Harrogate's Healing Waters

Harrogate is England's famous spa town, with over 100 springs supplying different types of mineral water. The first one was discovered in 1571, when Harrogate was just a small village, and soon visitors started coming to drink the waters.

It was the sulphur well that drew the wealthy and made Harrogate famous especially in the 1800s. Many hotels, some with their own spas, were built for people to stay for weeks while taking the waters. A hospital was built to allow poor people to stay and take the waters.

In 1841 The Old Sulphur Well was topped by an elegant octagonal building, the Royal Pump House, where the water was pumped and served in glasses for a fee. Outside the building was a tap where the poor could help themselves for free.

Valley Gardens has at least 35 wells with different mineral content, making it the highest concentration of varying springs in the world. Both here and in other parts of the city there were other pump houses, and as more and more people came, bigger pump houses were built.

The waters were used to treat many conditions, from scurvy and gout to epilepsy and skin ailments. Recent tests by the EU now prevent the water from being served.Read more