A Nidderdale steel firm has gone into administration, according to official documents.

Harrogate Steel Company Ltd, which is based on Mill Hurst Business Park just outside Dacre, was founded by Dan Worsell and Richard Searle in 2016.

Mr Searle stepped down as a director at the end of 2023. 

The company, whose website says it is “big enough to trust but small enough to care”, offers in-house design, fabrication and installation services for construction projects as far afield as Bristol and London.

Local projects have included the construction of Paradise restaurant at Daleside Nurseries in Killinghall, and the filming gantry above the Barclay LED stand at Harrogate Town AFC. 

According to the latest available accounts for the company, in the year to the end of December 2022, the business employed an average of 28 employees.

It owed creditors more than £1 million and had net assets totalling just over £270,000.

Online public records journal The Gazette said Andrew Ryder of County Antrim-based insolvency practitioners JT Maxwell was appointed administrator on April 10.

The Stray Ferret has attempted to contact Harrogate Steel Company.

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A meeting of creditors of Harefield Hall Ltd is to take place next week as the business faces the prospect of being wound-up.

Harefield Hall is a family-run guest house, restaurant and wedding venue popular with walkers and tourists. The building, set amongst 28 acres of woodland, once belonged to the Archbishop of York and is rumoured to have also belonged to Henry VIII.

The Gazette, a journal of public record, last week posted a notice by Elaine Little, a director of the company, announcing the virtual meeting of creditors on January 9.

The notice said the meeting had been called under section 100 of the Insolvency Act 1986, which allows for the appointment of a liquidator.

A meeting of shareholders prior to the creditors’ meeting will consider passing a resolution for voluntary winding up of the company. The notice added:

“The resolutions to be taken at the creditors’ meeting may include the appointment by creditors of a liquidator, a resolution specifying the terms on which the liquidator is to be remunerated, and the meeting may receive information about, or be called up to approve, the costs of preparing the statement of affairs and convening the meeting.”

Harefield Hall is situated off Ripon Road, just outside Pateley Bridge.

Elaine Little

Two years ago Ms Little told the Stray Ferret she was looking forward with optimism after three covid lockdowns and flooding badly damaged business.

The Stray Ferret has called and emailed Harefield Hall seeking comment and clarification over whether it was still trading but not had a response.

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