Harrogate: History and Guide

This is the first comprehensive history of Harrogate to encompass both its pre-Conquest origins and the most recent development. The community began as an Anglo-Norse settlement and later became part of the Royal Forest of Knaresborough. However, in 1571 William Slingsby discovered the Tewit Well and it was not long before the growing town became known as Spadacrene Anglica - the English Spa. For the last 400 years the development of Harrogate has been inextricably linked to its wells and the changing fashions of ‘taking the waters’. From the seventeenth century until after the First World War, the spa business prospered. Countless new public baths, wells and associated halls and accommodation were constructed, often by bodies which ensured that the waters would remain a public amenity in the future. Every week the local newspapers published lists of prominent visitors and it was not uncommon to see the Prime Minister or members of the royal family relaxing at the resort. As well as relating the decline of the spa business during the twentieth century this invauable account also chronicles and developments of recent decades, including the revival in the town’s fortunes brought by the conference trade. It also related the often unique relationship between the town and the Duchy of Lancaster, to whom the book is dedicated.