Harrogate District Hospital is set to review its staff policies after the NHS announced plans to give paid leave for miscarriages.

This month, officials at NHS England revealed proposals to offer 10 days paid leave to staff who miscarry in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The move comes as part of the organisation’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy.

Angela Wilkinson, director of people and culture at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said it already offered support to staff, including paid leave, in the event of losing a baby.

However, she added that the trust would review its policies in light of NHS England’s new guidelines to see what further support it could offer.

She said:

“The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is extremely important to us at HDFT. A miscarriage is a traumatic experience and any colleague who sadly loses a child is treated with care and compassion, and offered the support they need at such a difficult time.

“It is important that we give someone who experiences a miscarriage time to grieve and process what has happened. The policies we have in place at HDFT currently do provide specific support and paid time off in the event of baby loss. 

“We will review NHS England’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy to assess how we can further strengthen the support we currently offer those colleagues who sadly experience such a tragedy.”

The move to roll out the policy by NHS England comes after it was first introduced by Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust in May 2023.

The trust, which provides health services in Hull and East Yorkshire, said it implemented the policy as a “compassionate move” for its staff.

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Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Every Saturday Yemi writes on the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.

Easter season is here which means it’s time to make a mess and bake with the little ones, from hot cross buns to no bake creations.

Many of us have a bit more time on our hands and often need to entertain adults and children during the holidays. You might find yourself wondering what to cook or bake during the school holidays or when you have guests without having to go to the supermarket.

I love looking through my cupboard and fridge to see what is available there. Ingredients that I usually can always find include canned pineapple chunks – I use Del Monte –  oats, flour, butter, sugar, almond flour, chocolate chunks and coconut milk.

With these staples, I can create my favourite drinks or bake some goodies from cookies to cakes.

Here is a recipe using ingredients that most of us should have at home. It’s cheap, cheerful and delicious – costing only 56p per serving, the recipe will be enough for 16 servings and ready in just over an hour.

Pineapple white chocolate cake with salted brown sugar glaze 

Preparation: 20 mins      

Cooking time: 45 mins

Before baking

Ingredients:

 Cake:

• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g golden caster or granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 200g ground almonds
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g white chocolate chips
• 1 x 435g tin pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve the juice)
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme  

Salted brown sugar glaze:

• Reserved juice from 435g tin of pineapple chunks s in juice
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• ¼ tsp sea salt

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 170c and line a round, 20cm-diameter loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment.
• Cut the butter into chunks and place in a large bowl with the sugar. Whisk with an electric whisk (or in a stand mixer) until fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
• Add in the vanilla extract, then whisk again whilst adding in the eggs, one at a time.
• Fold in the ground almonds, flour and baking powder.
• Stir in the white chocolate chips then spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Level the mixture with the back of a spoon.

After baking

• Arrange the drained pineapple chunks on top of the cake and push in very slightly.
• Place the cake in the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes – until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• While the cake is in the oven, make the salted brown sugar glaze. Pour the reserved pineapple juice from the drained pineapple into a small saucepan.
• Bring to the boil, then simmer for 8-10 minutes until reduced by half and slightly thickened.
• Add the brown sugar and stir together until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the salt.
• Turn off the heat and leave to cool to room temperature. It will thicken further as it cools.
• When the cake is done, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
• Remove from the tin and remove the baking parchment. Brush or drizzle the salted brown sugar glaze on top (you can warm the glaze back up if it’s thickened too much).

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• Yemi’s Food Stories: Brunch at The Hideaway in Boroughbridge
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If you’re a Knaresborough resident, you’ll almost certainly have heard about Blind Jack, but his influence can be felt much further than the small Yorkshire town.

A civil engineer, local guide, horse trader, businessman and a musician, Jack can sometimes be overshadowed by Knaresborough’s other famous figure, Mother Shipton, but he lived an extraordinary – and long – life, especially for the time period.

The early years

Born in 1717 in a cottage connected to the churchyard opposite Knaresborough Castle, John – commonly also known as Jack – Metcalf nearly fell foul of the high infant mortality rate of the era when he was struck down with smallpox aged six.

He recovered but the illness left him permanently blind – earning him his moniker, which would be considered insensitive by many today.

By all accounts, Jack took his new life in his stride, and it’s claimed within three years he could find his way to any part of Knaresborough, unassisted. This intrinsic knowledge of the town became an invaluable tool in one his many jobs as a local guide, showing visitors around the area.

John (Jack) Metcalf was born and raised in a cottage opposite Knaresborough Castle

One of his other talents was for music and at 15 years old he made a name for himself as a fiddler, playing in local pubs, one which was the Queen’s Head in Kettlesing, which still operates today.

Scandal and elopement

Touring as a musician could have been where he met Dorothy Benson, the daughter of the landlord at Granby Inn. However, their love story was far from straightforward – in his twenties, Jack found himself at the centre of a scandal involving another woman.

In his own biography, Jack claimed that the woman – the sister of one of his friends – would often ‘propose such whimsical schemes’ that ‘gave him reason to believe to laugh and be merry was the chief business of her life’.

Detailing his version of events in E&R Pick’s The Life of John Metcalf, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresborough he said:

However, the one evening apprised him of her intention to pay him a visit in the night and desired him to leave his door unlocked.

A knowledge of the woman’s mirthful propensity made him at first consider this as a joke; but, on the other hand he though it possible that a real assignation was intended; and being too gallant to disappoint a lady, he told her he would obey her orders.

Too sure for the future peace of Metcalf, the lady was punctual to her appointment, coming at the dead time of night to his mother’s house. It would be impertinent to detain the reader on the subject of the meeting: suffice it to say, that Metcalf too had unfortunately left his scruples at another house.

When the woman came to Jack to tell him of her pregnancy and ask him to marry her to avoid public shame, he instead told Dorothy, and conspired to neither marry the unnamed woman, nor pay her for her troubles.

He left Yorkshire for seven months to let the furore blow over, and when he returned, Dorothy was engaged to another man. However, Jack convinced her to elope with him, and they married in secret, going on to have four children before Dorothy died in 1778.

A storied career

The latter part of the 18th century was a busy period of Jack’s life, and one where his business credentials came to the fore; in the 1740s he worked as a carrier for goods in the local area, expanding into a stagecoach business by 1754.

During the 1745 Jacobite Uprising he even worked as an assistant to the royal recruiting sergeant in the Knaresborough area, travelling to Scotland with the army.

Jack built some of the routes for roads that are still used today, such as the A59

Due to his successful stagecoach business, he had first-hand perspective into the state of the local roads – and wasn’t particularly impressed. So when the opportunity to win a contract to build part of a road between Harrogate to Boroughbridge arose in 1765, he seized the chance.

He went on to build roads across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, including between Knaresborough and Wetherby, and Wakefield to Huddersfield.

In 1792 he retired to live with his daughter and her husband in Spofforth – but that wasn’t the end of his adventures. Aged 77, he walked to York to meet with a publisher and discuss his extraordinary life.

He died aged 92 in Spofforth, where he is buried in All Saints churchyard.

A legacy that lives on

The blue plaque dedicated to Blind Jack can be found in Knaresborough, as well as a statue. There’s also a pub named after him in the town, and a section of road bearing his name too.

His legacy also lives on in the contribution he made to the infrastructure of the North’s roads – many of the routes which survive to this day, such as parts of the A59 and A61.

Blind Jack’s on Market Place, Knaresborough

Sources for the article include Historic UK, Knaresborough Civic Society, The University of Michigan website, EnglishHistory.net and The Life of John Metcalf, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresborough at archive.org.

(Lead image Pixabay and Knaresborough Civic Society)

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Easter is a time to ponder the big questions in life, such as: what happens to the giant egg in the window of Bettys in Harrogate?

Reporter Lauren Ryan has been tracking down the answer. Look for her article on Sunday.

The Stray Ferret is now a stone’s throw from Bettys — we moved into our new office on Cambridge Crescent on Monday. I may have a claim for the best view from office in Harrogate. It’ll look even better if the sun ever comes out.

Talking of throwing things, my Wednesday morning routine was abruptly cut short this week when I heard Harrogate’s Parliament Street was closed die to a police incident.

I hotfooted it to the scene in time to find a shocking number of broken windows in the buildings above shops. The ages of the boys arrested was even more hard to believe.

Some of the smashed windows on Parliament Street.

Political shenanigans are hotting up in a year of elections of ever-increasing magnitude: there’s the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone council by-election in April, the North Yorkshire mayor election in May and a general election further down the track.

The Lib Dems were reported to the police this week when their by-election candidate sent out a leaflet falsely claiming the Green Party wasn’t standing. Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, wrote to Lib Dem leader Ed Davey claiming the local Lib Dems had “totally gone rogue”, which drew a sharp retort that he was “out of touch”.

The political wrangling continued when the Environment Agency released its latest data about sewage discharges, which made unpleasant reading for those of us living close to the Nidd and Ure, i.e. everyone in the former Harrogate district.

Mr Jones and his Lib Dem rival Tom Gordon had vastly different takes on the results.

Politics is a dirty business — and with elections looming, it’s only likely get murkier.

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Cosy Club in Harrogate will serve its last customers on Monday next week.

The Cambridge Street bar and restaurant will close its doors permanently at 5pm on April 1 after the site did not perform as well as expected.

The first Cosy Club opened in 2010 and the Harrogate venue only opened two years ago.

The Cosy Club brand is run by Loungers Ltd, which also operates the Claro Lounge in Ripon. The chain describes itself on its website as a place for “relaxed dining, drinking and lounging in a fabulous, welcoming setting”.

Cosy Club in Harrogate

Aaron Webb, manager of Cosy Club Harrogate said:

“Our last day will be April 1. The site is too large to make any money and head office told us we are closing. It was poor planning for the location and there are no plans to relocate in Harrogate. It is not ideal.”

The Cosy Club restaurants in York and Leeds will remain open.

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North Yorkshire Police has renewed its appeal to find a man missing from the Harrogate area.

Cao Xuan Tuan, 25, has been missing since last month. He was last seen on Thursday, February 29.

Officers described Cao as Asian, with short straight black hair, brown eyes and about 5 foot 6 inches tall.

In a statement today, police said:

“We’re growing increasingly concerned for Cao’s welfare and are asking for anyone who may have seen him, or knows where he is, to contact us immediately.

“Cao, if you are reading this, please get in touch with someone, we just want to know that you are safe.

If you have seen Cao, or have information contact 101. If you know his immediate whereabouts, please call 999.

Quote North Yorkshire Police reference number 12240041667.

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North Yorkshire Police has issued a CCTV appeal following a high-value theft at a shop in Harrogate.

The theft took place at Cotswold Outdoors on West Park on Saturday, March 16 at around 11am, according to a statement by the constabulary today.

It said nine Garmin devices, valued at about £4,470, were stolen from a display cabinet.

Garmin is a company specialising in sports devices and activity tracker watches aimed at activities such as running, water sports, golf and cycling.

The statement added:

“We’re appealing for information about the two men pictured who we believe may have information that could assist us in our investigation.”

Anyone with information can email Helen.James@northyorkshire.police.uk or call North Yorkshire Police on 101. Quote NYP reference 12240046885 when passing on information.

To remain anonymous contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.

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North Yorkshire Council has said it will move forward with proposals to create a pump track for bikes in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens.

In an update, the council said the new facility, which would replace the pitch and putt course, could open next winter.

A pump track is a circular loop that consists of slopes and bumps. The tracks have been described as being like a small rollercoaster for riders of bikes such as BMXs.

They are designed to maximise momentum and encourage movement with minimal pedalling.

The council took over the running of the park last year from Harrogate Borough Council and launched a public consultation on the potential move in November.

It previously said the track would be small and much of the pitch and putt course would be returned to grassland.

The council said it had received support from the public during the consultation and will move forward with them later this year.

The track would be accessible all year round, unlike the golf course which closes during wet weather.

It would be free-of-charge and would complement the skate park, which opened in 2011.

It is expected the pump track would cost around £2,000 to install by its in-house parks team.

Karl Battersby, the council’s corporate director of environment, said:

“We carried out a consultation exercise towards the end of last year to ask people for their thoughts on the potential to replace the existing nine-hole pitch and putt golf course in the Valley Gardens with a beginners’ pump track.

“We are grateful for the helpful feedback and the support for the project from the public. The intention is that once the summer season is over, we will be taking the project forward and looking to have it in place over the winter.”

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