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Holy well

The Royal Pump Room

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

The strongest sulphur well in Europe, once called the Stinking Spaw.

Harrogate grew rich on its springs, discovered from 1571. The sulphur water at the Royal Pump Room smells strongly of rotten eggs and was nicknamed the 'Stinking Spaw', but Victorian visitors flocked to drink and bathe in it.

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When
From 1571
Where
53.9950, -1.5450
Group
Holy wells & springs

Visiting

The Royal Pump Room Museum is open to visitors. You can still taste the water if you dare.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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