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The Song of the Swan |
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Cover -
Introduction -
Chapter 1 -
Chapter 2 -
Chapter 3 -
Chapter 4 |
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Chapter 5 -
Chapter 6 -
Chapter 7 - Pictures |
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Chapter 1
T he
road passed near the corner of an old enclosed park, Haywra (gate),
three miles west of the two ancient hamlets in the Forest of
Knaresborough, which were to become world famous as the centuries
passed.
Hay represents the Anglo-Saxon Hege
and the Anglo-French Haie means enclosure or park; wra is
Anglo-Saxon and means a corner. Haywra is still there today and is
known as Haverah; gate is the Scandinavian word meaning way or road
*
The gate seems to have remained
closed for many a century; westward the forest was protected by the
backbone of England, The Pennines. The Vikings and the Norsemen,
when first they came, approached from the West, but did not descend
from the hills into the Vale of York.
The Norwegian Kings buried on the
Western Isle of lona were brought there by sea round the North of
Scotland. The Celtic crosses, a badge of the Northern Christians,
which were found there, have a replica in the church of Ramsgill in
Upper Nidderdale on the slopes of Great Whernside, but none have
been found further East.
Until comparatively recent times,
the Bishop of Tromso in Norway included all the Scottish Isles in
his See, and passage was by way of the Hebrides.
The synod of Whitby (A.D. 664),
Yorkshire's first successful conference, resulted in the Northern
Christians agreeing with Rome upon the date of Easter in every year,
and to joining the Roman Catholic Church. The Doomsday Book, that
great inventory of Britain compiled for William the Conqueror (1086)
lists Bilton, now part of Harrogate and Pannal, (in which parish
Harrogate now is,) and Knaresborough, but no Haywra. Southward
towards the Wharfe, we find Rougemont, the first stronghold of the
present Harewood's ancestors. This original motte was similar to the
one preserved in York and known as Clifford's Tower, but the 'red
mound' was abandoned in favour of the safer ground on the hillside
where they built their first castle, now but a ghostly ruin above
Harewood bank. Here is where our history begins and Harrogate is
proud to have maintained its royal patronage over all the years that
followed.
King John (1199 - 1216), the bad King who was forced to sign
Magna Carta and who is reputed to have lost the crown jewels of that
time in the Wash, hunted the Forest of Knaresborough from
Knaresborough Castle. He may have refreshed himself at the Tewit
Well, but it was a more lowly subject, much later, in 1571, who
discovered the remarkable properties of the spring in the forest
where the lapwings always come - tewits as these birds are known in
Yorkshire. William Slingsby of Knaresborough had travelled abroad
and had benefited in health from continental spa waters and he
became very interested in the similarity of the Tewit Well as he
named it. (See Spadacrene Anglica by Edmund Deane, 1626). Sir
William Slingsby, of Bilton Hall, a nephew, later walled in and
paved the Tewit Well, and made his uncle's discovery known to the
public. Thereupon physicians sent their patients to drink the waters
and The English Spew, or The Glory of Knaresborough, was born,
"springing from several famous fountains there called the Vitrioll,
Sulphurous and dropping wells whence it is proved by Reason and
Experience that the Vitrioline Fountain is equal (and not inferior)
to the German Spaw". (John Taylor, apothecary, in York, 1649).
The legend of St Mungo (circa A.D. 512) may have stimulated
belief in the water cure, for the saint was venerated in the
district, and at Copgrove eight miles from Harrogate, he effected
remarkable cures on children; a Well near Copgrove Hall still bears
his name.
Harrogate, Arx Celebris Fontibus," the town noted for its
springs, was indeed renowned, but fame was to follow with the
subsequent discovery of more remarkable, more beneficial, and more
varied waters, including Magnum donum Dei "Gods great gift" - strong
sulphur, among others, to total no less than eighty-eight in all.
Thirty-six are in the beautiful Valley Gardens created nearby the
original 'Bogs Field'.
The variety of the springs in such a small area is the result of
a geological fault, the Yoredale Shales, which, originally
horizontal, became tilted into an upright position by the weight of
overlying Millstone Grit. The various springs came up through the
thin layers, some differing greatly from others; they are the ones
the physicians analysed and prescribed in careful doses to effect
the famous "Harrogate Cure" of the last century when the doctors
virtually ruled the town and brought prosperity to the ever
increasing population.
* The three
Ridings of Yorkshire derive from the Scandinavian word meaning a
third; Norwegian triplets are still "trilyings".
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