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West Park United Reformed Church, Harrogate

1862 establishments in EnglandChurches completed in 1862Churches in HarrogateGrade II listed churches in North YorkshireUnited Reformed churches in England
Use British English from July 2020
West Park URC Harrogate, 17 July 2020 (5)
West Park URC Harrogate, 17 July 2020 (5)

West Park United Reformed Church is located in the West Park area of Harrogate, England, and is a Grade II listed building. It was designed in Nonconformist Gothic style as West Park Congregational Church by Lockwood & Mawson and completed in 1862 for around £5,000. Along with Belvedere Mansion across the road, it was intended as part of the prestigious entrance to the Victoria Park development (now West Park). For the Congregationalists it was meant to house an increasing congregation of visitors brought to the spa town by the recently-built railways. It became a United Reformed church in 1972. Its first minister was the much-loved Reverend John Henry Gavin who died in his prime of tuberculosis and had a big funeral in which many followed the coffin. Sir Francis Crossley laid the foundation stone, Thomas Raffles preached at the opening, and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia later worshipped there. The building has a large Binns pipe organ and the tower contains a single bell cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The gargoyles on the tower have chicks carved on the nest-like capitals below them, and the south wall has twelve carved heads of historical characters, including Isaac Watts, John Bunyan, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article West Park United Reformed Church, Harrogate (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

West Park United Reformed Church, Harrogate
Raglan Street,

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N 53.9907 ° E -1.5405 °
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West Park URC Church

Raglan Street
HG1 1LE
England, United Kingdom
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West Park URC Harrogate, 17 July 2020 (5)
West Park URC Harrogate, 17 July 2020 (5)
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Borough of Harrogate
Borough of Harrogate

The Borough of Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its population at the census of 2011 was 157,869. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate, but it also includes surrounding towns and villages. This includes the cathedral city of Ripon and almost all of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the Masham and Wath rural districts, and part of Thirsk, from the North Riding of Yorkshire, along with the boroughs of Harrogate and the city of Ripon, the Knaresborough urban district, Nidderdale Rural District, Ripon and Pateley Bridge Rural District, part of Wetherby Rural District and part of Wharfedale Rural District, all in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The district is part of the Leeds City Region, and borders seven other areas; the Craven District, Richmondshire, Hambleton District, Selby District and York districts in North Yorkshire and the boroughs of the City of Bradford and City of Leeds in West Yorkshire. It falls primarily within the HG, LS and YO postcode areas, while a small part of it is within the BD area. It is the county's fourth largest district, as well the seventh largest non-metropolitan district in England. It was previously the county's second largest district until 1 April 1996, when the parishes of Nether Poppleton, Upper Poppleton, Hessay and Rufforth were transferred from the Borough of Harrogate to become part of the newly formed York unitary authority. According to the 2001 census, these parishes had a population of 5,169.

Harrogate
Harrogate

Harrogate ( HARR-ə-gət, -⁠gayt, -⁠ghit) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. 13 miles (21 km) away from the town centre is the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Nidderdale AONB. Harrogate grew out of two smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century. For three consecutive years (2013–2015), polls voted the town as "the happiest place to live" in Britain.Harrogate spa water contains iron, sulphur and common salt. The town became known as 'The English Spa' in the Georgian era, after its waters were discovered in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries its 'chalybeate' waters (containing iron) were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town. Harrogate railway station and Harrogate bus station in the town centre provide transport connections. Leeds Bradford Airport is 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Harrogate. The main roads through the town are the A61, connecting Harrogate to Leeds and Ripon, and the A59, connecting the town to York and Skipton. Harrogate is also connected to Wetherby and the A1(M) by the A661, while the A658 from Bradford forms a bypass around the south of the town. Harrogate had a population of 73,576 at the 2011 UK census; the built-up area comprising Harrogate and nearby Knaresborough had a population of 89,060, while the figure for the much wider Borough of Harrogate, comprising Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon, as well as a number of smaller settlements and a large rural area, was 157,869.The town motto is Arx celebris fontibus, which means "a citadel famous for its springs".