# Boston Spa

Boston Spa is a village and civil parish in the Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England. Situated 3 miles (5 km) south of Wetherby, Boston Spa is on the south bank of the River Wharfe across from Thorp Arch. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 4,006 rising to 4,079 in the 2011 census.
It sits in the Wetherby ward of Leeds City Council and the Wetherby and Easingwold parliamentary constituency.

## Etymology

Boston Spa's name is not attested before appearing on printed maps in 1771, when it was labelled Thorp Spaw, presumably 'the spa associated with Thorp Arch' (the nearest settlement). The Boston element is attested in 1799 as Bostongate and in 1822 as Boston, probably the surname of a local family, whose name derives from Boston, Lincolnshire, and their name was given to the settlement that grew up around the spa.

## History

The Boston Spa hoard, a Romano-British coin hoard dating to the mid second-century AD and comprising a grey ware vessel and 172 silver denarii, was found in the town in 1848.
In 1744, John Shires established a spa resort when he discovered sulphur springs in the magnesian limestone. It was originally known as Thorp Spaw. In 1753, the Tadcaster to Otley road that passes through Boston Spa was turnpiked. In the same year, Joseph Taite built a house to accommodate visitors, it became the Royal Hotel which is still standing, but converted into flats and shops. By 1819, Boston Spa had a population of more than 600, and several inns and other houses offering accommodation had been built. Spa baths were built to allow visitors to take the waters. The spa declined when Harrogate became popular as a spa town.
The Boston Spa and Thorp Arch Conservation Area, designated in 1969, extended across Boston Spa and Thorp Arch parishes. It was revised and divided in 2009, restricting the boundaries to Boston Spa parish and reshaped to exclude areas of late-20th-century estate housing to the south of the High Street. The conservation area boundary focuses on the historic settlement. It was extended to the west, to encompass West End, an area of dwellings constructed during the Second World War to house workers from Thorp Arch munitions factory. The war had a major effect on Boston Spa's population, society and surroundings, and the buildings stand as a testament to that history.

## Governance

When Boston Spa was founded in 1744 it was in the township of Clifford in the old parish of Bramham, in the upper division of the wapentake of Barkston Ash, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1866 to 1896, it was part of the civil parish of Clifford with Boston, and became a separate civil parish in 1896. The parish was in Wetherby Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, when it was transferred to the City of Leeds in the new county of West Yorkshire.

## Geography

Boston Spa is in the north-east of the City of Leeds district about three miles south-east of Wetherby and immediately north of Clifford on the Collingham to Tadcaster road, the A659. It is at a bridging point on the south side of the River Wharfe, linked to Thorp Arch on the north bank by Thorp Arch Bridge. The village, surrounded by rolling, arable farmland, developed along High Street with Bridge Road at the centre.
The village is on the narrow Permian Magnesian Limestone ridge that runs north-south from North Yorkshire to Nottinghamshire.

## Amenities

Boston Spa has a post office, a small library and a filling station. There are three public houses, (the Admiral Hawke and the Fox and Hounds both owned by Samuel Smith Old Brewery) and the Crown Hotel on the high street owned by an independent group of investors, a small Costcutter supermarket in the former Royal Hotel and several independent retailers in the village centre (a butcher, hardware shop and several takeaway restaurants).
The Crown Hotel closed in 2012 and was subject to a public inquiry as to its future use. Arguments presented in 2014 by Tesco that the premises "had little or no use as a hotel facility" were accepted at appeal.
The Boston Spa branch of the British Library, the Document Supply Service, is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-east of the village in the Thorp Arch Trading Estate. The branch contains the British Library newspaper collection.
There are two churches St Mary's Parish Church and Boston Spa Methodist Church.

## Education

The village primary schools are: Primrose Lane Primary School, St Edward's Catholic Primary School and St Mary's CE Primary School.
Close by in Clifford, is Boston Spa Academy, the local secondary school taking pupils from areas which also feed comprehensives in Wetherby, Garforth and Pendas Fields. The school has success in sports and science teaching, and caters for pupils undertaking GCSEs, A levels, GNVQs and those with special needs according to its Ofsted reports.
Other educational establishments in Clifford include the children's hospice Martin House and St John's Catholic School for the Deaf which has a UK-wide catchment.

## Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from the Emley Moor TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Leeds, Heart Yorkshire, Capital Yorkshire, Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire, Hits Radio West Yorkshire and Tempo FM, a community based station which broadcast from Wetherby. Local newspaper is served by the Wetherby News.

## Housing

Boston Spa has a mix of private and council houses. Most of the council housing is situated around Clifford Moor Road and Wickham Avenue. The east side of Boston Spa comprises mainly larger houses. There are many Georgian villas and town houses on High Street.

## Events

The village annual gala is held in June. Since 2009 a beer festival takes place in the village hall. The village hall has hosted a nationally renowned weekly jazz night since January 2005 and an annual arts festival usually in October.

## Sport and recreation

Boston Spa Hockey Club is a field hockey club that competes in the North Hockey League and the Yorkshire & North East Hockey League.
The route of The White Rose Way, a long-distance walk from Leeds to Scarborough, North Yorkshire passes through the village. As does the Ebor Way which passes over the river at Thorp Arch village before continuing towards Tadcaster.

## Gallery

* Georgian houses on High Street
* Leys Lane
* St. Mary the Virgin church
* High Street