Timeline-From The Forest of Knaresborough to modern times.

PRE NORMAN

 There is no evidence as yet of the Starbeck area being inhabited in ancient times, or of any great deal of activity in the area but one or two things have been found that suggest the area may well have been known to ancient peoples.

Stone age relics have been found found throughout the district, and a bronze age axe head was once found near St. John's Well (the hexagonal building on The Stray near Wetherby Road). There was of course an Iron Age fort on the other side of the river Nidd between Knaresborough and Scotton and a large supposedly Roman mound can be seen in Haverah Park to the West of Beckwithshaw. At least two Roman roads crossed the area which ran from Aldborough and Catterick to Ilkley. It is well known that when John Metcalf (Blind Jack of Knaresborough), was building the Boroughbridge to High Harrogate turnpike in the 1750s, he discovered one, and 'canibalised' the stone to use on his road, near the Star beck. During a converstaion with James Addyman, while researching my books around 2001, I was told that when carrying out building work in Starbeck near the railway lines in the 1930s, the Roman road was re-discovered. 

Evidence of Saxon activity in the area can be found in place-names like Plompton, Rudfarlington, and Bilton. Again place-names like Flaxby, Harrogate and Hampsthwaite suggest Norse activity in the area.

So, it would be fair to assume that even though it is doubtful there had ever been inhabited structures here, the area would almost certainly have been known by ancient and pre-conquest peoples.

11th Century

1066 -- William Duke of Normandy defeats Harold Godwinson's Saxon Army near Hastings and conquers the country. To administer this vast land William divides up the country and 'awards' large parcels of land to those who have served him well. In this part of what was then the Kingdom of Northumbria (North of the Humber), William, in some places, allowed the Saxon lords to hold onto their lands for him, in exchange for their loyalty. Though this only worked for a short while, the lands between what is now Harrogate and Knaresborough, were held for the time being, in the main, by Archill and Gamelbar.

1069 -- Now known as William the Conqueror, his grip on the country was at first tentative and William faced a number of uprisings and rebellions. One such uprising took place in the north of England when in 1069 some northern barons banded together and attacked the city of Durham, killing William's representative there, before moving on to York, where the city was raised to the ground and 3000 of William's men were slaughtered. In retaliation William reacted swiftly and without pity or mercy. He embarked on a campaign against the north of England, so vicious, that it was said to haunt even himself through nightmares for the rest of his life. He lived up to his other less flattering nickname and proved it well deserved, in both senses of the word, The period would become known as "The Harrying of the North". The retribution delivered was as complete as it was cruel. The monk Orderic Vitalis wrote that, ‘he made no effort to restrain his fury and punished the innocent with the guilty. In his anger he commanded that all crops, herds and food of any kind be brought together and burned to ashes so that the whole region north of the [river] Humber be deprived of any source of sustenance’. It was said that the dead were left unburied where they fell, because nobody had survived to bury them.

1086 -- We find evidence of this cruelty in this region, recorded in the second edition of The Doomsday Book, where by now the lands around this area were shared between the Norman lords Giselbert Tyson and William de Percy. It was the latter who built his manor house nearby at Spofforth, and became Duke of Northumberland. Also noticeable is that the land value had plummeted by 90% and was now described as 'waste'. It must possibly have been due to this fall in value that the area was set aside as a royal hunting forest.

When thinking of a forest in modern times we generally visualise a heavily wooded area, but in medieval terms it was not so. The definition of a forest was merely land that had been set aside for hunting. Where there would certainly be wooded areas, most of it was open heath and moorland similar to that which still exists to the west of Harrogate.

The people who lived within the forest, (villages existing within the forest before it was set out were allowed to remain), not only lived under common law, but also lived under a further set of restrictions known as forest law, designed to protect and preserve the "Venison and Vert". Venison and vert meaning the animals of the chase (venison, but not only deer, but included any animal hunted for food), and whatever the venison needs to survive (vert), meaning shelter and food. So, not only were the animals protected, under pain of execution, but so was the countryside in which it lived. Even the collecting firewood was heavily restricted and needed expressed permission. Any building needed special royal permission and even following death, there was no guarantee that descendents, especially female descendents would inherit. Persons living within the forest without permission were deemed as living outside the law, which is where the term "outlaw" comes from.

A series of powerful men were given lease of the castle, town and forest of Knaresborough, to administer for the king starting with William de Percy.

12th Century

1114 -- In this year we find the first recorded mention of Knaresborough parish church.

1129 – During the reign of Henry I, 4th son of William I, construction of Knaresborough castle begins.

1167 – During the reign of Henry II the boundaries of the forest of Knaresborough are mentioned in the pipe rolls as being roughly the lands south of the river Nidd and north of the rivers Wharfe and Washburn, extending from Knaresborough in the east to Blubberhouses Moor in the west, a total of 160 square miles.

1167 -- Three deer parks, Bilton Park (West of the Nidd, North of Knaresborough Road and Bogs Lane), Haverah Park (West of Harrogate) and Haya Park (East of Knaresborough) were established to protect deer stocks.

1171, -- Nobody seems to know for sure exactly what Henry II said, or how much he meant by it, but if he did utter those words "Will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest ?", about Tomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury and former high lord chancellor of England,  they were taken seriously by four knights of the realm. Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracey, Richard le Breton, and Hugh de Morville of Knaresborough, who demanded Becket accompany them to Winchester to face the king, and on his refusal, murdered him. They then made their escape to de Morville's Knaresborough castle, where they spent a year in hiding.

1177-- Between 1177 and 1216 King John  was a regular visitor to Knaresborough and the forest, handing out the first known royal maundy in the town in 1210.

1190 -- It was in 1190 that the earliest known mention of the Starbeck area appears in public records.

Details are given of a land transaction when warden of Knaresborough, William de Stuteville, granted an estate within the forest to the Plompton family. The boundaries are described as "Along the Crimple as far as Osbernestahbec (Stone Rings Beck), and along that beck to Puddingstain Cross (exact location unclear), then to Harelow, then by the great road to Bilton, then to Stokkebrigg, then to Holbeck, then to the Nidd, and along the Nidd back to the Crimple. It would be understandable (and has in the past) for Osbernestahbeck to be misinterpreted as a reference to Starbeck, but it certainly is not so. There is a copy of a map of the old estate in the courthouse museum at Knaresborough which clearly shows it as being Stone Rings Beck. This is adamantly backed up by the English Place Names Society. So where is the reference to Starbeck? You may ask. As is borne out again by the map in the courthouse museum, a different point of reference, called Stokkebrigg. This word translates from old English as meaning a bridge made of wooden stocks. As clearly evident from the map, this bridge was exactly where the road from Knaresborough still crosses the Star beck to this day. The next location mentioned, Holbeck, is the small stream that mostly now runs culverted, through the middle of the golf course, where the old public footpath was, then under the railway tracks and reappears in the field opposite and runs alongside Cass Lane before bending to join the river Nidd beside the cricket pitch at Calcutt. The often marshy land around Stokkebrigg would many years later, be referred to as Stokkebriggmyre in a series of land disputes. It is worth mentioning at this point that there was no settlement here, Stokkebrigg was not inhabited, it was merely a geographical location.

13th Century

1257- By now King John had been succeded by his son, Henry III who made his brother Richard of Cornwall, lord of Knaresborough, and he bestowed lands west of the Nidd as far as Forest Lane Head, and between Danyell (High) bridge and Thistle Hill, to the Trinitarian monks of the friary of St Robert of Knaresborough, which was situated on Abbey Road. This land mostly occupied now by the golf course and surrounding fields was known as Belmont. An interesting point that needs to be made concerning Forest Lane Head is that Forest Lane Head has always been at the head of Forest Lane, but not the Forest Lane we know today. Forest Lane in those days was the road which led from Knaresborough into the forest, now known as Knaresborough Road.

14th Century

1314 -- With the friary being at the far end of Abbey Road, it was at some distance from Belmont and in 1314 the friars requested permission to build a storage house (barn) on their land. Permission was granted in 1317.

1318 – Following Robert Bruce's victory at Bannockburn in 1314, the Scottish army made regular incursions into northern England and in 1318 they made it this far. Northallerton, Boroughbridge, Ripon, Skipton, Otley and Ilkley were all taken and ransacked, and burned. Even Knaresborough Castle was besieged but didn’t fall, though the town was burned to the ground all the same. The Scots then headed across Belmont to Pannal where they infamously burned down the church. In recent years workers working on repairs to the church at Pannal discovered old thatching that still bore the charring of that fire.

1340s – Lands at Pannal given to St Robert’s priory in exchange for their other forest lands at Belmont.

1349 – Worse was soon to come and in May 1349 the Black Death reached York. By the end of July, plague was rife in Knaresborough and from there into the forest. It is estimated that the mortality rate was as high as 50%. 

1361 – John of Gaunt (4th son Edward III) became Earl of Lancaster and in 1372 Lord of Knaresborough. From that moment forward the forest of Knaresborough became the property of the Duchy of Lancaster and remains so to this day. John was said to have been a fair and just man and a popular governor of Knaresborough.

1377 – Edward III dies to be succeeded by Richard II (Son of Edward the Black Prince, Duke of York) who was John of Gaunt's nephew.

1380 – John of Gaunt builds a new hunting lodge in Bilton Park that would later become Bilton Hall.

Richard II had been crowned king at only 10 years old and as such had to rule through advisors, mainly John of Gaunt, who’s own son Henry Bolingbroke had become close friends with Richard. However as the century drew to a close a rift developed between them. The later years of Richards reign were to be constantly disrupted by attempts to overthrow his authority and the measures Richard was forced to take to counter them.

Richard feared that one threat to his reign would come from the House of Lancaster, headed by John of Gaunt, who were now the wealthiest and most powerful family in England. John’s of Gaunts' issue from Edward III meant he also had a legitimate claim to the throne. Richard responded to this by confiscating the Lancastrian properties including the castle and forest of Knaresborough and sending Henry Bolingbroke into exile in France.

1399 – John of Gaunt died in 1399. Also in this year the Duke of Orleans, indifferent to the needs of Richard II, inherits the French crown and released Henry from exile, allowing him to return to England.

While Richard II was out of the country, Henry and his followers landed at Ravenspurn on the Yorkshire coast in June 1399 and met with Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland who had his own misgivings about the king. Bolingbroke declared that he had no plans to overthrow the king at that point, but merely wanted to secure the return of his family's properties. This pleased Percy who had no plans other than the settlement of grievances himself. 

On returning from Ireland Richard first met with Northumberland at Conwy in north Wales, and on 19th August surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke at Flint, who by this time had greater ambitions, promising to abdicate if his life was spared. Richard was then imprisoned in the Tower of London and then at Pontefract Castle where he was later starved to death and Henry Bolinbroke was proclaimed King Henry IV on13th October 1399.

For now at least the house of Lancaster sat on the throne of England, but this had triggered a chain of events that would eventually lead to a period we now know as “The Wars of the Roses”.

15th Century.

It is fair to say that national events during the 15th century were dominated by the period we refer to today as The Wars of the Roses. I understand that it was Walter Scott some 400 years later who first coined the phrase 'wars of the roses' and it is from there that the misunderstandings of the period originate. Many people assume, because of the emblems of the combatants, that this was some kind of conflict between Yorkshire and Lancashire. It was not, and on the whole, apart from the battles of Wakefield and Towton, it had little to do with either county, or people's aliegience to either. It was a dynastic war between two royal households, the house of York, and the house of Lancaster. In modern day terms, imagine following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles became Charles III. One of Charles' titles now is Duke of Lancaster. Prince Andrew at time of writing, is Duke of York. Imagine if you can that Andrew disagrees with Charles' rule and decides to make a bid for the throne himself. The two then go to war over the throne. It doesn't mean York or Yorkshire is at war with Lancaster or Lancashire, merely that Charles is at war with Andrew. To take this a step further, in such a conflict, the combatants would raise their armies from the people that lived within their properties. Knaresborough, and the forest of Knaresborough, are part of the domain of the house of Lancaster, and so, despite being in the centre of Yorkshire, those from this area that were called upon to fight, would have fought for Lancaster, as the Plomptons did. 

To put it all in a nutshell, it is my understanding that, Henry IV was succeeded by Henry V (Agincourt etc.) who was in turn succeeded by Henry VI. It seems Henry VI was never a strong king and was to some extent dominated by his wife, while he also suffered from extended bouts of mental illness. Henry VI was head of the house of Lancaster. Richard Duke of York, (father of Edward IV and Richard III) was displeased with the rule of Henry' He had often stood in for Henry during his illnesses'. Richard of York eventually made an attempt to overthrow Henry, but was defeated and killed at the battle of Wakefield in1460. Richard was then succeeded as head of the house of York by his son Edward who carried on the family claim and through many battles eventually defeated Henry VI at Towton (just 23.6 miles from where his father died at Wakefield) in 1461. Edward IV ruled until his death in 1471 to be succeeded by his eldest son Edward V (one of the princes in the tower) the young king not surviving the protectorate of his uncle Richard who became Richard III. Whatever your thoughts are on Richard III, and there are compelling arguments on both sides, he was usurped by Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1485. Henry VII then married Elizabeth of York in 1486 uniting the two families. The Duchy of Lancaster has been a possession of the ruling monarch ever since, making the forest of Knaresborough a royal possession for as long as there is a monarchy, which is why the Stray is still owned by the king.

Anyhow, while all this was going on, two of the most powerful local families were the Plomptons and the Brennands.

1457 -- Following the death of Richard Brennand, William Plompton made a claim on six acres of land known as Stokkebrigmyre. The claim was strongly disputed but was eventually awarded to the Plomptons.

1461 -- William Plompton is killed at the battle of Towton in 1461, and having no male descendant, his property is passed into the hands of his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. This allows the Brennands to enter a counter claim and eventually in 1462 the lands of Stokkebrigmyre Close are awarded back to the descendants of Richard Brennand.

1464 -- In 1464 the lands of Stokkebrigmyre Close are passed into the hands of Cecil and John Warner.

16th Century

1550 – Another prominent family in the area, possibly the most prominent of all were the Slingsby family, who moved into Bilton Hall in 1550. Members of the Slingsby family represented Knaresborough in parliament from the 1550s until Sir Henry Slingsby was executed on Tower Hill for his alleged part in a royalist plot in 1658.

1571. – William Slingsby of Bilton Hall was out horse-riding when it is said that he reached what we know today as Tewit Well Stray. While there he discovered a spring and decided to take a drink. He recognised the strange taste of the water as reminiscent of those of Spa in Germany. And from this discovery the spa industry on which the two, until then insignificant, villages of High and Low Harrogate grew to prominence.

Shortly after the discovery of Tewit Well, two further springs were discovered, one of a uniquely mild sulphur water, and another of Chalybeate, besides a small stream that by now was known as the Star Beck.

17th Century

1626 – Edmund Deane’s treatise on the Harrogate waters, "Spadacrene Anglica", was published in 1626. In chapter 4 on the five most prominent wells, the Starbeck spa was only described as. "in the sayd forest; one is neare unto the town" (Knaresborough).

1628 – In 1628, with little money in his coffers Charles I faced growing confrontation with parliament and the Scottish covenanters. Charles needed money to raise an army. Among other possessions he sold land, including Bilton Park. (Bilton Park had been created by 1167 as a deer enclosure within the forest occupying land between the Knaresborough to Harrogate road, Bogs Lane and the river Nidd almost as far as High Harrogate on the opposite side of the road from Belmont.) It was divided up into six farms by 1728.

18th Century

In 1734 after up to a 160 years of use, The Starbeck spa was described by Dr Short as having been provided with a basin and square stone cover.

1752 –  In an effort to attract more visitors to the springs of Harrogate, improvements had to be made to the road network. An act of parliament was obtained to build turnpike roads through the Harrogate district. John Metcalf, a remarkable man, better known as 'Blind Jack of Knaresborough', was hired as contractor and the roads from Boroughbridge to Harrogate, passing through Starbeck, and the road from Harewood to Harrogate and Bradford to Killinghall were created as turnpike roads. A number of cottages were built to serve as toll houses, one of which still stands today, though in a much altered form at the junction of Bogs Lane and Knaresborough Road.

Great changes just around the corner.

1770 – With trouble brewing in the American colonies, and other conflicts across the globe, money needed to be raised and the decision was made to enclose many of the common lands of England, including Knaresborough Forest.

1778 – By 1778 the surverying was complete and everything was ratified and the common lands of Knaresborough forest were enclosed. Some was given free to prominent figures and ancient tenancy holders but most was sold or leased with some remaining the property of the king (George III). Some of the land withheld for the king was in Starbeck in the area today known as Kingsley (King's lea) Road. Enclosure was good for many people. It gave some property and released people from the remaining restrictions of forest law, but it was not universally popular and many, mostly the poorer people, lost their rights to common land and with that their livelihoods.

Within the act provision was sought and obtained for the protection of the mineral springs of High and Low Harrogate and two hundred acres of common land, now known as The Stray, was preserved to provide unrestricted access to the springs for all. However this provision did not include the Starbeck springs which now became private land, awarded to J Beckwith. The Starbeck springs fell into disrepair, the paving, basin, and cover which protected the springs was removed and the land was put to the plough. As more and more springs were discovered around the two villages of Harrogate and the farms that took in visitors discovered the financial benefits of turning their farms into boarding houses, which in turn became hotels time progressed. A lot of money could be made from the spa industry, and it was the hoteliers who profited most. 

As Harrogate rose to prominence, Starbeck's mineral springs fell into disrepair and disuse over the next 40 years, many said this was due to deliberate vandalism. We shall never know how much truth there was in the rumours, but it can't be denied that they would have been seen as competition. The pavement was taken away and used to pave the cellar of the Dragon Hotel, which stood on the edge of the Stray at Mornington Crescent. and the stone cover was taken away to be placed in a wood on the Rudding estate.

Many new roads were laid out to provide access to the newly enclosed land and farms and cottages began to appear across the district and in the Forest Lane Head area, where a windmill was built which operated until the great storm of October 1859 which blew the sails off.

19th Century

In this century things really began to change, and everything seemed to happen at once as Starbeck started to turn into a community. There is a lot to write about the spa, the workhouse, the railways, and the arrival of the Addyman family. So much so that all these will, in time, as this website grows, be discussed fully in separate setions. For now and the benefit of this timeline, to try to keep to chronological order, only the minimum will appear here. And as the 20th century dawns, the timeline will close.

1811-- As High and Low Harrogate grew and turned from small villages towards amalgamating into one town, the population naturally grew with it. People moved into the area to work in service, mainly in the rapidly expanding hotels. While the town boomed during 'the season', things quietened down very much out of season. This caused a level of poverty that Harrogate was determined to hide from their wealthy and aristocratic visitors. Up until now the two villages had sent their poor to the Pannal workhouse on Whinney Lane, but this was becoming expensive and over subscribed. Harrogate needed a workhouse of it's own. The remedy was found and a new workhouse was built as far away from the spa and it's visitors as was possible. They built it right on the boundary of Harrogate and Knaresborough at Starbeck. The Harrogate workhouse opened in 1811 in the building, still standing alongside Knaresborough Road opposite the end of Stonefall Avenue. It functioned as a workhouse until closure in 1858 following national changes in the poor-law system, and the inmates were transferred to Knaresborough Union Workhouse.

1822 -- Dr. Michael Calvert, a Knaresborough pharmacist, had been following with interest the developments connected to the spas of Harrogate. Very aware of the old springs at Starbeck, he held a public meeting in Knaresborough in March 1822, with the aim of restoring the Starbeck wells so that Knaresborough could 'get in on the action'. Work began on the restoration in May 1822. The cover and basin were replaced and a small cottage was built to house a poor family who would earn their living by attending on visitors.

1824 -- By 1824 visitors were arriving to visit the mineral springs and looking for lodgings. A small farm down by the beck, where Spa Lane meets Knaresborough Road, started taking in lodgers, eventually changing business and becoming The Star Inn. Also around this time, The Spaw Inn (later Prince of Wales) opened for business. The businesses thrived and during 1903 and 1904 the original farm buildings of The Star Inn were demolished and replaced by the the grander Edwardian building. 

1828 -- With the springs being restored and resorted to, one hundred shares were issued in 1828 by the newly formed Knaresborough Spa Company. Money was invested in improvements, and a gothic bath-house, the first in the district, was built.

1848 -- With the Knaresborough Spa Baths Company thriving, work was done to improve the facilities. The archway was added, the bathhouse was extended, reservoirs to contain the water were built, and the small cottage was replaced by the grander building we see today.

1848 -- Also in 1848, after many challenges, the first section of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway opened from Ripon to Weeton on 13th September passing through Starbeck. The Harrogate Hotel, later The Henry Peacock opened on the same day.

1849 -- Having been held up by extra work on the Bramhope tunnel and Wharfe viaduct the Leeds and Thirsk railway opened throughout on 10th July 1849.

1850 -- During 1850 Thomas Addyman, a former orphan from Hartwith in Nidderdale, having made his fortune as a leather worker in Knaresborough, moved his family into Belmont cottages in the heart of Starbeck, having bought all the available land in the triangle bordered by Forest Lane, Bogs Lane, and the railway lines. He improved the value of his land by building many fine houses on his property. He also built the main family home, Belmont Villa which stood just behind Belmont Cottages at the top of the playing field still known by many of us as 'Addyman's Field'. The family would grow through three further generations, all of who served Starbeck admirably.

1851 -- It was intended that the railway line from York to Starbeck would open at the same time as the Leeds and Thirsk railway, but on 11th March 1848, the Knaresborough viaduct collapsed and had to be rebuilt (there's a story). The line to York finally opened on 18th August 1851.

1858 -- By the end of 1858, Starbeck's central position  and railway connections had been taken advantage of. A marshalling yard, an engine shed, goods, coal, and livestock facilities had been added. Further to this the railway connections brought in numerous other businesses and industries. Before long, a mineral water bottling plant, a steam corn mill, two quarries, a jam and preserve factory and eventually in 1935 Octavious Atkinson's steel fabricators had been drawn in.

1868-70 -- In a field adjacent to the Knaresborough Spa company, another sulphur spring was discovered in 1868. A rival company, The Prince of Wales spa company was formed and work began in 1869 building a rival establishment. In April 1870 the rival company opened to the public, boasting 14 baths and the only swimming pool within a 60 mile radius.

1879 -- As Starbeck grew in size and stature throughout the 1870s due to the railways, the rival spa companies entered into an economic joust that would eventually lead to the downfall of both establishments. In a bid to out do eachother, prices were slashed affecting profits and slanderous campaigns were waged by both establishments with money being lost to legal fees. Then in 1879 disaster struck. The price war had taken it's toll and the Prince of Wales company was sold for £3000. Worse was to come in the winter, when in a bid to outdo it's rival, the Knaresborough Spa company sank a new well, which in doing so, cut into a chalybeate spring and contaminated the original source forever. 

1890 --  Having fallen into irreversible decline the Knaresborough Spa Baths closed down completely in 1890.

1900 -- The Harrogate borough council extended it's boundaries to include Starbeck in 1900 and bought what was left of the spa facilities. The water was pumped through a glass pipe to a reservoir on Christ Church Stray from where it was sent by gravity to the Royal and Victoria baths in Low Harrogate. The Prince of Wales Baths, now council owned, remained open for sulphur swimming and bathing until 1939.

Due to the success of the railways Starbeck was by the dawn of the 20th century, established. The population rose in 5 years from 800 in 1898 to 5000 in 1904. The decline of the railways from 1959 to 1978 will be documented in other sections, but it's fair to say, it was just as rapid and dramatic as the rise.