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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Did you know? 

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.

The news that we are all facing extraordinary rises in energy prices, together with the forthcoming reorganisation of local government are but two aspects of the great lie and con trick played on us by decades of politicians and career officers, that bigger is always better.

It is this grotesque fallacy that has led to local people losing control of the services that they originally created, financed and administered, in exchange for services controlled by strangers for whom the screwing of as much profit as possible from their reluctant customers, with as low a service as possible, seems their only purpose.

Let me provide some examples relating to Harrogate, with the reorganisation of local government being a particularly topical issue.

Local government

The liars say that Harrogate has too small a population to be a unitary authority. Of course they say this, as it is in their interests to promote the concept of big authorities, as salaries and payments are invariably higher when applied to responsibility for a larger population as against a smaller one. They will say that the merging of – say – six local authorities will mean one chief executive instead of six, one borough planner instead of six, one treasurer, instead of six, etc. etc. Whereas in truth, the savings come at the dire cost of local people becoming further removed from control over the services for which they are paying.

Harrogate too small to be a unitary authority. Rubbish! Today, the Harrogate district’s population is around 161,000, that of the town being little over 75,000. Yet when Harrogate town had a population of only 26,583, about two thirds smaller than the Harrogate town of today, it was able from the yield of its local rates, to build the Royal Baths, the Royal Hall, a gigantic series of reservoirs and an unequalled water distribution network, to run its own electricity works, to build and run its own schools and pay the staff salaries, to administer its own fire services, run its own public health facilities and many other things. All this was possible because Harrogate had the authority to levy its own council rates (and to keep the greater part of the income) and for Harrogate’s Council to spend the proceeds in ways permitted by Acts of Parliament.

The Royal Hall, previously known as the Kursaal, at height of Edwardian season. Pic: Walker-Neesam archive

Yet today, thanks to the gradual erosion of local democracy, the present North Yorkshire County Council takes the vast majority of every pound paid in council tax by Harrogate residents, with much less going to Harrogate Borough Council. Is it any wonder that our democratically elected Harrogate borough councillors are hamstrung at every turn when they try to provide the services demanded by local residents? The secret of true local democracy has little to do with population sizes, and everything to do with financial control, which must include the power to set local taxation and the power to spend such taxation within the town that supplied it – such powers being determined by Parliamentary authority.

Naturally North Yorkshire’s councillors and career officers will seek to expand their spheres of influence, and to retain and enhance their existing stranglehold on Harrogate – it is absolutely in their interests to do so. But history shows that their ever increasing power to control our lives has been at the cost of local representation and accountability. The latest calamitous “reforms” of local government will further reduce the rights and powers of local people to control their own lives, with Harrogate becoming further prey to the financial leech which is bleeding the town to finance road repairs in Tadcaster, libraries in Skipton, schools in Easingwold, and social services in Selby.

Nevertheless, it remains my hope that one day – maybe in 50 or 100 years time – Harrogate will regain powers to control its own finances, and re-establish democratic control of its affairs by its citizenry.

Gas

When some Harrogate people decided the town should have access to a supply of gas, they obtained an enabling Act of Parliament in 1846, after which a gas works was built at Rattle Crag financed by local private shareholders.

After overcoming initial difficulties with the Improvement Commissioners, the gas company supplied the lighting of the public streets as well as gas for residential and commercial use. The profits produced went back into improving the gas plant and paying the salaries of those employed in the work, many of whom lived at New Park.

After several extensions of its area of supply, Harrogate’s gas company was nationalised by the Gas Act of 1948, which merged some 1,062 privately owned and municipal gas companies into 12 area gas boards.

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The York, Harrogate and District group of gas companies had already merged on 1 January 1944, comprising Harrogate, York, Malton and Easingwold, which were joined by the Yeadon, Guisley, and Otley companies on 1 October 1946. This arrangement, however, barely survived for two years, until the 1948 Gas Act changed everything.

With every enlargement, control of the manufacture, distribution and pricing of gas passed further away from the people who had created the company, and for whom its products were intended, to huge, impersonal and uncaring conglomerates.

This process has continued to this day, resulting in the crazy situation that Harrogate’s gas customers now have absolutely no control over the gas they use nor the rate at which it is priced. What would those Victorian founders have said on hearing that we are to some extent reliant on Russia for the continuance of our gas supplies?

Electricity

Electricity works opening ceremony in 1897. Pic: Walker-Neesam archive

In order to provide the people of Harrogate with an alternative to gas, Harrogate Corporation’s elected representatives built a Municipal Electricity Undertaking near to the site of the present Hydro, which opened in 1897.

The people’s democratically elected councillors regulated the supply and pricing of electricity with regard to the local situation, so that when in 1933, at the height of the terrible depression, many were experiencing economic hardship, the council reduced the unit cost of electricity from one penny to three-farthings.

When war came in 1939, Harrogate’s Electricity Undertaking was supplying 20,670 consumers, and selling 26,815,046 units of power, with a gross income of £178,857.

By the end of the year to March 1945, those figures had increased to 21,977 consumers, selling 39,254,676 units of power, with a gross income of £242,412 – an incredible achievement given the conditions of war time operation.

But in 1948, and by order of the government’s Electricity Act of 1947, Harrogate’s Electricity Undertaking was transferred to the enormous new British Electricity Board and thus removed from the town a valuable asset which had hitherto been controlled by local people.

Water

Turning on the reservoir water. Pic: Walker-Neesam archive

Just the same thing as described above applies to water. When a group of local people raised money to establish the Harrogate Water Company, following a Parliamentary Act of 1846, the townspeople supported the project, and the little company grew as the town grew.

In 1897, an Act of Parliament empowered Harrogate Corporation to buy out the private water company, which was then run purely for the benefit of the townspeople. Under the inspirational leadership of Alderman Charles Fortune, the corporation undertook a massive programme of reservoir and distribution construction, which ensured Harrogate had an adequate supply of water for the next 50 years.

Harrogate’s municipal water undertaking was one of the jewels in Harrogate’s crown until the 1945 Water Act, which paved the way for the creation of the huge Claro Water Board in 1958/9, which covered an area of 420 square miles, between one fifth and one sixth of the area of the West Riding of Yorkshire, with a population of 119,000. On such a scale, it was inevitable that the concern would no longer be run purely in the interests of the people of Harrogate, nor would its profits be returned to the local economy.

Malcolm Neesam, Harrogate-based historian

Keeping in mind the importance of a vision for Harrogate’s future, the Stray Ferret asked Malcolm Neesam to come up with suggestions for making Harrogate more attractive to visitors and residents alike, regardless of cost or planning requirements. This is the third of three articles. Malcolm fully understands that his “visions” may not appeal to everyone, and he submits them as purely private dreams.

Vision 7: Royal Baths

With my unlimited budget and full planning control, my next vision involves the Royal Baths, and let me explain immediately that contrary to what some might guess, my vision does not consist of restoring the building as a working Spa, as I am not convinced the market for such an amenity exists in Harrogate today outside small, private luxury hotels.

The Royal Baths should remain at the heart of Harrogate’s leisure and entertainment area.

Instead, I see the Royal Baths building as being at the heart of Harrogate’s leisure and entertainment area, and consequently, I would leave the bars and restaurants in the 1897 building intact. As for the former Lounge Hall, I would restore this as Harrogate’s ‘town’s hall’, or an assembly space for use by local groups, Mayor makings, school prize days, fashion shows, or simply as a place of assembly with refreshments still being available, but on a far reduced scale to the present situation.

It was, in my opinion, very wrong of Harrogate Borough Council to have disposed of the lease of this complex for such a long period when the place was built using public money for the whole community. But let that pass, as the centre-piece of my vision for the Royal Baths is outside the former Lounge Hall.

When the council allowed the block of flats known as “Royal Baths 2” to be built, it ensured it had an underground car park, yet for the adjoining site between the former Fountain Court and the road at Montpellier Gardens, it approved its conversion into a surface car park! This was a gross waste of one of the most valuable building sites in Harrogate. And to add to the bad decision, it allowed the lovely Fountain Court to be torn down in an act that provided for a mere nine cars. I would construct an underground car park here, and restore the Fountain Court, but giving it a glazed roof, so that it could be used throughout the year.

Fountain Court 2001: Walker-Neesam Archive

But my most ambitious work would be between the restored Fountain Court and Montpellier Gardens, where on the site of the long demolished New Montpellier Pump Room I would build a four-storeyed replica of an old Harrogate coaching inn, complete with galleried courtyard, which would be filled with whatever catering, accommodation and entertainment facilities the market was judged to require. It would need to be attractive and picturesque, to draw as many visitors as possible, and would be a major enhancement for the Montpellier and Royal Parade Quarters.

Vision 8: Prospect Square

The large urban space bounded by Cambridge and Prospect Crescents, St. Peter’s Church, the Yorkshire Hotel, and – across the busy road – the old Pier Head, certainly has as good a claim as any to be regarded as the heart of Harrogate.

Pier head lavatories and terrace: Pic: Walker-Neesam Archive

As its last makeover came from the experimental pedestrian zones of the 1970s and 1980s, with little subsequent change, it makes a good candidate for the last of my series of visions for the future.

The first thing I would do, if I had unlimited funding and full planning control, would be to re-open the suites of underground lavatories at what is facetiously called Pier Head, which the council built on the Stray after the passing of the 1893 Harrogate Corporation Act. The location, opposite the junction of Prospect Place, James Street, Cambridge Street, Parliament Street and Montpellier Hill was perhaps the best site in the town for such an amenity. As this location was within 75 yards of Hopewell House (now Bettys) the 1893 Act required that it be built underground.

To comply with this requirement, the corporation removed soil from the crown of Montpellier Hill, built the lavatories, and covered them with the excavated soil, thus giving the impression of subterranean construction. Work does not seem to have begun until 1896, and progressed slowly, in that the brick structure was not ready to receive its disguising “ornamental rockery” until January 1897, when the council discussed tenders. On June 2, an advertisement appeared for male and female applicants who would be required to work from 9.00am to 9.00pm each day, including Sundays, at a wage of twenty shillings a week for the man and fifteen shillings a week for the woman.

These wonderfully constructed public lavatories remained in use for nearly a century, until the council, still reeling from the lamentable mishandling of the Conference Centre affair, took the frankly stupid decision to close them to “save money”. The power and water were disconnected, and the entrances filled in with soil. I am sure that 95% of the present council has no idea they are there. Given the wonderfully convenient location of the Pier Head lavatories, it would be sensible to restore and properly staff them, and this would be my first goal for this location.

Prospect Square

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For the rest, I would close the short length of road in front of Cambridge Crescent, to link the central war memorial to the Crescent, and I would pay for a facsimile of Samson Fox’s sensational Water Gas candelabra. This was built by Fox as a demonstration piece for his water gas plant. It consisted of a “gigantic lamp of four tiers of branches, each branch have 12 double branch light, making a total of 48 brilliant lights”.

The Water Gas experiment was a great success, with Parliament Street lit to great effect, so much so that by autumn, the press reported visitors were coming from far and wide to see how the Mayor of Harrogate “had bottled the sun”. Despite the overwhelming brilliance of the Fox Water Gas candelabra, its energy consumption was enormous, so its modern use would have to be minimal. I would also floodlight the whole of Prospect Square and the War Memorial as – hopefully – an attraction for residents and visitors alike.