{{Short description|English historian and writer}} {{Use British English|date=September 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Malcolm Neesam | image = Malcolm Neesam 13 May 1995.jpg | alt = Clean-shaven man in his late forties | caption = Malcom Neesam, in 1995 | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|06|28|df=y}} | birth_place = Harrogate, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|06|28|1946|06|28|df=y}} | death_place = Harrogate, England | nationality = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT --> | other_names = | occupation = Historian, writer, librarian, archivist | years_active = 1972–2022 as published author | known_for = | notable_works = – ''Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841'' (2005)<br />– ''Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923'' (2022) | awards = Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate }}
'''Malcolm George Neesam''' (28 June 1946 – 28 June 2022) was an English historian and writer specialising in the history of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. He was also a librarian and archivist. His major works were the first two parts of a projected trilogy on that subject: ''Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841'' (2005) and ''Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923'' (2022). The third part was to remain unfinished when he died, although his research papers are preserved in the Walker-Neesam Archive at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate.
For his services as a historian, Neesam was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate by Harrogate Borough Council in 1996, when he was also given honorary membership of The Harrogate Club. He was involved in the inception of the Harrogate Brown Plaque Scheme, and was influential in the listing of many Harrogate buildings. He was a founder member of Harrogate Civic Society and assisted other major local organisations where their work required historical input. For thirty years he wrote the weekly "Bygone Harrogate" column in the ''Harrogate Advertiser'', and his published works spanned a period of fifty years.
==Background== Malcolm George Neesam was born on 28 June 1946 in a nursing home on Ripon Road,<ref name="The Stray Ferret 28 June 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Plummer |first1=John |title=Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam dies |url=https://thestrayferret.co.uk/harrogate-historian-malcolm-neesam-dies/ |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=The Stray Ferret |date=28 June 2022}}</ref> Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire. His father worked in a shoe-sole factory.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Plummer |first1=John |title=Obituary: Malcolm Neesam 1946–2022 |url=https://thestrayferret.co.uk/obituary-malcolm-neesam-1946-2022/ |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=The Stray Ferret |date=1 July 2022}}</ref> His mother's maiden name was Craggs.{{Refn|GRO: Births Sep 1946 Neesam Malcolm G. Craggs Knaresbro' 2c 118|group=nb}} He was a pupil at St Peter's Church of England Primary School, and Christ Church Secondary School for Boys (later amalgamated with St Aidan's Church of England High School, Harrogate). Neesam never married. He died of cancer in a Harrogate care home on his 76th birthday in 2022.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /> After his death, Graham Chalmers of the ''Harrogate Advertiser'' described him as "Harrogate's greatest historian", and said he had made "a lifetime's contribution to Harrogate's civic life which it is difficult to over-state".<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Chalmers |first1=Graham |title=Tributes after death of Harrogate's greatest historian |url=https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/news/people/tributes-after-death-of-harrogates-greatest-historian-3747587 |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |date=28 June 2022}}</ref>
===Personality=== The ''Stray Ferret'' said: <blockquote>Unfailingly polite, [Neesam] was nevertheless often reserved and diffident in public. He rarely talked about his private life but close friends say he had a keen sense of humour, which could border on the macabre at times, and was an excellent cook.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /></blockquote>
The ''Harrogate Advertiser'' said: <blockquote>Deeply committed to the idea of civic pride, generous in his time and supportive of numerous good works in the community over the years, there has scarcely been a signal major public project in Harrogate in recent decades where Malcolm's extensive knowledge of the town's past has not fed into plans for the future in a positive fashion to the benefit of everyone who lives here. More than merely a brilliant historian, Malcolm Neesam throughout his life represented what it means to be a citizen of his town and of his nation in the best possible way with modesty and respect.<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /></blockquote>
Former chairman of Harrogate Civic Society, Henry Pankhurst, said:<blockquote>[Neesam] was always very well dressed, very precise in language and correct in an old fashioned way. He was immensely gifted and also had an extremely good memory, which proved to be of value as a historian. He was self-sufficient and determined but always appreciative of his friendships and any help he received from anyone.<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /></blockquote>
==Career== ===Employee=== Neesam served three years as a Harrogate Central Library assistant. He then trained and qualified as an archivist and librarian at the University of Leeds. He spent over four years in Hereford setting up a library service for children, then was employed as one of the Duchy of Lancaster's archivists in Northwood, Hillingdon, London. After that he moved back to Harrogate and commuted to York, where he was the York city music librarian until 1974, the year when local government and its employees were reorganised. However the reorganisation made him county music and audiovisiual librarian,<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /> overseeing new administration and the development of media from vinyl through cassette tape to compact discs. From 1996 he was arranging vacations for visiting Americans, for the firm Alumni Holidays.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" />
===Historian=== [[File:Malcolm Neesam for Wikipedia.jpg|thumb|Malcolm Neesam in Stratford-upon-Avon, in August1988]] Neesam's literary life began when as a schoolboy he wrote stories. In 1972 he was asked by the Library Association to edit the 16-page booklet ''Into Space'', a "guide to children's sci-fi", which was distributed throughout the libraries of England. While still an employee in York, Neesam was also serving as a tour guide there. With Alumni Holidays he gave lectures on the local environment, literature and architecture. He became a full-time historical author in 2006, and in due course he was termed "chronicler of our town" by Harrogate MP Andrew Jones.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref name="Community News 28 June 2022" >{{cite news |title=MP pays tribute to Malcolm Neesam |url=https://communitynews.network/2022/06/28/mp-pays-tribute-to-malcolm-neesam/ |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=Community News |date=28 June 2022}}</ref> As a member of the Harrogate Society, he received requests to write local company histories, and to assist with the creation of commemorative plaques in the town.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /> Neesam wrote a "weekly column in the ''Harrogate Advertiser'' running for 30 years on every aspect of the town's heritage".<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" />
Neesam's life's work as a historian was his projected trilogy of works on the history of Harrogate. It took him forty years of research and preparation to finally produce the first part in 2005: his weighty 448-page ''Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841''.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841: Part One – Early Harrogate, 1332–1841: Part Two – Source Materials and Bibliography |url=https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781859361450/ |website=sbns.net |publisher=ISBNS.net |access-date=26 September 2022}}</ref> The second part was a two-volume set, of 684 and 598 pages respectively.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923 |url=https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31305189092&cm_sp=det-_-bsk-_-bdp |website=abebooks.co.uk |publisher=Abe Books |access-date=26 September 2022}}</ref> In 2022, when he published it as ''Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923'', The Harrogate Club named its dining room after him.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref name="The Stray Ferret 31 March 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Barrett |first1=Thomas |title=Harrogate Club honours local historian Malcolm Neesam |url=https://thestrayferret.co.uk/harrogate-club-honours-historian-malcolm-neesam-by-naming-room-after-him/ |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=The Stray Ferret |date=31 March 2022}}</ref> When he died, he was still engaged upon the uncompleted third part, which was intended to encompass Harrogate's history from 1923 onwards. Neesam said of his concentration on Harrogate history: "Some writers can turn to anything. I can only write about things that interest me".<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" />
Besides writing, Neesam's historical work included involvement with the listing of various Harrogate buildings, and in the establishment of a conservation area there – the first one in the town. He was also in at the inception of the Harrogate Brown Plaque scheme,<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /> when he took part in designing Harrogate's first brown plaque, dedicated to Tewit Well, in 1971. He was still unveiling them in 2022, when the 89th one was installed in honour of The Harrogate Club.<ref name="The Stray Ferret 31 March 2022" />
==Institutions and honours== ===Honours=== Neesam was made an honorary member of The Harrogate Club in May 1996, when he was given Freedom of the Borough "for his services as a historian", and "in recognition of his eminence as a local historian and for the help and advice he had given to the Council on a range of matters for many years", by Harrogate Borough Council.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /><ref name="HBC 6 July 2022" >{{cite web |title=Agenda and minutes Council – Wednesday, 6th July, 2022 5.30 pm. 14.01:Honorary Freeman of the Borough – Malcolm Neesam |url=https://democracy.harrogate.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=3735 |website=democracy.harrogate.gov.uk |publisher=Harrogate Borough Council |access-date=25 September 2022 |date=6 July 2022}}</ref>
===Harrogate Civic Society=== In 1970 or 1971 Neesam was a founder member of Harrogate Civic Society,<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /> then known as the Harrogate Society.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /> Harrogate trader William Woods said:<blockquote>It was Malcolm Neesam, Walter Davey and myself started Harrogate Civic Society in 1970 standing outside Woods [shop] when we urgently felt the need for a conservation society to primarily stop the five phase traffic management scheme with the last phase including a fly over passing close to the Majestic Hotel.<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /></blockquote>
===Other organisations=== Neesam was associated with the organisation Friends of Valley Gardens, and helped lead the reopening ceremony of the restored Old Magnesia Well Pump Room on 6 October 2015 when it was about to become an information and education centre.<ref>{{cite web |title=Opening of the Old Magnesia Well Pump Room by Harrogate Historian Malcolm Neesam, Freeman of the Borough of Harrogate |url=http://www.friendsofvalleygardens.co.uk/styled-8/ |website=friendsofvalleygardens.co.uk |publisher=Friends of Valley Gardens |access-date=29 September 2022 |date=2015}}</ref> He was also associated with the Friends of the Mercer Art Gallery, and gave a talk to that association in 2017, about "Harrogate's connection with the Russian Imperial Family".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Richard |title=A talk by Malcolm Neesam on Harrogate's connection with the Russian Imperial family |journal=The Friends of the Mercer Art Gallery Newsletter |date=Spring 2017 |page=3 |url=https://friendsofthemercerartgallery.co.uk/newsletters/spring-2017.pdf |access-date=29 September 2022}}</ref> He was vice president of Harrogate International Festivals, which asked him in 2016 to write the history of its music festival on the occasion of its 50th anniversary,<ref name="HIF obit 2022" >{{cite web |title=Malcolm Neesam 28 June 1946 – 28 June 2022 |url=https://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/news/malcolm-neesam/ |website=harrogateinternationalfestivals.com |publisher=Harrogate International Festivals |access-date=25 September 2022 |date=2022}}</ref><ref name="York Press 19 July 2022" /> and the finale of the 2022 music festival was dedicated to Neesam.<ref name="York Press 19 July 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Horner |first1=Ed |title=Finale of Harrogate Music Festival in memory of Malcolm Neesam |url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/20289922.finale-harrogate-music-festival-memory-malcolm-neesam/ |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=The York Press |date=19 July 2022}}</ref> He was involved with Harrogate Theatre and Harrogate Dramatic Society,<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" /> and assisted in the creation of a new play about Samson Fox: ''The Man who Captured Sunlight'', which was premiered after his death, on 23 September 2022.<ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" /><ref name="Yorkshire Times 26 August 2022" >{{cite news |title=Fox Family To Descend On Harrogate |url=https://www.yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Fox-Family-To-Descend-On-Harrogate |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=Yorkshire Times |date=26 August 2022}}</ref><ref name="Yorkshire Post 20 July 2022" >{{cite news |last1=Hammond |first1=Grace |title=The story of the man 'who captured sunlight' – philanthropist and former Mayor of Harrogate Samson Fox |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/the-story-of-the-man-who-captured-sunlight-philanthropist-and-former-mayor-of-harrogate-samson-fox-3768630 |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=Yorkshire Post |date=20 July 2022}}</ref>
==Walker-Neesam Archive== As of 2022, Neesam's "vast collection of papers and photo library" which "took up an entire room at his home" was to be deposited in the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, as part of the Walker-Neesam Archive. That archive also includes the papers and historical research of Harold Walker, a former editor of the ''Harrogate Herald''.<ref name="Stray Ferret 1 July 2022" />
==Publications== ''Note'': some of Neesam's earlier publications were credited on the title page to "M.G. Neesam".
[[File:Books by Malcolm Neesam (2a).JPG|thumb|right|Two books by Neesam, with vintage John Farrah toffee tins as paperweights]]
===Books and pamphlets=== * {{cite book |editor1-last=Neesam |editor1-first=Malcolm |title=Into Space |date=1972 |publisher=Library Association, Youth Libraries Group |location=United Kingdom |isbn=9780853651161}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Neesam |editor1-first=Malcolm |title=Yearbook: 1977: Into Space |date=1977 |publisher=Library Association |location=UK |isbn=9780853653097}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Neesam |editor1-first=Malcolm |title=Thorpe's Illustrated Guide to Harrogate of 1886 |date=1986 |isbn=9780948742040 |quote=New edition of 1886 edition by Thorpe}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Exclusively Harrogate |date=1989 |publisher=Dalesman Publishing Co Ltd |isbn=978-1870071413}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate in Old Picture Postcards |date=1992 |publisher=Europese Bibliotheek |isbn=978-9028823525}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Ogden 1893-1993. 100 Years. A short history of a family business |date=1993 |publisher=Ogden |isbn=978-0951096932}} (The ISBN is a 2013 reprint) * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate (Archive Photographs) |date=1995 |publisher=The History Press; UK |isbn=978-0752401546}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate (Landmark City Guides) |date=1999 |publisher=Landmark Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1901522556}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Neesam |editor1-first=Malcolm |title=Bygone Harrogate |date=1999 |publisher=Harrogate Advertiser |location=Harrogate |isbn=9781859831557}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Hotel Majestic |date=2000 |publisher=Paramount Hotels |isbn=978-0953786107}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate (Tempus History & Guide): A History of the English Spa from the Earliest Times to the Present |date=2001 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0752422343}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate Grammar School: A Centennial History |date=2003 |publisher=Manor House Publishing |isbn=978-0951096956}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Walk Around Historic Harrogate |date=2005 |publisher=Frith Book Company |location=Salisbury, UK |isbn=9781845676513}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332-1841 |date=2005 |publisher=Carnegie Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1859361450}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate (Pocket Images) |date=2005 |publisher=The History Press Ltd |isbn=978-1845881498}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |last2=Earl |first2=John|last3=Quin|first3=Stuart |title=Kursaal: A History of Harrogate's Royal Hall. |date=2008 |publisher=Harrogate International Centre |location=Harrogate|isbn=978-0955895302}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate (Landmark Visitor Guide) |date=2010 |publisher=Landmark Publishing Ltd |isbn=9781843064282}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |last2=Butterworth |first2=Christopher |last3=Raworths Law Firm |title=Raworths: 125 Years of a Harrogate Law Firm |date=2012 |isbn=978-0951096925}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Ogden Harrogate: 1893-2013: 120 Years - a History of a Family Business |date=2013 |isbn=9780951096932}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Music Over the Waters |date=2017 |publisher=Manor Place Press and the Harrogate International Festival |location=Harrogate, UK}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Harrogate History – Books |url=https://www.harrogatecivicsociety.org/history-books |website=harrogatecivicsociety.org |publisher=Harrogate Civic Society |access-date=29 September 2022}}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Harrogate in 50 Buildings |date=2018 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1445681115}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=A-Z of Harrogate: Places-People-History |date=2019 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1445696560}} * {{cite book |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923 |date=2022 |publisher=Carnegie Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1859362389}}
===Selected articles=== * {{cite news |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Bygone Harrogate |url=http://www.aeden.plus.com/norwood/clifmove.htm |access-date=29 September 2022 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |agency=aeden.plus.com |date=30 September 2005}} * {{cite news |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm |title=Father Christmas and the Old Magnesia Well at the Valley Gardens |url=http://friendsofvalleygard.ipage.com/page3/Harrogate%20Advertiser%2020%20Dec%202012.pdf |access-date=29 September 2022 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |agency=friendsofvalleygard.ipage.com |date=20 December 2012}} * {{cite news |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm (undated) |title=The Stray at Bogs Field – Bygone Harrogate |url=http://friendsofvalleygard.ipage.com/page3/page6/The%20Stray%20at%20Bogs%20Field%20-%20Bygone%20Harrogate,%20Malcolm%20Neesam,%20Harrogate%20Advertiser.pdf |access-date=29 September 2022 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |agency=friendsofvalleygard.ipage.com}} * {{cite journal |last1=Neesam |first1=Malcolm (undated) |title=History of the Crown Hotel, Harrogate |journal=Yorkshire Magazine |date=4 January 2019 |url=https://www.on-magazine.co.uk/yorkshire/history/history-of-the-crown-hotel-harrogate/ |access-date=29 September 2022}}
===Reviews=== * "[Neesam wrote] a series of mammoth books charting [Harrogate's] story from the 1500s to the present day. Painstakingly researched down to the smallest detail, the result of all Malcolm's incredible work is not only important to anyone who cares about Harrogate's past but it also throws new light on Britain's as a whole, in particular, the evolution of British society, economy and culture during the most crucial years of the Victorian era. Admirably, Mr Neesam had kept on working on the final volume of his monumental story of the town even during the toughest of times. It now lies unfinished. As recently as April [2022], he had unveiled the second volume in the mammoth series – ''Wells & Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa 1842–1923''. An epic 1,600 pages long and typically full of painstaking detail, the massive book arrived 17 years after the publication of the opening volume, ''Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841''".<small>Graham Chalmers, ''Harrogate Advertiser'' 28 June 2022.</small><ref name="Harrogate Adv 28 June 2022" />
==Events== Between 28 October and 4 November 2023, Harrogate Central Library hosted an art exhibition called "The Public Library, the People's University", dedicated to Malcolm Neesam. Local artist Matt Wyatt, who contributed 40 works to the exhibition, said, "The show is dedicated to Malcom Neesam with his portrait and written tribute on display".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grafton |first1=Flora |title=Harrogate Library hosts art exhibition dedicated to Malcolm Neesam |url=https://thestrayferret.co.uk/harrogate-library-hosts-art-exhibition-dedicated-to-malcolm-neesam/ |access-date=30 October 2023 |work=Stray Ferret |date=27 October 2023}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=nb}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Malcolm Neesam}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Q_RoOa3xo ''Harrogate Informer'' 26 April 2022: Wells & Swells Part 2, Malcolm Neesam releases his next book (YouTube video)] (Neesam's speech starts at 8:20)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neesam, Malcolm George}} Category:1946 births Category:2022 deaths Category:Historians of England Category:21st-century English historians Category:20th-century English historians Category:English male non-fiction writers Category:People from Harrogate Category:20th-century English male writers Category:21st-century English male writers