Removals Company in Harrogate
Harrogate's quality Moving Services
If you're looking for a reliable moving service in Harrogate then your search is over! Van Man Hire are proud to provide a professional, fully insured and low-cost moving service to the people of Harrogate and surrounding areas.
We specialise in full house removals and office relocation. Our team of friendly and efficient packers and movers will use their expertise to relocate all your valuable possessions and make sure each and every item is moved safe, sound and secure to its rightful place in your new property.
House Removals
It doesn't matter whether you are moving items from just 1 bedroom in a flat or the entire contents of a 5 bedroom house with garage and garden furniture! Van Man Hire can help! Our domestic removal services cater for every need. Contact us today for your part or full house removal service.
Office Relocation
We help many businesses with their office moves. Whether you are moving from 1 room in a building to another area of the same building, or moving to completely new premises. We will assist you every step of the way, even down to the dismantling and reassembling of desks and other furniture, to packing away computers and setting them up in their new places. Whatever the level of service you require, we can help!
Removals Vans
We have a selection of 3.5 Tonne Extra-LWB Panel vans, 3.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts and 6.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts to cater for every move of any size. You can see pictures of some of our removal vans here.
Removals Preparation
Like anything in life, preparation is the key and removals is no exception. There's a lot more to it than you think so please check out our Removals Preparation Guide for hints, tips and advice. Everything is covered from protecting your delicate items efficiently to prevent breakages in transit, covering floors to protect laminate flooring from scratches and snags to carpets, right down to what size boxes you need to be using for particular items.
Removal Packs and Boxes
We can't stress enough how important it is to have the correct type of boxes and an adequate amount of them for your moving day. We highly recommend these Discount Moving Packs which can be ordered for next day delivery.
Removals Prices
Unlike the larger moving companies such as Pickfords and Britannia, using Van Man Hire for your removals service in Harrogate often works out half the price of what you would have paid with them. Click the prices links from our menus for a detailed list of our pricing structure and then compare them with the bigger removal companies to know for certain that Van Man Hire is the best choice!
Harrogate's History
The name Harrogate is first attested in the 1330s as Harwegate. It seems to derive from Old Norse horgr' a heap of stones, cairn' + gata 'street', in which case the name presumably meant 'road to the cairn'.
Before the discovery of its iron and sulphur rich water, Harrogate comprised two hamlets, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, close to Knaresborough. The first mineral spring was discovered in 1571 by William Slingsby, who found that water from the Tewit 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 publicised by Edmund Deane. His book, Spadacrene Anglica, or the English Spa Fountain was published in 1626. Harrogate developed a spa town following the enclosure of surrounding lands in 1770, when 200 acres (0.81 km2) were reserved as a public common, the Stray, which has remained a spot for picnicking, kite-flying, outdoor games and local football matches. To provide entertainment for increasing numbers of visitors the Georgian Theatre was built in 1788. Bath Hospital (later the Royal Bath Hospital) was built in 1826. The Royal Pump Room was built in 1842.
In 1870, engineering inventor Samson Fox perfected the process of creating water gas, in the basement laboratory of Grove House. After constructing a trial plant at his home on Scarborough Road, making it the first house in Yorkshire to have gas lighting and heating; he built a town-sized plant to supply Harrogate. After he made Parliament Street the world's first route to be lit by water-gas, newspapers commented: "Samson Fox has captured the sunlight for Harrogate." After donating the towns first fire engine, and building the town's theatre, he was elected mayor for three years, an unbroken record.
The site of Tewit Well is marked by a dome on the Stray. Other wells can be found in Harrogate's Valley Gardens and the Royal Pump Room museum.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Harrogate was popular among the English elite and was frequented by nobility from mainland Europe. Its popularity declined after the First World War. During the Second World War, Harrogate's large hotels accommodated government offices evacuated from London. This paved the way for the town's function as a commercial, conference, and exhibition centre.
In 1893 Harrogate doctor George Oliver was the first to observe the effect of adrenaline on the circulation.
Former employers in the town were ICI, who occupied offices and laboratories at Hornbeam Park, the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), and the Milk Marketing Board. ICI's laboratories at Hornbeam Park were the location of the invention of Crimplene in the 1950s, named after the nearby Crimple Valley and Beck.
The town hosted the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest in the conference centre.
Harrogate won the 2003 Britain in Bloom in the category of 'Large Town' and won the European Entente Florale competition in 2004. This reprises its win in the first Entente Florale competition in 1977. Harrogate was a gold medal winner of Europe in Bloom in 2004. In 2005, a Channel 4 TV show listed Harrogate as the UK's third best place to live. In 2006 it came fourth in the same league; the programme claimed that it placed lower due to "a slight dip in exam results", though presenter Phil Spencer noted that it was his personal favourite.
In 2007, two metal detectorists found the Harrogate hoard, a 10th-century Viking treasure hoard, near Harrogate. The hoard contains almost 700 coins and other items from as far away as Afghanistan. The hoard was described by the British Museum as the most important find of its type in Britain for 150 years.
The Olympic Cauldron for the 2012 London Olympics was built in a ‘Bond Gadget Workshop’ in Harrogate, said designer Thomas Heatherwick.
Local Information for Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. Nearby is the Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate grew out of two existing smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century.
Harrogate spa water contains iron, sulphur and common salt. The town became known as 'The English Spa' in the Georgian Era, after its waters were discovered in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries the 'chalybeate' waters (i.e. containing iron) were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town.
Harrogate railway station and Harrogate bus station in the town centre provide transport connections. Leeds Bradford International Airport is 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Harrogate. The main road through the town is the A61, connecting Harrogate to Leeds and Ripon. Harrogate is connected to Wetherby and the A1, by the A661. The town of Harrogate had a population of 71,594 at the 2001 UK census; the urban area comprising Harrogate and nearby Knaresborough had a population of 85,128, while the figure for the much wider Borough of Harrogate, comprising Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and a large rural area, was 151,339.
The town motto is Arx celebris fontibus, which means "a citadel famous for its springs."
A Complete Guide to Harrogate can be found here along with further information at this website.
