endlessrarities | Inside the Pump-House...

'You've seen one Victorian building, you've seen 'em all," I hear you scoff... Well, I can almost guarantee (unless you've been there before!) that this post is going to lead you off down a rather unexpected avenue.

Let me dazzle you first of all with ornate plasterwork. In a marvellous condition, and beautifully painted, so it's displayed in its full glory:-

As far as I was concerned, this gave the interior a massive 'thumbs up', and that was before I met the stained glass windows:-

Then the displays in what I thought was just another tiny little museum devoted completely to social history took an unexpected twist:-

Classical vases nestling alongside Meso-American ceramics? What the blazes is that all about???

The answer to that question was simple enough. A local antiquarian/collector of curios passed his collection to the city, and it's now displayed in this little space in the middle of Harrogate. In pride of place amongst his acquisitions was the splendid fellow pictured below:-

So... We went to Harrogate in search of a Victorian spa, and we found an Ancient Egyptian mummy. I certainly didn't see that one coming!

Then we found tea, cake and chocolate. But that's another story!!!