The Stray Ferret Archives - Page 3 of 4

Ferret Unlocked: what you missed in news last weekFerret Unlocked: what you missed from news last weekFerret Unlocked: don’t miss out on all the latest from lifestyleThe Stray Ferret’s commitment to covering local politicsReaders’ Letters: ‘Large boulders’ would block traveller camps in KnaresboroughHarrogate Sugarcrafters win silver with the Great Yorkshire Show display

Harrogate and District Branch of the British Sugarcraft Guild have created a 6ft model of the Great Yorkshire Show made entirely from sugar.

The colourful display depicts the Yorkshire’s premier agricultural event. The arrangement was created by the eighteen members of the guild and has taken since January to complete.

The guild showed their creation in the North of England Cake and Decorating show, under the brief ‘Celebrating the Glories of Northern England.’

Their display won silver and is now on show in The Stray Ferret office window, in the centre of Harrogate, for a month.

The sugarcraft display of the Great Yorkshire Show in The Stray Ferret window

The display is all handmade, inedible, and will not melt due to the high sugar content.

Other entries in the competition depicted Blackpool tower, The Angel of the North and Keswick mountain rescue.

There are multiple sugarcraft disciplines on the table including royal icing, flood work, sugar paste coating, marzipan modelling, bas relief, decoupage, gelatine work and cocoa painting.

The guild has existed for 35 years and Lesley Dalton has been chair of the Harrogate branch for more than 25 years.

Ms Dalton said:

“Someone suggested doing the Great Yorkshire Show and we all thought that was brilliant. I am absolutely thrilled with all of the work we’ve done; I am so proud of the girls they have done an amazing job.”

Sugarcraft members, Left to Right: Judy Banks, Lorraine Stewart and Lesley Dalton

The majority of members first began sugarcrafting after making birthday cakes for their families and enjoyed the practice and wanted to improve their skills.

Ms Dalton said:

“The guild isn’t a very good name it makes people think we are extremely experienced. We are always looking for new members, if you enjoy decorating cakes come and join us and you can learn and better your skills. If you like the look of it come and join us.”

The guild meet every month on the second Monday, except August and December, in Harlow community village hall at 7.30 pm.

The Great Yorkshire Show created by the Harrogate and District Branch of the British Sugarcraft Guild

Sugarcrafted animals in the Great Yorkshire Show display

The Stray Ferret to move to a subscription service

The Stray Ferret is to introduce a small subscription fee shortly after we launch our new website and app in May.

The new website and app will include many features that readers have asked for — more investigations, notifications, more lifestyle content and the ability to comment on stories on the website rather than just on social media.

Subscribers will also benefit from exclusive discounts from local businesses which aim to cover subscription costs and will not be offered anywhere else.

Since 2020, we have taken pride in covering the stories that matter most to residents across Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Masham and Pateley Bridge.

We passionately believe that a quality, local news service for the area provides an important, trusted platform for debate and information for local people.

The media landscape is financially tough and while we’ve previously adopted an advertising only model, it has not been enough to meet our costs.

We have watched as other local news organisations have cut the number of journalists, lowered the quality of the stories they publish and covered pages with pop-up ads which make it unreadable. We didn’t want to do this.

By paying a small fee you will be investing in an improved news service. By keeping adverts, we can keep the subscription price to readers as low as possible.

We did not take this decision lightly, but we feel this is the only way to keep serving the area to the standard it deserves, by providing a platform to raise awareness about issues that affect local people.

We’ve also moved into Harrogate town centre, so we can help anyone who has problems with signing up to the subscription service, the app or newsletter.

So from May we will be asking readers to subscribe to the Stray Ferret for £4.99 a month. Or you can pay annually at £49.99 which would save you about £10 a year.

In the coming weeks, we will be explaining how the subscription service will work and how to sign up, as well as tackling any frequently asked questions.

We hope you subscribe — by doing so you will be investing in quality, local journalism.

Meet the team – Tamsin O’Brien, founder

For the past few weeks, we’ve been introducing you to the team behind The Stray Ferret.

This week we’re featuring Tamsin O’Brien, the founder of the organisation.

Tamsin is the founder of the Stray Ferret and has spent three decades working as a journalist and in the media.

She began her career in 1990, working as a reporter for BBC Radio Berkshire. In the following thirty years she’s seen a huge transformation in technology.

She said:

“When I started working each radio journalist had a German recording machine called a Uher. It was big and very heavy. It recorded on reel to reel.

“It seems incredible now looking back on it. I’d get back to the newsroom and cut the tape up and put it around my neck before sticking it together to make a clip or radio package. It seems like centuries ago, rather than decades.”

After moving into TV news, Tamsin then went on to run parts of England for the BBC as Head of BBC Yorkshire and then BBC North West in Manchester.

After twenty years in the BBC she returned to North Yorkshire to live in Harrogate where she has stayed ever since. But she missed journalism and in 2020 decided to set up The Stray Ferret.

She explained:

“I felt this area was really underserved for quality local journalism. Local newspaper circulation was falling and journalism posts were being cut.

“There was an opportunity to provide a completely new digital news service – I did not expect Covid to come along and change everything but it did and the rest is history.

“Whilst we made no money in the first 18 months, we did get a huge readership. I think everyone got a little more digital during Covid.”

Outside work Tamsin loves to travel, stay fit and enjoys a long walk in the Dales, followed by a pub lunch.

Her passion though is journalism and she is a self-confessed news junkie.

“I love the business of news and I am very interested in politics. Journalism play a vital role in a democracy.

“There’s now an even greater need for responsible, sourced journalism as we face the challenges of AI and deep fake technology.

“The Stray Ferret is for everyone – we are making it better and our aim is to maintain the quality. You never know when you need a journalist. We are here so get in touch.”

Read more:

Meet the team – Lauren Ryan, journalist

We’re continuing to feature a different member of the Stray Ferret team each week.

It’s now Lauren Ryan’s turn – one of our news journalists.

If you’d told Lauren as a child that she’d be writing stories like the ones found in the pages of her favourite fashion magazines, she might not have believed you.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, she moved out of the area briefly to study journalism to a postgraduate level at the universities of Lincoln and Nottingham respectively.

After several industry internships as well as a stint at Jorvik Radio, she joined the Stray Ferret at the start of 2024, and has become an integral member of the news team ever since.

According to Lauren, although she has a special interest in ‘human-interest subjects that celebrate achievements or life-changing events’, any subject that can make a difference to the local community is a story worth sharing.

She explained:

“I love writing about local issues that impact a community and I enjoy talking to people in the area about what is important to them.

“I may have lived in Yorkshire all my life but working as a journalist I discover new things about the area every day.”

Although Lauren joined the Stray Ferret a matter of months ago, she’s already covered an eclectic range of subjects – from charity ventures and daytime discos to rail strikes, parking charges and even bomb scares.

A story that epitomises the variety the job offers was her exclusive interview with Sarah Collins, a Harrogate singer who recently starred on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.

Lauren attending Neuhaus’s shop opening

“In order to talk to Sarah about her appearance on the show I had to track down the creators and producers of the TV show and discuss the interview I aimed to do with the BBC and the producers at Hungry Bear Media.

“I first heard about Sarah a month prior and tried to contact her multiple times, I had almost given up hope when she called me the night before the show was due to air after being given a strict embargo by the producers.“

Another personal highlight was speaking to the teachers and pupils at Holy Trinity infant school who contacted the Stray Ferret to help solve the mystery of a 50-year-old mural they discovered on school grounds.

She added:

“Due to their enthusiasm and determination to find who created it 50 years ago I was swept up in their search and loved learning more about the mystery.“

Her passion for North Yorkshire shines through both her work and her free time; at weekends, Lauren likes to visit nearby towns and cities as though she’s a tourist, to experience familiar areas from a fresh perspective.

Lauren said:

“I love romanticising places I have always known by visiting art galleries, theatres and trying out new bars and restaurants in my spare time.

“I especially love going to vintage sales and record fairs on a weekend, which both York and Harrogate are great for.

“North Yorkshire has an underrated cultural scene and it’s also a great place for walking and hiking.”

If you think you’ve got a story that might be of interest to Lauren, you can contact her by email at lauren@thestrayferret.co.uk.

GALLERY: A night of celebration at the Stray Ferret Business Awards 2024

Last Thursday, March 14, businesses across the Harrogate area came together for a night of celebration at the Stray Ferret Business Awards 2024, sponsored by Prosperis.

The awards showcased the diverse range of talented individuals and businesses, and while over 360 guests attended, 14 finalists were ultimately crowned the winners of their categories.

Photographers were on hand to capture every moment of the evening – see if you can spot some familiar faces.