Harrogate’s Award-Winning Park

The Original “Friends of the Valley Gardens”
We are not the first Friends Group to support Valley Gardens. In 1986, the Sun Pavilion and Colonnades were in disrepair and under threat. A group of friends, lead by Anne Smith, joined together to save them and to prevent the building of a car park on Garden land. Their efforts spanned 12 years and included help from James Herriot, David Bellamy, and Geoffrey Smith among many others and culminated in the grand re-opening of the Sun Pavilion by the Queen in Dec 1998.
The history of this group is well documented in the press coverage of the time. The article below, by Malcolm Neesam from the Harrogate Advertiser of 8th Oct 2010, summarises this history. (Click on the article for a larger version.)



If you would like to read more about the group’s struggle, click on the articles listed below which were kindly provided by Anne Smith.