Knaresborough

Knaresborough is an old historic market town, spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire located on the River Nidd, approximately four miles east of the centre of Harrogate. Knaresborough is mentioned in the Doomsday Book as Chednarsburg and Knaresborough Castle dates from Norman times; around 1100 the town began to grow, provide a market and attract traders to service the Castle. Two celebrated local characters are Blind Jack, who was blinded by smallpox at the age of six and became a civil engineer, and Mother Shipton, soothsayer, who was allegedly born in a cave just outside town.