Floral designers have created a Cinderella-themed display for the Autumn Harrogate Flower Show, which starts tomorrow.

The three-day event takes place at Newby Hall, between Boroughbridge and Ripon.

Harrogate Flower Shows are staged twice a year, in April and September, by the North of England Horticultural Society.

The society announced the relocation of its autumn event to Newby Hall at the end of 2019.

The spring flower, which remains at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, will next be staged on April 20-23.

The show at Newby will feature plant nurseries, a giant vegetable competition, live theatre and Britain’s biggest display of autumn blooms.

Visitors will also see arrangements from celebrity floral designer Jonathan Moseley and hear the story of Newby Hall’s rock garden.

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Tickets cost £23.50 for adults and £8 for children aged five to 15. Under fives enter for free. Admission includes access to Newby’s gardens and children’s adventure park.

Show director Nick Smith said:

“Last year we held the autumn show at Newby Hall for the first time, we were delighted that it was such a huge success.

“This autumn, with so many fantastic exhibitors and an enticing programme of events lined up, we are incredibly excited to welcome our visitors and exhibitors back for what promises to be a bigger, brighter and even better autumn show.”

Junior soldiers in Harrogate have become some of the first British army service personnel to swear the oath to King Charles III.

A total of 211 junior entry soldiers at the Army Foundation College, on Penny Pot Lane in Harrogate, swore the oath on Sunday night, signifying their enlistment into the army.

The college provides basic training to recruits aged 16 and 17. The courses last for either 23 or 49 weeks.

credit MOD Crown Copyright 2022

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Covid infections in the Harrogate district have fallen to their lowest level since June last year.

Latest figures show the district’s weekly infection rate per 100,000 people currently stands at 47. The last time it was below this level was 15 months ago.

The rate is also well below its record of 1,906 in January when the Omicron variant fuelled a huge wave of infections at the peak of winter.

Adults aged 50 and over

• People aged five to 49 with health conditions that put them at higher risk,
• Pregnant women
• Care home staff
• Front line health and social care workers
• Carers aged 16 to 49
• Household contacts of people with weakened immune systems

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In Harrogate, some walk-in appointments are available at the Great Yorkshire Showground’s Event Centre, although booking is advised via the NHS website or by calling 119.

North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is running covid vaccinations at the site everyday between 9am and 5pm until Friday.

The CCG said those eligible must be aged 80 and over, or work in health and social care, or were previously shielding.

Meanwhile, Harrogate District Hospital currently has 28 covid-positive patients, although only two of these are primarily receiving treatment for the virus.

The hospital last reported the death of a patient who tested within 28 days on 19 August, with its toll since the pandemic began standing at 274.

Longstanding Harrogate butchers Addyman has come up with a creative window display tribute to the Queen.

Keith Addyman has traded on Commercial Street for 48 years and his grandfather previously had a pork butchers at New Park.

His wife, Sue, created a ‘cake’ for this year’s platinum jubilee made out of a crown and containers the shop uses to make pork pies for weddings.

Ms Addyman, who once met Princess Margaret, said:

“I did it for the jubilee and when it ended I removed the crown. When the Queen died I put it back on.”

The pork pie wedding cake

The pork pie wedding cake, as it’s known, now adorns the shop window alongside a photo of Her Late Majesty.

Ms Addyman added:

“A gentleman came in and said ‘you’re one of the only shops in Harrogate doing something to commemorate the queen.”

Addyman will be closed on Monday, when the state funeral takes place.

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• The Queen’s funeral: Harrogate district arrangements for Monday
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Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

Knaresborough businesses are to be quizzed about the impact of higher energy bills.

Knaresborough Chamber of Trade & Commerce said at its latest meeting it would undertake a survey of local businesses in the coming weeks.

It will attempt to find out how much their bills are increasing by and how much difference recently announced government plans to support them will make.

Peter Lacey, executive member of the chamber, which has about 60 members, said the online survey was likely to go out in the middle of next week and it is hoped members and non-members will respond to provide a fuller picture of the situation confronting businesses in the town.

Harrogate law firm partners with Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

LCF Law staff plant hundreds of trees at their first volunteering day.

Harrogate law firm, LCF Law has entered a partnership with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

LCF Law will help the trust, which looks after the Yorkshire Dales, plant 1,000 trees over the next two years.

Simon Stell, managing partner at LCF Law, said:

“We are hugely committed to working sustainably and offsetting our carbon footprint and we also want to leave a long-term legacy.”

Staff at the law firm, which employs 125 people at offices in Harrogate, Bradford, Leeds and Ilkley, will volunteer for the trust as part of the partnership.

In 2021, the trust planted 31,851 trees.

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A Harrogate woman has received a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assault.

Elaine Manaley, 55, of Dene Park, attacked the woman who was named in court on August 2 last year.

She denied the offence, which occurred at Dene Park, Bilton, but was found guilty at York Magistrates Court on Monday.

Court documents described it as an “appalling assault on a member of the public”.

Manaley was also found guilty of damaging a pair of glasses and a wrist watch worth £120 belonging to the same victim. She denied the charge.

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A warrant was issued for the arrest of Manaley when she failed to appear in court on Friday last week to answer the charges against her.

York Magistrates Court. Credit: Flickr.

She was subsequently arrested and appeared before magistrates on Monday where she admitted three instances of failing to submit to custody having been released on bail.

Manaley was sentenced to nine weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

She was also ordered to pay a total of £894. This consisted of £620 to the Crown Prosecution Service and £274 compensation.

It has to be the quirkiest home in the Harrogate district — yet it appears nobody is in a rush to buy it.

Skelton Windmill has seven floors and offers rooftop views of Ripon Cathedral, York Minster and the white horse at Kilburn.

Built in 1822, it was the windmill for Newby Hall until the First World War. It then remained derelict until it was converted to a home in the 1990s.

Wendy Wilby, a priest, and her husband Peter, a composer, have lived in it since 1998 but are now looking to sell. With their children grown up, the four-bedroom, grade two listed building and accompanying half acre of land is too big.

But after four months on the market it remains unsold, with the seven flights of stairs a drawback to some potential buyers. It’s now on the market for £850,000.

The windmill was built 200 years ago.

Ms Wilby said:

“It’s unique and quirky but you have got to love old buildings and feel the poetry of it.

“My husband is a composer and he finds it an extremely inspiring place to live.”

“We love it but we are getting older. I’m 73 and it’s all right now but in another 10 years it won’t be quite so easy.”

The windmill, which is between Boroughbridge and Ripon, has 70 steps leading to a trap door on to the roof.

Harrogate estate agents Strutt and Parker, which is marketing the property, describes the windmill as ‘one of the most complete windmills surviving in the country’ with ‘stunning views across the North Yorkshire countryside’.

Inside the windmill

The windmill comes with half an acre of land.

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A Harrogate man has been disqualified from owning pets for five years after being found guilty of neglecting two dogs.

Charlie Nelson, 28, of Woodfield View, was found to be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act at York Magistrates Court yesterday.

The court heard Nelson did not take reasonable steps to look after a mastiff called Rocco and a lurcher called Smudge at High Street, Harrogate, on March 18 last year.

Court documents reveal he was banned from keeping animals “to ensure no animals suffer at the hands of the defendant during this period”.

They also show an order was made under section 33 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 depriving him of ownership of a dog and for its disposal.

Nelson was also ordered to pay costs of £200 and a surcharge of £95 to fund victims’ services.

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North Yorkshire Police issued warrants in July for the arrest of Nelson and his brother Robbie Nelson after they failed to turn up in court to face animal cruelty charges.

Robbie Nelson, 24, of Woodfield View, was subsequently banned from keeping animals for five years.

The RSPCA said Rocco and Smudge were malnourished and living in a flat covered in faeces and with carpets soaked in urine.

An RSPCA picture of the flat where the brothers kept dogs.

A leading Harrogate conservationist has said Oak Beck will take three years to recover from this week’s pollution.

Hundreds of fish are believed to have died when the water turned brown over the weekend. The cause is unknown.

Keith Wilkinson has called on Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency to join efforts to prevent further pollutions in the beck, which he said occur too frequently.

He said:

“Pollution events along the Oak Beck — which is classed as a ‘main river’ by the Environment Agency — destroy wildlife and have implications for public health.

“As chairman of the Nidd Gorge Advisory Partnership I would like to invite representatives from the EA and Yorkshire Water to join the partnership and coordinate efforts to eliminate illegal discharges along the Oak Beck and the River Nidd.

“One toxic spill such as that experienced on 10th September sets back all our conservation efforts for at least three years.”

Oak Beck looking discoloured.

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• Hundreds of fish killed by pollution on Harrogate’s Oak Beck
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Oak Beck rises at Haverah Park and empties into the River Nidd at Nidd Gorge.

Dead fish were first spotted in the watercourse at Oak Beck retail park this morning.

The discolouration appears to have affected the stretch from the Hydro to the far side of Knox Lane.

The Stray Ferret met Mr Wilkinson, who is also honorary secretary of Bilton Conservation Group, at Spruisty Bridge on Knox Lane today.

A dead brown trout in Oak Beck today.

Several residents told us they were concerned about the pollution and how seriously it was being investigated.

One person said dog walkers had been keeping their pets on leads to prevent them entering the water. There have also been reports of dead ducks but none were evident during our visit.

Harmful discharges

Mr Wilkinson said a good year for spawning fish on the beck had been ruined.

He said water quality often suffered from the impact of the number of new homes built, as well as harmful discharges entering the drains.

The beck contains brown trout up to several inches long, as well as minnows, bullhead, stone loach and sticklebacks.

Mr Wilkinson said invertebrates on the bed of the beck were also killed and their numbers needed to recover before fish levels could return to normal.

He added that kingfishers and otters had kept away from the river since the incident.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said yesterday she was unable to comment on what, if any, action it had taken because it was not responding to media inquiries about non life-threatening incidents during the Queen’s mourning period.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said yesterday:

“Our teams, along with the Environment Agency, have conducted initial investigations after reports of a pollution at Oak Beck over the weekend.

“Our tests have indicated the substance entering the beck is not sewage. We are continuing to investigate and will also be visiting local businesses to try and trace the source.”

Harrogate Spring Water has said it is finalising the latest expansion plans for its bottled water plant – more than a year and half after previous proposals were rejected following widespread opposition in the town.

The firm held a consultation on plans for its Rotary Wood site this summer and said it would now provide a further update “in the coming weeks”.

That same phrase was used by the Danone-owned company in January 2021 when it said new designs would be revealed “in the coming weeks” after its larger expansion plans were refused by Harrogate Borough Council.

Twenty months on, there is no new application from the firm.

Harrogate Spring Water was first granted outline permission to expand in 2017, however it failed to get approval for final designs which were 40% larger than original plans and would have seen more trees chopped down at Rotary Wood which was planted by children 16 years ago.

The company later announced it would revert back to its original plans and has now released a new statement this week.

A company spokesperson said:

“We started our public consultation process in June because it was important for us to ensure that, as we look to grow, create further job opportunities and continue to support the local and regional economy, we listen to the local community.

“This process has included individual meetings with community stakeholder groups as well as an open public consultation event, allowing people to have their say on the design and landscaping of the proposed extension and surrounding land.

“We have taken these views on board as we work towards finalising our plans for the reserved matters application.

“We anticipate providing a further update on this matter in the coming weeks.”

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More than 400 objections were lodged against the larger expansion plans which councillors claimed put “profit and plastic before impact on the environment” as they voted for refusal in January 2021.

Harrogate Spring Water previously made a commitment to replace felled trees at a rate of two to one and has since said it is looking at ways to “achieve net biodiversity gain” at its site.

Harrogate Spring Water’s headquarters.

It also said the expansion would create 30 jobs and that there is “potential” to make Rotary Wood more accessible to the public.

Speaking earlier this year, the company’s managing director Richard Hall said:

“We feel it is vital for us as a business to take our environmental responsibilities seriously.

“We also want to work in partnership with the local community on this.

“We want them to help shape the woodland into the resource which they would like to see and ensure our extension blends in as well as it can into the surrounding area.”