Local padel players will soon be able to enjoy a game at a farm near Knaresborough.

HG5 Padel is opening at Poplars Farm in Ferrensby, where two covered padel courts are being built.

Players will be able to rent rackets and buy balls, and there will be vending machines on site for refreshments. 

Andy and Ione Cumming, who own the farm, hope the padel courts will open next month, but operating times are yet to confirmed.

Ms Cumming told the Stray Ferret Poplars Farm was once a working dairy farm, but the family sold the cattle in 2016 and created a livery yard.

But with an unused barn on-site, the Cummings – already keen padel players – saw an opportunity to convert it into two padel courts. 

HG5 Padel shared photos of the construction process on social media, and revealed players will be able to book games through Playtomic – an app used to find and book racket sports courts across the world.

In other padel news, members of North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area planning committee last week rejected retrospective plans for two padel courts at David Lloyd in Harrogate.

The courts had been in use at the Oakdale Place site since 2023, but the leisure company sought planning permission after they had been built. 

Despite council officers recommending the plans for approval, councillors felt nearby residents would be “negatively impacted” by noise generated at the site and refused the proposal.