Lis Lambertsen
Harrogate is consistently voted one of the happiest places to live in Britain – and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a Georgian spa town and a perfect base for the Rail Discoveries five-day tour, Yorkshire By Steam.
I’m staying at the Cedar Court Hotel, a four-star, Grade II listed building just a short walk from the town centre.
Set back from the road with a large front lawn, it is an imposing building.
On the site of Harrogate’s first hotel it has views over the famous Stray parkland. My double room looks out over the front of the hotel, the armchair is comfortable and the bathroom spacious.
The hotel’s Porterhouse restaurant serves a good variety of traditional dishes from the grill, alongside pasta and salads. The Yorkshire cheese board is especially generous. Perfect.
A trip to Bettys Tea Room is a must during a trip to Harrogate and I am not disappointed, with my Earl Grey tea and custard slice. Suitably refreshed, there’s time to wander round the town centre – a perfect mix of local businesses and familiar high street shops.
Harrogate is also blessed with lots of green spaces in which to sit back, enjoy the architecture people-watch.
Gin lovers will adore the Slingsby Gin Experience, handily just around the corner from Bettys. Made with water from the world-famous Harrogate aquifer, Slingsby Gin is a local success story and well worth a visit.
But steam trains are the focus of this trip and our first encounter is on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, where we start our journey at, appropriately, Keighley.
Highly evocative of an era long gone by, walking into the station is like stepping back in time. The engines are no less impressive. An army of volunteers has been restoring and maintaining the buildings and trains since the line was re-opened in 1968.
The Preservation Society now runs it full-time after emerging victorious from a six-year battle with British Rail.
The line takes you from Keighley through Ingrow, where you can visit not one, but two award-winning railway museums.
We spend an extremely enjoyable few hours in the Carriage Works where we are lucky enough to sample the plush surroundings of a restored first-class carriage, complete with individual leather chairs. The commitment of the HISTORICAL The North Yorkshire Moors Railway and