A street party in 1945

The borough court continued to function on VE Day, the main business being concerned with granting licences for dancing and extensions for liquor and music, all essential aspects of the coming celebrations on the following Sunday, which at the request of the King, would be a day of national thanksgiving and prayer.

A service was planned at St. Peter’s Church attended by the Mayor and full Corporation, followed by a brief ceremony at the War Memorial in remembrance of the fallen.

In the afternoon, a grand parade was to occur on West Park, when participants would include American military personnel, units of the Home Guard and Civil Defence, representatives from the British Legion, St. John Ambulance Brigade, the Scouts and the Guides. Flag bearing youth groups present included the Sea Cadets, Army Cadet Corps, Air Training Corps, Girls Training Corps, Boys Brigade, and the Civil Defence Messengers.

Neighbours and friends celebrating

After a short open air service, the parade marched via West Park and Parliament Street to the Municipal Officers in Crescent Gardens, where the Mayor took the salute from a specially constructed platform.

The Mayor’s rousing speech reminded the townspeople of the ordeal they had undergone, and that until Japan had been overcome, the resolve of the people must be continued. He ended his speech with the sincere thanks of the entire Corporation for what the townspeople had achieved through their great sacrifice.

Memorable though the Peace Parade had been, for some of Harrogate’s residents, their most exuberant celebrations were reserved for the town’s many street parties, which involved whole communities.

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This article is written for The Stray Ferret by celebrated Harrogate historian, Malcolm Neesam. 

It was in 1997 that the Duchy of Lancaster asked my help in tracing some of their most important missing archives relating to Harrogate and the former Royal Forest of Knaresborough. At one time, all of these records were stored at Knaresborough Castle, but during the Civil War, the records were removed and stored in adjacent buildings until they passed into the hands of the Understeward for the Royal Forest, Samuel Powell, when they were filed in the former old School House, next to the Castle, and where for many years the firm of Powell, Eddison, Freeman and Wilks had their offices.

These archives consisted of the records of the Royal Forest of Knaresborough, mostly in the form of rolls of court proceedings recorded on vellum or parchment. They ran from earliest times through to the reign of Charles 1^st, and the Civil War, as well as following centuries. In 1925, a change in the law caused the Duchy to remove the pre-Charles 1^st archives to London, where they were deposited in the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. The post civil war material, however, remained with the Understeward in Knaresborough, where it was kept in the loft above Powell Eddison’s office. Over the decades, the Duchy archives were mixed with the records of the firm, and gradually became hidden under the piles of records that such an eminent firm as Powell Eddison’s inevitably created.

The Duchy material consisted of wills, land and property transfers, income from Duchy holdings, including farms, indentures for various services and agreements, letter books, surveys of land and property, maps, and various correspondence about grants and property. It was a treasure trove of life in the Royal Forest and greater Honour of Knaresborough. As such, it was of paramount interest to the Duchy to have access to it for the running of their modern business, which still involved them with considerable property holdings in the locality. Thus it was that armed with the Duchy’s request, and with the full permission of Powell Eddison, I climbed the ladders that led to a trap door opening into the loft of the former Old School House.

I was immediately faced with clean parcels of the firms own material, but beyond them on a series or wooden racks were many very much older parcels and volumes, the first one of which was a volume of Court records from 1623! Bingo! Next, I picked up a tube containing the hand-drawn proposals for the Great Award of 1778, which laid out the Stray. Then, a huge volume with the 1830 Scriven and Scotton enclosures. This was indeed the Duchy’s missing material, which was subsequently sorted from the material belonging to the firm, and  eventually removed to the Duchy Office in London before being mostly deposited in the new National Archives at Kew, mostly under classes D.30 and D.31.

I have in my life had only one “Indiana Jones” moment, and that occasion when I found the Duchy Archive was that moment, and for me, the find was infinitely more precious that all the golden relics or artefacts in the world, as it was lost knowledge, refound.

Malcolm Neesam.

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The Stray Ferret has worked with Malcolm Neesam to produce two fantastic history audio tours of Harrogate.  Both last about an hour and are easy to do. The first will take you back to the golden age of Harrogate’s Victorian Spa days, the second will take you through the heart of the shopping district, stopping to learn about historic buildings as you go.  To take a look click here. 

Malcolm has also recently published a second major history of Harrogate. “Wells and Swells” covers the town’s Victorian heyday from 1842-1923. To find out more and how you can order a copy, click here.

This article is written for The Stray Ferret by celebrated Harrogate historian, Malcolm Neesam.  

The recent installation of a York history timeline into paving in the vicinity of Clifford’s Tower appears to be causing great public interest. These timelines usually consist of a chronologically arranged list of events relating to the locality where the timeline is set, and can be adjusted to fill the amount of space available.

The best timelines consist of a bold line set into a pavement from which short entries are placed at right angles. Both the line and the entries can be made of stone, slate, tile or plastic, on to which the information is engraved. Should a suitable length of pavement not be available, the timeline can be set into a wall or put on line.

With the various proposals for alterations to the areas covered by the “Gateway” and other local projects, now is as good a time as any to consider a Harrogate History timeline for which several locations present themselves. The pavement from the entrance to the Railway Station, across Station Square and down James Street is one attractive possibility. So is the Elgar Walk from Valley Gardens entrance as far as the New Magnesia Well Cafe.

A handsome curved timeline could be inserted to the pavements around the War Memorial, to include Prospect and Cambridge Crescents. But if a dead straight line is preferred, how about Prospect Place from Victoria Avenue to the War Memorial?                            

Typical entries could include: “1571 William Slingsby discovers mineral qualities of the Tewit Well”; or, “2023 Council abolished as Harrogate merges with North Yorkshire”. Thus could the whole of Harrogate’s history be made clearly and easily accessible to the general public, and it is reasonable to assume that sponsorship could be found for such a high-profile undertaking.

In my opinion, a Harrogate History timeline would be a marvellous project. It could provide residents and visitors alike with an interesting and free attraction, the making of which might involve all the local schools. Harrogate has only one local museum, which despite the best efforts of the devoted staff, lacks the Council input to make it the equal of the Mercer Gallery, or indeed the three Ripon Museums, which are run by Trusts. A timeline would help focus attention on Harrogate’s past. Our Council really should give more attention to the town’s heritage.

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Recent stormy weather has prompted celebrated Harrogate Historian Malcolm Neesam to look through his records at some of the great storms of the past, several of which were described by historian William Grainge:

The winter of 1799 was one of the worst ever recorded in northern Europe. One local victim was a Mr Swires, who, on February 8, set out on horseback to ride to Skipton. A terrific snow storm set in towards evening, and after stopping to dine at an inn on Hopper Lane,  he resumed his journey, despite the entreaties of the landlord. Alas, he never reached his destination, but three weeks later, as the snow melted, he was found standing upright with his arm around a gatepost, evidently trying to reach Redshaw Hall.

There was very odd weather in 1826, when Yorkshire experienced the severest frosts and biggest snow drifts remembered by any one alive.  In the summer the heat was equally uncommon and intense, and thunder storms were of great fury and of frequent occurrence.  Several agricultural workers were killed by enormous hailstones, and on June 28, the thermometer was at 85° on Saturday and Sunday in the shade, and in the sun at 124°.  Such was the drought and sultriness of the weather, that even in the midst of the hay harvest, prayers were offered up in the churches and other places of worship for rain.  The following month saw devastating fires on the moors, with Ilkley Moor losing  500 acres.

In 1839, the most terrific storm of wind known in England during the nineteenth century passed across the country on January 7.  Liverpool was the heaviest sufferer where no less than 116 lives were lost; and many ships were wrecked, swamped or cast ashore, and many buildings reduced to ruins.  Leeds also suffered very heavily, especially its churches, and manufactories; the towers and spires of the former and the tall chimneys of the latter falling before the blast.  In short no town, no village, and scarcely a single homestead which stood in its track, escaped without some marks of its fury.  Haystacks and cornstacks were overturned, torn to pieces and scattered at random all over the country.  Trees which had stood the storms of centuries crashed to the ground, and the trees in artificial plantations on high ground were literally prostrated by thousands.

Harrogate, considering its exposed situation, did not suffer as much as might have been expected; a few of its finest trees were blown down, chimneys toppled over; and slates from the roofs of houses scattered in great profusion.  No lives were lost, but one escape was little less than miraculous – a large stone chimney on the west side of the Swan Hotel was blown down, crashed through the roof making a hole nine feet square; two of the daughters of Mr Jonathan Shutt, the proprietor were sleeping in a bed directly beneath it, one side of the bedstead was completely broken down and the whole of it, and its occupants covered with the rubbish; but the broken spars and timber had fallen in such a manner that the young ladies were protected from the direct impact of the falling mass, escaped comparatively unhurt, one of them only receiving a slight scratch on the cheek. Some large elms which grew in a field south of the Dragon Hotel were blown down, and out of the trunk of one of them were formed the first seats for the use of visitors that were placed on Harrogate Stray.

A severe storm shook the locality on the afternoon of June 3 1858, when the Bramhope Tunnel on the North Eastern Railway gave way at the Leeds end, and the water rushed through in a perfect torrent, and with tremendous noise.  A train proceeding through the tunnel at about six o’clock in the evening was met by the current, and forced to put back; this was effected very slowly, the train being in the tunnel more than an hour.  On its re-arrival at the north end, the accumulation of rubbish had been made so great, that the passengers had to leave the carriages, and walk back to Arthington.  They were subsequently sent round by York, and reached Leeds about midnight.

The author recalls the great gale of 1962, when on Monday 12 February, hundred mile an hour winds lashed Nidderdale, causing a fearful amount of damage. In Harrogate, there were town-wide powercuts, disruption to the railways, and the loss of no less than 800 trees, four lamp columns, and massive destruction at the Harlow Hill nurseries. Many roofs were torn away, and dozens of town centre shops lost their windows. At Knaresborough, the war memorial was partly blown down, and the Town Hall bell tower came crashing through the roof.

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Did you know? 

The Stray Ferret and the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) have worked with Malcolm Neesam to produce two fantastic history audio tours of Harrogate.  Both last about an hour and are easy to do. The first will take you back to the golden age of Harrogate’s Victorian Spa days, the second will take you through the heart of the shopping district, stopping to learn about historic buildings as you go.  To take a look click here. 

Malcolm Neesam

This history is written for The Stray Ferret by celebrated Harrogate historian, Malcolm Neesam.  

The first hospital for the people of Harrogate, as distinct from the Bath Hospital in Cornwall Road, was opened in 1870 in three cottages in Tower Street after an appeal by the Vicar of old St. Mary’s Church.

Placed under the supervision of Dr. Loy, patients paid from three shillings to seven and six a week, depending on their means.

Within a space of only two years, the new “Cottage Hospital” was found to be too small, so its governors investigated some property on the opposite side of Tower Street that belonged to a Mr. Hudson, which they purchased for £550, and after refitting, the hospital moved into these new premises in 1873.

The numbers of patients dealt with at the Cottage Hospital increased throughout the decade. During the half year between 13th September 1870 to 14th March 1871, 25 patients were admitted as bed cases and 63 as out patients. During the year 1877-8, the annual total numbered 66 bed cases and 213 out patients.

The former Home Guard club and potential mosque.

In June 1878 the highly esteemed Dr. Loy died. His successor was a Mr. Hartley, who did not remain in position for very long. He was succeeded in 1879 by Dr. Neville Williams as the institution’s medical officer. By the end of the decade, patient numbers had increased to 75 bed cases and 292 out patients.

Charge of the Light Brigade

Perhaps the Cottage Hospital’s most famous patient was Sergeant-Major Robert Johnston, who had participated in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, consequently receiving the Crimean medal, which later included clasps for his service at the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman.

In all, Sergeant-Major Johnston served his country for 22 years, 336 days, during which time his health deteriorated, which was probably why he came to the celebrated health resort of Harrogate.

When Sergeant-Major Johnston died at the Cottage Hospital on 28th November 1882, his funeral was attended by an estimated 20,000 people at a time when Harrogate’s population was around 12,000. He is buried in Grove Road cemetery.

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The following year, the hospital moved into new, purpose-built premises that now contain St. Peter’s School.

The Masons move in

In December 1883, the press reported that the old hospital premises had been purchased by John Richardson and Moses Perkin on behalf of the Harrogate and Claro Lodge of Freemasons, who paid £560 for the building.

They subsequently doubled the size of the building, adding to the older Tower Street section, which dates from the 1840s, the wing that now stands next to St. Peter’s School.

The Masons remained there until moving into their new Station Avenue building in 1931. A little later, the building at the corner of Tower Street and Belford Road was occupied by the Home Guard Club.

Home Guard members would play snooker at the club.

Today, the building presents a somewhat forlorn appearance to the passer-by, as its windows have been covered, the walls are badly stained, much of the external decoration has vanished, and pigeons have left unmistakable signs of their presence.

I was therefore not surprised to see an application to convert the building. I may be alone in this, but I would be sorry to lose this piece of Harrogate’s medical history, particularly in view of its connection with our Charge of the Light Brigade resident, if demolition occurs.

The building, even in its present condition, is an original feature of an especially delightful Victorian townscape, which if restored — assuming restoration is possible — would enhance, rather than diminish, the whole locality.