A representative of Harrogate International Partnerships has expressed “disappointment” at the state of the New Zealand gardens in the town and says it “dishonours” the airmen it commemorates.

The section of Valley Gardens commemorates Harrogate’s twinning with Wellington and the country’s airmen being stationed in the town during World War Two.

But, Kate Spencer, who is set to go on an official visit to Wellington to present a gift to the mayor from Harrogate, said she felt nothing had been done to improve the state of the garden.

Last year, sculptures in the garden were damaged by vandals. A private donor later offered £2,000 to replace them.

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But Ms Spencer, a dual national who is due to visit New Zealand on Sunday for three months, told the Stray Ferret that the current state of the garden “dishonoured” the airmen.

She said:

“They should have done it before now, it is still the same.

“We are supposed to be honouring those airmen.

“It is a true disgrace and I feel embarrassed to see that my fellow countrymen in New Zealand are being ‘dishonoured’ rather than ‘honoured’.”

Ms Spencer added that she was unsure of what her response would be to the Mayor of Wellington if she was asked about the garden.

She said:

“This garden was there for them when links were made in the 50s. What’s happening? How can I tell the Mayor of Wellington, when he will no doubt ask [about it].”

The garden dates back to 1954 and chainsaw sculptor Mick Burns carved the Marlin, Kiwi, and bench in 2010.

In response, a spokesperson for Harrogate Borough Council said:

“We have an ongoing conversation with Harrogate International Partnership about links to Wellington, New Zealand and are waiting for information from them on arrangements for placing a stone to mark the New Zealand Airmen in Stonefall Cemetery.

“Whilst at this time of year gardens are dying back for the winter it is disappointing to hear the feedback HIP are proposing to take to New Zealand, instead of using the opportunity to confirm the links we have been making over the previous period with the team at the Botanical Gardens in Wellington or the extensive planting of New Zealand daffodil species that took place last year despite the Covid restrictions.

“As has been communicated previously, the sculptures in the New Zealand gardens are soft wood and had already started to rot independent of any vandalism that has taken place.  We would welcome any support or fundraising ideas from Harrogate International Partnership for the replacement of these with something more sustainable and robust for the location.  Equally if there is anyone who would like to help with maintenance of the space we would be happy to arrange volunteering sessions in conjunctions with our own team or the Friends of Valley Gardens who provide fantastic support in maintaining this space.

“More widely we are in the process of agreeing a Valley Gardens Development Plan to continue to improve these spaces over the coming years.”

Visitors to Harrogate’s Valley Gardens on Sunday will be able to view and buy produce grown in allotments across the Harrogate district.

The Harrogate and District Allotment Federation is holding its 60th annual allotment show in the Sun Pavilion from 11am until 4pm.

Stalls displaying produce will also be open on the nearby Sun Colonnade. Entrance to all areas is free.

Harrogate district mayor Trevor Chapman will formally open what will be the federation’s 60th show at noon.

The federation, which brings together members of 16 allotment sites in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough, was due to celebrate its diamond jubilee show last year until covid forced its cancellation.

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Vegetables, plants and cakes will be judged and sold and any outstanding items donated to Resurrected Bites, the Harrogate and Knaresborough community organisation that gives food that would have been thrown out to the needy.

The event will also include a miniature bug hotel, a raffle and stalls by Harrogate Civic Society and The Woodland Trust as well as craft and coffee stalls. Musicians will play in the bandstand between 2pm and 3.30pm.

Profits from this year’s event will be donated to Ripon Museum Trust, which owns the Workhouse Museum, Prison and Police Museum and Courthouse Museum in Ripon.

A cocaine and heroin dealer has been jailed for over two years after police raided her home in Ripon.  

Jemima Walker, 27, was found surrounded by drug paraphernalia when police entered her ground-floor flat on Aismunderby Road.

They seized drug bags, two sets of weighing scales, a notebook with customer lists, £480 cash, four mobile phones and two relatively small amounts of heroin and cocaine.

Analysis of her “telephone traffic” showed she had been dealing for “quite some time” and had a “large client base”, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Anne Richardson said there were 118 incriminating text messages in total, in some of which her customers referred to her by her nickname, ‘Mima’.

Walker was charged with two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply following the drugs bust on May 16, 2019. She was also charged with one count of simple possession after being found with cocaine at an address in Gallows Hill Park, Ripon, in September of that year, while on bail for the dealing matters.

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She admitted all three offences and appeared for sentence on Friday.

Cocaine in Harrogate

The court heard that Walker had a previous conviction for drug possession from February last year after she was caught with cocaine in Harrogate.

Richard Reed, for Walker, said she was leading a “fairly chaotic” lifestyle at the time and ended up losing her home.

She had a drugs relapse and started dealing to pay debts to ‘county lines’ suppliers and feed her own habit, he added.

Recorder Abdul Iqbal QC described Walker’s drug enterprise as a “reasonably slick operation”.

He added:

“Text messages seem to suggest that it was a large client base.”

He said it was clear that Walker had used her flat to “package and process” hard drugs and that it had been going on “for some time”.

Although she was feeding her own habit, she had been profiting from “multiple supplies of Class A drugs…for a matter of months and significant amounts of money were being (made)”.

Walker had played an “operational or management” role in the supply chain, added Mr Iqbal.

Walker was jailed for two years and three months, of which she will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Tewit Youth Band‘s first public performance for 18 months yesterday coincided with a huge thunderstorm in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens.

Because band members had to be spaced two metres apart die to covid, over half were outside the bandstand on the grass and fully exposed to the downpour.

Despite this, the band played on and completed the entire programme.

The local was joined by the world famous brass band Black Dyke Band, which filled in for some Tewit members who were isolating due to covid.

They were halfway through the programme when the heavens opened.

Colin Gibbs president of Tewit Youth Band, said:

“The band played on through it all and fully completed their program, which was exceedingly appreciated by the audience who bravely stayed on under cover of umbrellas and waterproofs.

“Their musical director, Martin Hall, and those band members out in the open were completely saturated but were delighted to have been able to play in a live concert for the first time in 18 months due to lockdown. A credit to the youth of today.”

Musical director Martin Hall

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After the youth band’s performance, Black Dyke Band took to the bandstand alone and due to its smaller size all of the musicians could fit under the shelter.

The concert was funded by Arts Council England‘s Culture Recovery Fund, which awarded Black Dyke Band a grant to play with a budding group of its choice.

The Tewit Band practises at the old Methodist Chapel in Huby. It has about 100 members and four groups ranging in ages.

The Rotary Club of Harrogate has celebrated its centenary by planting a colourful flowerbed in the Valley Gardens.

Coronavirus has meant the club has been forced to cancel and postpone its much bigger events this year.

March 22 had been set as the date for a sold-out centenary concert at the Royal Hall.

Lockdown restrictions meant this couldn’t go through, but they encouraged ticket holders to donate the refunded money to the upkeep of the Royal Hall.

The members dressed in 1920s clothing and even hired a 1920s Rolls Royce as a nod to the Rotary Club’s origins when they met for the dedication ceremony earlier this week.

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Since 1921, The Rotary Club of Harrogate has raised money for hundreds of causes, from tackling environmental issues to providing affordable accommodation.

Stephen Ellis, district governor for Rotary District 1040, the Mayor and Mayoress, and Rotary Club of Harrogate president John Fordyce

A spokesperson for the club said:

“Great plans to celebrate our centenary have been cancelled or suspended but the Rotary Club of Harrogate did manage to persuade Harrogate Borough Council to dedicate a flowerbed in the town’s famous Valley Gardens.

“The club has always paid a great deal of attention to the environment, having planted many thousands of trees, crocuses and daffodils in the area.

“Outgoing president Alistair Ratcliffe has worked tirelessly to ensure that the centenary bed does credit to the achievements of the club, particularly in what must have been one of the most challenging years for every club president.”

The incoming president John Fordyce hosted the event with the Mayor of Harrogate district, Trevor Chapman.

Young Harrogate musicians will play alongside one of the most famous brass bands in the world at a free concert in Valley Gardens next month.

Tewit Youth Band will join Black Dyke Band at the event at 3pm on July 4.

The event aims to kickstart live performances again after almost 18 months of lockdown.

The concert has been funded by Arts Council England‘s Culture Recovery Fund, which awarded Black Dyke Band a grant to play with a budding group of its choice.

Tewit Youth Band, which is a charity that encourages young people to learn brass and percussion instruments, meets on Wednesday evenings in an old Methodist Chapel in Huby. It has about 100 members.

Many former members have gone on to play for the country’s top brass bands.

It has four groups ranging from ages six to 18 and its senior band will perform at this event.

Colin Gibbs, president of the Tewit Youth Band for 30 years, said:

“We’ve always had a friendly link with the Black Dyke Band, with a couple of our former members going on to join their ranks.

“So when they were given a grant from the Arts Council, they chose to come and do a concert with us, which is very exciting for everyone.”

Black Dyke Band, which is based in Bradford, dates back to 1855 and has included some of the world’s most talented conductors and musicians.

A guide book that celebrates the rich history of Harrogate’s Valley Gardens is now on sale.

The book covers the history of the park from its early days in the 1860s, when it was known as Bogs Field, to the fight to save a deteriorating Sun Pavilion in the 1980s and 90s, to the restoration of the Japanese Garden in 2016.

It has been a labour of love for co-authors Jane Blayney and Anne Smith.

Ms Smith is a former journalist and founded the Friends of Valley Gardens (FOVG) group in 1986. She was its chair until 2009.

Ms Blayney is also a former chair of FOVG and said documenting the history of the cherished space is important for future generations.

Valley Gardens is a magnet for sunbathers on sunny days

Ms Blayney said:

“We decided to put together the book so people visiting the town can buy a memento from when they visit.

“It was a really good team job. We had a lot of fun researching it.”

The book costs £5 and is printed in glossy full colour. It’s available to purchase in Harrogate Waterstones, RHS Harlow Carr and Harrogate Tourist Information. It’s also available to buy online here.

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The book’s introduction is written by Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam, who also helped with fact checking.

Stories include the battle to restore the King Edward VII Memorial Gate, which was donated in 1911 and dedicated to those who died in the First World War.

In 1994, when a new hall was built for the Conference Centre, Harrogate Borough Council sold the gate to a scrap metal merchant who then sold it on to a farmer.

FOVG bought the gate back from the farmer so it could be restored and returned to the park. The gate was formally opened in 2018 for the 100-year commemoration of the end of the war.

The book is not for profit and all money raised will go towards printing a second run.

Ms Blayney said “we are very lucky” in Harrogate to have a place like Valley Gardens.

“It’s somewhere where you can take the family for nothing. Older people can sit and enjoy the sunshine, others can skateboard or use the boating pool.”

The Stray Ferret and the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) have worked with Malcolm Neesam to produce two fantastic history audio tours of Harrogate. Both last about an hour and are easy to do. The first will take you back to the golden age of Harrogate’s Victorian Spa days and includes a stop at Valley Gardens, the second will take you through the heart of the shopping district, stopping to learn about historic buildings as you go.  To take a look click here. 

Crowds flocked to sunny spots in Harrogate today as temperatures reached 20 degrees.

The warm weather arrived at the perfect time after lockdown restrictions eased yesterday allowing up to six people, or two households, to enjoy the sun together.

Many local residents donned their sunglasses and applied sun cream to get the most out of this sunny Tuesday.

We sent our photographer into Harrogate today to see what people got up to.

Skateboarders showing off their skills in Valley Gardens.

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People weren’t the only ones enjoying the warm weather today.

Who doesn’t love an ice cream in the sun?

Bowlers in Harrogate today.

Valley Gardens looked particularly inviting in the sun today.

Perfect timing – the sun came just as lockdown restrictions eased yesterday.

Crocuses, lambs and that freshly cut grass smell. All are signs that spring is well underway but few bring as much joy as the frogs in Harrogate.

The frogs have made their home in the Japanese Garden of Valley Gardens, where there are large clumps of frogspawn.

Now that the sun is out the frogs have been making the most of it. They are basking in the warmth of the water and hopping around.

Check out our picture gallery below:

Harrogate Borough Council has said it has no plans to close the open spaces it manages amid concerns about the number of people using them.

City of York Council closed Rowntree Park on Saturday after police and council officers received reports of groups gathering, in contravention of social distancing rules.

Government ministers have also urged people only to visit parks to exercise.

Some claimed on social media that people in Harrogate also broke social distancing rules over the weekend when they were enjoying the snow in Valley Gardens.

However, a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson told the Stray Ferret:

“We’ve not had reports of people mixing against the rules. As you know enforcement of the law is an issue for the police rather than us.

“There are no plans to close, or restrict access to, the open spaces we manage.”

We also asked Yorkshire Water, which manages Fewston and Swinsty reservoirs whether it had any plans to restrict access but had not received a reply by the time of publication.

Update – A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water has since sent the following statement:

“Currently our car parks remain open but we are continually reviewing in line with the most recent Government advice.

“We would urge anyone thinking of visiting our reservoirs during lockdown to follow Government advice and stay local to their area.”

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the government press conference yesterday:

“People should only be meeting with one other person. We have seen some large groups mixing. We do not want to change the rules, it can be the only contact for some.

“It is OK to go for a walk with one other person if you stay two metres apart. Just don’t say you are exercising when you are socialising.”