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Some Sidelights on the
Town.
After 1880, one had no longer to pay toll at the Bars near the New
Inn in Skipton Road and at the crest of Ripon Road, for the Turnpike
Trusts ended and the main roads became the concern of local
authorities. There seems to have been little improvement in the
condition of road surfaces until it was demanded by the beginning of
the motor car age in Edward VII's time. But the local roads were
quite adequate for the wheeled traffic of the Commissioners' period.
In Harrogate there was an unusually high proportion of carriage
folk, who kept a private coachman to drive their brougham, landau or
victoria. Towards the end of the period there appeared the Bathchair
- a heavy type, usually drawn by a chairman. Its leisurely progress
admirably suited the real or supposed invalid who wanted to view the
town, and this characteristic Spa vehicle was a common sight until
after the First World War.
The
novelist Dickens lectured in the town in 1858, and afterwards
described Harrogate as "the queerest place, with the strangest
people in it, leading the oddest lives." He seems to have found its
air of studied leisure faintly irritating - it appealed to the poet
Tennyson, who was a frequent visitor! - and yet he admitted that the
people read a great deal. There were plenty of Libraries and Reading
Rooms, as there had long been, for the richer residents and
visitors, but the needs of other sections of the community also
began to be met. From 1848, there was a library and news room in the
Mechanics Institute in James Street, and in 1876 a local Quaker
founded in Union Street a Library for Workers. The Commissioners
adopted the Public Libraries Act in 1881, but it was left to the
Borough to build the present Public Library.
The
visitors, again according to Dickens, spent the rest of their time
in eating and dancing. These occupations were undoubtedly popular.
The Crown and Granby still held their weekly balls'. But visitors
were also as eager as ever to make excursions to places of interest
in the neighbourhood - a fact that the novelist, on his one-day
visit, was hardly likely to notice.
According to a record of 1845, the Band still played "every evening
in the season" on the Green at High Harrogate. In 1860 a Punch and
Judy show began on the Stray, apparently at Low Harrogate,
replacing, it is said, the marionettes that had performed there
since the time of Waterloo. The town showed its continued interest
in flowers by establishing in 1843 its Annual Flower Show, which was
held for many years in the grounds of the Cheltenham (Royal) Spa.
At
the beginning of the nineteenth century it had been noted that it
was the fashionable thing when in Harrogate to go to church; that,
in fact, people were found there who never went at home. This
laudable practice continued, and churches and chapels multiplied.
The religious enthusiasm of the Victorians has left a legacy of
quite admirable buildings. The Church of England added St John's,
Bilton (1857) and St Peter's (1871) - though the latter's fine tower
belongs to the 1920's. The Nonconformists contributed also some good
Victorian Gothic, the Congregational (1862), the Wesleyan Trinity
(1880) and the Baptists' (1883). Though the religious atmosphere of
Victorian Harrogate was evangelical on the whole, all denominations
were active. The Roman Catholics built St. Robert's in 1873. A
written memorial of the period is Bishop Bickersteth's hymn, "Peace,
perfect peace," said to have been composed in 1876 in the churchyard
of Christ Church.
As
Harrogate grew into a notably well-built town, and came to be widely
known as an exceptionally healthy one, more children were sent to be
educated in its boys' and girls' boarding schools. It is known that
there were a good number of such schools in 1884, but as most of
these have since closed, their place being taken by newer
foundations, authentic records are rather scanty. Four boys' schools
of good standing that lasted little beyond the end of the century
were Western College (in Cold Bath Road, where it is joined by
Queen's Road), Trinity College (in Park Avenue - Radlyn Court),
Bilton Grange School (in Skipton Road), and the Strawberry Dale
Academy. The last was well established before 1856. The building was
later surrounded by Mayfield Grove; but at first it stood isolated,
overlooking the valley that was then considered the most attractive
part of Harrogate.
There were two, however, that still flourish and have a documented
history. On the high ground at Pannal Ash - then outside the town -
the Wesleyans opened in 1877 their Ashville College, which has
attained Public School standing. And in 1881 Mr. James Roscoe, MA,
chose the mansion of Oatlands, on the edge of the Stray, as the home
of his successful Boys' Preparatory School. This school, however,
after some sixty years in Harrogate, has now removed to Goldsborough
Hall.
The
provision of elementary schools, during the period, kept pace with
the demand. The Education Act of 1870, that established a
nation-wide system, gave authority to any district insufficiently
supplied with the means of elementary education to set up a School
Board. Such bodies were empowered to build what came to be known as
Board Schools, and to levy an Education Rate to pay for them. In
spite of its rapid growth, Harrogate did not find it necessary to
appoint a School Board until 1893. The town was not dilatory either
in providing training in crafts; it founded a Technical Institute
and, in 1882, its School of Art.
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