Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332-1841

The Harrogate Great Chronicle is a unique and new type of local book. Part I, the printed book, is a complete history of the crucial early development of ‘the English Spa’ from its earliest documentary reference in 1322 to the Harrogate Improvement Act of 1841. In many ways it acts as a prequel to the late H.H. Walker’s monumental History of Harrogate under the Improvement Commissioners, 1841-1884. It is an evenly flowing narrative which is particularly concerned with the discovery, use and promotion of the mineral wells, whose health-giving powers became the foundation of Harrogate’s later prosperity. Along with the history of the spa, and the important role of the Duchy of Lancaster in urban development, Part I also considers the changing role of education, hospitals, schools, religion and the churches, local government and poor law, transport, social history, the enclosure movement and how national events affected life in one small Yorkshire town.