STEM Workshops in Harrogate

Harrogate grew as a spa town around its mineral springs. In 1571 William Slingsby found that water from the Tewit Well had similar properties to the springs of Spa in Belgium, the first chalybeate (iron-rich) source discovered in Harrogate. Edmund Deane publicised the waters in Spadacrene Anglica, or the English Spa Fountain, published in 1626. Under the Enclosure Award of 1778, 200 acres of land, including the springs known at that time, were reserved as a public common, the Stray. The area's name lived on in twentieth-century chemistry too: Crimplene, a texturised fibre launched in 1959, was named partly after the Crimple Valley near ICI's headquarters in Harrogate.

The engineer Samson Fox, born in Bradford in 1838, made Grove House in Harrogate his home. In 1877 he developed the corrugated boiler flue for which he became famous, later adopted as standard by the Admiralty and major steamship lines, and he built a water gas plant that gave Harrogate's main street some of the earliest street lighting. Fox served as mayor for three successive years, 1890 to 1892, and funded the Royal Hall. The physician George Oliver, who settled in Harrogate in 1875, developed diagnostic instruments including a haemoglobinometer, and his work on the adrenal gland with Edward Schäfer paved the way for the discovery of adrenaline.

Bettys Bakery and Taylors of Harrogate share a site at Hookstone Park in Harrogate, where Bettys Cookery School also runs. Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust's Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre, opened at Harrogate District Hospital in March 2014, delivers chemotherapy and immunotherapy and runs oncology and haematology clinics. Each July the Yorkshire Agricultural Society holds the Great Yorkshire Show at the Great Yorkshire Showground, which attracted 150,000 visitors in 2026; its Agri-Innovation Village and machinery demonstration ring showcase the latest innovations shaping the future of farming.

Harrogate College, part of Luminate Education Group, is building a new campus with an electric vehicle workshop, a Clean Energy Centre, a digital technology suite and a replica hospital ward, with teaching there due to begin in January 2027. At Harrogate District Hospital, the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre's chemotherapy, immunotherapy and haematology services show the science behind modern cancer care. Each July the Great Yorkshire Show's Agri-Innovation Village puts the latest farming technology in front of visitors.