Harrogate auction house sees 50 year old bottle of whisky fetch £12,000

The next time someone at work gifts you a bottle of whisky, you might want to think twice before you open it.

A bottle of whisky that was consigned to Tennants Auctioneers in Harrogate has fetched £12,000 hammer price at auction.

The seller had been given it by a colleague a number a years ago and hadn’t realised how much it had appreciated in value.

The bottle was a Macallan 1940, 50 Year Old Single Speyside Malt Scotch Whisky — one of the most collectable whiskies which has dramatically increased in value over the last 20 years.

The whisky was distilled on January 1 1940 and laid down by Macallan for 30 years, before the cask was bought by independent bottlers Gordon and Macphail.

They moved the cask to their warehouses in Elgin where it remained maturing for another 20 years before being bottled. It formed part of Gordon and Macphail’s Speymalt range and was sold with its original presentation case and certificate.

Macallan still continues to dominate the whisky market at auction.

The bottle was sold at Tennants’ fine wine and whisky sale at its auction house in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on Friday.

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Sell out performances mark reopening of Pateley Playhouse

The Pateley Playhouse has opened its doors to sell-out performances after three years of renovation work.

The amateur-run theatre has seen a £120,000 re-vamp, opening up its foyer and bar area and installing a disability lift in the auditorium.

The theatre re-opened this week with a Pateley Bridge Dramatic Society adaptation of ‘See How They Run’ by Philip King.

The play is a farce set during the Second World War and involves an escaped German prisoner of war, lots of vicars and lots of silliness.

The production has seen standing ovations with the 72-seat theatre full every night.

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The renovation was complex as the tiny venue is 160 years old.

Fundraising required creative ideas: the downstairs wooden floor was divided up into 110 square metres and the society asked people to pay £10 to sign their name on the floor — Hollywood style — under their square. The squares sold out.

Making a tiny, provincial theatre commercially viable isn’t easy but the society believes the renovations will help its long-term financial position.

Treasurer Keith Burton said:

“The rule of thumb is that for every £10 ticket you sell,  you should try to get a further £4 from sales on the night. The longer bar means we have a longer point of sale area and will do better business at the bar.  This week we do seem to be getting near to what we want from point of sale.

“Before covid our overheads were £8,000 a year. Since covid our insurance costs have gone up by 50% due to a fear of cancellations and all of our heating bills have gone up by half as well. We are now between £10,000 and £11,000 a year to run it. “

For the first time in years the society has had to put its tickets prices up. But it’s now confident that if it puts on three productions a year, it can make enough money to survive and have a small surplus to invest in the theatre. Improving the sound system and lighting is next on the agenda.

 

Regal floral art wows visitors at Harrogate Flower Show

A stunning golden cloak, crown, orb and sceptre fashioned out of flowers is one of the star attractions at this year’s Harrogate Flower Show.

Today’s first day of the show saw around 15,000 enthusiastic visitors. This year’s theme was the coronation of King Charles III.

The show, which is organised by the North of England Horticultural Society, is the first big gardening event on this year’s UK calendar. More than 50,000 people are expected over the four days.

Nick Smith , show director, told the Stray Ferret:

“We’re so pleased to see the amount of quality horticultural we’re seeing here today. After such a miserable winter, it’s just fantastic to see everybody come here and celebrating spring.

“Some might think the principle of floral art is quite old fashioned, but flower arrangers have created fantastic things – to see the range and quality in the Floral Pavilion is just amazing.”

The royal cloak, crown, orb and sceptre were designed and created by Harrogate florist, Helen James – who is no stranger to winning awards for floral artistry.

This display however, was not made to be judged but to promote the show and has done its job — images of her work graced the front pages of the national press this morning, much to the delight of show organisers.

A close up of the cloak’s beautiful floral fabric

Helen James has created promotional displays for the show for the past eight years but she said this one in particular seemed to have captured people’s attention:

“We’ve started off with a base cloak of fabric and then overlaid it with organza to create a luxurious, padded look and then applied the floral material onto that. The flowers were either stitched on or we used special glue.

“The colour inspiration came from something regal but it’s also fitting for springtime. The flowers are orchids, anthuriums, craspedia, kangaroo paws and mix of ferns and foliage, some have been coloured to fit the colour scheme.”

The work took Helen and her team four days to create, then the cloak was gently draped over a table, put in the back of a van and taken to the Great Yorkshire Showground.

The Harrogate Spring Flower Show runs until Sunday 23 April. Gates open at 9.30am and close at 5pm.

Business Breakfast: T&R Theakston toasts King Charles III with coronation beer

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The fourth in our series of networking events, with Banyan Bar & Kitchen, is a breakfast event on April 27 from 8am.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

T&R Theakston is to launch a special edition beer, brewed in honour of King Charles III.

Crowning Glory is a 4.2% ABV speciality regal gold beer and continues the brewery’s tradition of creating limited edition ales to celebrate royal occasions.

It joins a distinguished lineage including Celebration Ale, which marked Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee in 1977 and most recently, Royal Salute which commemorated the diamond and platinum Jubilees in 2012 and 2022.

Simon Theakston, joint managing director at Theakston Brewery, said:

“As a brewery we’re immensely proud of our almost 200-year heritage and it’s fascinating to consider that as a business we have been witness to nine monarchs and seven coronations. It’s only right we continue the honourable tradition of celebrating these key historic moments for our country by creating a special beer to mark the coronation of King Charles III on 6th May.”

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Chamber holds business safari event

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce is to hold its regular Business Safari this evening.

The event at the Pavilions of Harrogate is a “speed business networking” session with gives members an opportunity to showcase their business to others and make new contacts.

The session starts at 5.30pm.  Admission is free to book a place click here. 

 

Harrogate service to commemorate fallen soldiers from Australia and New Zealand

A ceremony to honour service personnel from Australia and New Zealand who are buried at Stonefall Cemetery will be held next weekend.

The Anzac Day Ceremony will be hosted by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Sunday, April 23. The ceremony is to honour second world war casualties from the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Stonefall Cemetery has more than a thousand Commonwealth war graves. There are 97 Royal Australian Air Force and 23 Royal New Zealand Air Force servicemen buried at the site, the majority of whom died while bomber command bases were established across Yorkshire.

The event has been organised by Kate Spencer, who looks after the twinning between Harrogate and Wellington for Harrogate International Partnerships.

Kate said:

“As a New Zealander, our day of commemoration for those who fell in both World Wars is on April 25 each year. The history of Anzac Day stems from the landings of 16,000 Australian and New Zealand forces on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, now referred to as Anzac Cove, on April 25, 1915. Together with allied forces, more than 100,000 lives were lost in that campaign.

“A year ago I organised our first Anzac Day commemoration and I feel so privileged to be preparing once again to honour not only my New Zealand countrymen buried in Stonefall, but also 97 Australians who gave their young lives in the service of their countries.”

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Harrogate has been twinned with the New Zealand capital of Wellington since 1953, with the New Zealand Garden that lies within Valley Gardens forming a tribute to those Kiwi airmen buried at Stonefall.

Kate, who in March this year presented gifts to the new Mayor of Wellington Tory Whanau, said:

“Not only the RNZAF but Wellington City Council are enormously grateful for everything being done to honour their men in this way. We look forward to welcoming you at the event and we are grateful to the CWGC for hosting the commemoration.”

The ceremony will see representation from both the Australian and New Zealand High Commission, as well as the Mayor and Mayoress of Harrogate and Andrew Jones MP. The music will be provided by Harrogate Band and a pupil from Harrogate Grammar School will sing the New Zealand national anthem in both Maori and English.

Members of the public are invited to attend the ceremony which will take place in the war graves plot adjacent to Forest Lane.

The public are invited to gather from 12.30pm. The ceremony will start at 1pm.

Motorhouse owner sad to be retiring from the car trade

The owner of the Motorhouse car dealership on the Ripon Road near Killinghall says he is sad to be selling the business and retiring.

Seventy-seven-year-old John Steele has been trading cars on the landmark site for a quarter of a century, and this week the Stray Ferret reported that the site is to be sold at auction.

Mr Steele said he has loved his work:

“I love what I do – I’ve been here 25 years. I don’t really want to retire but my good lady says we need more quality time together.

“If we sell it, I’ll be sad. The building has been here years and years. Years ago it was a tea room and then a petrol station and then the showroom was added on. It’s a landmark being on the main road.”

Mr Steele’s love of cars began in his childhood. His favourite car is an E-Type Jaguar which as a young man he’d always dreamed of owning. He went on to own quite a few of them.

Over the past 25 years, the trade has changed. He began in 1967 by simply putting a van-for-sale advert in his local newspaper. Now the internet means he’s had buyers from all over the world:

“The farthest we’ve sold a car is to Australia. One was a Ford Cosworth 500 – the other was a BMW. Just from the internet. And also to the Outer Hebrides.

“That’s the power of the internet. I never even met the people who bought the cars.”

As his car dealing career comes to a close at the site, Mr Steele says he recently sold his most expensive car, a Rolls Royce Ghost for £90,000.

Predictably for a man who loves cars, Mr Steele owns a few and plans to enjoy taking them to car shows and doing the odd bit of trade with some friends.

The property is now up for auction with Myrings estate agents – with a guide price of £800,000. Called Harrogate View Grange, it includes Motorhouse’s showroom with garage and workshop, a 25-car forecourt, and a three-bedroom house with undercroft garaging.

Asked what he thinks will happen to the site, he said:

“I think it would suit many other things rather than cars – there is also the house here which is empty at the moment. It would suit many other trades. It’s a landmark..”

The auction is due to close at 2pm on Thursday, April 27.

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Don’t watch explicit videos on commute home from work, says Northern Rail

Northern Trains which operates the Harrogate line has appealed to customers to stop watching explicit videos and making inappropriate jokes whilst travelling.

It has extended the strict ‘not suitable for work’ rule regarding the viewing of content to its trains and stations, after facing a problem with “a minority” of commuters.

This can range in scale from inappropriate jokes and bad language to offensive topics and explicit material.

The operator said:

“Whilst people are more likely to err on the side of caution at work, the rush to view content once they’ve left the workplace can mean the train journey home is often the first opportunity to take a look.”

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Northern said the internet in its stations and on-board the trains is delivered in partnership with ‘Friendly WiFi’ – a government-initiated safe certification standard for public WiFi.

Friendly WiFi aims to reassure users that the service meets minimum filtering standards – particularly in areas where children are present, such as on station platforms and on trains.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said:

“We welcome millions of people into our stations and on board our trains every year – and access to safe and reliable internet is part and parcel of our customers’ expectations.

“It is important, however, that people remember that some content is not suitable for everyone to see or hear – particularly children.

“As such, if something is ‘not suitable for work’ it’s more than likely not suitable in our stations or on board our trains either – so please wait until you get home.”

Bev Smith, director of Friendly WiFi, said:

“We are excited to be working with Northern as a ‘Friendly WiFi’ certified train operator.

“They were passionate throughout the process to achieve the standard to ensure a great experience online for all their customers whilst travelling with them.”

In 2010 Harrogate was dubbed Britain’s “porn capital” by the tabloid press after an analysis of residents’ internet use for the BBC2 show The Virtual Revolution.

Business Breakfast: Senior appointment at Harrogate law firm

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The fourth in our series of networking events, with Banyan Bar & Kitchen, is a breakfast event on April 27 from 8am.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

Harrogate law firm, LCF Law, has appointed a new business development and marketing director.

Nick Greenwood has spent the past 25 years working for banking, accountancy, and legal firms across Yorkshire.

In his new role, Mr Greenwood will head a broad spectrum of business development and marketing projects at LCF Law and oversee the firm’s overall growth strategy.

He said:

“I started my career at Barclays as a branch manager in both the Leeds and Bradford flagship branches, soon progressing through SME into corporate banking and agriculture, supporting all types of businesses with their financial needs.

“After that, I became part of the senior leadership team at a mid-tier accountancy firm as head of sectors, and then moved to a business development role at a 48 partner law firm supporting its achievement to become one of the most profitable law firms in the east of England.

“Whether it be providing finance, accountancy, or legal services, the key is always to focus on how firms can solve problems for their clients and deliver cost-effective solutions that help them achieve their business and personal goals.”

Simon Stell, managing partner at LCF Law, said:

“We have significant growth aspirations and Nick’s expertise and enthusiasm will help us to deliver those. At the heart of any good business are its people. We recruit great people and help them to achieve their potential and career ambitions. The addition of Nick to the team will help the business and our lawyers meet our goals..

“Nick’s appointment will help us to reach even more clients across a broad spectrum including the manufacturing, agricultural, healthcare, digital and charity sectors.”

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Harrogate BID funds town spring clean

Harrogate’s Business Improvement District has completed a spring clean as part of its business objective to keep the town ‘safe, clean and welcoming’.

The 150-hour long clean-up operation saw hot steam and pressure jet washing of pavements on Cambridge Street, Beulah Street, Oxford Street, Cambridge Road, James Street, Parliament Street, West Park, John Street, The Ginnel, Montpellier Mews, Kings Road and Station Parade.

The work was backed up by Chris Ashby, the BID’s in-house street ranger, who recently won the Unsung Hero Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023, in recognition of his hard work and dedication to keeping the town spotless.

Matthew Chapman, BID manager, said:

“First impressions really do count, which is why we ensure our streets are cleaned on a regular basis.

“It is clear to see from the before and after pictures that the deep cleans make a huge difference to the aesthetic appearance of the town for all who visit it.

“I would encourage all businesses who are part of the BID community to make the most of the additional services the street ranger team offers over and above the deep cleaning.

“We provide reactive support for improvements to properties within the BID radius, to make sure they look professional, clean and inviting. Anyone wanting to make the most of this offering should email info@harrogatebid.co.uk.”

Business Breakfast: Funding review could result in sale of Black Sheep Brewery

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. The fourth in our series of networking events, with Banyan Bar & Kitchen, is a breakfast event on April 27 from 8am.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

Black Sheep Brewery has launched a strategic review to explore funding options to develop the business. One option could be to sell the company.

The Masham based company has appointed Teneo as its financial adviser to support the review.

In a statement it said was  “considering all options, one such option being a merger or an acquisition of the Company, in whole or in part, if such a solution offers the best outcome for shareholders and other stakeholders whilst providing a stable base for the future of the business.”

Black Sheep said it was experiencing good sales volumes of its beers, however there remains a significant constraint on funding due to economic conditions.

Charlene Lyons, CEO said:

“We are pleased to have seen so many customers enjoying Black Sheep beers over the Easter bank holiday weekend, one of our busiest trading periods of the year. However, we believe that now is the right time to conduct this Strategic Review to secure the best outcome for our valued shareholders and other stakeholders.

The Brewery has exciting and ambitious plans for the future and interesting projects in the pipeline. Forward funding is an issue for many businesses in the tight market brought about by the after-effects of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector and this is exacerbated by the cost-of-living issues affecting consumer spending.

“We are confident that the wider investment market will see the opportunities presented by this well-established and highly regarded brand.”

Black Sheep said it was not currently in talks with any potential buyer.

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Business Breakfast: New chef and manager at Provenance inn

Provenance Collection has appointed two new senior staff at the  Punch Bowl Inn in Marton-cum-Grafton.

Brian Furey is to be the new general manager and Ian Matfin has been appointed head chef.

Provenance Collection has nine sites across North Yorkshire and employs more than 150 people. Last year, The Punch Bowl Inn was awarded Best Food Offer in the Publican Awards.

Brian Furey commented:

“This is an exciting opportunity to work within a team so committed to offering the best in hospitality. Our chefs work with nature, creating seasonal menus, sourcing from local and regional suppliers, this is a family that has a set of values to deliver exceptional customer experience, which is something I live by, too.”

New head chef, Ian Matfin has worked at some of the UK’s leading restaurants including Le Manoir aux Quat’Saison, Claridge’s, and more recently at North Yorkshire’s Devonshire Arms.

Mr Matfin said:

“I have worked in kitchens large and small and with all manner of teams and have seen success at its best. Having the skillset in the kitchen is one thing but having the drive and the values of this group is something I am relishing. The field to fork mentality, the access to our own kitchen garden at Mount St. John, the incredible local artisans I get to work with make every day a new opportunity.”

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Fat Badger named county’s best pub

The Fat Badger in Harrogate been named as the best pub in North Yorkshire at the National Pub & Bar Awards.

A total of 94 pubs and bars were recognised as county winners in the awards which aim to highlight the positive and inspiring work being carried out across the UK’s hospitality sector.

General manager of the Fat Badger, Chris Clarke said,
“We’re delighted to have been considered for this amazing award, but to go on and win our county category is just wonderful and a real testament to the hard work all of my team put in to making the Fat Badger the friendly and welcoming place it is.
“The team are buzzing from the announcement and can’t wait until the overall national winner is announced as we really feel we deserve a shot at it!”
Simon Cotton, managing director of the HRH Group, which owns the Fat Badger added,
“I’m so proud that the Fat Badger has been recognised like this.  Whilst I’m probably biased, I do believe we deliver something special in our pub and have made the brand a well known one in recent years with people travelling from far and wide to experience the first class food, ales and of course service that we offer.
“We can’t wait to find out who will pick up the national pub of the year in June, but in the meantime, are delighted to be the overall North Yorkshire winner”.