Vicky Carr, Author at The Stray Ferret

New Harrogate ‘café’ to support communication after stroke and brain injury

A charity supporting people living with communication issues after stroke is appealing for volunteers to help run a new service in Harrogate.

Aphasia Support is setting up a twice-monthly ‘café’ at Knaresborough Road Health Centre from September.

It will offer activities including quizzes, games, and arts and crafts, while providing people with aphasia the chance to meet up and build their confidence in communicating.

While a qualified speech and language therapist will be on hand to run the café, volunteers will also be needed at the sessions, including serving drinks and cakes to visitors.

James Major, CEO of Aphasia Support, said:

“We’re delighted to be launching our sixth Aphasia Café in Yorkshire. We’ve already got sessions running twice a month in Leeds, Halifax, Wakefield, Barnsley, and Doncaster, and have since recognised a real need for similar community support in Harrogate following an increase in referrals.

“Our events are a great opportunity for those living with aphasia and their carers to meet others dealing with the same challenges, with the support of an experienced speech and language therapist. Although, as a charity, we rely on the generosity of volunteers to help run the cafes.

“So, we’re on the lookout for new faces in Harrogate to join our team. If you’re looking for a volunteer role, or if you have an interest in speech and language, we’d love to hear from you. You don’t need any speech and language experience and we provide full training.”

Aphasia is a complex language disorder experienced by people who have had a stroke or other type of brain injury.

It affects the ability to speak, read, write and understand language.

A third of stroke survivors in the UK live with the condition, and a total of 350,000 people have aphasia, but Aphasia Support said almost 85% of the public have never heard of it.

The charity helps people with aphasia to work on key communication goals with support from speech and language therapists.

It matches patients with trained volunteers, working together on a one-to-one basis using conversation techniques and computer therapy programmes.

The first Harrogate aphasia café takes place on Thursday, September 14, from 10,30am to noon. It will run every second and fourth Thursday of the month from then on.

Pat Malin, who has volunteered at Aphasia Support’s café in Barnsley since 2021, said the experience has also been beneficial to her:

“I love seeing people grow in confidence the more they attend the café.

“I’ve made so many great friends since I started volunteering for Aphasia Support. We’re like a little family.”

Anyone interested in volunteering at the Harrogate group only needs to be available for a few hours each month. To find out more, visit Aphasia Support’s website.

Trains stopped amid ‘concerns for safety’ of teenager on Crimple Valley viaduct

Trains on the Harrogate line were stopped this morning after emergency services were called to deal with concerns for the safety of a teenager on Crimple Valley viaduct.

The concerns were first reported to police just after 5.30am, and both North Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police attended the scene.

They were joined by staff from Yorkshire Ambulance Service, while North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was on stand-by to help if needed.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said:

“Police negotiators brought [it] to a safe conclusion just before 8.30am.

“A man aged in his late teens was checked over my paramedics and he is receiving medical support.”

Train services on the line had to be replaced by buses for a number of hours while police dealt with the incident.

The line is now clear, though Northern said delays to services could last “for some time due to displaced trains and crew”.

Police investigating after man dies on building site in Ripon village

Police are investigating after a man died on a building site near Ripon.

The Health and Safety Executive has also been called in after the incident at the Palladian Homes development in Marton-le-Moor.

The man has not been identified, but is understood to have been working on the site at the time.

A spokesperson for HSE said:

“We are aware of an incident and making enquiries alongside North Yorkshire Police.”

The incident happened on Saturday, July 5, but has only just been confirmed after a nearby resident contacted the Stray Ferret.

North Yorkshire Police has confirmed its officers were called to the site. A spokesperson said:

“We can confirm that we received a call from the ambulance service at 11.41[am] with a report that a 34-year-old man had life threatening injuries following an incident at Marton-le Moor.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Palladian Homes about the incident but had not received a response by the time of publication.

The development, off Chapel Lane in the village, features 10 detached homes of between three and five bedrooms.

It was originally given outline planning permission for up to 16 homes in 2019 after the developer appealed against Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to turn down the proposal.

Detailed plans were then drawn up for a development of 10 homes, which were approved in 2021.

Work was today continuing on the site, where several of the houses have already been listed for sale and some are under offer.

Golf clubs stolen from car in central Harrogate

Police are appealing for information after a set of golf clubs was stolen from a 4×4 in a Harrogate street in the early hours of the morning.

North Yorkshire Police is seeking witnesses and information after the incident in the Chelmsford Road area.

It happened on Wednesday, August 2 around 5.25am, when the black 4×4 had its rear window smashed.

A police spokesperson said:

“The suspect left the area along Arthington Avenue on foot with a black Ping golf bag containing 14 Calloway clubs and a Cobra driver.

“Officers are appealing for witness, dashcam and private doorbell or other CCTV footage that may have captured the suspect on camera to get in touch.

“They are also appealing to anyone who may have been approached by someone selling similar items since August 2 to get in touch.”

Anyone with information can call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option two and ask for Ben Robinson-Brockhill, or send him an email.

Alternatively, to report information anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 quoting North Yorkshire Police reference 12230147463.

New Knaresborough group aims to unite community and support good causes

A new community group has been set up with the aim of building more support for people in Knaresborough.

Life Aid Knaresborough was created by volunteers four weeks ago and has already attracted more than 200 members to its Facebook group.

Its aim is to organise events, raise money for charities, and bring the community together.

Stacey Worrall, who was one of the founders, told the Stray Ferret:

“There’s so many people in what some say is a rich town, but it’s not – the poverty at the moment is higher than ever.

“It would be nice to be able to have some funding in a pot where, if we hear of a family that’s struggling, to be able to help the people of Knaresborough out.”

While local support is the long-term aim, the first project the group is working on is raising money for a fire engine to send to Volodymyr in Ukraine.

The city has strong links with Knaresborough, after resident Bob Frendt made eight aid trips there over the course of 15 months after the war began last February.

Bob Frendt has delivered eight lorry loads of medical and other supplies to Ukraine

He built connections with local dignitaries and, on what he said was his final trip, was asked by the mayor to deliver a fire engine after its appliances were commandeered to help in the war effort.

While an official scheme has seen fire engines delivered to Ukraine from the UK, these have gone directly to Kyiv and have not benefitted outlying communities like Volodymyr, which is in western Ukraine.

Bob said:

“The problem is, for the towns to try and get an engine back, they have got to grease the wheels, they’ve got to give a backhander to someone.

“Volodymyr is such a poor place, they can’t afford to give a backhander, so they can’t get the fire engine back.

“When I was there, I met a woman whose husband was killed in the war. She lived in an apartment on the sixth floor of a building – and those buildings are poorly built to start with.

“We asked what would happen if the apartment block caught fire. Without thinking, she said, ‘we will die’.

“For her sake and her children, I have to get a fire engine to them.”

Mr Frendt hopes to raise enough money to deliver a second-hand fire appliance in October, and has already passed the £5,000 mark.

Life Aid has already begin helping his fundraising efforts, with several events planned for the summer.

Knaresborough Cricket Club will host live music on Friday, August 25. Entry will be free, with donations taken towards the fire engine fundraising.

The following day, venues around Knaresborough are taking part in a series of events designed to get the whole community involved.

There will be face painting and children’s games at the kiosk at Conyngham Hall, while the World’s End pub will have live music from a folk duo.

A disco will be held at Park Place Social Club, supported by Yorkshire Young Farmers, and other venues around the town will offer open mic nights.

Entry is free, but volunteers will be visiting all the venues to collect donations.

The organisers are also keen to hear from local businesses interested in sponsoring or supporting the events, or getting involved in the future.

Stacey added:

“We hope Knaresborough will be heaving with visitors and locals for the bank holiday.

“If it’s a success, we’re planning to carry on every year on the same day, raising money for different charities and helping locals in need.”

To find out more, join the Facebook group. To donate to Bob Frendt’s fire engine fundraiser, click here.

Read more:

Ladies’ Day to boost Harrogate footballer’s cancer treatment fund

Two back-to-back football matches will be played at Harrogate Railway this weekend as part of a day of fundraising.

Ladies’ Day will see the women’s reserves play at noon on Sunday, followed by the first team facing Farsley Celtic at 2pm.

Entry will be free for spectators, with a barbecue, raffle and refreshments all on offer as part of the entertainment.

First team coach Rich Burns told the Stray Ferret:

“it’s a celebration of ladies’ football in the club and the region. We’ve gone from one football team to four in the space of two years.

“I’ve been there for 15 years and we’ve only had one senior ladies’ team and various girls’ teams. Since the Euros, where the Lionesses were successful, now the World Cup and the WSL, there’s a real growth and demand for women’s football in the region.”

As well as first and reserve teams, Railway now has an under 18s ladies’ side, offering teenagers the chance to learn, or continue learning a sport they have enjoyed at school.

Rich said it offers a natural pathway into the adult teams too.

And it is for one of the first team players that the day has been organised.

Dee Swales played for the club for around five years, before moving to Farsley Celtic. She returned two years ago, but last year was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Rich said:

“She has been undergoing significant treatment and dealt with the first part really well, but she has unfortunately developed a secondary cancer.

“The NHS doesn’t fund the treatment she needs when it’s for secondary cancer, so you have to raise funds yourself.

“She has been dong loads of stuff and fundraising, but the club really wanted to show our support for this as well.”

Setting a target of £1,000, the club said any money raised that exceeds the amount Dee needs will be split between Macmillan and Cancer Research UK.

Harrogate Railway Football Club on Station View, Starbeck, will host the event

Dee is also planning to join in the fun on the day – though will have more reason than most to play it safe. Rich said:

“She’s a week away from being married. I think the biggest challenge is keeping her off the pitch, because [fiancee] Abi would absolutely kill us if she gets injured for the wedding!”

With women’s football much more popular than ever before, Harrogate Railway are hoping for a big crowd at the event on Sunday.

Rich added:

“Everyone’s aware of Rachel Daly and her ties to the region. She spent a small amount of time with Railway and when she came back from the US during the summers, she used to come to our training sessions.

“It has been really fantastic that the Lionesses have been offering discounted tickets to grassroots clubs.

“We’ve been able to support them a few times and we went to see them at Wembley.

“You don’t get the same level of animosity you can get at the men’s game and it does seem very family-friendly.

“Seeing 87,000 people in Wembley for a ladies’ game was fantastic – it was a celebration of football.”

New owners at long-standing Harrogate fish and chip shop

Two businessmen are hoping to breathe new life into a popular Harrogate fish and chip shop and keep it as a local favourite.

Taru Pahwa and Pradeep Angoor took over Dougie’s on King Edward’s Drive three weeks ago, and said they are already getting to know regular customers.

Taru said:

“It’s good. People are liking it. There are things for us to improve, but we have had a positive response so far, and sales are improving every day.”

Known to friends as Taz and Deep, the pair each own off-licences around Harrogate, including the Number One Shop on Electric Avenue and Harlow Hill Stores on Otley Road.

Dougie’s is their first venture together, but they are old friends and play sports together, which they hope is a recipe for good team spirit.

While Taz works behind the scenes, taking care of supplies, Deep will be in the shop day-to-day, serving customers and managing the small team.

They have already recruited kitchen staff, but are still looking for a couple of people to work front-of-house.

Taking ownership of Dougie’s has been a long aspiration for the pair, who live nearby and first looked at it when it was put up for sale by the founding family around six years ago, after running it for many years.

Taz said:

“We were new and still settling in with our businesses. It wasn’t the right time for us.”

The person who bought it in 2017 decided to sell up this year, and Taz and Deep took their chance this time.

While they have no immediate plans for change, they said they are happy to listen to what locals want. Deep said:

“The first thing we did was increase our opening hours. It was only three-and-a-half days, and now it’s six full days, including Sunday.

“I think people appreciate that. For me, I think it confuses people if you are open a couple of hours and then again later. To keep it simple, we decided to open all day.”

Deep and Taz ready to serve lunch

The hours may be longer, but the menu and prices will remain the same – despite increasing costs in the industry.

Deep said he had heard from his supplier this week that the price of potatoes will be rising by more than 20%, but that won’t be passed on to customers.

He added:

“The support from the community will be really helpful to keep us going, because of the bills and the rent itself – forget about the raw materials.

“We’re happy to take on board any recommendations and requests and work on it.”

Taz added:

“We’re introducing deliveries – in the next couple of weeks, it will be all up and running.

“It’s still early stages. Maybe in six months, a year, because there is no pizza or kebab shop, that’s something we are seriously considering. At the moment, people have to go into town for it.”

As for the name – long associated with decent fish and chips by people in Bilton and beyond – Taz and Deep are happy to honour its founder and keep Dougie’s going for years to come.

Nature-inspired murals brighten up Starbeck underpass

A striking new set of murals aims to bring the natural world into an unloved urban part of Starbeck, its creator says.

Sam Porter has painted three murals to brighten up the underpass near the level crossing.

They feature wild birds and plants, as well as symbols of the area’s history, on three boards put up along the white walls.

Harrogate-based Sam was commissioned by Starbeck in Bloom to do the work, which was funded by Northern Rail.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“The thing I found quite difficult was, I’m used to painting directly onto the walls and you can work with the environment easier.

“It could have spanned through the whole underpass, but we would have had to close the underpass, which would have been a problem.

“But doing this has been really good, because it has added another strand to my work, using panels if people don’t want things directly onto walls.”

Sam said he was fortunate to be offered space to work in the yard at Amara Jane, the furniture shop next to the station, keeping him close to where the paintings would go on display.

He has struck up a friendship with the business owner, Andreas Mandrekas, and has been offered use of the yard again in future.

After years of travelling to Manchester, where he was being commissioned regularly, Sam is happy to have been asked to do more work in Harrogate in recent years.

His murals can now be seen in Cross James Street in Harrogate, as well as on Cheapside and near the Two Brothers Grill and Pizzeria in Knaresborough.

He has also created artwork for community buildings, including Aspin Park and Western primary schools.

He will soon be working on a mural for the Kiosk at Conyngham Hall as part of Knaresborough’s Feva Festival.

As part of his work, Sam enjoys researching local history to come up with the designs for his murals.

In Starbeck, he has featured some of the local buildings, as well as the Pump Room in Harrogate. He said:

“When people used to come to Harrogate for the waters, they used to get the train to Starbeck and then get coaches up, because people in Harrogate didn’t want the dirty trains coming into town.

“The workhouse was in Starbeck, so it has always been the more working class area of Harrogate, but a vital part of the whole thing.”

Much of his work has been commissioned to brighten up unloved or troubled areas of towns and cities.

Sam said statistics show levels of crime and anti-social behaviour can be reduced if hotspots are improved, prompting more local pride among the community.

His inspiration comes from the world around him, which he began to appreciate more during the pandemic.

“It was during lockdown I reconnected with nature a lot. There are a few things about that time that I miss.

“Obviously it was grim, but for the first time ever, you were told, ‘you don’t have to do anything and you aren’t expected to do anything’, so I focused in on some things I loved and started looking at nature again.

“I became aware of how lucky we are with what’s around us – so much beautiful countryside.

“I like bringing nature back into an urban environment. I think that’s really what needs to happen in the world, in order to save it. You need to live with nature, rather than keep on harming it.”

Pop-up shop offer proves a hit with Knaresborough businesses

A pop-up shop on Knaresborough High Street has proved so popular it has been booked up for the rest of the year.

The owners of Sid Horner and Son decided to offer their former premises as a pop-up for a week at a time to help boost the town’s independent businesses.

After offering the shop at £250 a week including all bills, the company was inundated with interest and, within two days, had filled the calendar until 2024.

Owner Natalie Horner told the Stray Ferret:

“Knaresborough is thriving at the moment, with less than a handful of empty units and lots of new businesses opening.

“We know lots of people want to open a shop in Knaresborough and so want this to be an opportunity for independent businesses to test the water before signing in to big leases.

“We think it will be a great addition to the high street as well as a fantastic opportunity for businesses to trial opening a shop, and hopefully some will go on to open full time in town.”

Mrs Horner said the people who had signed up would be offering a range of products including homeware, clothing, stationery, swimwear, and eco and sustainability items.

The shop, which was previously used by Sid Horner and Sons before becoming a chiropodist’s treatment room, is currently undergoing renovations, including colourful paintwork outside,

The first pop-up is expected to open in mid-September.

Liquidators appointed at Harrogate conference company

The company behind one of Harrogate’s largest business events is set to be wound up after appointing liquidators this week.

Brand Yorkshire Limited, which runs the annual Brand Yorkshire conference, passed a resolution for winding up yesterday.

It has appointed business recovery specialist firm Leonard Curtis, based in Leeds, to deal with the liquidation.

The company was founded in 2010 and its sole director is Richard Norman.

After being cancelled in 2020 because of the covid pandemic, the Brand Yorkshire conference – held at Pavilions of Harrogate – returned in 2021.

The event was held for the 12th time on October 6 last year.

It featured almost 60 businesses in the exhibition halls, as well as a programme of speakers, and around 1,000 visitors attended.

Until recently, the Brand Yorkshire website was advertising its 2023 event for October 5. However, the website has been taken down, with a holding page saying it is “under maintenance”.

The Stray Ferret contacted Mr Norman but he declined to comment.

Compulsory strike-off action against the company began in February, after the company failed to file its 2021-22 accounts by the deadline of December 31 last year.

However, on March 10, a statement was issued by Companies House which said:

“Action under section 1000 of the Companies Act 2006 has been temporarily suspended as an objection to the striking off has been received by the registrar.”