No history of Starbeck, or Harrogate in general could ever be complete without close examination of the spa history, the very life blood of the whole area from the 16th to 20th centuries. If not for those events, Harrogate would, perhaps, have never happened. 

The history of the mineral spas of Harrogate has been written many times, mainly by those with vested interests in the promotion of  the springs surrounding their businesses, and the historians influenced by their writings. Most of them have one thing in common, that they pay little to no attention to Starbeck Old Spa. Whether or not this was a deliberate act in years gone by, I can not tell, but those who wrote the books in the 17th to 19th centuries certainly didn't seem to think Starbeck Old Spa was important. Most of the early histories were written by doctors to promote the various cures available. These doctors were attached to the local hotels, and sponsored by the hoteliers to promote the waters closest to their hotels. Reading them you come to realise some books promote the Low Harrogate waters most prominently, while others promote the High Harrogate waters the most. Both parties pay very little attention, maybe a sentence here and there, to the waters of Starbeck, which by merit, were equally important.

I intend to put that right.  

No fixed date has ever been found for the discovery of the mineral springs at Starbeck, other than some time between William Slingsby discovering the Tewit Well in 1571, while out riding his horse, and Dr. Edmund Deane's book "Spadacrene Anglica," which was published in 1626. This does not mean though that the people didn't know of any of these springs long before William Slingsby.

One thing that bothers me at times is the naming of theses spas. If the Tewit Well was the first to be discovered and be named on maps as Tewit Well, why would the same maps refer to Starbeck springs as "The Old Spa"? We shall never know.

Anyway that's all speculation. To accept the established belief, Edmund Deane had nothing more to say than the Starbeck springs were "in the sayd forest, near unto the town", meaning Knaresborough. His book published in 1626 spoke only of the five most prominent of the time, of which Starbeck was one.  The others being the "stinking spa", the main sulphur well by the entrance to the Valley Gardens. He gives a short mention to the sulphur spring in Bilton Park, said to be the most pure, and the dropping well, which is of little or no medical value. Mostly he talks about Tewit Well, which was in High Harrogate. He writes how he has been told that Tewit Well was the first and discovered by Slingsby, but admits to there being much confusion as to which Slingsby. 

Dr Short in his book "The history of the mineral waters", published in 1734 gives us a little more information, telling us the spa had been provided with a basin and a small stone cover, amd resorted to by the 'country folk'.

With the final implementation of the Enclosure Act in 1778, two hundred acres of common land was preserved around the mineral springs of High and Low Harrogate, that we know as The Stray. This land was and is still held by the king, to protect public free access to the springs. There was also a small enclosure of land, that nobody knew who owned, and an access road provided by the act, at Starbeck, but it was assumed part of land owned by James Beckwith, and turned to farming.

Between 1778 and 1822 somehow the stone cover and basin, described by Short had been removed, along with other protections and the springs had been drained into the beck, and the land ploughed. Many at the time, including Michael Calvert, strongly believed this was a deliberate act carried out by rival interests. It was rumoured that the stone flags had been used to pave the floor of the Dragon Hotel, while the stone cover was taken onto the Rudding estate.

by 1822, the Old Spa was in danger of being forgotten about, until Dr Michael Calvert, a Knaresborough pharmacist had the idea of restortation. In March 1822, Calvert chaired a public meeting in Knaresborough with the intention of forming a company to restore and improve the Starbeck Old Spa, and on 28th May 1822 work commenced. A pump was provided and a small cottage was built where one of the town's poor, was employed to serve the visitors. It was an instant success, and in 1828 one hundred shares were issued at one pound four shillings each allowing the Knaresborough company funds to build a Gothic type bath-house, the first in the district! The building housed nine warm and cold baths, showers, and a cold plunge pool. With the sale of extra shares the company decided to change the name to Knaresborough Old Spa, Starbeck still technically being part of Knaresborough. 

On analysis it was discovered that the mild Starbeck water. not only lacked the pungent smell and acrid taste of other more famous waters, but actually helped some conditions of the skin that were only aggravated by the harsher waters of Harrogate and doctors began prescribing Starbeck water as an introduction to spa treatment.

Originally there were two springs, one of mild sulphur water, and the other of Chalybeate but as the company flourished a second sulphur source and two further chalybeate springs were discovered. This allowed the company to flourish further and many improvements were added. After much debate with neighbouring landowners an archway, originally intended to mark the start of the access road by the High Street, but eventually across the boundary of the property, was erected. The bathhouse was extended to incorporate fourteen baths and comfortable waiting rooms. An exercise garden was provided, and between 1848 and 1852 the fine building we see today replaced the cottage, beside the bathhouse. All was well, the company was flourishing , and shareholders received regular dividends.

Then in 1868 another sulphur spring was discovered in a field adjacent to the property. Another company was formed and a rival establishment. In April 1870 the new Prince of Wales Baths opened to the public boasting fourteen baths and the first public swimming pool within a sixty mile radius. It remains the only swimming pool ever to be filled with sulphur water. It remains the public swimming baths.

The two companies could have come to amicable agreements, they could have joined forces and come up with something really special. In stead they both embarked on a financial and commercial battle that would soon result in the downfall of both establishments. The first action was that the Knaresborough Spa company slashed prices, and the Prince of Wales company followed suit. Before long they were both issuing slanderous leaflets about each other and both claiming ownership of the original source of sulphur water. The companies offered rewards to anyone who could prove them wrong. Law suits and counter suits were launched and legal feels ate deep into profits already reduced by lower prices. Issacc Brunt, proprietor of the Prince of Wales Baths also faced legal action from the Victoria Baths company of Harrogate after claiming their water was mixed, and came direct from waterworks. Rewards of £50 were offered by both companies to any reputable chemist who could prove their rival posessed superior water.

1879 was a disastrous year for both establishments. The price war and legal action had taken it's toll and Brunt was forced to sell the Prince of Wales company for £3,000. Then in the winter of 1879, while attempting to dig another sulphur well, the Knaresborough company cut into a chalybeate spring. This contaminated their pure sulphur supply for ever. The Knaresborough Spa Company fell into an irreversible decline and closed for business for good in 1890. The property was bought by Leonard Snowden who converted the bathhouse into stables and used the property for his equestrian business before passing it on to Fred Rushton who ran his haulage business there until the early 1970s and the property stood empty and derelict for a time before being rescued from demolition by the department of the environment. It carries now a preservation order.

It's a shame it had to come to this. At their peak both establishments could suppy two hundred baths a day.

The Prince of Wales Baths were sold again, for £9,000 in 1899 to the Harrogate mayor, Dr Myrtle and six aldermen, who, on Harrogate extending it's borough boundaries in 1900 to include Starbeck,  sold the property to the council. The baths remained open for sulphur bathing until 1939, since which time it has served as a public swimming pool that, apart from short periods of enforced closure, remains open to this day. 

Following council purchase the water was at a cost of £5,300, pumped through glass pipes to two reservoirs at Christ Church, from where gravity took it through more pipes to the Royal Baths in Low Harrogate, where it could be consumed by the public.

A sample of Starbeck water was displayed by Richard Ellis in a glass cabinet, along with all the other Harrogate waters, at the great exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. The cabinet complete with water samples can today be viewed at the pump house museum.

Also worth mentioning is Stonefall Manor, once situated between Hookstone Chase and Woodlands Drive, Greenfields Road and Woodlands Walk, provided Electro-Hydropathic treatment during the 1880s. The sulphur water from Bilton Park, by some claimed to be the purest in the district was piped to a fountain, placed for public use, beside the High Bridge from 1887 to 1947 when the water supply was stopped, and the fountain converted into an ornamental flower bed. It remained in place until 1984, when it was removed and seemingly lost.