Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal.
Carter Jonas has made a new senior appointment to its team who will be based in Harrogate.
Nicky Partridge is set to become the new Head of Yorkshire New Homes at the estate agents and property consultants.
She will help the northern sales team, aiding the consultancy to further extend its presence in the new homes sector, as well as reflecting the national levelling-up initiative.
Ms Partridge said:
“There has never been a greater need for new homes in the UK, with Michael Gove having recently announced the potential shortage year on year, so the time is now to answer the call for more stock.
“The new homes market is extremely buoyant. Enticements are rife, with green mortgages available for buyers who are drawn in by newer more energy efficient homes from quality developments. Through my 17 years’ experience of pricing, marketing and selling homes, I’ve found proven strategies for both consumers and developers, ensuring best prices are found for all home units.”
New Florist in Knaresborough
A new florist has opened up in Knaresborough this past week.
River & Rose is located on Market Place and specialises in bespoke designs for weddings, funerals and events.
The new florist opened on Friday and celebrated by hiding five bunches of flowers around the town.
Read more:
- Business Breakfast: Knaresborough barbers celebrates 20 years in business
- Business breakfast: Experienced lawyer joins Harrogate firm’s life team
Missing Harrogate man found safe
Police have said that a missing Harrogate man has been found safe.
North Yorkshire Police issued a statement and picture of the missing man last night.
It said:
“We’re extremely concerned for his welfare, and asking anyone who sees him or knows where he is to get in touch straight away.
“Extensive searches are underway to locate him, including with the NPAS police helicopter.”
Police said later last night that the man had been found safe.
We have subsequently amended our article by removing his personal details.
Read more:
- Harrogate girl, 13, admits drunken attack on police officers
- Records broken at today’s Harrogate 10k
Records broken at today’s Harrogate 10k
The men’s and women’s course records were both broken at today’s Run Harrogate 10k.
A total of 486 adults took part in the event, which was organised by Harrogate Harriers. Another 70 children participated in an inaugural kids’ fun run.
Winner Cal Mills, representing Leeds City AC, set a new men’s record of 33 minutes and 13 seconds to finish 32 seconds ahead of Harrogate Harriers’ Jack Kelly.
Emily Gibbins, of Ilkley Harriers, obliterated the female record by more than four minutes in winning in a time of 38 minutes and 15 seconds.
Harrogate Harriers won both the men’s and women’s team events.
Struggling up the ‘Crimple killer’ in the final kilometre of the race.
The race, which was sponsored by Knaresborough renewable energy firm Harmony Energy, started and finished at Harrogate Sports and Fitness Centre.and took runners around Crimple Valley.
Entrants enjoyed mercifully cool conditions over the multi-terrain course, which finished with the notorious uphill Crimple killer last kilometre.
In line with many running events this year, entries were down on last year. full results are available here.
Read more:
Stray Views: Harrogate plant nursery consultants ‘offensive waste of money’
Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Plant nursery consultants ‘offensive waste of money’
What on earth do we have planning departments and development experts employed for if our local authority is still prepared to waste £50,000 on external consultants to help us find somewhere to build a large greenhouse?
At a time when the cost of living is tight to say the least, this is the most offensive waste of taxpayers money. Have we not better things to do? How much tatty street furniture could be replaced? How many care workers would it employ? How many potholes would it fill? The list goes on.
It just pains me to see that something like this is deemed to be a priority. I despair.
Mark Fuller, Harrogate
Read more:
- Stray Views: How did Woodfield school end up in this mess?
- Stray Views: Dogs without leads ruining Valley Gardens
Ripon Spa Baths refurbishment welcomed
Brilliant news that Spa Baths will be refurbished and protected in future.
A large part of my childhood too, as with the developer and his family. I’d love to see it when it’s back to its former glory.
Trish Baker, Ripon
Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.
‘My 50-year friendship with kind, generous Malcolm Neesam’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
Bilton man says government is failing young people with mental health issues
A man from Bilton who battled undiagnosed Post-traumatic stress disorder for six years says the government is failing young people with mental health issues due to a lack of funding.
Ben Rothery, 22, said his mental health first began to suffer as a teenager when he struggled to come to terms with his sexuality and was bullied by other children.
He also developed a problematic relationship with food and his weight increased to 18 stone.
The bullying led to a suicide attempt aged 16 and further traumatic events at university increased his suffering. Despite seeking help through the NHS several times, they were unable to diagnose what was wrong with him.
He said in one year, he told at least 10 people within the NHS about the same traumatic experiences.
He said:
“I shut everything positive out of my life. I didn’t know what was going on.”
Huge waiting lists
After his suicide attempt six years ago, he was first referred by his GP to CAMHS, an NHS service for young people with mental health problems.
Mr Rothery said the waiting list was “huge” but he was offered regular sessions for a year.
He was one of the lucky ones, with reports of some young people waiting up to two years for sessions.
Whilst helpful, he said CAMHS was unable to diagnose him with any mental health condition, which left him confused.
Things began to improve at school, and after coming out as gay during his school’s 6th form prom, his confidence improved. He went to university in York to train to be a teacher and his future looked bright.
He said:
“It was the happiest I’d ever been. I finally looked in mirror and that was who I wanted to be.”
But whilst at university, his mental health began to suffer again. He starved himself and lost six stone in just two months.
He then suffered a painful fallout with people he thought were friends and faced more bullying.
He bought a pride flag that he hoped to take to his first Harrogate Pride event. However, somebody went into his bedroom, urinated on it and posted a video all over social media. He said he then “isolated himself completely”.
Retreating into own world
When the first covid lockdown happened in March 2020, Mr Rothery said “the world stopped when I needed it to stop”.
He dropped out of university with thousands of pounds worth of debt, moved back home to Harrogate with his family, and retreated into his own world.
He said the experience at university was traumatic and he didn’t feel like he could talk about it.
“People said, ‘it’s just drama’ but it really affected me. It was like being so high up, feeling like you made it in life, then plummeting straight back down. I was lower than when I tried to commit suicide at 16″.
Read more:
- Calls for action over ‘overwhelmed’ North Yorkshire children’s mental health services
- Majority of young people in North Yorkshire have suffered from poor mental health
Seeking help
In early 2021, Mr Rothery decided to seek help again. His GP referred him to IAPT, an NHS talking therapy service.
But he was offered just three hours of CBT treatment and it didn’t address his problems. He was still desperately seeking a diagnosis and an answer to why he was feeling so bad.
He said:
“I thought I had anxiety that had spiralled out of control. I had looked into PTSD, but I thought only people who had suffered really extreme things, like soldiers or victims of sexual assault had that.
“I felt like I hadn’t been listened to. Everybody I spoke to didn’t understand my problems.”
He said he carried on struggling until late last year when he had a “complete meltdown” and contemplated suicide again.
“I sat sobbing in my bedroom. I thought, I don’t want to leave my mum and dad. I saw how my previous suicide attempt made them feel. But I just thought, I don’t want to wake up.”
Next therapist
With his mental health problems now at an all-time low, he visited his GP again.
The doctor presented him with two options: go back to IAPT again or take medication. But he didn’t want to rely on chemicals to feel better.
Fortunately, his dad, who is a painter and decorator, had a customer in Harrogate who is a trained therapist. A deal was agreed where he would do work for her in return for offering sessions for Ben.
Private therapy sessions usually start at least £50 an hour, out of reach for most young people in Harrogate on lower salaries, so the offer changed his life.
He said it was the first time somebody had listened and told him what was wrong with him: PTSD brought on by the traumatic events of his teenage years and at university.
“That was the first time somebody told me what was wrong with me.
“It’s like a filing cabinet that has been thrown over and reorganising. It was the first time I’d felt listened to. I felt like I’d achieved something. For six years since 16 I’d been trying to get support but nobody seemed to know what to do.”
Doing better now
Mr Rothery says since the private therapy sessions finished he is doing much better. He has a fulfilling job and a good support network including his mum and dad.
But he fears that there are countless other people in Harrogate who are suffering with poor mental health in silence —and they are unable to afford expensive private therapy sessions that could make all the difference.
A report published in May by Harrogate-based Healthwatch North Yorkshire found that 72% of young people said they had experienced mental health or well-being issues in the past year.
Mr Rothery said:
“The biggest frustration for me is that anybody who didn’t have a support system at home like me would not have survived as long as I did. It crossed my mind that i could stop it all with one solution, but I’d be giving up. If i was to commit suicide, I’d give up all this fight.”
He added:
Hundreds attend Harrogate fire station open day“If everybody tried to get help and came forward to their GPs, maybe more would be done.”
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.
Read more:
- Harrogate firefighters issue smoke alarm warning after house fire
- Up to 1,000 runners set for Sunday’s Harrogate 10k
More people are ditching their cars in favour of electric bikes as petrol prices continue to soar, according to Harrogate district retailers.
As the average cost of diesel has almost hit the £2 per litre mark, people are increasingly looking at more wallet-friendly ways to get around.
Local e-bike suppliers say there has been a notable shift in the number of customers now moving to pedal and e-power, opting to save their fuel for longer journeys.
Kurt Davison, manager of the Electric Bike Shop, on Leeds Road, Harrogate, said:
“We have definitely noticed a rise in sales. This isn’t surprising given that you are looking at £2 a litre for fuel and you also have to factor in road tax and insurance.”
Mr Davison said 65 per cent of journeys made in the UK were less than five miles, so more people were choosing e-bikes for shorter commutes.
He said:
“We hear it a lot from people. The cost of fuel is too high. So they want to use an e-bike to get to work rather than running a car.
“We also recently sold a cargo bike to a family who are using it for the school run.”
Read more:
- Sneak Peek: New electric bike shop opens in Harrogate
- ‘I am utterly clueless when it comes to cycling’: How The Personal Cyclist helped me conquer my fear
Andy Crawley, who has owned Harrogate Electric Bikes – CorCoach, on St John’s Terrace, Harrogate, for 10 years, said he had noticed a rise in the number of returning customers wanting to get back on their bikes.
Andy Crawley, owner of Harrogate Electric Bikes – CorCoach.
He said:
“They are using their bikes more and I have seen an upturn in servicing existing bikes. They are coming back and saying they haven’t used it for a while and they want to use it more due to the cost of petrol. It hurts when you fill your tank up now!
“I do a lot of conversions where I convert bikes to electric bikes. I have definitely seen a surge in this, as then customers are not having to pay thousands of pounds for a brand new model. The cost of living crisis means many people can’t afford a brand new e-bike.”
He added that many people were still too nervous to cycle on the district’s roads and while improvements have been made, there needed to be a better infrastructure in place.
Tony Robertshaw has owned North Yorkshire Electric Bikes, in Bond End, Knaresborough, for a decade.
He said while his customer-base had always traditionally fallen into an older age bracket due to having more disposable income, he had noticed an increase in younger customers buying e-bikes.
He said:
“People are wanting bikes to commute on, rather than using their cars. Customers do say that petrol prices are too much.
“There are also a lot of benefits to investing in an e-bike. There are the health benefits and the cost benefits.
“Most of my bikes last a good 10 years, so if you work the cost out per year, it is relatively cheap. You would get through £300 of petrol in no time.
“You also don’t have to pay insurance or road tax. So it’s definitely cheaper than running a car.”
Obituary: Malcolm Neesam 1946-2022
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
Starbeck cafe tackling the cost of living crisisA cafe in Starbeck has become a hub for the local community, which is rallying together in the face of the cost of living crisis.
The Living Room Café is run by Sarah Khanye and inside the Life Destiny Church at 93b High Street.
The family-friendly space opens from Tuesday to Friday from 9am until 3pm and hosts a variety of events that aim to bring the community together with homemade food, drinks and treats available.
Ms Khanye, 31, has worked in catering all her life. When the Stray Ferret visited yesterday, she looked at home with a spoon in a bowl as she made a cake.
She set up the cafe over two years ago, before covid and before the cost of living crisis.
Both have unquestionably increased stress, isolation and anxiety for people living in Starbeck.
The cafe aims to be not just a place to fill up your belly, but also somewhere where local families and friends can get together in a welcoming space.
Ms Khayne said:
“One cup of tea can last all day. The cafe helps people feel safe, combats loneliness and improves mental health.”
Affordability
The cafe is volunteer-run, with prices kept affordable.
It also includes a pantry and community fridge that includes donated food from places like the Co-op, which people are able to pay for with whatever they can afford.
The cafe also hosts events including community running clubs, craft and coffee mornings and get-togethers for mums, among other activities.
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Cost of living
Starbeck is one of the least affluent areas in the Harrogate district with many residents more vulnerable to increasing prices.
Life Destiny Church also runs a food bank, which has seen demand increase sharply.
Ms Khanye says in the last two months alone, the number of people coming to the food bank has gone up by a “massive, massive” amount as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
She said:
“People in Starbeck are worried about the cost of living. A lot of people have limited income so numbers are growing.”
But with difficult times ahead, Ms Khanye believes Starbeck will stick together through choppy waters.
She added:
“I just like to see people enjoy the community where they live.
“Seeing families being able to support each other is massive. It would be a sad thing not to work here!”
Some of the events the cafe puts on.