3. 1871
    Over a thousand craftsmen are working jet in Whitby. Cottage workshops fill Sandgate and Church Street, half a mile from the harbour, on the same cobbles where the boutique sits today.
  4. 1979
    Christopher William Sellors, aged twenty-one, founds C W Sellors in his parents’ garage in Derbyshire while completing his City & Guilds silversmith qualification at Chesterfield College.
  5. 1985
    The first boutique, the Blue John Gallery, opens in Bakewell. Derbyshire Blue John becomes a house specialism alongside fine jewellery and watches.
  6. 1999
    Chris Sellors acquires W Hamond, The Original Whitby Jet Shop, at the foot of the Abbey Steps. The Sellors family’s Whitby chapter, and the Whitby Jet specialism, begins.
  7. 2018
    The Museum of Whitby Jet opens, founded by the Sellors family, to set the material’s 186-million-year story alongside the trade that still works it.
  8. 2023
    Christopher William Sellors passes away on 4 September. His daughter Rebecca and the second generation continue in their roles.
  9. Today
    Rebecca Sellors, Managing Director. The C W Sellors family continues at 7 Sandgate, Whitby, with the Derbyshire workshop and the Whitby Jet bench-line unbroken.
The seam · Robin Hood\u2019s Bay to Boulby
Two miles of shale cliff. The only place in the world where this stone occurs.
Specialism · on Whitby Jet

Three details a non-expert would not think to ask about.

Whitby Jet is the work the family is uncommonly careful with. The material is fossilised wood from the prehistoric Monkey Puzzle tree, the only place on earth it occurs is the Yorkshire shale cliffs between Robin Hood\u2019s Bay and Boulby, and the bench techniques are the same ones the Whitby craftsmen used in 1871. Three things most non-experts will not know:

  • The mirror polish is unique. Whitby Jet takes a polish no other jet in the world (Spanish, French, Polish) can match, owing to a higher carbon content and the unique Yorkshire shale compression. Hold a Whitby piece next to a Spanish-jet imitation and the difference is immediate.
  • It is exceptionally light. A full Victorian mourning collar that looks like cast iron weighs less than a paperback book. That is the reason Victorian widows could wear it through hours of standing at funerals.
  • The bench techniques are unchanged since 1871. Lathe-turning the rough on a foot-treadle wheel, hand-filing the facets with jeweller\u2019s needle files, polishing with rotten-stone. The Derbyshire workshop bench does it the way Whitby did it in the 1870s.
From the Trustpilot Whitby-location reviews

Four-point-four stars over a hundred and forty-nine reviews. Three customers, three weeks.

They knew the difference between real Whitby Jet and the imitation pieces being sold further up Church Street and walked me through it patiently. Walked out with a brooch I knew was real.
L. Hodgson · Whitby Jet brooch
I came in wanting a Blue John pendant and left with a complete idea for an engagement ring that combined Blue John with diamonds. They knew the workshop was on site and the design felt my own.
M. Walker · Engagement ring fitting
Authorised dealer means you get the warranty papers properly. The bracelet adjustment was done while I waited and the strap-pin tool work was clean.
P. Reynolds · Tudor watch
Start a conversation

Tell us what you have in mind. We will reply from sandgate@cwsellors.com the next working day.

Whether it is a Whitby Jet piece you are curious about, a Victorian mourning brooch you would like repaired, a Blue John signet or a bespoke bridal commission, send us the details below. A photograph of the piece, if you have one, is the single most useful thing you can include.

Or call the boutique
Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00. Sunday 10:00 to 16:00 (Whitby seasonal close).

A photograph of the piece, if you have one, is the single most useful thing you can include. Attach it to the reply once we are in email.

Visiting the Whitby boutique

Seven Sandgate. Two minutes from the swing bridge, four minutes from the foot of the Abbey Steps.

The boutique
7 Sandgate
Whitby YO22 4DB
  • • Two minutes from the Whitby swing bridge.
  • • Four minutes from the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps.
  • • Across the cobbles from the harbour fish quay.
  • • In the same pantile terrace as Robinsons Whitby Jet (number six).
  • • A short cobbled walk from W Hamond, the family\u2019s Church Street flagship.
01947 821 201
Hours
  • Mon 10:00 to 17:00
  • Tue 10:00 to 17:00
  • Wed 10:00 to 17:00
  • Thu 10:00 to 17:00
  • Fri 10:00 to 17:00
  • Sat 10:00 to 17:00
  • Sun 10:00 to 16:00 · Whitby seasonal close

Private viewings outside hours by appointment for bespoke bridal and Whitby Jet remount consultations. The Ashbourne workshop is a phone call away on the bench day.

7 Sandgate, Whitby YO22 4DB. Two minutes from the swing bridge, opposite the harbour fish quay. Open in Google Maps ↗
Questions we hear most

Five things customers ask first.

01 Is the Whitby Jet on this counter the real material, or one of the imitations sold elsewhere?

Every piece labelled Whitby Jet in this boutique is carved from licensed seam-stone gathered along the Yorkshire coast between Robin Hood’s Bay and Boulby, the only two-mile stretch in the world where the material occurs. Spanish jet, French jet, and the glass and resin imitations sold in seaside-tat shops do not take the same polish, do not warm in the hand the same way, and do not carry the 186-million-year fossil-wood history. We will show you the difference across the counter. The mirror-polish finish is the giveaway, and the only one that matters.

02 Where does the jet come from now, and is it still mined?

Mining has been prohibited along the Whitby coast since the Victorian era. Modern Whitby Jet is gathered after winter storms wash seam-stone from the cliff face onto the beach, by licensed seafarers, in pieces small enough to carry by hand. Larger pieces are bought from estate clearances of Victorian collections. The family’s lapidaries at the Derbyshire workshop work the rough on a foot-treadle lathe, hand-file the facets, and polish with rotten-stone, exactly as the Whitby craftsmen did in the 1870s.

03 I have a Victorian mourning piece from my grandmother. Can you repair it or remount it?

Yes. The Derbyshire workshop carries hand-cut Victorian-era jet specifically for repair work. We can re-bezel a loose stone, replace a missing element, re-string a broken collar, or convert an inherited brooch into a pendant. Each piece is assessed on the bench first, and we will tell you when a repair is sympathetic and when it would compromise the original. Mourning collars, lockets carrying memorial photographs or hair, and gilt-mounted brooches are particularly common; we do not send any of this work away.

04 Are you connected to W Hamond, the Whitby Jet shop on Church Street?

Yes. Chris Sellors acquired W Hamond, The Original Whitby Jet Shop founded in 1860, in 1999. W Hamond remains the family’s flagship Whitby Jet name, at the foot of the 199 Abbey Steps. The C W Sellors boutique here at 7 Sandgate sits within the wider family business and shares the same Derbyshire workshop, the same bench, and the same Whitby Jet seam-stone.

05 How do I look after a Whitby Jet piece so it keeps its polish?

Whitby Jet is harder than people assume and softer than they fear. Avoid steam-cleaning, ultrasonic cleaners, and harsh chemical polishes; these dry out the surface oils that give jet its lustre. Wipe gently with a soft chamois cloth. If the polish dulls over a decade, bring the piece back and we will re-polish it on the lathe in an hour. Store separately from harder stones (diamond, sapphire, ruby) to avoid surface scratches.