Harrogate Royal Pump Room, Valley Gardens and Birk Crag
Around the Buildings and Public Gardens of a Northern Spa Town
In the 16th century, Harrogate was a tiny hamlet. In 1571, William Slingsby (a gentleman from nearby Knaresborough) was walking over the common at Harrogate when he noticed a spring bubbling out of a rock crevice that looked and tasted similar to medicinal waters he had taken at Spa in Belgium — a chalybeate spring rich in iron. It became known as the 'Tewit Well' after the 'tewits' (flocks of lapwings) gathering to peck at encrusted minerals. Another mineral spring, the 'Old Sulphur Spring', was discovered soon afterwards; covered over in Victorian times, it is now the Royal Pump Room Museum, the starting point for this walk, where the well remains on view (though now capped off for health and safety rather than sampled for its powerful 'rotten egg' taste).
