THERE was a 1930s guide to Harrogate that summed up the town as follows: 'the Mecca of the ailing, the playground of the robust.'
That is probably still true today, writes local historian Paul Chrystal, in his latest book Secret Harrogate. "The people may have changed and the commerce and economy may be very different but, essentially, the town retains many of the features it boasted in its early spa-driven days."
There are two things to thanks for that, Paul writes: some inspired commercial foresight, together with a visionary programme of restoration and renovation.
The town is so well know that it doesn't actually have that many secrets left, Paul admits - perhaps a bit of a problem for a book with the title Secret Harrogate. Nevertheless, he's done his best to squirrel out a few lesser-known facts, about everything from Harrogate Airport to the Victorian gaslit Hales Bar, the Harrogate hoard, the Brunswick tunnel and its air-raid shelter and the 'non-secret secrets of Menwith Hill'.
Secret Harrogate also introduces you to a gallery of characters, from Mrs Brogden, who once ran a famous wool shop at the bottom of Valley Drive (where the Valley Gardens are now) to William Slingsby and his first sip of the Harrogate waters; not one but two famous Bettys; and visitors such as Daniel Defoe, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens and, of course, Agatha Christie.
Relaxing at the Royal Baths in the 1930s
The aim of the book, Paul writes, is to "shine a light on a number of facts, events and features relating to the town which are perhaps less well known and which do not appear so frequently in the many tourists guides and on the myriad websites describing the town."
Given that Paul is a local historian, the emphasis is, naturally enough, on the history of Harrogate. But the author is also an avid collector of old photographs - and the book is, like all Paul's books, richly illustrated with old photographs you'll almost certainly not have seen before.
A triumphal arch erected in 1889 to celeberate the opening of the Royal Bath Hospital on Skipton Road
They include some wonderful photos of fashionable Harrogate at the height of its fame as a Spa town, photographs of patients at the Royal Bath Hospital and - one of our favourites - a picture of the aforementioned Mrs Brogden's famous wool shop on Valley Drive. The shop was really little more than a shack, and in the photograph there is a woman in a bonnet (presumably Mrs Brogden) standing in the doorway. Among the items advertised for sale? Wool slippers. Very sensible.
Mrs Brogden's famous wool shop
- All photographs reproduced from Secret Harrogate by Paul Chrystal. The book is published by Amberley, priced £14.99
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