The National Trust has formally submitted plans for a new £3.5 million building and landscape project at the Studley Royal end of Fountains Abbey, near Ripon.

The project, called Studley Revealed, aims to create a more accessible café, admission point and toilets and restore historical sightlines to the 18th century Georgian water garden created by John Aislabie.

However, the new building would be situated inside the water garden and only be accessible to people who pay to enter.

Under the proposals, the current tea room on the deer park side, which is free to enter, will close. A kiosk providing drinks and snacks will be built in the deer park car park, accessible to everyone.

The restaurant and parking at the main visitor centre will remain free for all to access.

The trust has submitted its plans to North Yorkshire Council, which will make a decision at a later date.

An illustration of the how the view of the building from the deer park might look.

London heritage architects Feilden Fowles and Edinburgh landscape architects Rankinfraser were appointed to carry out the design work.

Justin Scully, general manager of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, said:

“The Studley Revealed project is an exciting part of the ongoing conservation of the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal World Heritage Site. It has long been our ambition to improve the appearance of this area of the site and how visitors experience it.

“Crucially, it means we can create a place for our visitors to learn more about the fascinating history of Studley Royal, its international significance and our role in caring for it, whilst simultaneously having a more enjoyable and accessible experience.

Mr Scully added the project had been delayed by covid “but it gave us extra time to consider the feedback from our consultation in 2019 and we’ve been able to update our plans”

The trust estimated that the new facilities will open in 2025, should planning approval be granted.

Read more:

• National Trust plans major £3.5m building project at Fountains Abbey
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A motorbike was stolen from a garage in Ripon last weekend.

A thief or thieves forced entry by snapping the padlock and breaking the door fastenings.

They then made off with a black Honda VFR Cross-Runner 800 bike.

North Yorkshire Police today appealed for information about the burglary, which happened on Oak Road, off Lead Lane on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

The force said in a statement:

“The motorcycle, with registration WN62 XKH, has not been recovered.

“If you see the stolen vehicle, know where it is, or have any information that may assist the investigation, such as CCTV or doorbell footage, please email gareth.skelton@northyorkshire.police.uk.

“You can also call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Gareth Skelton.”

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Quote reference number 12230141793.

Read more:

• GALLERY: St Wilfrid’s Procession brings thousands to Ripon’s streets
• Dates set for reopening historic hotels in Knaresborough and Ripon

Arrival at a Ripon Cathedral bathed in early-evening sunshine, signalled the conclusion of  the 2023 St Wilfrid’s Procession.

It was the end of a 7.5 mile journey along residential streets and into the city centre, where thousands of people had gathered.

For the actor playing the part of the city’s patron saint and Colin the 19-year-old Cob Cross Clydesdale, there was a guard of honour provided by Ripon City Morris Dancers, as horse and rider approached the iconic building in time for a service of celebration.

Prior to that the rousing music of Ripon City Band (pictured above) resounded on Kirkgate as the procession made up of decorated floats and people in fancy dress carefully navigated the ancient street.

There was a carnival atmosphere throughout the day as crowds lined the streets to watch the parade go by and gathered in the Market Square for a Saturday afternoon of free family-focused activities and entertainment organised by the volunteers of the St Wilfrid’s Procession Committee.

Time to celebrate for these members of the procession

Among the musical entertainers were the One For All Choir, who performed to a large crowd in front of Ripon Town Hall.

Also singing and dancing throughout  the day, were those who circled the city streets on the 20 decorated floats that took part in the procession.

The floats came with many imaginative themes and designs from superheroes, to one inspired by the TV comedy series Last of the Summer Wine.

Read more:

• Date set for opening of refurbished Ripon hotel
• Ripon’s Salvation Army to hold Yorkshire Day celebration

This week’s photograph was taken by Heather Middleton, capturing a group of deer looking over the hill at Studley Royal.

Heather Middleton

Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.

Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.

One of the most notable days in Ripon’s annual calendar occurs on Saturday with the St Wilfrid’s Procession and celebrations on Market Square.

Crowds line the streets and create a carnival atmosphere for the historic annual event, which is held in honour of Ripon’s patron saint and founder in 672 AD of the city’s iconic cathedral.

The procession’s origins date back to 1108 when King Henry I granted a royal charter to Ripon to hold an annual fair in celebration of Wilfrid’s life and work and the tradition has been maintained by a hard-working committee made up of volunteers.

Led by an actor on horseback, playing the role of St Wilfrid, the procession, which sets off from Studley Road at 1.30pm, will be accompanied by the award-winning Ripon City Band and will include 20 decorated floats with designs created by businesses and organisations.

A map showing the route.

The 26-stage procession, which covers 7.5 miles, will circle the city centre and outlying streets, before finishing at the cathedral, where a celebratory service will be held at 4.30pm.

The route, which will see numerous temporary road closures, can be seen by clicking here.

In addition to the procession, there will be free family-friendly activities on Market Square between 1pm and 6pm, followed by musical entertainment on Minster Gardens, where Time Machine and Alannah Creed will be among the performers.

Teenagers in Ripon have said they are glad they can continue using the city’s skatepark during the summer holidays.

While large areas of the Camp Close site on Knaresborough Road have been fenced off for safety reasons, access to the skatepark and basketball court remains open.

One teenager skateboarder spoke for his friends when he said:

“It’s a bit of a pain having to walk all the way around the outside to get here, but I’m pleased we can still use it.”

The skatepark and basketball court are adjacent to the 28-year-old leisure centre building, where remediation works on unstable foundations are under way.

The playing fields at Camp Close are now an active building site where large machinery is in use, carrying out the £3.5 million project behind large yellow hoardings.

There are numerous signs warning the public not to enter the area, while other signs call for parents to keep children out. CCTV cameras are also in operation.

However, as well as the many warning signs, construction company Willmott Dixon has installed one showing the route into the skatepark.

Ripon-based singer-songwriter Freddie Cleary will provide the entertainment when The Salvation Army holds its Yorkshire Day celebration next week.

The event on Tuesday August 1, is being held in the church hall on Lead Lane from 10am until 2pm and is free to attend.

Church leader Pat Clark, said:

“We hosted a Yorkshire Day celebration pre-pandemic and it proved a great success, so we decided to organise another one this year.”

She added:

“It’s a way of reminding all members of the local community that we are here for them all year round, not just as an emergency service for those who find themselves in difficulties.

“On the day there will be lots of reasonably priced refreshments including home-made cakes, sausage rolls and sandwiches, scones provided by Morrisons and icecream.”

In addition to the refreshments,  brand new or good as new gifts, household items and toys will be on sale and there will be a uniform swap.

Families wanting to be involved in the swap are asked to take good clean items of uniform to the church hall in advance  of Yorkshire Day. The hall is open from Monday to Wednesday between 9:30 am and 3 pm.

A civil engineering company involved in the installation of a £46 million all-fibre broadband network in the Harrogate district has ceased trading with the loss of 165 jobs.

Leeds-based Makehappen Group Limited, which was working for CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent fibre infrastructure provider, appointed administrators Interpath Advisory last week.

The huge installation programme covering Harrogate, Knaresborough and latterly Ripon, was announced in 2020 and has been carried out on a street by street basis.

In response to the news, a spokesperson for CityFibre, said:

“We have been made aware that Makehappen Group has entered into administration.

“We would like to assure residents that work sites have been made safe, and we will remain in close conversation with our local authority stakeholders while we review our plans.”

Neil Morley and Howard Smith from Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators of Makehappen Group Limited on July 18.

A statement from Interpath Advisory said:

“In recent months, Makehappen experienced significant pressure on cashflow after a number of contracts were withdrawn by their customers. 

“As a result, the company was unable to continue trading and service its liabilities as they fell due, so after considering their options, the directors sought the appointment of the administrators.

“The company ceased to trade shortly prior to the appointment of the administrators. With no prospect of trade resuming, it is with regret that the joint administrators have made all of the company’s 165 members of staff redundant.”

Meanwhile, Mr Morley, said:

“There continues to be a number of opportunities, but also challenges for businesses involved in the building of fibreoptic broadband infrastructure across the UK and unfortunately, Makehappen was the latest casualty of these challenges.

“As we commence an orderly wind-down of the business, our priority will be to provide support to all of Makehappen’s employees, including providing them with all of the information they require to make claims from the Redundancy Payments Office.”

Read more:

• Ilke Homes: More than 1,000 staff made redundant
• New muffin cafe opens in Harrogate

A man has been jailed for two years for causing the death of his friend by dangerous driving near Ripon.

Harry Elliott, 25, was driving his high-performance Audi RS3 at “excessive speeds” in the run-up to the fatal crash on the B6265 at Risplith near the city.

The Audi, which was carrying four passengers including 20-year-old Naomi Buckle from Catterick Garrison, crashed into a tree after Elliott lost control on a blind, sharp bend, York Crown Court heard.

The mother-of-one from, whose seat belt was under her arm and around her stomach, was shunted forward by the impact and suffered a haemorrhage.

An ambulance was called but Naomi, described as a “beautiful, perfect” daughter, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutor Eleanor Fry said that Elliott had been driving his friends, including Naomi and three young men, from the Richmond area to Brimham Rocks in Summerbridge when the horror crash occurred in the early hours of December 19, 2019.

She said the atmosphere inside the car had been “somewhat hyper” and loud music was blaring. Elliott had been warned by his friends “on at least one occasion” to slow down.

Naomi and her boyfriend, who was also a passenger, had been picked up by Elliott after they finished their work shifts.

She was sat in the back seat with her seat belt on, but evidence suggested she had moved the upper part of her seat belt under her arm.

Naomi Buckle, who died in the crash near Grantley Hall on December 6, 2019. Picture: North Yorkshire Police.

Ms Fry said that Elliott’s mobile phone was on the dashboard, blaring loud music, and video footage from another phone showed that the passengers were “shouting and cheering”. 

The Audi was initially travelling down the A1(M) at an average speed of 94mph but at some points “significantly faster”.

It then moved onto the A6005 where it continued to drive at over the speed limit in wet conditions. 

The Audi then turned onto the B6265 which had no street lighting and along which were warning signs about bends in the road and the need for careful driving.

Ms Fry said:

“It was about 2am and dark.

“It was raining. The ground was wet and the car was laden with five people.”

The Audi was travelling at “high speeds”, thought to be 69mph, as it approached a sharp, blind bend and veered out of control. Elliott slammed on the brakes, but the car struck a tree.

Read more:

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Naomi, who had a three-year-old daughter, was shunted forward and suffered a haemorrhage. A road-accident expert later concluded that if the seat belt had been fitted properly, it might have saved her life.

An ambulance was called and Elliott and his friend tried to resuscitate Naomi, but her condition deteriorated by the time the emergency services arrived and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The three other passengers, who were named in court, all suffered serious injuries. One suffered broken ribs and a fractured hand, breastbone and coccyx. Another passenger suffered a fractured wrist and breastbone and broken ribs. 

Naomi’s boyfriend, with whom she had been living, suffered two spinal fractures, suspected broken ribs and whiplash.

Elliott, who suffered minor injuries, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving. He was also initially charged with three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He ultimately admitted causing Naomi’s death by dangerous driving on the first day of his trial in June after initially denying the offence. The three remaining charges relating to the three male passengers were allowed to lie on court file.

Elliott, from Richmond, appeared for sentence today – two-and-a-half years after the fatal crash which the prosecution described as “truly tragic”.

Ms Fry said that Elliott – who had drunk “two pints” some time before getting behind the wheel but was not over the limit – had driven “over-confidently, at speed”, on roads he knew very well, “no doubt encouraged (by the atmosphere in the car) and the music”.

‘Beautiful, perfect daughter’

In a statement read out in court, Naomi’s father Gary Buckle said that Naomi was a “beautiful, perfect” daughter.

He said that when Naomi’s late mother Elaine received the call on December 19 “it was the start of what can only be described as hell for our family for over three years”.

He said his wife’s heart was “broken” after they got the “dreadful knock on the door” to be told their beloved daughter had died. 

He added:

“It completely broke me. She had so much to live for.”

He said his wife’s already-fragile health deteriorated after Naomi’s death and she too passed away in 2021.

Mr Buckle added:

“She never saw justice for Naomi and died with so many unanswered questions.”

Defence barrister Dan Cordey said that Elliott was “genuinely remorseful” for causing the death of his close friend. 

Judge Sean Morris told Elliott he had caused the death of a “much-loved and dear young woman”. 

He added:

“This has devastated the lives of Naomi’s family and nothing I can do in this case will help heal or…fill the chasm of loss that they must feel and will continue to feel for the rest of their lives.

“Young men in fast cars must understand that they drive lethal weapons.”

Elliott, of Anteforth View, Gilling West, received a two-year jail sentence but will only serve half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence. He was banned from driving for three years. 

There’s not long to go until the Stray Ferret Business Club’s breakfast event on Thursday, 27 July at Banyan in Harrogate between 8-10am.

The Business Club provides monthly opportunities to network, make new connections and hear local success stories. Get your tickets now by clicking or tapping here.

A Ripon motor group has announced plans to refurbish its site and recruit 10 new staff.

Lloyd Land Rover, which is based at Hutton Bank in the city, is set to redevelop its branch with a new building and modernised facilities.

As part of the move, the group is set to hire new staff and hold a recruitment evening on Thursday, July 27.

Positions will include sales executives, service advisors, a parts manager and parts advisor and various technician roles including master technician, prep technician and apprentice parts and technician roles.

Mark Redding, head of business of Lloyd Land Rover Ripon, said:

“This is going to be an exciting two years for Lloyd Ripon, as we will see a complete redevelopment of the whole site, with a new building and modernisation of all facilities.

“With the expansion of the site, there will be new opportunities that will take the staff numbers from just over 60 to eventually over 70.”

For more information on the recruitment event, contact the Lloyd Motor Group by visiting its website here.

Harrogate BID plans town floral celebration

A Harrogate business group is set to host a floral celebration in the town this summer.

Called the Floral Summer of Celebration, the event will be hosted by Harrogate BID and include flowers from local florist Helen James Flowers.

It will be held between July 21 and August 4 this year.

Helen James Florist on Station Parade.

The event is set to include prop displays from EPH Creative, an interactive floral trail and shop window competition. Harry Satloka, who hosts regular free walking tours in the town centre, will take guests around the floral installations during the week.

Matthew Chapman, Harrogate BID Manager, said:

“We are proud to be recognised as a finalist for the Britain in Bloom UK finals, especially as we are the only town in Yorkshire that made it through to this stage in the competition.”

The installations will be designed to celebrate multi-national cooperation, in particular the twinning of Harrogate with other towns such as Luchon in France, Montecatini in Italy, Barrie in Canada and Wellington in New Zealand. 

In addition, the special links that Harrogate fosters with Switzerland and Japan will also be feature.

Read more:

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