We take our high streets for granted at our peril. What the past five post-Covid years have taught us is the extent to which they are struggling to cope with changes in the way we shop.

So many high streets are barely recognisable from how they were ten or more years ago, stripped of their banks, and many independent family-owned shops and national chain stores.

There are exceptions to this sorry tale of decline. Take Northallerton for example. Most of the banks may have gone but the businesses which have long enabled it to punch way above its weight as a small country town are still there.

Barkers, Lewis and Cooper, Maxwells, Bettys, Grovers, underpinned by a proper twice-weekly market make its High Street a place where people come to from all over. It’s a standing joke in our family t

See Full Page