HARROGATE SHOW HELD ON THE STRAY COMMON.

Shannon News, 3 September 1929, Page 1

HARROGATE SHOW HELD ON THE STRAY COMMON.

ROYAL SHOW SOCIETY , ANNEXES PORTION LEEDS, England. The Stray—that magnificent common, 200 acres'in extent—a portion of which has been temporarily annexed for the Jxoval Agricultural Show, is at once Harrogate's pride and one of its greatest attractions. Cutting through almost {lie centre of the town, it is nowhere enclosed and extends from Low Harrogate to High Harrogate. For this unusual feature residents of to-day can praise their fat-seeing; predecessors, w ho. iii 1770, when the 'hind around {he town was being disposed of by net of parliament, obtained the insertion of a clause providing that 200 acres adjoining the mineral springs should be C'.nvcited into a “stinted pasture” and should ever remain open and unenclosed. The wisdom of such a provision is realised now that Harrogate has grown to its present proportions, for the town can never be overcrowded with buildings and must forever preserve its almost unique spaciousness. Favoured Geographically. Asfia holiday resort Harrogate is favourably placed geographically. Although w'ithin three-quarters of an hour’s train journey of. several of the great industrial centres of the West Riding, it is also within even easier roach of the most picturesque moorland scenery in Yorkshire^ —that county of many contrasts. Most accessible —and possibly ntosf picturesque of all the famous Yorkshire dales —is' the smiling valley of the Wharfe; low T er Wharfedale with Almscliff Crag, a towering group of roclts surrounding Druidical remains; Bolton Abbey, the nave of which is still user! as a parish church, and the St rid—where the river is forced into a.. narrow' torrent, and upper Wharfedale, a region of stone-built villages, heather-clad hills and high passes leading westward to the English Lakes; Fourteen miles north of Harrogate is Fountains Abbey, possibly the bestpreserved Cistercian abbey in Great Britain. Three miles nearer, in the pany of Boston, as chairmtin of the council’s co-operating committee of the' powder industry, showed that only one instance has occurred since 1927 re-/ quiring the w-e of life “interstate electricity clause” developed by the New 7 England Council. ' The clause w r as drawn to be inserted in interstate contracts for the purchase or sale of electricity, in order to “ retain state regulation and to prevent the necessity of national regulation through intervention. ” ’

The study of wavs and means for speeding up the electrification of rural areas in New England has been completed by the council’s farm power committee, it was reported, and f tihe council’s co-operating power committee has brought up to date its study oi interstate transmission and. interconnections in New England. ■

same direction, is the ancient market town of Ripon, where a number of old customs, including the nightly blowhjg of the Wakoman’s Horn, are still kept up. The Wakeman’s house, in the Mar ket Place, a building of considerable antiquarian interest, bears the motto. •‘Unless ye Lord keeps ye cities, y» Wakeman waketh in vain.”

Northwestward lies Nidderdalo. an jilier picturesque valley with moor, beyond, while but 3§ miles to the eas; is Knaresborough, with 'its castle, superbly situated on a cliff overlookin; the -river Nidd, the Dropping We! which petrifies small objects left, to bsaturated' in the water, the cave of Mother Shipton of many legendary tales tind other objects of interest. Roman Remains Found. Not far away, are Aldborouga and Goioughbridge, both of which are irteres'i mg, the former for Roman re nnins with some well-preserved tessol • 'utod pavements. B.imham Rocks, in the Nidd Valley :10 believed to have been used by Up Druids in their rito«', and a few mile further away js Patoley Bridge:' itsoli i centre with very many places of interest in its immediate neighbour hood. These include How Hteau, a wooded chasm through which Hows, 7 1 ' root below, a roaring torrent; Guyv cliffe, an eminence with a niagniticenl panorama of rugged moorland scenery, and Stump Cross Caverns, with stalactites even larger and mere wonder ul than, although not so accessible as, more famous Cheddar.

Wensleydalc, famed for cheeses and seme of Yorkshire’s most serene ami gracious scenery, is but 40 miles away. For the stranger to the district, however, there is scarcely need to go so far afield to sample Harrogate’s attractions. The town itself, well planned,; airy and spacious, will please. An alert municipality caters in many ways for the visitors on whom the prosperity ■of the residents so largely depends. Hotels, ranging from the palatial to the comparatively modest, abound; an excellent, symphony orchestra plays, regularly in the Royal Hall; there are cafes and cinemas, and a shopping street that is sometimes dubbed the Bond Street, of the North; there are three golf links and tennis courts in abundance —there is, in brief, everything that the most up-to-date holiday resorts have in common, and some few natural advantages possessed by: no other.