With its roundabouts, belching traffic and building sites, few would claim New Park to be the loveliest suburb of Harrogate.
But it could have been renamed News Park this week due to its constant appearances on the Stray Ferret — not all for good reasons.
On Friday, we revealed how contractors grinding tree stumps at the Tesco site somehow propelled a lump of concrete through the window of a house on Electric Avenue.
Work on the nearby Ripon Road site where the charity Harrogate Skills 4 Living is building supported living flats has also not gone entirely smoothly. The charity said this week it hopes the flats will be up by Christmas after partially-built apartments on the site were recently demolished.
Elsewhere at the ‘crossroads of North Harrogate’, as New Park has been dubbed (by me), plans to build 135 homes off Skipton Road look set to be approved and, in perhaps the only New Park news to be celebrated this week, the local primary school was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.
Good news was, however, plentiful elsewhere. You could barely move in Harrogate town centre last Saturday night because the Beam Light Festival was so popular. And Knaresborough Tractor Run, that infectious parade of joy, attracted a record 401 tractors and raised £27,500 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Drone photographer Colin Corker joined me at the start and then hotfooted it around the route to capture some amazing footage. Check this out.
Channel 4 captured the somewhat earthier footage of a room of people squabbling when it attended the parish meeting in Ripon called to discuss the cathedral’s plans to build an annexe.
Our man on the ground in Ripon, Tim Flanagan, sent this photo of Channel 4’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson with tree campaigner Jenni Holman alongside the veteran beech tree at risk of being felled.
Knaresborough Town Council was unusually convivial on Monday night, but there was plenty of crackle in the room when Harrogate Spring Water managing director Richard Hall, flanked by helpers, fielded questions for almost 90 minutes on the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant, which would involve felling 450 trees.
A resolution to this saga seems some way off.
Read more:
- Cycling infrastructure in Harrogate and Knaresborough ‘absolutely terrible’
- French brasserie Côte to close Harrogate restaurant
- No date for completion of £18 million Ripon leisure scheme
Historic Harrogate chapel up for auction
A converted chapel in Harrogate will go to auction next week.
The Chapel, on Grove Road, was built in 1896 and is a Grade-II listed building.
Mark Hinchcliffe, from Harrogate, bought the property in 2013. He originally lived in it before spending four years converting it into an eclectic bed and breakfast, which featured on Channel 4’s The Restoration Man.
However, Mr Hinchcliffe put The Chapel on the market for £1.5 million in 2020, but subsequently lowered the price to £1 million in April this year.
The empty building remains unsold and is now listed with Allsop — with a guide price of £850,000 plus.
The Chapel offers six bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, two separate bathrooms, two reception rooms, a vaulted drawing room, a dining room, an orangery and a library.
It also boasts a large entrance hall and a 50ft atrium, as well as a utility room and plant room.
The Chapel’s floor plan.
The listing states:
“The property may afford possible potential for change of use and/or redevelopment, subject to obtaining all necessary consents.”
The auction will be live-streamed on Tuesday, November 7 and Wednesday, November 8.
Read more:
Harrogate man to say ‘I do’ on Married At First Sight UK
A Harrogate bodybuilder announced he will star in the Channel 4 series Married at First Sight UK today.
Window cleaner Matt Pilmoor, 29, will join 16 other people on the programme in marrying a stranger.
The reality show hires relationship experts to match people based on their interests and personalities in the hope of establishing long-term relationships.
The catch is, the couples don’t meet each other until they’re at the altar.
They then jet off on their honeymoons and live together for six weeks to see if their relationship lasts.
Matt, who was a pupil at Harrogate’s Rossett School, was scouted by producers to feature in the series after being single for a year before the show.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“I went into the process not knowing what to expect but I gave it my best shot. Putting your trust into the experts knowing they will match you up with someone you want is a scary thought.”
The series began last week and has already seen three couples tie the knot.
Unlike the US version, however, Married at First Sight UK couples are not legally married.
As he is a latecomer to the show, Matt will be considered an “intruder groom” – a character thrown in to potentially turn heads as well as find love.
Despite announcing his part in the series today, Matt will not make an appearance until mid-October.
He continued:
“It was one of the most intense experiences of my life, but also one of the best, and a journey I’ll never forget.
“Expect lots of laughs, drama, and downfalls that get re-built through the show.”
Matt said viewers will have to wait and see if he found true love, but could reveal he spent his honeymoon in Tenerife.
Married at First Sight UK continues tonight and is on Monday to Thursday from 9pm.
Read more:
- Yorkshire Kardashians venture on ‘reet posh’ trip to Harrogate
- Train strikes to hit Harrogate and Knaresborough this week
Ripon educational farm features on Channel 4 series
A Ripon farm has featured on a new Channel 4 television series.
Bland Close Farm, on Whitcliffe Lane, was chosen to take part in presenter Sarah Beeny’s new series called New Country Life.
The programme follows couples and families who leave city life and start new ventures in the countryside.
Grace and Dannie Foster-Lilly run the 120-acre family farm on the outskirts of Ripon.
The couple sought to turn the working farm into an educational facility, which helps schoolchildren to learn about agriculture and animal welfare.
Grace told the Stray Ferret that the farm had been in Dannie’s family for three generations, but needed to be kept open if it were to survive.
She said:
“We wanted to make something of the farm and we needed it to stay in the family.”
The couple, who are former teachers from County Durham, dropped out of the profession after 10 years in teaching.
Read more:
- Simon Armitage poem to be carved in stone at Brimham Rocks
- Pateley Bridge man to stand for Yorkshire Party in mayoral election
They sought to change the use of the farm, which is where they now live and got married.
The farm is now the home to alpacas, pigs and chickens and teaches children about animals and where food comes from.
In the past year, Grace and Dannie have overseen 25 school visits from areas such as Ripon and Darlington.
Channel 4 series
In an effort to increase the profile of the farm, Grace responded to an Instagram post from Channel 4 filmmakers looking for families to take part in a new series.
The crew were immediately interested and the couple embarked on 11 days worth of filming.
Dannie with some of the pigs on the farm.
Grace described the process as a whirlwind.
She said:
“We did not realise how intense it would be.”
The series has been broadcast every day since May 29 and will continue throughout June, Monday to Friday.
Grace said the farm has received a good reaction since the episode have been out.
She said:
TV architect George Clarke will bring buildings to life at Harrogate’s Royal Hall“We had a lot of families come up to the farm.
“We have had more people wanting to know about the farm and what we offer.”
TV architect George Clarke will share stories from a ‘Life in Amazing Architecture’ at Harrogate’s Royal Hall.
He will visit the town on October 18 as part of his debut live tour, which will give fans a glimpse behind the scenes of Mr Clarke’s hit series, including The Restoration Man, Amazing Spaces and Remarkable Renovations.
The live show will include audio-visual features, as Mr Clarke shares tales from his childhood, how he was inspired to pursue architecture, and how he stumbled into TV, as well as talking audiences through some of the architectural highlights of their local area.
The Sunderland-born architect is no stranger to Harrogate, having filmed a number of TV episodes in the town, including the restoration of The Chapel on Grove Road and the transformation of a 200-year-old dilapidated barn.
Read more:
- Bridal Week signs four-year contract worth £1.2m to Harrogate economy
- State of the art: Harrogate’s boom in independent galleries
Mr Clarke said:
“I’m just a storyteller, about people and about buildings. So to be going on tour, to be able to tell my story is amazing.
“I already felt like the luckiest boy in the world to do architecture, but to travel the country talking about architecture and my life – it’s off the scale amazing.”
Tickets for George Clarke’s Life In Amazing Architecture go on sale at 10am on Friday, March 11 from www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Boroughbridge hotel features in Channel 4’s Four in a BedA Boroughbridge hotel and restaurant is set to feature in next week’s episodes of Four in a Bed.
The Channel 4 programme follows four sets of hotel owners as they travel around the country to experience and examine each other’s businesses.
Beginning on Monday, Simon Wade, owner of the Grantham Arms and manager Joseph Mackie-Graves, will appear on the show.
The pair said it was a “fantastic experience” and they still remain in contact with the other participants.
The show tracks the pairs over five episodes from Monday to Friday.
As well as looking round the hotel, the hosts take their guests on an excursion. Simon and Joseph took their guests to Mother Shipton’s Cave.
Grantham Arms in Boroughbridge.
The episodes were filmed in September 2020 in line with coronavirus restrictions.
Simon Wade said:
“It was very exciting to be a part of the show, definitely out of the norm. It took us to various other parts of the country where we got to meet some fantastic owners. The other competitors all stayed in their own double en-suite bedroom at the Grantham.
“The experience was pretty special because it is two weeks out of your life but you’re experiencing things from a perspective as business owners to find any ideas that they’ve got that you don’t use and vice versa.”
Read more:
- The Old Deanery in Ripon has gone back on the market.
- Local tourist hotspot, Stump Cross Caverns, reaches £50,000 target and plans to open in May.
The other hotels and bed and breakfasts were based in Southport, Derbyshire and Coxwold in North Yorkshire.
The final episode of the week will see the hoteliers discuss the feedback they received and see how much each pair thought their room was worth.
The show is aired 5pm every weeknight.