The suggestion that the Improvement Commissioners should seek the status of an incorporated borough for Harrogate seems to have been first discussed in 1876, and by 1883 it was obvious to many that Harrogate’s incorporation could not long be postponed.
On 21 April a petition for incorporation was presented to the Privy Council in London and on Wednesday 6 February 1884 the official Charter of Incorporation reached Harrogate.