Harrogate Working Men’s Club set for major refurbishment and new name

High Harrogate Working Men’s Club on Devonshire Place is set to get a major refurbishment as well as a new name.

The WMC has been a part of the High Harrogate community since 1889 and it recently secured a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance to help secure its future.

The refurbishment will involve converting and extending the first and second floors to form six apartments.

The ground floor, first floor and the building’s exterior will be fully renovated.

The newly named High Harrogate Bar and Lounge will be able to space for judo, pilates and meditation classes as well as other indoor sports.

A modernised function room will also be available for events, parties and live music to help bring in extra revenue for the club.

A new website is also being created to help broaden the club’s appeal.

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Plans for the renovation have been popular with locals. At the club’s last AGM around 80 members attended and unanimously expressed their support for the proposals.

Kevin Lloyd-Evans, lending and relationship manager at Co-operative & Community Finance said:

“We are delighted to be lending again to a Working Men’s Club. Being able to respond to access to finance challenges is paramount to our work. We support membership organisations which are democratically controlled and collectively owned. This is a brilliant start as we now look to support other Working Men’s Clubs across the country.”

Wreaths laid at newly restored Harrogate war memorial

Wreaths were laid this morning at a newly restored memorial at Grove Road cemetery that contains the names of 16 men from the Bilton and High Harrogate areas who lost their lives in the First World War.

It was attended by around a dozen people who listened to the Last Post and observed a two-minute silence at 11am to mark Remembrance Day.

Paul Haslam, a Conservative councillor who represents Harrogate Old Bilton on Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge on North Yorkshire County Council, spearheaded a campaign to see the dilapidated memorial restored in time for Remembrance Day.

Cllr Haslam said:

“In 2018 we promised to restore it to its former glory. Three years later we have achieved it.

“It commemorates the sacrifice of those who died and the tragedy of war.”

Mayor of Harrogate Trevor Chapman and Cllr Paul Haslam laid wreaths.

When the nearby methodist church was converted to flats, the memorial was relocated to the cemetery where it was left in parts on pallets, almost forgotten in the undergrowth. Work to restore it cost about £6,000 and was paid for by Harrogate Borough Council.

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Cllr Haslam’s wife Kath researched the histories of the men it names.

These include Fred W.C Horner, who was only 19 when he was killed. Charles V. Bell and John W. Fishburn both were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Dean Alexander and Nathan Proctor, two Ripon-based builders who are also ex-Royal Engineer soldiers worked to restore the memorial.

Mr Alexander said:

“It was a great honour to rebuild it.”