Unbeatable views for sale as Georgian windmill goes under the hammer

Househunters will be offered the chance of a lifetime next month, when one of the district’s most unusual homes is put up for auction. 

Skelton Windmill is a seven-storey property with 360-degree views, which on a clear day take in York Minster, Ripon Cathedral and the White Horse at Kilburn. 

The Grade II listed building was built in 1822 for grinding corn and was the windmill for Newby Hall until the First World War. It then remained derelict until it was converted into a home in the 1990s, and is now one of just 140 windmills left in the UK.

Simon Croft, partner at Harrogate estate agent FSS, said: 

“This is one of the most unusual properties I’ve ever dealt with. We’ve only just gone live with it, so we’re still gauging interest. We’ll get a fuller flavour when we have our first viewings.  

“When people see it, I don’t think they could fail to fall in love with it. It would be amazing as a family home, but it could also make a fantastic holiday let. Who wouldn’t want to stay in a place like that, with such amazing views?” 

The Georgian windmill, which stands in open countryside north of Boroughbridge and east of Ripon, has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, three reception rooms and a study, plus 70 steps leading to a trap door onto the roof. 

It has outbuildings, including an office, potting shed and carport, as well as 0.6 acres of gardens and paddock with orchard and wildlife garden pond. 

Skelton Windmill was originally listed for sale with Strutt & Parker in spring 2022 for £925,000, but was reduced to £850,000 and then again in September to £799,950. 

The property will be lot 7 in FSS’s online auction at 3pm on Thursday, July 13. Bidding will start at £600,000. Potential buyers should register interest online at least 48 hours in advance of the auction, which can be viewed on the day by both bidders and non-bidders. 

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Northern Energy begins work on new Harrogate district headquarters

Northern Energy has started construction on new headquarters in the Harrogate district.

The company is currently based in Hampsthwaite, where it has operated for more than half a century.

The firm distributes domestic, commercial and agricultural oil and liquified petroleum gas across the north of England.

However, Northern Energy is set to relocate operations to Limebar Lane, one kilometre from the village of Marton-cum-Grafton and next to the A168.

The plans include 10,000 square feet of office space, a vehicle depot, liquified petroleum gas and oil storage tanks and a new car park.

James Illingworth, director of sales at Northern Energy, told the Stray Ferret:

“The site that we are currently at [in Hampsthwaite], we have been there since the 1950s. We have basically run out of space and it is not fit for purpose anymore.

“The gas storage is what we really need to take our business to the next level and we can’t put it there. That was the main driver for moving sites.”

The move to build the new base comes after Harrogate Borough Council gave planning permission for the site in February 2021.

The company said the new headquarters will provide better access to the motorway and reduce journey times for distribution.

Work being carried out on the new Northern Energy site.

Work being carried out on the new Northern Energy site.

Construction at the site is being carried out by Harrogate company HACS and is being built in two phases.

The first phase, which includes the gas storage site, is expected to be complete by March 2024.

Look for a more in-depth article on Northern Energy’s move to Marton-cum-Grafton on the Stray Ferret this weekend.

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Co-op submits plans for new store in Boroughbridge

Plans have been submitted to open a Co-op in Boroughbridge.

The 359-square metre store would sell fresh, frozen and chilled products from 7am to 10pm seven days a week.

It would be built on the site of the former Searles Carpets showroom and Saab garage on Horsefair.

A design statement sent on behalf of the applicants to North Yorkshire Council, which will decide whether to approve the development, says:

“The site is located central to Boroughbridge and has stood vacant for several months and is in need to redevelopment.

“The proposal to create a modern format convenience food store is an opportunity enhance the local amenities together with job creation.

The document adds the “traditional looking” building would conform with the requirements of the Boroughbridge Conservation Area.

Another impression of the proposed store.

An accompanying planning statement says the store would have 13 car park spaces, including one disabled bay, and be accessed from Horsefair via a new access route.

It adds the store would be operated by Central Co-Operative, which “is independent from the Co-Operative Group, but are part of the wider co-operative movement”. Central Co-Operative currently trades from some 440 outlets in 19 counties.

The planning statement says the Spar shop on High Street is the only existing town centre supermarket / general store. It adds:

“Boroughbridge is therefore generally considered to be a vital and viable centre, although it clearly provides a relatively limited food retail offer

“It has been clearly demonstrated that the proposals will deliver a high quality form of development that respects the character and appearance of the local area.”

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Leeds Bradford Airport adds new flight to Amsterdam

Leeds Bradford Airport has announced it will host a fourth daily flight to Amsterdam with airline KLM.

The additional direct flight, which is now on sale, will depart every day at 1.20pm from August 28.

Three daily KLM flights currently depart from Leeds Bradford to Schiphol in Amsterdam at 6.20am, 10.05am and 520pm.

Nicola McMullen, aviation director at Leeds Bradford Airport, which is 12 miles from Harrogate, said:

“This new daily flight significantly improves Yorkshire’s global connectivity.

“The added KLM capacity enables passengers to have even more opportunities to travel to the four corners of the globe via Schiphol, one of Europe’s biggest travel hubs.”

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£3.5m gym for cancer patients to open in Harrogate

A £3.5 million exercise and wellbeing centre is to open in Harrogate in autumn.

The Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre at Hornbeam Park will offer free, personalised fitness, nutrition and wellbeing support to people with cancer. It aims to help patients prepare for treatment and recover better.

The building will incorporate a café, shop and donation centre and will also become Yorkshire Cancer Research’s new head office. The charity will relocate from its premises at Grove Park Court in Harrogate.

It currently has 70 staff, including those at its seven shops, and expects to have 100 by March next year, partly due to the new centre, which will create 10 new jobs and 40 volunteering opportunities.

Its shop sites include Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough.

People will be able to self-refer to the exercise centre and visit for free, although they will need to sign-up and book.

Most users are expected to come from within 15 miles of Hornbeam Park and up to 1,500 people are expected to use the service in its first three years.

Yorkshire Cancer Research gym

The gym will offer one-to-one support

The charity is recruiting fitness instructors with specialist cancer knowledge. Many sessions will be one-to-one.

Everything people do at the centre will be analysed and used to improve understanding of exercise as a treatment for cancer patients.

Yorkshire Cancer Research plans to open at least four new fitness and wellbeing centres across the region in the next 10 years.

Dr Kathryn Scott, chief executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said:

“Yorkshire will be at the forefront of exercise as a treatment” and the centre would “inform future cancer treatment in the UK and elsewhere in the world”.

Evidence shows that exercise can increase the success of cancer treatment, reduce side effects and speed up recovery, as well as improving life expectancy.

The programme builds on the charity’s Active Together service in Sheffield, which was launched in February 2022, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. So far it has helped more than 370 people with cancer.

Yorkshire Cancer Research will relocate from its current site at Grove Park Court in Harrogate.

Dr Scott said:

“Despite clear evidence that being physically active is safe and has a positive effect for people with cancer, exercise services are not routinely available and most patients are not as active as they could be following a diagnosis.

“Our long-term goal is for these programmes to become a standard part of care embedded in and delivered by the NHS across Yorkshire and beyond.”

Harrogate teenagers found safe and well

Two teenage girls who were missing from their homes in Harrogate have been found safe.

North Yorkshire Police said the 16-year-old and 13-year-old were both reported missing in the early hours of yesterday.

However, a police statement this morning has confirmed that both have been found safe and well.

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Conservatives lose majority on North Yorkshire Council

The Conservatives have lost their majority on North Yorkshire Council following the defection of a councillor.

Mike Jordan resigned today from the Conservatives to become an independent.

He added he would support Pateley Bridge man Keith Tordoff, the Yorkshire Party candidate, in next year’s mayoral election for York and North Yorkshire and he also “might join the Yorkshire Party”.

It means the Tories now have 45 of the 90 seats on North Yorkshire Council — precisely half. However, if a vote is tied, the Tory chair David Ireton would get the casting vote.

Cllr Jordan said:

“I have listened to my constituents and I recognise their frustration with the Conservative Party and how their policies nationally and locally are affecting their health and wealth whilst destroying their communities.”

Yorkshire-born Cllr Jordan, who represents Camblesforth and Carlton, said his disillusionment with the Conservatives was more national than local, with the exception of the 20’s Plenty for Us campaign, which wants 20mph speed limits to be the norm on residential streets and in town and village centres.

He said he supported the initiative whereas “most of the Conservatives on north Yorkshire Council think it’s a waste of time”.

Cllr Jordan said the North Yorkshire Conservatives had not backed his bid to become the county’s first mayor next year and he would therefore support Mr Tordoff:

“I strongly believe Keith Tordoff, if elected mayor would make York and North Yorkshire an economic powerhouse, improve transport, whilst also through sustainability initiatives enrich the quality of the lives of people in the county.”

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Tories and Greens name candidates as local by-election looms

The Conservative and Greens have named their candidates to fight a local by-election following the resignation of Nigel Adams MP.

Many villages close to Harrogate, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge, including Spofforth, Follifoot, Kirkby Overblow, Goldsborough, Little Ouseburn, Nun Monkton, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton are set to go to the polls to elect a new Westminster representative.

The by-election was triggered by the decision by Boris Johnson loyalist Nigel Adams to relinquish his Selby and Ainsty seat with immediate effect.

The Tories were quick to announce Michael Naughton as their candidate to succeed Mr Adams yesterday.

Mr Naughton, who has twice stood unsuccessfully for Parliament, said it would be a tough task replacing Mr Adams, adding:

“People working and living in Selby want an MP who can help deliver on the people’s priorities and I will work with the government to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.

“Selby needs a Conservative MP to work alongside a Conservative government and help us improve everybody’s lives.”

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Selby and District Green Party quickly followed yesterday by announcing Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn on North Yorkshire Council, as its prospective parliamentary candidate.

Mr Warneken became the first Green Party councillor in the north of England in 1991 when he was elected to Harrogate Borough Council. He stood unsuccessfully for the Greens against Robert Banks in Harrogate in 1992 and Nigel Adams in Selby and Ainsty in 2019.

He said:

“I am an experienced hands-on politician. I have a proven track record and I work tirelessly for the people I represent.

“My ability to engage with people at all levels, and to negotiate compromises, leads to positive results and the best outcome for everyone, and the environment.”

Stray Views: Yorkshire Water ‘sorry they got caught’

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.

How insulting it is that Yorkshire Water blame a shift in “expectations” for their failure to maintain clean and healthy water?

What they meant to say was, “the public have finally cottoned on to the fact that most water companies in the UK are doing an inadequate job of protecting this precious resource and the natural biodiversity that makes the British countryside so very special”.

It sounds like the cliche: you’re not really sorry. You’re just sorry you got caught. 

Mark Fuller, Harrogate

Harrogate is ‘dying slowly’

Why are we not talking about the closure of shopping businesses and the lack of keeping retail businesses and putting in place a Wilkinsons or a Home Bargains. Places people want to shop at. 

Also the lack of entertainment, there’s no bowling or crazy golf. There is nothing fun to do except for drinking and eating. There’s a cafe opening every week, a bar opening all the time but no real shopping opportunities. Empty retail shops are either going to be a bar or flats. 

The council don’t want to do anything, they are just wanting money and that’s it. It’s okay saying go to Leeds, but it doesn’t help people when the trains are always on strike and the traffic is absolutely dreadful. This town is dying slowly.

Chris Firth, Harrogate

Different parties, different policies

Andrew Jones likes to say it’s ‘Yah boo politics’ when someone points out the massive problems created by his party’s policy.  

Has Andrew heard that political parties have different policies? That is why there are different parties.    

The Conservatives promote privatisation: Margaret Thatcher pushed for the privatisation of water, so England and Wales became the only countries in the world to have fully privatised water and sewage systems.  

Tories believe that it’s OK for profits to be made from a basic service like water (or health, or energy, or  transport, or education ). Greens don’t.

Tories also believe in removing ‘the red tape’ and ‘the green crap’ (removing regulation and sustainability considerations).   

Well, now we are seeing the consequences of 13 years of Tory government.    

Trumpeting that he is saving the Nidd is pure hypocrisy, when Mr Jones’s voting record supports privatisation and its dire consequences: including the destruction of nature and theft from the public purse.  

He knows perfectly well that Greens would never have let the rivers get into this state in the first place, and we work full-time at all levels to right the wrongs created by his party’s short-sighted policies.

Shan Oakes, former Green Party European parliamentary and local candidate. Currently serving on Knaresborough Town and Scriven Parish Councils

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Selby and Ainsty MP resigns with immediate effect

Selby and Ainsty Conservative MP,  Nigel Adams, a key ally of Boris Johnson, has announced his resignation with immediate affect.

Mr Adams resignation will trigger a third by-election in a Conservative held seat in the past 24 hours- following the shock resignation yesterday of former Prime Minster, Boris Johnson, and former culture secretary, Nadine Dorries as MPs. Mr Adams was minister without portfolio in Boris Johnson’s cabinet.

On Friday Mr Adams was not nominated for an honour on Mr Johnson’s peerage list.

Mr Adams said he wanted to “thank my constituents for their wonderful support since 2010”.

Last year Mr Adams had said he would not be standing again as an MP at the next general  election- today’s announcement means his departure forces an earlier by-election.

Mr Adams was first elected in 2010 and has defended the seat in three subsequent elections. He currently holds the seat with a majority of 20,137.

Posting on Twitter, Mr Adams announced he was leaving politics immediately.

Yesterday, Selby Conservatives selected an excellent new parliamentary candidate.

I’ve today informed the chief whip that I will be standing down as a Member of Parliament with immediate effect.

It has been an honour to represent the area where I was raised, educated &

1/2

— Nigel Adams (@nadams) June 10, 2023