Harrogate Past

Harrogate began as a tiny hamlet in the Royal Forest of Knaresborough and owes its rise to prominence almost entirely to the exploitation of its mineral springs. Doctors recommended their patients to drink the sulphur-laden water and the first English ‘watering place’ distinguished by the name ‘spa’ became a fashionable retreat for the nobility and gentry. In the Season, in addition to the many private carriages of the well-to-do, no less than 19 coaches ran daily from all parts of the land. The numbers arriving to ‘take the cure’ rose from 20,000 in 1848, when the railway came, to 60,000 a year by the end of the century.

The enclosure of the Royal Forest in the 18th century and the gain of 200 acres of open ground, known as the Stray, gave perpetual access to the famous springs and ensured that Harrogate would have space as well as style. The Victorians added many fine buildings to impress their visitors, including the Royal Baths Assembly Room, Opera House and the Kursaal – the name of which was hastily changed to Royal Hall at the outbreak of the First World War. The town enjoyed its social heyday in Edwardian times but, with changes in medical practice, the spa declined.

However, the trains that had boosted visitor numbers in the 19th century also brought better-off commuters from the industrial West Riding, to enjoy its strong cultural life and up-market image. Harrogate re-invented itself as a floral resort and conference centre. The publicity manager in 1953 had the bright idea of twinning the town with Luchon in the French Pyrenees, which was the start of the now widespread town-twinning scheme, and Harrogate became the permanent home of the Great Yorkshire Show.

In this well-researched and very readable book, a well-known local historian provides a chronological account of Harrogate’s past.