Harrogate Civic Society, Andrew Jones MP, Harrogate Borough Council and the Stray Defence Association lead tributes to Mr Neesam, who died yesterday.

Tributes paid to ‘Mr Harrogate’ Malcolm Neesam
Tributes have been paid to celebrated Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam, who died yesterday. Mr Neesam, who wrote some of the most authoritative books about Harrogate, died in the early hours of the morning on his 76th birthday. He was a founder member of Harrogate...

Knaresborough Museum plan given go-ahead
Proposals to convert a former girls school in Knaresborough into a museum for the town have been approved.

Pateley Bridge drama group puts on play about wartime bombing of Majestic Hotel
‘The Stray’, a play written by a Nidderdale playwright, explores what might have happened in Harrogate during the week before the hotel was bombed on September 12, 1940.

Malcolm Neesam: My Indiana Jones moment
It’s every historian’s dream to find missing artefacts and documents that shaped or recorded history. Celebrated Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam reflects on his Indiana Jones moment.

Your memories of how the district celebrated the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977
On June 6 and 7, 1977, more than one million people lined the streets of London to watch the Royal Family in procession to St Paul’s cathedral, while millions more watched on TV and held street parties across the country.
In Harrogate there were street parties, galas and even a visit from the Queen herself, who attended the Great Yorkshire Show.

‘Our lovely Queen has brought us together’, say Burn Bridge party organisers
Two neighbours who both work for the NHS told the Stray Ferret that their jubilee street party has brought the area together in a way that hasn’t happened before.

‘I chatted to the Queen in the back of a Range Rover’: Her Majesty’s many visits to the district
Mr Cowling remembered that as the Queen was elderly, it was decided that they would drive to the far end of the showground and walk back.
He said: “I never thought I would be sat in the back of a Range Rover with the Queen. You don’t think these things are going to happen.

Thousands turn out for lighting of Harrogate district jubilee beacons
Thousands gathered at historic venues across the district to witness the lighting of Jubilee beacons last night. The Stray Ferret was at Knaresborough Castle and Ripon’s Market Square to watch the moment they lit up the night sky.

Rare Beatles Royal Hall poster fetches almost £3,000
The concert on March 8 was during the height of ‘Beatlemania’ and was the group’s first and only Harrogate gig. It has since gone down in Harrogate folklore.

‘We felt apprehension, but not fear’: Harrogate seaman remembers the Falklands War
“Where’s the bloody Falklands?” was Harrogate sailor Neil Harper’s first thought following the Argentine invasion on April 2, 1982.

Harrogate widow remembers husband killed in the Falklands aged just 21
Harrogate woman Christina Nelson who was only 22 when her husband Stephen Heyes was killed aboard the HMS Ardent aged 21.

Free war grave tours at Harrogate’s Stonefall Cemetery next week
Stonefall Cemetery is home to the graves of more than 1,000 casualties World War One and World War Two. Next week, free guided tours will be offered as part of War Graves Week.