Harrogate pet store celebrates a decade in business

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm, Truth Legal. 

Posh Paws pet shop celebrates 10th anniversary  

Posh Paws pet shop in Harrogate is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its opening.  

Brother and sister Ben and Michaela opened the shop in April 2012, offering a unique personal shopping service for its customers.  

The shop sells products for cats, dogs and other small pets, specialising in enrichment toys and natural treats as well as offering health and wellbeing advice for pet owners.  

When asked how she was feeling about the shop’s 10th anniversary, co-owner Michaela said:  

“I am excited and shocked, especially after working through Covid. 

“I would just like to say thank you to all of our customers, past and present, who have supported us.” 

To celebrate the 10-year milestone, Posh Paws sponsored the jubilee dog shows held over the bank holiday weekend. The winners of the competition were awarded with vouchers for the shop.  

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Women’s networking event

Business Ladies around Harrogate (BLAH) is hosting a networking event on June 10th exclusively for women.  

The event will focus on social media advertising and will be held at restaurant William & Victoria in Harrogate.  

Guest speaker Rachel Hatfield from Shoo Social Media, will run the one hour workshop followed by an informal networking lunch.  

BLAH aims to create an inclusive and friendly environment for business women in the Harrogate district that differs from traditional networking events.  

The organisation offers monthly events on a number of different topics, including sales, marketing strategy and personal development.  

Event manager, Fiona MacPherson said:  

“When I set up my own business 13 years ago, I found attending networking events daunting, especially the larger networking groups which were very prescriptive. 

“BLAH was a refreshing group of female business owners, who wanted to share their experiences and provide support / collaborate with each other.” 

BLAH became a non-profit organisation in 2012 and is now run by volunteers, with the aim of organising low cost and accessible workshops.

 

Community library marks 10 years at the heart of Bilton and Woodfield

The 10th anniversary of the Harrogate district’s first community library will be marked this weekend.

Bilton and Woodfield Community Library opened its doors in May 2012, after more than a year of planning and preparation.

The volunteers decided to take it on when North Yorkshire County Council said it could no longer afford to staff and run the library.

While they have support from the council, they have had to raise up to £9,000 a year just to cover running costs.

Greta Knight, who has been involved in organising and running the library since the beginning, said:

“I realised the other day that since we took on running a community library, in total we have raised in excess of £100,000 to keep it running.

“It’s not a huge sum, but that has got to be raised by us each year by us as an organisation.”

The funds are collected from fines for overdue books, as well as selling second hand books. The library also offers printing and photocopying and is a member of the Harrogate Local Lotto.

St John’s Church supports the library too, such as with a fundraising coffee morning being held later this month.

Greta Knight

Alongside the challenges of raising money, the last 10 years have brought numerous changes for the library — and some less than welcome surprises.

After just a couple of years in the Old Vicarage on Bilton Lane, the library moved to new premises on the site of Woodfield Primary School, adjacent to the children’s centre, on Woodfield Road.

In 2017, the building suffered a catastrophic flood thanks to a faulty boiler, which left it unable to open for more than two months.

This year, a second flood happened thanks to a burst pipe in the children’s centre. Ms Knight said:

“I found it – I saw the reflection of the books in the water on the floor and I just burst into tears.

“It does cause lots of problems. You have to make arrangements so people’s books aren’t accruing fines when they can’t return them.

“They had to move everything and remove all the carpeting – there were drying machines in for several weeks because it had soaked right down and come up the walls too.”

Once the building was dry, repairs were carried out and the volunteers were finally able to get back in to put all the furniture and books back in place.

Flooding at the Bilton and Woodfield Community Library.

Flooding at Bilton and Woodfield Community Library.

Adding to two years of closures and disruption through the pandemic, it was a very unwelcome setback – but the volunteers have worked determinedly to enable it to reopen fully again.

Now, as well as books, the library is offering its popular schedule of events each week. They include a scrabble club, children’s story time and a monthly coffee morning.

Today’s celebration

Tomorrow, however, the coffee morning makes way for an event to celebrate 10 years of the community library. From 10am tomorrow, visitors can read display boards about its history, meet some of the volunteers, and see decorations made by children in a craft session last weekend.

The cake will be cut by Pat Webber, wife of the late county councillor Geoff Webber, who was very supportive of the library and even suggested the location of its current home.

While the anniversary is a chance to reflect on how far they have come, the volunteers are not content to sit back. They have plans for more activities in future – including reintroducing visits for local primary schools from September – and are always on the look-out for new people to join their team.

Despite the uncertain future of the neighbouring Woodfield Community Primary School, Ms Knight said the library is in safe hands and will continue to open its doors to the community for many years to come.

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