Harrogate

On the last Friday of my stay, I went to Harrogate with Fran and cousin Barbara. I hadn’t been there for more years than I wanted to know and Barbara’s mum, my aunt Ethel, always had a soft spot for the town. I had almost forgotten the lay out of the centre but then I remembered it lay close to a large park and garden area.

The town owes its fame and building expansion to the post 1850’s, which saw the advent of railways and brought the ‘Victorian Gentry’ there to drink and bathe in the sulphurous water.

It became a fashionable Yorkshire spa town. New hotels, shops and restaurants were built to cater for the increase in visitors and their needs.

There is also a ‘Betty’s Traditional Tea Rooms’ on a prominent corner opposite the park and large hotels. We went there for ‘Traditional Afternoon Tea’ and I was sure I heard a smiling Aunt Ethel whisper in my ear, “Don’t forget to stick your little finger out when you raise your tea cup”! A very nice day with some photos to remind me of the jokes and fun we had discovering new places and things to buy – or not!