This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
    • Politics
    • Transport
    • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Education
    • Sport
    • Harrogate
    • Ripon
    • Knaresborough
    • Boroughbridge
    • Pateley Bridge
    • Masham
  • What's On
  • Offers
  • Latest Jobs
  • Podcasts

Interested in advertising with us?

Advertise with us

  • News & Features
  • Your Area
  • What's On
  • Offers
  • Latest Jobs
  • Podcasts
  • Politics
  • Transport
  • Lifestyle
  • Community
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Education
  • Sport
Advertise with us
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Latest News

We want to hear from you

Tell us your opinions and views on what we cover

Contact us
Connect with us
  • About us
  • Advertise your job
  • Correction and complaints
Download on App StoreDownload on Google Play Store
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Statement
  • Comments Participation T&Cs
Trust In Journalism

Copyright © 2020 The Stray Ferret Ltd, All Rights Reserved

Site by Show + Tell

Subscribe to trusted local news

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

  • Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.

Already a subscriber? Log in here.

19

Oct 2023

Last Updated: 19/10/2023
Community
Community

Rock stars rave over 'nectar of paradise' in Harrogate

by John Grainger

| 19 Oct, 2023
Comment

0

toyahfripp-smiling
Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.

Bettys has long been popular with visitors to Harrogate, but the business gained two more high-profile fans this month when Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp dropped in. 

The couple were in town to play a gig at the Royal Hall and later took to social media to pay effusive tribute to the tearooms. 

In their latest YouTube post, Robert, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s best guitarists, called Bettys “a quality establishment which resonates”, and said: 

“I’d been to Bettys in York before, which was superb, but this was something of a pilgrimage.” 


Toyah added: 

“You may think we’re complete idiots for being so in love with this experience, but it was the heart and soul of humanity. We could talk to everyone, everyone really cared, it was kind, it was utterly amazing.” 


They described a cake they’d saved from their visit as “the nectar of paradise” and “a relic from the shrine of St Betty”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycHpZ5iO1rQ

Toyah, 65, is best known for her string of hit singles in the early 1980s, including It’s a Mystery, I Want to be Free, and Thunder in the Mountains, but has also had a long acting career on both stage and screen. 

Robert Fripp, 77, was the founder of progressive rock band King Crimson and has also collaborated with the likes of David Bowie, Blondie and Talking Heads.

The couple have been married since 1986 and came to national attention during the Covid lockdown, when they started their YouTube channel, Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch. 

In their latest post, their praise was not just confined to Bettys – they loved the whole town. 

Toyah said:

“Robert’s never been to Harrogate and he absolutely loved it, and I loved it too. It’s such a special place, and if ever you’re visiting the UK or just having a holiday in the UK, and you’ve not been to Harrogate, go – it's beautiful!” 






Read more:



  • Yemi's Food Stories: A 'sweet day’ at Bettys Cookery School

  • ‘Once you’ve been to Bettys you’ve done Harrogate’, claims Ripon councillor