Short Items
Lost and Found
Ever since I first heard about how the mineral springs at Starbeck were lost following the enclosure of the forest in 1778 and how the basin, paving, and cover were taken away, I was intrigued as to what had happened to them. I learned that it was suspected, but unconfirmed, that the paving stones were used to pave the cellar of the long since demolished Dragon Hotel. I have never found any information on the whereabouts of the stone basin.
Then when researching through old copies of the Harrogate Advertiser, I found an article from the 1920s, where the writer mentioned that the spring cover had been placed on private land in a wood somewhere on the Rudding Park estate, in a wood opposite Crimple Mill.
And so, I decided to go and look for it, to see if it was still there. I looked on a map and, knowing where Crimple Mill had been, I could identify the wood. Being on strictly private land surrounded by the river Crimple and active farmland, I couldn't just go wandering around looking for it. So, in the early summer of 2004 I asked for written permission. To my relief permission was granted without any fuss. I went looking the following Saturday morning. I spent almost three hours looking for it. I found something I suspected could be it, but it was so overgrown I couldn't get a decent look at it. I decided to leave it and return in the winter when the undergrowth would have died back to make trudging through the wood easier. When I returned I found it exactly where I had thought it was in the summer, though I still had to clear lots of dead vegetation to see it clearly. Approximate grid ref. 53.9777N 1.4970W
I informed the estate what I had found and wrote it up for the paper . Please remember anyone looking for this, it is private land, please request permission.
Pre-war Allotments
There were many allotment gardens in Starbeck in the days when "growing your own", was popular and often necessary. Only Forest Avenue allotments remain nowadays, but in times gone by there were allotments off The Avenue, Bogs Lane, Forest Lane, Prospect Road/First Avenue and Stonefall. The ones in this picture were of course off the High Street next to the school. They were the first to close, closing during the second world war. Surprisingly closing during WW2, at a time when growing fruit and Vegetables was tantamount to doing your duty.
The access gate in the centre of the shot would now be the entrance to Avenue Place.
The allotments were closed to make way for the wartime POW camp where mainly Italian, and a small number of German prisoners were impounded. Because of wartime secrecy there is very little recorded information easily available and I know of only one picture of the huts taken after the war when the huts housed displaced 'squatter' families for a few years after the war.
Extraordinary Occurance
The attached article appeared in the Edinburgh Evening Courant on Thursday 26 July 1866, having earlier appeared in the Leeds Mercury.
I shall leave you to read the article for yourselves, but it tells of what seems to me to be an attempted murder somewhere in, or near Starbeck, on Sunday 22nd July 1866. It gives no definite location and mentions no names, but there are clues, and a little determined detective work should bear fruit. I will see what I can find out.