Harewood & Kirkheaton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, south of Harrogate, close to the historic town of Knaresborough. Knaresborough is also the site of the oldest chemist shop in England, opened in 1720. Richard II was imprisoned in the town, four knights accused of murdering Thomas Beckett were also said to have taken refuge in Knaresborough and the Constable of Scotland, Hugh de Moreville is said to have come over with William the Conqueror and held manors in co.Rutland and Northamptonshire.
David I King of Scots, it seems, granted to Hugh de Morville the Lordship of Westmoreland proper, that is, Westmoreland north of Shap Fell and the Howgill Fells, with its centre at Appleby on the upper Eden. Towards the end of that King's reign Hugh de Morville founded Dryburgh Abbey in Roxburghshire. These obtained lands comprised Lauderdale together with detached estates at Saltoun, Nenthorn and Newton Don, at Dryburgh on the River Tweed opposite Old Melrose, Scotland, and probably also at Heriot, Midlothian. In the west of Scotland he was given the whole of Cunninghame, the northernmost third of Ayrshire.
Lauderdale, with a Crown castle below Lauder, was held, it seems, for six knights' service; Cunningham possibly for two, with a castle at Irvine. Hugh and his associates at first took refuge in Knaresborough Castle; afterwards the king sent them to obtain absolution from Pope Alexander III. It is said that all four were enjoined to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but it is not known whether they made it there.
The first mineral spring in Harrogate was discovered by William Slingsby in 1571, who found that water from the Tewitt Well possessed similar properties to that from the springs of the Belgian town of Spa, which gave its name to spa towns. The medicinal properties of the waters were more widely publicised by one Edmund Deane, whose book, Spadacrene Anglica, or the English Spa Fountain was published in 1626. Following this Harrogate developed considerable fame as a spa town. The Harrogate Stray was created in 1778 by an act of Parliament.
The Harewood castle was founded by Sir William De Aldeburgh, he was granted a licence to crenellate, in 1366. Harrogate is strongly connected to Leeds, and is part of the Leeds City Region. When De Aldeburgh died in 1388 the castle transferred to the Ryther and the Redmayne (Redman) families, into which his two daughters had married. In 1574, James Ryther and partner William Plompton bought out the Redman family, although Ryther's financial situation must have worsened because he died in London's Fleet Prison in 1595. His son and two daughters sold the castle to Sir William Wentworth of Gawthorpe Hall in 1600 to clear debts, this is probably when Harewood Castle ceased to be a main residence. The castle was last occupied in the 1630s and in 1656 it was put up for sale as an 'upstanding source of stone and timber'. The Wentworths sold Harewood and Gawthorpe to Sir John Cutler, by which time the castle had probably already been partly dismantled. The Harewood house is still the family home of the Lascelles family.