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New Starbeck bar granted alcohol licence

A new bar is set to open in Starbeck after Harrogate Borough Council’s licensing sub-committee granted it a licence to sell alcohol.

Robert Thompson, director of Appetite for Life, hopes to have The Waiting Room open in May, covid restrictions permitting.

The building at 34 High Street was previously occupied by Greenalls and Your Factory Bed Shop, but has stood empty for some time. The name of the bar ties in to its location near Starbeck railway station.

Mr Thompson told the committee this morning that he hopes the bar will attract a different clientele to the nearby Prince of Wales pub.

He said:

“We see Starbeck as an up and coming area that lacks a high-quality, modern hospitality venue. We want to change that through an investment of up to £100,000.”

Appetite for Life’ already runs a number of bars in the Harrogate district including the So Bars in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon, and the Tap on Tower Street.

The bar will also sell coffee from 7am Monday to Saturday and from 9am on Sunday, with a deli counter open during each day. It will close at 11.30pm Monday to Wednesday and 00.30am during the rest of the week.

Starbeck is currently served by one pub, the Prince of Wales, plus two clubs.

However, the high street could see the addition of a second new bar called The Office Ale House, which submitted plans to Harrogate Borough Council last year.

Owner Kevin Jones told the Stray Ferret that he is confident that Starbeck is big enough for the two new venues, and thinks covid has highlighted how important pubs are for local communities.

‘Sneak peek’ at Harrogate’s new pancake shack

A new pancake house is opening in Harrogate today and the owner has promised that it will taste flipping good.

Tossers Pancake Shack, based at 53 Bo Grove on Grove Road, will open for the first time at 12pm today. Just in time for Pancake Day next Tuesday.

It will serve up mini Dutch-style pancakes as well as the more traditional crepes. Each can be served with a variety of sweet and savoury toppings.

The name of ‘Tossers’ has already proved a little too crude for some.

So the owner has challenged readers of the Stray Ferret to pick out a better one. The winner will receive a full tray of Dutch pancakes with all the trimmings.

Comment on the Facebook post where we shared this article with your entries.

Kyrensa Bentley, owner of 53 Bo’Grove, told the Stray Ferret ahead of the opening:

“We just want to inject a little bit of fun and laughter into people’s lives. Also, we’ve kept the prices really reasonable so everyone can come and take part.

“So it will just be a nice, relaxed atmosphere. We like the thought of street food, where people can just come in and pick up some food and maybe go for a walk.

“We focus on using fresh fruit and vegetables which we get from the wholesale market in Leeds.”

Would you like to spread the word about your shop opening? No matter how small the shop get in touch with the Stray Ferret.

Calls for community involvement in Harlow Nurseries housing

The local Green Party says a future housing development that will be built at Harlow Nurseries could be Harrogate’s “flagship” community-led housing scheme.

Harlow Nurseries, next to the Pinewoods, is owned by Harrogate Borough Council and sells plants, pots and compost to the public.

However, the council’s Local Plan says 40 homes can be built on the site with the nursery relocating if the development went ahead.

What is community-led housing?

Community-led housing developments are designed and managed by local people and built to meet the needs of the community, such as for more affordable or low-carbon housing.

Rebecca Maunder, Harrogate & District Green Party campaigner for Harlow says the site offers a “great opportunity” for the council to support community-led housing.

This means the council would offer the site to a community group rather than selling it to a property developer, who may choose to maximise the land for profit.

Ms Maunder wrote to HBC’s director of economy and culture Trevor Watson calling on the council to explore offering the site to the community:

“The site provides an ideal opportunity for any new development to be led by the community for the community.

“The proximity to the Pinewoods means special consideration should be given to integrate it into the landscape, prioritising wildlife and biodiversity, alongside mental and physical health.

“Such a sensitive site would benefit from maximum community input and help to create a sense of ownership and full integration with the existing community and landscape.”

The council is moving forward with plans to develop the nurseries and has appointed three external consultants who will draw up a programme for what might happen to the site before the end of the year.

If the local community decided it wanted to get involved, it would first need to form a Community Land Trust (CLT).

HBC is able to issue financial grants to CLTs to help establish themselves and to conduct feasibility studies for potential schemes.

A HBC spokesperson said:

“We thank Harlow Greens for their letter and will respond shortly.

“We have now appointed a specialist to progress with masterplanning work on the three strategic sites allocated in our Local Plan.

“We will be working closely with them to engage with and involve key stakeholders and local groups to ensure we create the right type of communities for existing and future residents of the Harrogate district.”

More than 1,000 coronavirus deaths in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire has recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Latest figures make grim reading for those on the frontline leading the fight against the virus.

So far, 1,006 have people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the county.

Local health leaders revealed the news at a press briefing of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, a partnership of emergency agencies, today.

It also comes as the Harrogate district recorded just a further 18 coronavirus cases today. The daily figure has dropped significantly from early January.

The total number of reported coronavirus cases in the Harrogate district is now at 6,928.

As a result, the seven-day rate for the Harrogate district is now 121 while North Yorkshire’s rate as a whole is 123 per 100,000.

Harrogate District Hospital has not reported any coronavirus deaths today but reported one yesterday. 141 people have died after a positive test at the hospital so far.

Richard Webb, the corporate director for health and adult services at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“Today we are starting with another milestone, with the latest figures from yesterday. 1,006 people have died from coronavirus in North Yorkshire.

“We want to remember those 1,006 people and offer our condolences to their loved ones.

“While we are seeing improvements in infection rates they still remain high. The best way we can help those in the NHS is by following the hands, face, space guidance.”

Hospitals across North Yorkshire are still under more pressure now than at any point during the first wave of the pandemic.

There are 343 coronavirus patients across the county’s hospitals. 44 of those are in intensive care but there may be others on ventilators in general care.

Harrogate District Hospital currently has 61 coronavirus patients, which is a reduction of three patients from last week.

The hospital has been treating a record amount of covid patients.

David Mattinson, medical registrar on one of Harrogate District Hospital’s covid wards, tweeted recently that it had been “exceptionally busy” since Christmas and urged people to stay at home.

Warning that home food entrepreneurs in Harrogate risk hefty fines

Some Harrogate entrepreneurs have made the most of lockdown by selling everything from brownies to burgers made from their home kitchen.

However, new businesses have been warned they face being sent to court and fined if they don’t register with the council.

Food businesses who plan to operate for five or more days in any five consecutive weeks must register with Harrogate Borough Council 28 days before starting trading. A food safety officer will then check whether the kitchen is clean.

Steve Pepper runs food safety courses for people in the Harrogate district. He told the Stray Ferret that home cooks risk an unlimited fine at the magistrates’ court if they fall foul of the law.

He said:

“A lot of people think, I’m a good cook so I will just sell some brownies.

“But some people know they wouldn’t meet the hygiene regulations so they carry on regardless, or they have ignorance of the law.”

Whilst a food hygiene certificate is not compulsory, businesses need to also inform HMRC that they are self-employed.

Mr Pepper said kitchens must be adapted to meet hygiene standards. This includes making sure plants and pets are in different rooms.

The council also requires two sinks with one used only for washing hands.

Mr Pepper is concerned some people might be looking to cut corners due to falling on hard times due to covid. He has been running workshops to help educate people on what steps need to be taken before launching a new business.

He added:

“It is happening. Covid has cost people their normal jobs and they will do things they wouldn’t normally do”.

Journalist’s book reveals district’s secret wartime sites

An author from Bishop Monkton has written a new book all about the secret sites built during the Second World War to keep the country going.

Former BBC journalist and author Colin Philpott’s book tells the stories of places across the country, including the Harrogate district, that were built and used during the Second World War.

Between 1939 and 1945 standard buildings became spy bases, interrogations centres and even retreats for the Royal family.

The book describes a secret food depot near Flaxby. The food storage facility was one of 43 built across the country to store food in case the country’s supply lines across the Atlantic were cut off.

The site near the Knaresborough-York railway line is still standing now but as a distribution depot.

Another site locally was the secret aircraft factory built next to what is now Leeds-Bradford Airport. At the time it was the largest single-span factory space in Europe.

Hundreds of Lancaster Bombers were built on site. It is now Leeds-Bradford Airport Industrial Estate.

Colin Philpott

Mr Philpott said:

“What is fascinating about the story of secret sites in WW2 Britain is that so many were ‘hidden in plain sight’. Some were underground bunkers but most were above ground and relied on a combination of camouflage, deception and secrecy.

“‘In virtually every part of the country, including around Harrogate, you can pass by Second World War sites vital to the war effort without realising they’re there.”

Mr Philpott will talk to adult learners from Rossett School about his new book in a virtual event on February 22.

Unlucky fox found stuck in netting on Harrogate school field

An unlucky fox was rescued by RSPCA officers on Friday afternoon after finding itself stuck in netting left on a Harrogate school field.

The fox got stuck in some football netting on Rossett school field. With the help of an RSPCA officer it was able to be released.

The animal was found unharmed but just a little muddy.

The charity used the image to ask people to put any netting away when it isn’t being used to avoid other animals getting themselves stuck in the gaps.

https://twitter.com/RSPCA_Frontline/status/1357732552694521856

RSPCA Inspector Dave Holgate responded to the incident and said:

“This poor fox was well and truly tangled in football netting. I managed to cut him free and then checked him over and thankfully he wasn’t injured so I was able to release him back to the wild.

“I advised the groundsman of the school to remove the netting whilst it is not in use. Unfortunately, people may not realise that netting such as goal nets pose a real hazard to our wildlife and many wild animals get trapped in them.”

Each year the RSPCA gets around 2,500 calls each year about animals trapped in netting.

As many of these animals are nocturnal the RSPCA says that many are left trapped and struggling overnight so often need veterinary treatment before they can be released.

From Harrogate with Love: Rare James Bond books up for £475,000

A Harrogate shop has listed a rare collection of James Bond books with inscriptions from the author for £475,000.

John Atkinson Fine & Rare Books specialises in the most collectable editions but the James Bond books are by far the most valuable.

There are 15 books in the collection. John, the shop owner with his name on the door, says they are so rare because Ian Fleming would only sign the books for the people he liked.

With his shop closed for lockdown John Atkinson invited the Stray Ferret down. These special books are for your eyes only.

Ian Fleming dedicated the copy of Casino Royale, the first 007 book, to his first girlfriend List Popper and later left her £500 in his will.

The author, who died at 56, also wrote a special message to William Plomer in the Spy Who Loved Me. Mr Plomer encouraged Ian Fleming’s writing and helped him get his first novel published.

So who is the type of person who would drop close to half a million pounds on this collection? Mr Atkinson believes there are plenty of people out there.

“Maybe they are an evil genius or a Bond villain. Perhaps they already have a DB5.

“I suppose it’s also an investment. The prices of these books are just going north and will continue to do so.

“I wouldn’t expect anyone to buy them and read them. There are plenty of paper backs around.

“In fact if somebody does buy this collection I will buy them the paper backs.”

History: Remembering Debenham’s, Busby’s and Buckley’s

This History is written for the Stray Ferret by Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam:

It was with great sadness that I learned of the pending closure of Debenham’s Parliament Street store, which I recall visiting as a small boy in the early 1950s when it still retained the name of its original founder, William Buckley.

From the middle of the 19th century, the site at the northern junction of Parliament and Chapel (now Oxford) Streets had been occupied by a photographer’s studio, the property’s address being 22 Parliament Street, which was occupied by a draper named Charles York.

Buckley’s first shop on Parliament Street, c1901. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

On his retirement in 1900, Mr York sold his business to a young draper from Nantwich, William James Buckley, who was attracted to Harrogate by the business potential offered by the fashionable and expanding borough. A later observer noted that William Buckley had been apprenticed to the drapery business from an early age, where he had learned that honesty and fair dealings were the basis for successful business.

The shop at 22 Parliament Street was well placed to catch the eyes of visitors to the Royal Baths, as the Wintergardens were located on the opposite side of the road, and thanks to some shrewd buying and displaying by Mrs Buckley, the display windows were filled with the latest fashions in jackets, mantles and costumes.

By 1909, the business was doing so well that Mr Buckley was able to extend his premises by adding a number of ancient and dilapidated properties in Oxford Street, including several highly picturesque buildings ranged round a courtyard and reached through an archway. These were demolished, and a new wing added, built of red brick, and featuring some handsome leaded windows of stained glass of an arts and crafts design. The only other brick buildings in central Harrogate were the 1862 Central Railway Station, the Hotel Majestic and the Grand Opera House, both of 1900, and the 1902 Beulah Street head-building of the central arcade, all of which have survived to this day, although only a small fragment of the Railway Station has survived the wreckers.

Buckley’s Parliament Street frontage was given a handsome pavement canopy of glass and iron, which was not only an invaluable means of encouraging pedestrians on a wet day, but which was also an embellishment to the street scene. In 1910 Mr Buckley bought 24 Parliament Street, where for many years Messrs Phillipson Ltd carried on a musical instrument dealers. There will still be piano stools scattered around Harrogate that contain music scores supplied by Messrs Phillipson Ltd.

After the Great War, Mr Buckley decided to rebuild the Parliament Street section of his business, and in1919, transferred the entire undertaking into the Royal Arcade at number 32, which he had leased in 1914-15, for the period of construction. After moving back into his rebuilt premises, Mr Buckley sold the Royal Arcade to Charles Walker and Son Ltd, who, after adding a handsome scalloped glass canopy over the entrance, installed Harrogate’s finest furniture store in the premises.

The new Parliament Street section of the store matched the 1909 wing, being of red brick with stone finishings around the windows. In those days, all the windows admitted light to the store, causing the delightful stained glass panels to reveal their colouring, an effect lost in the 1980s when Debenham’s blacked out all their windows, giving the interior a gloomily funereal atmosphere.

The rebuilt Buckley’s store was fitted throughout with a marvellous system of aerial wires that criss-crossed each floor carrying canisters containing money and receipts. They seemed to have been powered by a trigger mechanism that sent them whizzing round at high speed, and which were a most efficient means of dispensing change. Mr Buckley undertook a further extension in 1927 when he purchased the premises at 28 Parliament Street, then occupied by a popular cafe “The Lounge”, which had been much frequented by the town’s business people.

By the end of the decade, Buckley’s employed 130 staff, a considerable increase on the five employed back in 1900. The successful business caught the eye of Gordon Selfridge, who, in 1934 purchased it on behalf of Selfridge Provincial Stores Ltd, and when Mr Selfridge visited Buckley’s on January 25, 1934, he thanked the staff for their loyalty and advised them that Mr Buckley had been invited to join the Board of Directors, to ensure the preservation of such an important link. Two years later, in 1936, the company acquired the premises of fishmonger JW Bentley at 36 Oxford Street, which meant that Buckley’s store now filled the entire corner site between Parliament Street and Union Street. Part of the Union Street property included the original St Peter’s School, which was used as a staff restaurant and joiners’ workshop.

Selfridge Provincial Stores was acquired by the John Lewis partnership in 1939, who in 1940 decided to enlarge the store by adding the premises at 30 Parliament Street, formerly occupied by Miss Edith Ingram’s Needlework business. At midnight on Saturday, December 27 1941, a fire broke out in the Parliament Street section of the store formerly occupied by “The Lounge” cafe, and because of the national emergency, it remained in a burnt-out state until the end of the war.

Busby’s on Parliament Street. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

In September 1953, Buckleys was acquired by Messrs Busby of Bradford in September 1953, who changed the store’s name to Busby’s – this was seven years after the death of WJ Buckley. 1958 saw Busbys pass into the hands of Debenhams Ltd, who planned a major rebuilding of the Parliament Street properties between the 1919 section and the premises of Charles Walker in what is now the Westminster Arcade. Work began in October 1960, and the new store was officially opened by Mayor G Morrell on Wednesday, November 21, 1962. Architect Victor Syborn showed his respect for the arts and crafts style of the pre-war store by providing a dull facade of pre-fabricated blue and cream rectangular panels, and by replacing the ornate glass-roofed Victorian canopy with a gloomy solid-roofed cantilevered canopy that darkened both the pavement and the shop windows.

At one time, all of Harrogate’s top businesses advertised their prestige by erecting beautiful iron and glass canopies over their frontages, which encouraged pedestrians to examine their window displays – examples being Bettys, Fattorini’s, Hoopers, Jespers, Ogdens and Wood. Buckley’s/Busby’s was another example, until it was ruined, so it would be a real embellishment to Parliament Street if whoever buys the building could restore the lovely original canopy, and open up the stained glass windows.

Malcolm Neesam was born in Harrogate and graduated from the University of Leeds as a professional archivist and librarian. He subsequently worked in Hereford, Leeds, London and York where, for twenty-five years, he was North Yorkshire’s County Music and Audiovisual Librarian. Malcolm is a much-published author. In 1996, Harrogate Borough Council awarded Malcolm the Freedom of the Borough for his services as the town’s historian.

‘Hidden gem’ Harrogate shop more than a greengrocer

With a refill station, fresh milk and planters on sale, this Harrogate shop has more on offer than the traditional corner shop greengrocer.

Julia Corbett and James Sore took over Roots and Fruits, on King Edward’s Drive, two and a half years ago and have made it thrive.

The shop front will change throughout the year with pumpkins, Christmas trees and flowers on display, but there always seems to be a steady flow of people popping in to shop and chat.

Coronavirus has of course been a struggle at times, but they adapted to take advantage of soaring demand for home deliveries.

When residents struggled to get in an order at the supermarket during the first lockdown, Julia and James say they were there to pick up the phone and drop off food.

It’s something the customers appreciate. One even made the bold claim while I was there that it is “the best shop in Harrogate”.

The owners get their just reward for the hard work. In the early days of the pandemic, orders shot up from 50 to 550 each week, meaning they needed to expand their delivery fleet.

Julia explained how the shop front is the face of Roots and Fruits, but the real magic happens in the back, where they pack up delivery boxes:

“So this is Phil. He’s packing the boxes at the moment. In the first lockdown there was a team of seven people packing boxes and bringing in produce.

“This is where we store everything. We had to increase the storage, so it’s all out here now and there’s more in there. In fact, we were packing on the street at one point.

“We deliver to Harrogate, Knaresborough, Birstwith, Hampsthwaite, so we are all over.

“People find us online and through word of mouth. We may be tucked away but people can still find us.”

Since James and Julia took over the business they have focused on reducing the mileage for their produce and cutting the plastic it comes in.

They estimate that they’ve reduced plastic by about 75% in the shop, which they think is a big draw for their more eco-concious customers.

“We re-use everything. We contact suppliers and ask them to reduce plastic. We were the first in Harrogate to have a refill station.

“People come here because they are shopping ethically. We get lots of customers who make new year resolutions to shop with us more.”

This is part of the Stray Ferret’s ‘hidden gem’ series, highlighting small, independent businesses. They need to be tucked away but growing in popularity with an eye-catching and unique product or approach. Send us an email with your nominations.

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