Bilton Conservation Group was founded by local residents on 19th May 1982 to protect and maintain the rural environment of this, the oldest part of Harrogate. A community was first recorded here, in the heart of the Old Knaresborough Forest, in 982 AD. Harrogate’s original name was ‘Bilton-with-Harrogate’, before the Victorian town of the 1850’s swallowed up Bilton as its suburb.