An artist whose gallery officially opened in Pateley Bridge last weekend has thanked local people for their support.

James Owen Thomas is known for his environmental activism through art.  Much of the art on display in his gallery highlights issues on this topic and in particular single use plastics.

He was recently commissioned by Whitewoods Wellbeing near Bewerley, where he is the artist in residence, to create a collage of trees.

His latest collage involved collaging a Van Gogh portrait using discarded national lottery scratch cards. This was sold to a buyer in Leeds who visited the gallery.

James, who has lived in Pateley Bridge for more than 10 years, said:

“This is an area of outstanding natural beauty so I feel very lucky to live here and I am inspired in my art by all the nature in the local surroundings.”

“The idea of the official opening was to invite everyone local as a way of thanking them for their support and for them to see how I am developing my art business. “

Among those attending the opening was North Yorkshire deputy lieutenant, Professor David Hill, who gave a talk on environmental issues and praised James’ art for making a positive statement.

The gallery is open 11am to 3pm Wednesday to Friday. The Ripon City Photographic Society is also exhibiting at the gallery until July 30.

James (right) displays one of the pieces in the gallery.

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To celebrate Charles III’s coronation, the Stray Ferret and Ogden of Harrogate are holding a competition for children to design two crowns fit for the royal occasion.

The lucky winners will have their dazzling crowns displayed in Ogden of Harrogate’s shop window – showcased alongside Ogden’s very own Imperial State Crown.

We’re inviting school pupils of all ages to get creative. Two winners will be selected: one of primary school age and one of secondary school age.

We will be posting photos of entries regularly across on our social media channels during the competition – so, the more the merrier.

The Ogden Crown: 

Traditional luxury jeweller, Ogden of Harrogate, was founded in 1893 by James Ogden.

The company established its royal connections nearly a century ago, after Prince George, son of George V and Queen Mary, became a frequent customer of the St James’s store in London.

In celebration of George VI’s Coronation in 1937, Ogden of Harrogate’s team hand-crafted two replicas of the Imperial State Crown.

One of Ogden of Harrogate’s replica crowns.

The jewels on the crown mirror those in the Royal crown, including the Cullinan 2 diamond – a cut from the largest diamond ever discovered.

The Ogden crowns boast exact replicas of the diamonds, ruby’s, pearls, emeralds, and sapphires found in the Imperial State Crown.

Robert Ogden, director of Ogden of Harrogate, said:

“It is a treat to have the crown out.

“It is only on display during Royal occasions”.

How to Enter:

To enter: please submit a photo of your crown drawing, painting or creation to our website here.

The competition will run from March 27 until April 21.

The crowns will be on display in the Harrogate store from 28 April until 13 May.

Will you be crowned a winner…?

A dog lead ‘honesty box’ has been set up in Nidderdale for dog walkers to keep their pets under control.

During this time of year, the moors are used by ground-nesting birds, such as the lapwing and curlew, to lay their eggs.

But it can only take a dog sniffing about in the undergrowth for the birds to abandon their nests, sometimes for good.

To help protect the nests from dogs whose owners might have not brought a lead with them, Nidderdale Moorland Group has put a box on one of its estates. It contains several leads that visitors can borrow whilst they walk the footpaths.

The group hopes the move will mean fewer nests are disturbed and will also help keep dogs away from lambs that have recently been born.

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With warm weather expected over the Easter bank holiday weekend, the moorland group has also asked visitors not to bring BBQs or start fires, due to the risk of the flames spreading.

Last month, firefighters from Harrogate and Knaresborough tackled a wildfire on moorland near Brimham Rocks.

Businesses and residents are calling for the drains to be improved in Pateley Bridge after the town flooded again yesterday.

Pateley has flooded frequently in recent years and the bottom of High Street was under water again in the early hours of Sunday.

Fortunately the water subsided quickly after Lee Chandler, co-owner of the Spar shop on High Street, went out in the dark with rods to unblock the drains.

Many people blame the state of the drains for not the problem. They say the drains are not cleaned often enough and therefore don’t remove water that comes down the hill fast enough, leaving shops at the bottom of High Street vulnerable.

Firefighters help out yesterday.

The increased regularity of floods has led to calls for action.

Andrew Weatherhead, owner of butchers H Weatherhead and Sons, plans to install flood doors at the front and back of his shop after water got into the premises for the second time in a year. The shop closed yesterday but has reopened today.

He said:

“The problem is not the river flooding — it’s the state of the drains. The water comes down the High Street and it brings a load of muck down. There’s a couple of drains on either side of the road and they get blocked by the mud.

“We could do with bigger drains or the drains being cleaned more frequently.”

Elizabeth Chandler, co-owner of the Spar shop, said her husband Lee often unblocked the drains and the problem was compounded yesterday by a lack of sandbags distributed.

Unblocking the drains yesterday.

Mr Chandler began tackling the flooding at 5am. It had cleared by about 7.30am and then he and his wife helped the clean-up operation on Greenwood Road, which had also flooded. They finally got home at 8pm only to notice the roof of their home was leaking.

Ms Chandler agreed to the state of the drains needed addressing — a sentiment echoed by many residents on Facebook groups in the area.

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Stanley Lumley, a Conservative councillor who represents Pateley Bridge on both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, told the Stray Ferret that there was a problem with the drains in the town, which along with snow meltwater and torrential rain caused a “perfect storm”.

Cllr Lumley, who took part in yesterday’s emergency response, added:

“North Yorkshire County Council has brought highways management back in-house so I hope we will be able to manage our resources better than in the past.

“The council relied on outsourced contractors in the past and they haven’t been as proactive as they should have been.

“In future, rather than do blanket cleans of gulleys that don’t always need it we will be able to undertake more targeted cleaning.”

Cllr Lumley praised the town’s emergency response, adding:

“We’ve got fantastic community spirit in Pateley Bridge.”

‘Flooding due to volume of water’

Melisa Burnham, the council’s highways manager for the Harrogate area, said the amount of rainfall was the key issue. She said:

“We had up to 80mm of rain forecast on already saturated ground in the Pateley Bridge area and there will be a point where this quantity of water is beyond the capacity of highways drainage systems; it is likely that flooding in Pateley was therefore due to this volume of water rather than the state of the drains.

“Nevertheless, once the flooding has been dealt with, particularly any immediate risk or risk to properties, any problem areas will be investigated and action taken as required in due course.”

The owner of Harrogate’s Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant is opening a new takeaway in Pateley Bridge tonight.

The takeaway is called Royal Baths Express and is at 2 Park View on Bridgehouse Gate. A restaurant will also open at the venue at a later date.

It’s open on Sunday to Thursday from 4.30pm to 9.30pm and Friday and Saturday from 4.30pm to 10pm. The business is closed each Tuesday.

Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant in Harrogate has been closed for most of the last two years due to coronavirus lockdowns and an extensive refurbishment that began in May last year.

It is due to reopen soon but a date has yet to be confirmed.

The owners have continued operating at their other Harrogate site, Haks Little Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant, on Station Parade.

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A man was arrested after a group of men started brawling on Pateley Bridge High Street on Saturday night.

Fighting broke out between the unknown number of men at about 7.30pm.

One person suffered head injuries that required treatment but his injuries are not believed to be serious.

A 22-year-old man was arrested but later released under investigation while enquiries continue.

North Yorkshire Police, which is appealing for information, said in a statement this afternoon:

“Several members of the public used smart phones to take images of what happened.

“We are keen to see images of the incident and are particularly interested in finding out how the incident started and what happened initially.”

If you have any information or images you can call the police on 101. Choose option 2 and dial 30820. Or you can email bill.hickson@northyorkshire.police.uk.

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