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Peter Banks: the man withdrawing from Rudding Park

Peter Banks is giving out books. They’re copies of one of his favourite novels, Shane by Jack Schaefer, and he’s milling around Rudding Park Hotel, dropping them off with various former colleagues as leaving gifts.

That’s because, after spending the best part of three decades creating Britain’s best hotel, he’s just called it a day. He hasn’t been on the payroll at Rudding Park for a couple of weeks now, but his bearing is of a man still in his own domain. It’s clearly hard to let go.

In an exclusive interview with the Stray Ferret, he told us:

“I’m a rescuer, I’m a sorter-outer. When there’s a problem, I know what to do and what to say to people to get them to come out with the desired result. It’s incredibly stressful but incredibly flattering being at the centre of all that.

“I’ve been mainlining that for 28 years. When all of a sudden that goes, it’s like your dealer’s left town, he hasn’t given you a forwarding address, he’s not answering your phone calls, and you’re going ‘cold turkey’. It’s pretty brutal.”

If it sounds like a strong drug, perhaps that’s because Peter’s first ‘hit’ was so powerful. A self-confessed “gobby idiot” as a boy, his careers master – who despaired of his “scattergun humour” – told him:

“Banksy, you ought to try something with your mouth, not your brain. Try hotels.”

Rudding Park

‘An exercise in survival’

So following a “good education”, thanks to a bursary at Christ’s Hospital, the Tudor-era independent school in West Sussex, he left to become a management trainee at the Savoy in London.

He said:

“I still remember to this day going into the kitchen of the Savoy as a spotty 17-year-old, and there was this maelstrom of noise.

“The head chef was there with his massive, tall hat, and it was all in French: ‘Ça marche! Envoyer!’, ‘Oui, chef – coming now!’. And all this food would arrive out of various areas and would be put together on the hotplate. It was like an ocean-going liner’s engine room, there was that much going on.

“And then these incredibly glamorous, good-looking Italian waiters with dark, swept-back hair and flashing brown eyes, wearing tailcoats and stiff collars, glided into this maelstrom of noise, picked up these beautiful trays of food and then went back out of the swing doors.

“We followed them out, and there was a string quartet playing in the Thames Foyer, and I just thought it was so glamorous. I thought, this is the job for me. I was hooked.”

The highs were offset by some alarming lows, though. Assigned to the meat department on his first day, within 10 minutes a “massive” butcher tried to strangle him in a pitch-black service lift simply because he didn’t like management trainees. On another occasion, he was kicked headfirst into a hot oven by a disgruntled chef. It was, he says, “an exercise in survival”.

But it also gave him a thorough grounding in every aspect of the business, and during his five years there Peter worked as a waiter, barman, chef, fruit-and-veg porter, switchboard operator, housekeeper, receptionist, cashier, maintenance man and even ‘carpet spotter’, getting burns and stains out of carpets.

He then took his skills to Scotland, working, “drinking and playing a lot of golf” at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews, before moving back to London and the Hilton on Park Lane, which was, he says, “an absolute zoo”.

He says:

“The manager would say, ‘You’ll never get anybody’s respect until you sack someone!’. I disagreed.

“I hated working there. I used to come out of Hyde Park Corner tube station each morning and see the Hilton in front of me, and I’d be really disappointed that it hadn’t burnt down in the middle of the night!”

But it was there that he was told to “look after our guests as if they were your guests in your home”. He says:

“If you do that, 999 times out of 1,000 you’re going to get it right. If this person was a guest at my house, what would I say to him? You wouldn’t say ‘The kitchen’s closed’ – you’d rustle him something up.”

It was an approach that he’d never forget and that would serve him well at his next posting, which he secured after seeing a small ad posted by a brand-new hotel in The Caterer. If the Savoy, the Old Course and the Hilton were ‘gateway drugs’, he would find his main fix in Harrogate.

Rudding Park Spa

Rudding Park

The manager at the Hilton had told Peter that moving up to Yorkshire would be the “death of his career”, so when he and owner Simon Mackaness launched the brand-new Rudding Park Hotel on April 15, 1997, he set out to prove him wrong.

Initially only in charge of housekeeping, bedrooms and reception, he soon started accumulating extra responsibilities, and within a few years he was in charge of the whole thing. Gathering the staff, he told them:

“First of all, we’re going to be the best hotel in Harrogate. Second, we’re going to be the best hotel in the north of England. Then we’re going to be the best hotel in England, and then we’re going to be the best hotel in Britain. That’s where we’re going from here.”

Commercially minded, he did leave for a stint to open his own boutique restaurant with rooms in Southwold, Suffolk, while still working for Simon Mackaness two days a fortnight. Sutherland House was the first in the UK to list food miles on the menu, and was already winning awards within a year of opening, but Peter got bored and came back to Yorkshire.

He said:

“I was polishing glasses at 12 o’clock at night, and I realised that it didn’t matter whose glasses you were polishing, you’re still polishing glasses at midnight.”

Returning to Rudding Park, he oversaw the most dramatic programme of expansion and upgrade seen by a Yorkshire hotel in decades.

An £8 million project in 2010 doubled the number of rooms to 90, which meant that staff numbers doubled too. In 2017, a £10 million scheme saw the launch of the spa, requiring a further 50 employees.

Under his management, Rudding Park’s turnover grew from £2m to £28m, and staff numbers ballooned from 20 to 400.

Along the way, the hotel has collected scores of awards, including the “industry Oscar” that Peter says he’s proudest of – the Independent Hotel Catey of the Year in 2019, which marked Rudding Park out as the best hotel in the UK.

He says:

“That vindicated all the work and stuck two fingers up at everyone who laughed at me for coming up here.”

Highs and lows

He’s also welcomed some extremely high-profile guests. He’s taken President George Bush Sr (“a real gentleman”) for a golf-buggy tour of the grounds, had Archbishop Desmond Tutu (“a funny guy”) taking a turn on reception, and even caddied for President Bill Clinton. He says:

“Clinton was incredible. I thought that I was immune to charisma, but he had that incredible skill of making you feel like the most wanted, important person in the world. He left the room and it felt strangely empty, and then you realised it was because he’d gone out. Amazing.”

The satisfaction he takes from the Catey win is made all the sweeter by the fact that his time at Rudding Park has not been a uniformly easy ride: there have been hard times too.

In 2008, a couple who were regular customers were tragically killed when their helicopter crashed in the grounds, and in another incident, a colleague died on duty when struck down by a heart attack.

Then there was covid, which played havoc with the hospitality industry worldwide and forced many hotels and restaurants to close permanently. After a fortnight of tense uncertainty under lockdown, staff were furloughed and Peter set about keeping them active and engaged, as he recounted for the Stray Ferret in 2020. But although he acknowledges the wider catastrophe, his feelings are not all negative. He says:

“In an ironic, strange way I almost enjoyed covid after those two weeks, because it was problem management: who can be quickest, who can be most creative?”

Photo of Peter Banks, the former manager of Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate.

That fleet-footed flexibility is a quality that hotel managers have always needed to have, but some things are not the same as they used to be. So just what has changed over the 38 years Peter has been in hospitality? He says:

“It’s much better. There’s none of the ‘homicidal chef’ activity going on. There’s none of the monstrous abuses of power that I experienced at the Hilton.

“Also, when I started, the guests would accept a lot more, but now – with all the TV shows like Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares – they’re all ‘experts’.

“Social media has made our job a lot more difficult – anybody can say whatever they like about you and your property to the whole wide world, and you have no recourse.

“They slag off staff as well. I’m big enough and ugly enough to take it, but when they have a go at the staff, it demotivates the team. Some of them might leave. If we’re not careful, we’re only going to be left in this industry with people who don’t care – and then it really will be bad.”

He adds:

“Every time there’s a complaint, that’s a scar on your back. In this industry, you don’t so much get physical injuries, but you end up carrying scars on your soul – if you care.”

How is his soul?

“Fairly scarred.”

But that’s not why he’s left Rudding Park. That has far more to do with wanting to spend more time with his family, whom he feels he has neglected for decades. He says:

“My eldest son is 28 and I’ve spent one Christmas with him. That’s how much dedication you need to this job. It crucifies you. I’ll never ever have that chance again.

“To work as hard as I have for 38 years, you need to want it and need it in equal measure, because you have to sacrifice so much. I still want it, because I still love the industry, but I don’t need it. My kids are grown up and ‘off the payroll’, so that’s it. Happy days. Somebody else can work Christmas Day.”

Still only 55, he’s not planning on retiring completely. A second career as a hospitality consultant beckons, and he’s already got “nine or 10” projects to consider.

But for the time being, he’s taking a three-month break, and today is handing out those books. But why has he chosen Shane? He says:

“It’s all in the final paragraph. Answering the question of who Shane was, it says ‘He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West, and when his work was done, rode back whence he had come, and he was Shane’.

“I sometimes feel that I’m the Shane of the hospitality world. I rode into this little valley, not meaning to stay here as long as I did, but my job is done now.

“It’s a young man’s game.”

What did police and fire commissioner Zoe Metcalfe achieve?

After two-and-a-half years in office, police commissioner Zoe Metcalfe bowed out from public life this past week.

On Monday, the position of North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner was abolished as powers were transferred to the newly created Mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

The decision spelt the end for Ms Metcalfe’s £76,300 a year role, which she was elected to in November 2021 after succeeding fellow Conservative Philip Allott.

Her tenure saw a strategy for violence against women and girls introduced, plus a drive to improve call handling times.

But it also saw Ms Metcalfe oversee a controversial plan to cut the number of overnight fire engines in Harrogate from two to one.

The Stray Ferret requested an interview with the former commissioner to discuss her tenure, but a spokesperson for her office said she was unavailable due to “the volume of her commitments in her final few days”.

In this article, we look at Ms Metcalfe’s time as commissioner and analyse her performance.

999 calls

During her campaign to become commissioner, Ms Metcalfe pledged to improve the performance of North Yorkshire Police – in particular call handling.

The issue was encapsulated by the public routinely complaining about long waits for emergency calls to be answered.

Police reported in January 2023 that fewer than half of 999 calls were being answered on time.

North Yorkshire Police force control room

Between November 2021 and November 2022, only 44% were answered within 10 seconds. The national target for forces is 90%.

Ms Metcalfe made improving response times one of her priorities and announced a £2.5m investment into the control room, which included hiring 50 more staff to ease pressure.

By January this year, the force met the national target for call handling times.

Cllr Chris Aldred, a Liberal Democrat who sits on the North Yorkshire police, fire and crime panel that scrutinised Ms Metcalfe’s performance, pointed to the area as a sign of improvement.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“I would say that commissioner Metcalfe has definitely outperformed the two previous occupants of the role. Although, to be absolutely honest, this is rather a low bar to set.

“I do appreciate the transparency and commitment Zoe brought to the post. Under her watch performance has improved, notably in the outcome of recent inspection reports for both services, the performance of the police control room, where thanks to additional funding she has invested, call time answering has improved significantly.”

However, despite strides in improving the police force, the fire service proved a more contentious service to handle.

Fire cuts opposition

In May 2022, Ms Metcalfe unveiled her risk and resource model, which set out how the fire service will deploy its resources over the next three years. It puts the emphasis on fire prevention, especially during the day when most fires occur.

The plan, which covered the three years from 2022 to 2025, included a proposal to reduce the number of fire engines operating overnight at Harrogate and Scarborough fire stations from two to one.

The move was met with criticism from the North Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union, which warned that such a decision would lead to a “second-rate emergency response service that will put lives at risk”.

However, in an interview with the Stray Ferret in June 2022, Ms Metcalfe disagreed with the union’s criticism.

She said:

“From everything I’ve seen I’m confident that won’t happen.”

Ms Metcalfe also argued that the proposals meant more resources for fire prevention.

The move came at a time of a bleak financial picture for the service.

Harrogate fire station on Skipton Road.

In January 2022, the Stray Ferret revealed that North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service faced having to borrow up to £31 million to fund new equipment after the government abolished its capital grant.

At the time, Steve Howley, secretary of the North Yorkshire Fire Brigade’s Union, said the service was “struggling to buy the basics”.

He said:

“The government needs to start taking fire and rescue seriously and fund it appropriately. The firefighters of North Yorkshire are staring down the barrel of a gun, either cut firefighter jobs to pay for basic provisions or fail to have adequate facilities or equipment.

“Neither option provides the public of North Yorkshire with the protection they deserve or require.”

The Stray Ferret approached North Yorkshire Fire Brigade’s Union for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Meanwhile, Ms Metcalfe told councillors during public meetings that she would lobby government for fairer funding, but this appears to have not had the desired effect.

In February, the commissioner recommended to increase the council tax precept for the fire service by 2.99% because it was the maximum increase permitted by government without a referendum.

Cllr Aldred said he felt that the commissioner could have done more to pressure ministers to come up with a better model for financing rural fire services.

He said:

“I do think the outgoing commissioner could have put more pressure on central government for more funding for the North Yorkshire fire service.

“The national funding model always works against a large rural fire service, who rely extensively on volunteer fire fighters and often have to travel large distances to reach fires in England’s largest geographical county.”

The trials and tribulations which come with scrutinising and commissioning police and fire services now lie with David Skaith, the Labour mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

Controversy over taxi fare rise in North Yorkshire

Taxi passengers in North Yorkshire are facing having to pay five per cent more per mile in the face of appeals to increase and lower maximum permitted fares across the county.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive agreed to the daytime rates rise, extending night-time rates time to eight hours from 10pm and increasing the maximum call-out charge from £1 to £1.50 after hearing taxi drivers were divided over the rates which should be charged.

If the move is not contested, day-time taxis will be able to charge £4 for the first quarter mile and 20p for every extra quarter mile or 35 seconds of waiting time.

Ripon cabbie Richard Fieldman told the leading councillors the 70 drivers from Whitby to Harrogate he represented were opposed to the proposals.

He said:

“What you see before you today is totally unacceptable for those that work nights and the unsocial Christmas period. The proposal gives no increase to those working these hours which less and less drivers are prepared to work these days.”

The meeting was told one of the proposed changes, to start higher rates from 10pm rather than 11pm, would have a minimal impact on night-time drivers.

He added:

“It is ironic that officers recognise that drivers need rewarding for late-night unsocial hours with abusive, alcohol and drug-fuelled customers, yet are failing to provide them with the same increase as the day-time drivers.”

Mr Fieldman said the £1 per mile call-out charge had remained the same for many years and when combined with higher fuel costs had become “unviable in a vast rural county” to travel significant distances to pick up passengers who only wanted to go a few miles.

The meeting heard drivers were refusing to do these types of journey, leaving some passengers unable to get home. In addition, areas such as Northallerton, Thirsk, Ripon and Skipton had serious shortages of drivers working unsocial hours and the proposals would ensure even less cover.

Ripon councillor Barbara Brodigan told the meeting recent changes in Barnsley similar to the North Yorkshire proposals had led to too few or no taxis being available during holiday periods and at night-time.

However, Cllr Kevin Foster, who represents Colburn, an area with amongst the highest levels of deprivation in the county, said he received a lot of complaints over the cost of taxi fares.

He said the public needed to be made aware taxis did not have to charge the maximum permitted fares.

Several executive members said they felt the proposals represented a reasonable compromise.

While the fare increase will be subject to consultation if anyone objects, managing our environment executive member Councilor Greg White said some people had called for the maximum charges to be lowered to make North Yorkshire more competitive with nearby areas.

He said a three-mile trip in Barnsley would cost £8.90, but in North Yorkshire it would be £14.98.

A report to the meeting showed while a 20-mile night-time journey in North Yorkshire would cost £68.67, in Bradford passengers would be charged £42.40, in Leeds and £49.45 in East Riding.

Cllr White said:

“We are already more expensive than Bradford, Durham, East Riding, Lancaster, Leeds, Redcar and Cleveland and York. So I’m really keen that we don’t get to the situation where we do an injustice to the people who use the taxi service by making those taxis become unaffordable.”

King Charles III remains patron of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society has announced that King Charles III will continue to be patron of the charity.

The news follows a review of more than 1,000 royal patronages and charity presidencies by the Royal Household, following the King’s accession.

Queen Elizabeth II was patron of the society between 1952 and 1997 before King Charles III became the society’s patron as The Prince of Wales in 1998.

His Majesty last visited the Great Yorkshire Show, which is organised by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, with Queen Camilla in 2021.

Allister Nixon, CEO of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, said:

“We are honoured and delighted to receive confirmation that King Charles III will continue to be Patron of the Society. We feel deeply privileged and very much look forward to welcoming the King and Queen back to the Show in the future.”

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is the charity which organises the Great Yorkshire Show and runs businesses on the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.

Harrogate to celebrate Polish Heritage Day this weekend

Harrogate is set to celebrate the annual Polish Heritage Day at Harrogate High School.

The event, which will take place on Sunday, will begin at 12pm and is open to people from all backgrounds. It is the second event celebrating Polish Heritage Day hosted at the school.

The day aims to promote integration and raise funds for the Polish Saturday School, which meets every two weeks at the high school.

It will see stalls and activities showcasing Polish life and will begin with a football game followed by Polish food, folk dance and music.

There will also be family entertainment with four bouncy castles, face painting, a raffle and a tombola.

Aleksandra Timberlake, a teacher at the Polish school, said there are an estimated 2,000 people of Polish descent in the Harrogate area and four Polish shops.

She said:

“This year we are going even bigger. I’m sure everyone will find something interesting to do. I can assure you that it will be a good day out for the whole family.

“We would love to see everyone, not just Poles living in Harrogate.

“The school is going from strength to strength. We have got lots of new pupils and we are hoping for lots more next school year. We organise extra activities and days out.”

Yemi’s Food Stories: a culinary exploration in Ireland

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Every Saturday Yemi writes on the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

I was at stunning Mountain View Kilkenny in Ireland over the bank holiday to attend Foodiefest which is the first food and wellness festival of its kind. I got to help my fellow MasterChef UK contestants as they cooked their dishes for circa 90 guests followed by cooking demos for a captive audience.

From start to finish the weekend showcased Irish cuisine in so many different ways so this week my column covers some gems that I can’t wait to share with you.

‘Food and recipes should be shared, not owned’

My highlights started with dinner at Mountain View with menu from head chef Keith Boyle, a renowned award winning Irish chef with a heart of gold. For my starter, I opted for Seafood scampi, crab salsa and mango aioli. This was a generous and stunning plate of food with crispy coated scampi and delicious aioli. The crab salsa was new to me and I couldn’t stop scooping it onto my scampi.

I asked chef Boyle for the ingredients and he gladly shared them with me saying food and recipes are meant to be shared, not owned.

For my main dish, I ordered the pan seared salmon, curried leeks, mussels, poached eggs and chive butter. This was as classically French as it gets with the delicious sauce further enriched when the egg yolk bursts into the sauce. This was served with irresistibly parmesan truffle chips which were to die for.

This dish exuded the love, passion and generosity of the chef and his sous chef Ed who has earned the nickname of ‘the ED Chef’.

I was tempted by the preserved berry crumble and whisky anglaise but gave in to the classic sticky toffee pudding and caramel sauce. The plating of this dessert was elevated by the beautiful plate which had a hole in the middle that perfectly encased the pudding.

Some of the delicious dishes from the weekend

It was what I expected from a well made pudding, light and sticky with traditional caramel sauce. A part of me wanted a non-traditional version of the sauce which can be through the introduction of a salty or sour element or the addition of rum or whisky.

My go to sauce for sticky toffee pudding is my velvet tamarind caramel sauce which brings just enough sourness to change the game. A salted, miso or date caramel will also lend some character to this well loved dessert.

The next morning, ahead of a super busy day, chef made the time to cook us a full Irish breakfast with deliciously juicy sausages, intensely smoky bacon, black pudding, fried bread, Irish soda bread, eggs and more. This was enough to keep me going all day.

I had the pleasure of working in the kitchen where I saw the other side of chef Boyle which was a focused and accomplished chef who ran a professional kitchen without any faff or noise.

The MasterChef dinner

The MasterChef dinner comprised four courses of standout dishes designed by Matthew Samuels, Forest Kwok and Nichola Rapson.

The first course comprised three canapé-style starter including Caribbean Jerk pork belly, crispy coconut rice with apple and mustard, blue and red tostada, guasacaca, salsa macha and queso blanco, and crab korokke, Japanese mayo and pickled shallots. This course left everyone wanting more.

Fish course of torched cod, miso, orange and rum espuma and local trout roe by Matthew Samuels was exquisite with perfectly cooked fish and utterly delicious sauce.

This was followed by Irish beef, charred corn puree, corn velouté, Venezuelan chimichurri and crispy leek by Nickolas Rapson. The corn flavours on this dish was at another level, beautiful, silky smooth and delicious. I watched chef Boyle ‘nurse’ the corn puree so not surprised at the final result.

At the food demonstration

They say dessert should leave an impression on a diner’s mind and the dessert of chocolate, praline and yuzu paris brest by Forest kwok did not disappoint. There wasn’t anyone who did not wish there was a second portion. It was sensational and a true knockout of a dessert.

My turn

For my food demo, I made a salad of honey, black pepper and balsamic beetroot, Irish potatoes spiced with mustard seeds, chilli, and spring onions and a crowd pleasing creamy chicken sauce using mascarpone, sun dried tomatoes, shallots, chillies and coloured peppers.

To make chef Boyle’s crab salsa – mix finely diced courgette and tomato concasse with fresh crab meat, capers, coriander, olive oil and lemon juice. Check the balance of ingredients and adjust to your taste.

Serve this with potato croquettes, salmon or any white fish or use to elevate a classic scampi dish. Tomato concasse is a tomato that has been peeled, seeded and chopped to needed dimensions.

Coming next week

Next week, I will bring you highlights from the opening of the latest fine dining experience, restaurant Fifty-Two at Rudding Park.

Read more:

Stunning Northern Lights display lights up Harrogate skies

The Harrogate district was treated to a stunning display of the Northern Lights last night.

The aurora borealis was visible across the country last night.

Readers from across the district shared their pictures with the Stray Ferret of the natural light display which left sky watchers in awe.

You can enjoy some of the spectacular photographs below. Share your pictures with us via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Justina Halfpenny at Knox Mill Lane.

Syd Bell at West Park.

Emma Pittard at Almscliffe Crag.

Molly Fetherston at Grantley Hall.

Julie Valentine in Harrogate.

Helen Baxter in Knaresborough.

Editor’s Pick of the Week: Starbucks arrives, James Bond returns and Knaresborough floods

Finally, after months of speculation, Harrogate got the answer to the question everyone is asking — when is the new Starbucks on Wetherby Road opening?

The answer is — very soon. The full details, caffeine addicts, are here.

Pierce Brosnan is leaving a trail of swooning admirers across the district. A month after he was spotted having a drink in the Fat Badger in Harrogate, he popped up in Knaresborough this week.

Not, sadly, at Bond End but on High Street where he surprised staff and customers at Yorkshire Eyewear by asking to borrow a screwdriver so he could fix his glasses.

The gobsmacked staff obliged, ensuring the 007 star’s specs were shaken but not blurred (thanks to my colleague John Grainger for that line).

I drove along dry roads on Knaresborough High Street on Bank Holiday Monday only to get home some 20 minutes later to reports of homes in the town being flooded. Surely some mistake? It soon became clear it was anything but, and we quickly fired up a live blog to track the breaking news and headed out the next day to speak to those affected.

We returned on Friday to find out more about the impressive emergency response being co-ordinated at Chain Lane Community Centre.

Finally, a plea for help. This week we launched a petition to support Ripon Military Heritage Trust‘s campaign to preserve key parts of the city’s military heritage from being bulldozed as part of the 1,300-home Clotherholme development. The trust only wants to maintain a tiny section of land so it can tell the

If you weren’t aware of what’s at stake, read this article about the key role Ripon played in two world wars. For instance, 350,000 soldiers passed through the military camp during the First World War. You can sign the petition here. If we get 500 signatures North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee is obliged to discuss it. Don’t let treasured history be bulldozed

Harrogate residents react to road reopening

A week ago, traffic started flowing again on a road in Harrogate that had been blocked for 18 months.

Bogs Lane and Kingsley Road together form a horseshoe shape off the A59 Knaresborough Road. The bridge where they meet was closed to facilitate one of the many new housing developments in the area.

The route serves thousands of residents and is also used as a rat run or cut through to avoid the A59. Emergency vehicles travel along it when the barrier at Starbeck level crossing is down.

So are residents pleased to see the road fully back in use or did they prefer living in a quieter neighbourhood?

The Stray Ferret talked to residents this week and visited the site to speak to councillor Chris Aldred, a Liberal Democrat who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley on North Yorkshire Council.

The road closure has ended.

Cllr Aldred said most residents he’d spoken to — particularly those in the new developments — appeared happy to have the full use of the road back.

When we met, a woman who lives in Barratt Homes’ Kingsley Meadows passed by and said she often drove to Knaresborough and unblocking the road had saved a lengthy detour.

Claire Mortimer, whose salon The Nail Garden is attached to her home in Kingsley, supported the re-opening. She said:

“The closure has been hard for my business as I have clients that travel far so it’s been annoying they’ve had to go the long way for so long.”

Kevin Francis agreed, saying he moved to the area in 2019 because of its “great links to other areas”, adding:

“Bogs Lane being closed has had a real impact on our day-to-day lives.

“Working to the east of Starbeck we had been shunted onto the High Street and spent many an hour clogging up the A59.”

Daniel Jefferson said the road “provides an important additional link around Starbeck”.

He added:

“Since the temporary closure of Bogs Lane I’ve felt like we’ve seen a significant increase in traffic congestion both exiting Kingsley Road and through Starbeck which I also believe has contributed in additional road traffic accidents occurring along these routes, significant increase emissions and congestion.”

‘More speeding cars’

But Nicola Woods is among those who have the opposite view. She said the reopening encouraged speeding motorists with little respect for the many cyclists and horse riders that used the road, adding:

“At times it is tricky getting in and out of my driveway which is again caused by the speed of some vehicles coming round the bend near Hillbank Road, I have had some near misses.

“The past few months whilst the road has been shut I have seen an increase in people walking and cycling down Bogs Lane. It will be interesting to see what affect the re-opening of the road has on this.”

Tim Redshaw said Bogs Lane was an unclassified road that could not sustain the increased volume of traffic. He said:

“Having lived in Starbeck most of my life l’ve seen how the traffic flows have changed, and the negative effects it’s creating. To keep building on the green belt land we till recently held so dear is a very big mistake.”

New footpath

The new footpath

The road re-opening is not the only change. New traffic lights have been installed near the entrance to Redrow’s Kingsley Manor development and a footpath has been created alongside it towards Bogs Lane to make walking safer.

Darren Long, whose family lives on Kingsley Road, said he didn’t understand why traffic from the Redrow site is now forced to turn right onto Kingsley Road.

“It’s a very odd decision. On a daily basis, we see residents turning around in the Barratts junction to go back over Bogs Lane way. It totally baffles me.”

Mr Long also called for traffic calming measures on Kingsley Road “as the speed of the traffic on here from some rat runners and residents is absolutely frightening”. He added:

“We’re regularly overlooked in this area and it’ll unfortunately take a fatality for the council to act on this I suspect.”

The road closed to allow Redrow to work on its Kingsley Manor development.

Cllr Aldred said the new footpath and road surface looked good but the old crumbling footpath across the bridge needed upgrading. He added:

“I’m going to ask for that to be done, as the new footpath makes it look terrible. Highways also need to do something about the potholes on the approach from Kingsley Drive — they are awful.”

He added he suspected not everyone had realised yet the road had reopened, and the volume of traffic could increase in the weeks ahead.

Local history spotlight: Louis Copé

(Lead image: Harrogate Civic Society and Alex Goldstein)

London, Milan, New York – and Harrogate?

It might not be mentioned amongst the so-called style capitals of the world, but Harrogate certainly has sartorial credentials of its own. Just a brief wander around the central shopping district offers independent boutiques and designer brands, as well as the usual high street favourites.

However, it’s when looking back into the past that Harrogate’s reputation as a fashion-forward town really comes to the fore. In fact, it was once the home of a famous female fashion emporium, that considered members of the royal family as part of its clientele.

The shop belonged to Louis Copé (pronounced co-pay), a Jewish refugee whose family fled to the UK from Poland to pursue a better life. He was a major player in the fast-paced fashion world of the time, and while his shop closed in the 1970s, his influence in town remains to this day.

Early life

Copé’s distinctive moniker wasn’t actually his family name or birth name – he was officially christened Ulik Bidenkopf. His birth date is believed to be October 7, 1877.

Parliament Street in the 1900s (Image: Walker-Neesam Archive)

Copé was a later adaption of his surname, transitioning from Bidenkopf to Bidencope and then to Copé – a surname most commonly found in Europe – to sound more ‘sophisticated’.

His family first arrived in the UK in the early 20th century, having fled their home in Poland. In that time period, Poland was split between Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and Russia, with its Jewish citizens heavily persecuted.

Copé suffered from asthma, and the oppressive industrial smog of London wasn’t helping his health. In 1914, he made the move to Harrogate in search of the purer air that many believed the spa town, and the Yorkshire countryside, could offer.

Clothing Harrogate’s high society

While he may have first worked as a barber when he arrived in the UK – although this is unconfirmed – he made his first career change when arriving in Yorkshire, to become a jeweller. He was always a purveyor of the finer things in life, and in 1918 he opened the store which occupied numbers 52-58 on the corner of Parliament Street, facing the Royal Baths.

Copé’s shop rivalled that iconic building as an architectural talking point; the single pane of glass that wrapped around the main façade must have been an expensive installation, and indicated that customers could expect class when they stepped over the threshold.

The store sold a vast array of luxury couture such as dresses, fur coats, hats, and bags, as well as offering repairs to jewellery and clothing. The clientele was just as prestigious as the attire; the wealthy residents of Harrogate and beyond soon became loyal customers.

A fashion show organised by Louis Copé (Image: Alex Goldstein)

Copé’s reputation quickly grew, and ladies’ maids from across the country were soon contacting his shop to ask his advice on what latest accessory or style their mistress should be wearing.

The mid-1920s was a busy and prosperous time; not only did Copé get married and become a ‘naturalised British citizen’ in 1926, but he even had a brush with royalty. He received a request to dress Queen Mary, whose daughter Princess Mary was Countess of Harewood, the sprawling country estate near Leeds.

Later, the introduction of Freda – his only daughter out of three children – to a William Goldstein, a member of famed fashion house of its day Ellis & Goldstein of London, resulted in a marriage and the union of the two powerful families in society.

Fortune and philanthropy

A good indication of the dizzying heights of success and fortune Copé reached would be the time he came into possession of the ‘Tenant Diamond’, a gemstone valued at around £10,000 – a vast amount for the era.

Despite his lavish lifestyle, he still remained an active member of the Harrogate community and was just as well-known for his philanthropic endeavours. This included supporting several local charities, and throwing fundraising evenings for Harrogate Infirmary.

His legacy

Copé passed away on June 30 1957 at the age of 79. He is buried in Leeds, in the New Farnley Jewish cemetery. His store was taken over by his son Harry and enjoyed many more successful years trading, before eventually being sold in the late 1970s.

Copé’s great-great grandson Alex Goldstein is a property consultant and still calls Harrogate home. In 2022, alongside the late historian Malcom Neesam, he successfully petitioned for a brown plaque to be installed outside of the former premise – now home to Rhodes Menswear.

Alex Goldstein, property consultant in Harrogate and London.

Alex Goldstein with the brown plaque

Speaking to the Stray Ferret in 2022 about the unveiling of the plaque, Mr Goldstein said:

“I am so pleased to have been able to mark the history and story of my great grandfather, whose fashion house spanned decades and formed important memories for so many people in and around Harrogate.”

Sources for this article include a biographical timeline on the Harrogate Civic Society website, Regional Couture: The Inter-war British Couture Fashion House Isobel (London & Harrogate) Ltd in the academic journal Costume, by Hannah Wroe, Edinburgh University Press, an article on Harrogate Spa Stories website and a profile on Geni.com.

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