The death of Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam this week prompted a German friend of his, Benedict Hess, to contact us about their 50-year friendship. Here are his words.

With great sadness, I learned this week about Malcolm’s death. It’s exactly 50 years this summer since he paid his first visit to Munich.

His and my parents became friends some years earlier when they met by chance on holiday in Italy and my dad came up with the idea of Malcolm coming to Munich to stay with us for a couple if weeks.

Although my brother and I were considerably younger than Malcolm — he was 26, my brother was 10 and I was only eight — we were fascinated by this young man who spoke good German, and we became lifelong friends.

Over the next decades, we saw each other on several occasions, either in Harrogate or Munich.

Benedict (left) and Malcolm (third left) with friends in Munich in 1983: Pic by Benedict Hess

My grandparents owned a little holiday home on the Côte d’Azur, where my family spent many happy summers in the seventies and eighties, and Malcolm joined us there.

In retrospect, I always thought that Malcolm was a little suspicious of all those French people there, although he really admired the beautiful landscape. He was a Yorkshireman through and through, as he also was a true Englishman, both of which I truly admired.

I remember one day marvelling over a wooden model of St. Paul’s Cathedral in the V&A Museum, I believe. When I said that much of its architecture reminded me of classic Italian buildings, his response was rather indignant, he said: “We’re in the north. Who needs Italy?” It was then and there that I realised how proud Malcolm was of Great Britain’s rich history.

1972 Olympics in Munich

When he first came to Munich in the summer of 1972, the city was right in the middle of the Olympic Games. I remember us three, Malcolm, Daniel and myself, strolling through the city and the Olympic Park for hours and days on end. The sun shone every day and though I was only eight at the time, I clearly saw and felt that those days were very, very special.

But I also remember clearly those fateful hours when terrorists assaulted Israel’s Olympic team. My parents, Malcolm, Daniel and I were glued to the TV until late on September 5. And then two helicopters, flying very low, passed over our house on the way to Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, where, as the world was about to learn, everything ended in total disaster. Terrible memories and I know that Malcom also never forgot.

In 1988, as a young adult, I decided to go to England alone, after we went there as a family in the jubilee spring of 1977 (I have many happy memories from our stays in London and Harrogate from that). Malcolm and I agreed to meet in London for a few days before traveling to Harrogate.

Malcolm in London in 1988. Pic by Benedict Hess

He asked me if there was anything in particular I would like to do and I said that I really would like to see a musical. And we went to a musical, 42nd Street, starring a barely 19-year-old Catherine Zeta Jones in the lead. But that was not all, because Malcolm also purchased tickets for the Proms, for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Regent’s Park and for a comedy at The Swan Theatre in Stratford- upon-Avon. Malcolm was a generous man, a thoughtful and kind man who did everything to make you feel welcome and comfortable.

The year before last, we resumed the habit of telephoning and emailing regularly again and that was how I learned about his illness. And, although I knew, I am in a state of shock right now. My thoughts are with Malcolm and also with Tom and Jamie, his nephews.

I didn’t mean to write so much but I simply got carried away by so many fond memories of a man I knew for 50 years and who is now gone forever. But not in the minds of so many people who will always remember him.

It is very consoling to know that Malcolm Neesam was widely loved and regarded and that he will never be forgotten in Harrogate. Never ever. Neither will he be here in Munich. He will be sorely missed. And always be remembered with the deepest affection.

Read more:

• Tributes paid to ‘Mr Harrogate’ Malcolm Neesam
• Malcolm Neesam History: Harrogate’s thriving working men’s clubs

Hundreds of people visited Harrogate fire station today for an open day.

Children got the chance to sit in the fire engines and watch demonstrations while parents were able to receive advice on fire prevention.

There was also the chance to sit in police vehicles.

The station, on Skipton Road, has 40 firefighters operating on four watches.

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• Harrogate firefighters issue smoke alarm warning after house fire
• Up to 1,000 runners set for Sunday’s Harrogate 10k

A Ripon Grammar School student with a talent for translation has won a first prize in a prestigious University of Oxford languages competition which attracted 14,000 entrants from all over the UK.

In addition to sixth form student Anna Cope scooping the national title for her skilful German translation in the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, Year 10 student Jack Wright won the regional award for his outstanding Italian translation.

Both entered the advanced level of the competition, aimed at A-level students.

Anna, 16, who is studying biology, chemistry and German at A-level and taking evening classes in Russian, said she was absolutely delighted to hear she’d initially won the regional competition.

She said:

“I’d have been happy getting a commendation. But to hear I’d actually won the national for the best German translation for level 4 was quite mind-blowing.”

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The gifted linguist, who aims to take a gap year after sixth form to learn a new language and experience a new culture before applying for universities abroad, including in Greece and Korea, to study psychology, law or modern languages, said she found the translation challenging.

She added:

“The hardest part was wording it in a way the writer would have spoken it. It’s hard to decide whether something is descriptive or analytical when it’s in another language and you may be struggling to understand the entirety of the text.

“I had to use synonyms to replace words that simply wouldn’t make sense in English such as switching ‘with stopped breath’ to ‘with bated breath’.”

Meanwhile, Year 10 pupil Jack, who was born in Italy but now lives outside Ripon, was delighted to receive the North-East regional prize: “I speak, read and write in Italian, and so when I saw the competition I thought, ‘Why not?’.

The 15-year-old, who plans to pursue a career as a 3D designer, had to translate an extract of an Italian novel.

He said:

“It was OK for the most of it but had a few metaphors which required some thinking to translate into English. I gained some confidence in my abilities from the competition, especially when I found out that I’d won the regional, it came as a surprise.”

Eight RGS students in total entered the competition, which is inspired by the life and work of Anthea Bell, one of the finest and most influential literary translators of the 20th and 21st centuries, and judged by a team of 36 undergraduates and professional translators.

There are two indisputable facts about Pateley Bridge: 1 It’s beautiful. 2 It’s hilly. Which makes it the perfect challenge for running.

Trouble is, if you want to avoid the roads and get the authentic Nidderdale cross-country experience you risk getting lost or being garrotted by a low hanging branch.

So the formation of a new trail running group called Pateley Runners presents the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

Trail running, as opposed to road running, is about being close to nature rather than pounding tarmac.

The group, set up by keen runner Si Lawson, is an informal community of runners like the Early Bird Run Crew, which organises regular free jogs around Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Si promised the group would be inclusive and friendly and, better still, free.

Passing former lead mines.

About 25 of us turned up at the bandstand in Pateley at 7pm for the inaugural Tuesday night run. A good proportion were what is generously described in running circles as ‘veterans’.

There is no way out of Pateley that doesn’t involve hills but few are as tough as the climb to Greenhow Hill, the highest place in the Harrogate district, with reputedly the highest parish church in England.

So the first stretch, which began along dungy sheep fields and quiet lanes, opened the lungs but the pace was gentle. It was certainly easier than cycling to Greenhow and there was not an engine to be heard.

Si and two friends took it in turns to lead and bring up the rear and every so often they stopped to regroup. Nobody was left to run alone and we chatted as we jogged.

The notorious Nidderdale microclimate led to a brief downpour but nobody minded. By then we had hit our stride and the whole point of the exercise is to feel alive in nature.

The route we followed.

We passed lead mines, cattle grids and caravan parks before finally heading back down to the river in the muggy damp twilight, brushing off flies, which sparked talk about the best way to repel them. Marmite, garlic and Avon cream were all mentioned.

Stopping to regroup.

We saw Scouts throwing axes in a field before being summoned by the sound of church bells back to the bandstand in the recreation ground at Pateley.

We had covered about six miles in a glorious hour of friendly and relaxed running. It’s hard not to feel happy when you’re in the heart of such countryside but being part of the group enhanced the experience. Si is knowledgeable and welcoming — little wonder the group already has 100 followers on Facebook.

Pateley Runners meets on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday but anyone is welcome to arrange their own runs and invite others.

More details are available here.

Read more:

• New trail running group formed in Pateley Bridge
• Ofsted praises ‘small school with big ambitions’ in Nidderdale

It is doubtful whether anyone has known more about Harrogate’s people and places than Malcolm Neesam, who died on his 76th birthday this week.

Malcolm, who wrote about a dozen books and numerous other publications about the town, dedicated much of his life to telling Harrogate’s story. He did it better than anyone and will be remembered as the town’s greatest historian.

He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the buildings and people that shaped Harrogate but he was also gentle and modest, and never boastful or condescending in print or real life.

Underpinning it all was a deep love for the town, and in particular the Stray.

Born in a nursing home on Ripon Road in Harrogate on June 28, 1946, Malcolm’s father worked for a rubber company that manufactured soles for footwear.

Sunday afternoon walks with his mother stimulated his interest in history at the age of six or seven. She would often talk about things they passed. “I didn’t need a playground,” he once said. “I had the Stray.”

He attended St Peter’s Church of England Primary School, “a very happy little school”, as he described it, and then Christ Church Secondary School for Boys. The school, which was situated between the Empress roundabout and Christ Church on the Stray, amalgamated with St Peter’s Secondary School for Girls to create St Aidan’s Church of England High School more than 50 years ago. Retirement flats now occupy the site.

In his last year at Christ Church, Malcolm’s parents noticed an advert for an assistant at Harrogate library and thought his developing interest in history would make him suitable.

Photographed in London in 1988. Pic by Benedict Hess

After three years in that role he accepted a post at Leeds University studying archives and librarianship. He later attributed his thoroughness at gathering source material for books to his training as an archivist.

Malcolm then moved to Hereford for four-and-a-half years to set-up the city’s first children’s library service before moving further south to Northwood, in the London borough of Hillingdon close to the Metropolitan line, to work as an archivist for the Duchy of Lancaster.

Music librarian

He did this for three years before going to York, shortly before local government reorganisation in 1974, to become city music librarian.

But when reorganisation changed everything, Malcolm was offered a post by the new local authority as county music librarian, which involved buying music for county library services. Being a great lover of classical music, he was perfectly suited.

He stayed in York until 1996, overseeing new methods of administration, storage and repairs as technology changed and vinyl was replaced by cassettes and then CDs in North Yorkshire libraries. All the time he commuted from Harrogate.

He admired York’s decision to effectively pull out of North Yorkshire local government and become independent in the 1990s. Malcolm hated the trend towards ever more remote forms of local government, which will culminate in the creation of North Yorkshire Council next year and the abolition of seven district councils, including Harrogate Borough Council. He felt the more decision-making left Harrogate, the more the town lost control of its wealth and character.

Read more:

• Tributes paid to ‘Mr Harrogate’ Malcolm Neesam
• Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam dies
• Harrogate Club honours local historian Malcolm Neesam

In 1996 he received an offer to work for an American company called Alumni Holidays, which arranged holidays for former university students.

He had done some guiding in York, which proved useful in his new role in which he gave lectures on subjects such as Scarborough, York and the Yorkshire Dales, Yorkshire architecture and Yorkshire literature. Alumni Holidays was horrified by his initial omission of James Herriot so the author was eventually added to his list of topics.

Malcolm worked for the company on a freelance basis for 10 years but the Madrid train bombing in 2004 severely disrupted business by leaving many Americans too afraid to travel to Europe.

Full-time writer

In 2006 he decided to concentrate on writing full-time. He had written short stories at school but didn’t let anyone see them. His writing career had begun in 1973 when the Library Association commissioned him to write a guide to children’s sci-fi called Into Space. It went to nearly every library in the country.

A founding member of the Harrogate Society, which later became Harrogate Civic Society, he was asked by local firms such as Ogden, Raworths and William Woods to write books for them. He also undertook research for plaques. His writing career, he said, “grew in stages”.

Harrogate in Old Picture Postcards was published in 1992, followed by Exclusively Harrogate in 1994 and Harrogate: A History of the English Spa from the Earliest Times to the Present in 2001. His works also included a centennial history of Harrogate Grammar School in 2003.

During this time he became, in the words of Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, “the chronicler of our town”.

The two books of which Malcolm was proudest are Harrogate Great Chronicle 1332-1841, which was the product of 40 years work, and Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923, which was published in April this year. His beloved Harrogate Club named its dining room in his honour at the book launch. By then, Malcolm was in the advanced stages of the cancer that would claim his life and it was a deeply emotional occasion at a place that meant so much to him.

Malcolm Neesam at the launch of his final book, Wells and Swells.

He started work on a third volume, covering Harrogate’s history since 1923, fully aware he was unlikely to finish it.

Before Malcolm, William Grainge, who died in 1895, was considered to be Harrogate’s foremost historian. Grainge had published books and short publications about the town in the 1860s and 1870s, but nothing substantial. Malcolm described Grainge’s style as “too chatty” whereas he focused more on the history.

He and the late Harold Walker, a historian and one-time editor of the Harrogate Herald, set up the Walker-Neesam archive, ensuring their collective research could stay for ever within the town.

His vast collection of papers and photo library will go to Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery. Organising them won’t be an easy task: thousands of brown envelopes assigned alphabetically by subject took up an entire room at his home.

Malcolm gave a typically modest answer when asked why he only wrote about Harrogate, saying: “Some writers can turn to anything. I can only write about things that interest me.”

Freedom of the Borough

Malcolm was instrumental in establishing the listing of many buildings in the town and in establishing the first conservation area. He was also the founder historian of the Harrogate Brown Plaque scheme.

He was a member of the Harrogate Club from the 1990s and adored the place and its history. Arthur Conan Doyle once played billiards there.

Harrogate Borough Council awarded him the Freedom of the Borough in 1996 for his services as a historian. He supported numerous local organisations, including Harrogate Dramatic Society and Harrogate Theatre, often sitting on their committees.

Unfailingly polite, he 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.

Besides music, he had a passion for reading, especially non-fiction history and Victorian fiction, such as Dickens, Thackeray and Jane Austin.

But his lifelong passion was Harrogate. He loved its wide streets, the Stray and shops, and felt the population was just about ideal.

He never married. His elder sister, Shirley, who had two sons, died three years ago. Malcolm’s two nephews live in Burnley and East Sussex.

Asked where he was happiest, he said: “It may seem obvious but just sitting on the Stray under a tree.”

Malcolm Neesam, historian and author, born June 28, 1946, died June 28, 2022

Up to 1,000 people are set to take part in the Run Harrogate 10k this weekend.

The annual race, which goes around Crimple Valley, is Harrogate Harriers‘ premier event of the year.

It starts at Harrogate Sports and Fitness Centre on Hookstone Wood Road at 10am on Sunday and finishes at the same place.

This year’s event, which is sponsored by Knaresborough renewable energy firm Harmony Energy, includes a new kids’ fun run, starting at 9am.

The fun run has a 1.3km run for children in years two to five at school and a 2.6km run for children in years six to nine.

Rudding Lane will be closed from about 9.30am to 11am while the race takes place.

The multi-terrain route is about 70 per cent tarmac road, with the remainder on good footpaths.

The men’s race record is 33 minutes and 29 seconds, set by Marcos Palacios. The women’s record is 42 minutes and 32 seconds, set by local athlete Tam Calder, who has entered this year.

Marcos Palacios

Tam Calder

About 550 people have entered so far. The race capacity is 1,000 so you can enter on the day.

Sue Moul, membership secretary at Harrogate Harriers, said:

“It’s our premier event and we are looking forward to welcoming everybody back to the course.”

All finishers receive a medal and goody bag and there is a £1,500 prize fund.

Entry fee for runners who aren’t affiliated to Harrogate Harriers is £19 if paid in advance.

The kids’ race costs £3 to enter and all proceeds are donated to CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably.

A donation from the adult races will go to Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Further details are available here.

A broken down lorry is causing travel problems in Harrogate town centre.

The large Waitrose lorry is stuck on King’s Road, outside Harrogate Convention Centre.

By 2.40pm today, it had been there for about an hour awaiting recovery.

There are two lanes, so traffic is currently able to pass on the inside of it.

The broken down lorry on Harrogate’s Kings Road.

However, it is causing some problems by backing up traffic turning on to King’s Road from Parliament Street and Ripon Road.

Motorists will be hoping the vehicle is moved before the Friday night rush hour begins.

Send us your traffic updates at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

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Families will get the chance to meet Harrogate firefighters and sit in fire engines tomorrow.

Harrogate fire station is holding an open day at its site on Skipton Road.

The station, which will be open from 11am until 4.30pm, will host activities, stalls and demonstrations.

Two fire engines and the aerial ladder platform will be on display.

Firefighters will give safety advice and take part in two rescue demonstrations using the ladder platform.

Police will also be present.

There will be tea and cakes and a bouncy castle, as well as a maze for children.

Read more:

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A Harrogate woman has said she won’t return to Ripley for walks after receiving a £100 fine for parking.

Ripley car park, which is part of the estate owned by castle owner Sir Thomas Ingilby and his wife Lady Emma, began charging for parking on June 20.

Janet Adamowicz received a penalty charge for returning to her car two minutes late, after paying £1 for an hour’s parking.

She said the expiry time was displayed on the machine but no ticket was issued.

Ms Adamowicz, who has been a frequent visitor to Ripley, said

“I will not be attending Ripley again for walks, cafes or shops and it would appear I’m not the only one to feel like this.

“People don’t go on walks if they have to stress about getting back to their car in a limited time before being fined £100, people like leisurely strolls with no time limits.”

Read more:

• Parking meters installed in Ripley car park
• Reservoir parking costs could cause ‘tremendous problems’ on nearby roads

Parking charges were introduced in Ripley after dialogue with businesses, the school, the church, the Friends of Ripley and Harrogate Borough Council.

It costs £1 an hour, which is redeemable in local outlets, £1.20 for two hours, £3.50 for six hours and £4 for eight hours.

Other organisations have recently announced parking charges, including the Inn at South Stainley and Yorkshire Water, which plans to introduce fees at its reservoirs, including Fewston and Swinsty.

The Ripley car park and the Inn at South Stainley, which redeems charges for customers, were often used as a free park and ride.

Mike Gosling, the Ripley estate’s business manager, said the system was working well and the estate had taken an extremely understanding view of appeals against fines, with several already overturned.

Ripley businesses, he said, liked the fact that the £1 charge for the first hour can be redeemed in local shops.

Automatic number plate recognition identifies how long vehicles stay in the car park.

Mr Gosling acknowledged there had been a problem with the software issuing tickets, which do not have to be displayed.

He said if anyone had received a fine for being just a few minutes late he would personally contact the company providing the system to have the fine cancelled.

Update: Ms Adamowicz has notified us her fine has been cancelled 

Harrogate businessman Guy Tweedy has offered to pay for new trees on the Stray to replace the ones vandalised.

The Stray Ferret published a video last week showing teenagers ripping up two young trees.

They were part of a batch of 55 cherry trees paid for by Mr Tweedy to commemorate thalidomide victims, two babies and a local headteacher. They were planted six or seven years ago.

Mr Tweedy, who is also a thalidomide campaigner, has emailed Harrogate Borough Council offering to pay for replacement trees. He said:

“I wonder if whoever did this realises the significance of the trees and how upsetting it is to people.

“Sadly this is not the first time this has happened. How do we stop people from doing it? I don’t know what the answer is.”

Read more:

• Shocking video shows teens ripping up trees on Harrogate Stray
• Bentley on the Stray reignites parking debate