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21
Jul
Volunteers begin telling The Harrogate Story from renovated church
An exhibition that explains how and why Harrogate developed into the town it is today has opened in a church saved by volunteers from terminal decline.
The Harrogate Story opened to the public this morning in West Park United Reformed Church, at the Stray end of Victoria Avenue, following a successful preview week.
It recounts the town’s history through text and images drawn from the work of the late Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam, and is compiled by historian Dr Paul Jennings, writer and historian Rebecca Evans and Walker/Neesam Archive custodian Simon Kent.
The text and images are drawn from the work of the late Malcolm Neesam.
It starts with Harrogate’s origins as a collection of medieval hamlets and traces the town’s development through its spa heyday and beyond.
Catherine Wright, one of the volunteers who helped bring the project to life, told the Stray Ferret:
The idea is to signpost people to things and places of interest in the town. So people might find out here about the Royal Baths and then they’ll go and take a look, or they’ll read about the Valley Gardens, and then go for a walk around them.
But this is just the beginning. We hope to be able to develop the exhibition further and turn the café at the front of the church into somewhere people want to come, bringing the building back to life.
The old sulphur well, where the Royal Pump Room now stands, in the early 1800s.
Two panels from The Harrogate Story, showing well-known visitors Florence Nightingale and Sir Winston Churchill.
Harrogate Spa Water on display at the Wembley Exhibition, around 1924.
As reported last month, the volunteer-staffed exhibition was first conceived of as a way of preserving Mr Neesam’s legacy and simultaneously of saving West Park United Reformed Church from decay.
The church provided £75,000 for renovations which finished this summer, and Harrogate Spring Water also contributed an undisclosed sum towards the project.
The main body of the church is now a multifunctional space that houses the Harrogate Story and will also host community events.
The West Park United Reformed Church in Harrogate.
The church’s congregation, now only numbering about 30 people, will hold services in the newly refurbished Victoria Room at the rear of the building, and the Stray Room at the front of the church will become a coffee shop.
Ms Wright added:
It’s nice to be able to work on something like this in the town I grew up in. It’s been a very interesting project to work on – I've learned a lot – and I hope it will really benefit the town.
The Harrogate Story is free to visit, but donations are welcome. It is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11am to 3pm.
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