This week’s photograph was taken by John Brown from Harrogate, capturing a rainbow over Fountains Earth Moor, near Ramsgill, Nidderdale. Photo of the Week takes centre stage in our new-look nightly...
Photo of the week: a rainbow over Fountains Earth Moor
This week’s photograph was taken by John Brown from Harrogate, capturing a rainbow over Fountains Earth Moor, near Ramsgill, Nidderdale. Photo of the Week takes centre stage in our new-look nightly email newsletter. The newsletter drops into your inbox every evening...
5 things to do in Harrogate and the district this weekend
Lead image: Pixaby Stuck for ideas of what to do at the weekend? Here’s the Stray Ferret’s top picks of cultural activities from April 11-14. Harrogate Dog Show Taking place for the third year running, Harrogate Dog Show is back on Saturday. Held at Victoria Shopping...
88-year-old Nidderdale lollipop lady receives BEM
A retired Nidderdale lollipop lady has been awarded a British Empire Medal for services to child road safety. Mary Fisher, 88, worked as a lollipop lady outside Summerbridge Community Primary School for 47 years. She began in 1975 when she was persuaded by a police...
Environmentally-focused projects win prizes at Ripon Civic Awards
Projects focused on nature, the environment and carbon reduction were to the fore at last night's Ripon Civic Awards. Three months after Ripon Civic Society held its biennial awards in April 2022, North Yorkshire Council declared a climate emergency and planned steps...
Yorkshire Dales Monopoly edition revealed
There’s nothing quite like a game of Monopoly between friends and family, especially during the holidays. Launched just in time for Easter, the official Monopoly: Yorkshire Dales has been released and highlights iconic places, landmarks and game pieces from God’s own...
Summer Sunday buses across Nidderdale and Ripon to begin this weekend
Summer Sunday buses around Nidderdale will resume this weekend on Easter Sunday. The Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company, which operates the DalesBus, has regular all-year bus services which are supplemented by additional weekend routes into and around...
Meet the team – John Plummer, editor
For the next few weeks, we're introducing you to the team behind The Stray Ferret. We're starting this week with John Plummer, the editor. Despite John’s confession that he ‘didn’t have any ambitions to do any particular job’ as a child, he’s beaten his own odds and...
Ripon photographer Tyler, 17, is turning his passion into a career
Ripon-based photographer Tyler Parker (pictured above) is staking the claim of being the youngest businessman in North Yorkshire. At 17, the former Harrogate College and Nidderdale High School student, is gaining clients through the quality of his work and a...
The para athlete setting ice swimming world records and living life to the max
I meet Jonty Warneken almost 29 years to the day of his car crash. It was November 29, 1994, when he veered off a road near Ripley at 50mph, ploughed through a hedge and hit an oak tree. His injuries were so severe that his lower left leg had to be amputated. In the...
Ripon tinsel tractor run raises £1,500 for Yorkshire Cancer Research
The Nidderdale Charity Tinsel Tractor Run, which took place around Ripon last weekend, raised more than £1,500 for Yorkshire Cancer Research. 17 tinsel-covered tractors departed from F Tate & Sons Garden Centre. In sub-zero degree temperatures, drivers followed a...
The Nidderdale mole catcher: “People can be funny about what I do”
The picture book image of the shy, simple and typically bespectacled mole provokes a certain fondness among those of us who grew up reading The Wind in the Willows. So it came as a shock to me to learn that moles are classed as pests in the UK. Homeowners want to get...
Bid to create new ponds in Nidderdale for Britain’s biggest amphibian
New habitats for one of the UK’s most iconic protected species could be created in Nidderdale if a planning application is approved. Wildscapes, a community interest company (CIC) owned by the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, has applied to create two ponds...