Editor’s Pick of the Week: Pie heaven in Pateley, fuel hell in Harrogate and gold bling

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Journalism has plenty of tough assignments, but the good ones don’t get much better than being asked to eat a load of pies. Not just any old pies either, but the finest produce from the best butchers in Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge.

Our reporter Robert Caulfield almost sprinted out of the office on his mission to find the district’s best offering during National Pie Week.

Let’s just say he didn’t need to make any tea that evening. You can read which pie was rated number one by staff and readers here.

Two thieves who appear to prefer sweet to savoury admitted stealing almost £3,500 worth of chocolate this week.

The list of supermarkets they targeted extended from Suffolk to Shipley, and included no fewer than six from the Harrogate district.

They’ve blotted their copybook and probably their laptops too if their chocolate-eating habits are anything like mine.

Some thieves, it seems, are aiming for more high value goods — like mayoral gold chains.

Harrogate’s dates back to 1884 and is worth a princely sum. In fact, it’s so valuable it’s precise worth has not been disclosed.

After a mayoral chain was stolen from Dewsbury last month, Harrogate Town Council this week decided to retire the Victorian civic regalia worn by the mayor and buy a cut-price replacement for about £5,000.

The old one will still be brought out twice a year, for mayor-making and Remembrance Sunday. As current mayor Councillor Chris Aldred remarked, any would-be thieves are likely to think twice about trying to grab it at the war memorial when hundreds of service personnel and ex-service personnel are present.

A new fuel company arrived in Harrogate this week and within 24 hours everyone was talking about them — but not for the right reasons.

Valero took over the former Texaco site in Skipton Road and immediately whacked up the cost of a diesel to 163.9 pence a litre. This was more than 20p higher than another fuel station less than a mile away, as a Stray Ferret investigation discovered.

Perhaps this week’s most heart-warning story was the escape from Dubai of Harrogate artist Anita Bowerman and her husband Peter.

The couple were on their way home from Australia and were only supposed to transfer flights at Dubai last Saturday but their landing coincided with explosions going off as Iran retaliated to bombing by the United States and Israel. All flights were cancelled but they managed a lucky escape on Thursday. 

Dubai has its charms but the pies aren't as good.