The Forum

This site is hosted by varihost.net

Come and join us.

Enjoy interesting talks, lunches and social events with a convivial group.

Valley Gardens

About Us

We meet each Thursday morning during the winter months from October to the end of April.

You can see more details about St. Paul’s Church Hall and nearby parking areas on the “Where We Meet” page.

Our members start to gather from about 9.30am when coffee or tea and biscuits are served and the meeting starts at 10.15am. After a short introduction by our Chairman and any business matters, a wide range of speakers then present talks on a variety of topics. You can see the list of talks for the 2023/24 season on the “Programme” page. Meetings close at 11.30am.

Our current annual subscription is £10.00 for the full season, £6.00 for the January-April meetings. In addition, we pay £4.00 for each attended meeting which helps to offset the cost of speakers, refreshments and room hire.

We also enjoy other social events such as visits to interesting and unusual venues and we have Christmas and an End-of- Season lunches that are very popular with our members and their guests.

The Chairman is elected annually and this season our Chairman is Graham Jelley. He can be contacted at g.jelley@yahoo.com:

Talks are booked by our Speaker Secretaries, Jenny Stacey and Bill O’Rourke, who can be contacted at: (Jenny) 01423 734384 / (Bill): 01423 873629 or on email at: jennyspeaker@yahoo.com / billorourke12@outlook.com

You can also contact our Secretary, Mel Reid, on 01423526194 Email: melville@btconnect.com

The Forum was founded in 1951 as Harrogate Men’s Forum when ten gentlemen met in a Harrogate cafe and proposed that a group should be formed to encourage retired and semi-retired gentlemen to meet for friendship and learning. Little did they know that 70 years later the organisation would continue to flourish and that, using the Forum as a model, similar groups would be established in other parts of Harrogate, and in Ripon and Knaresborough. When the number of members outgrew our original venue, we moved to St. Paul’s Church Hall in Belford Road (opposite the main library) where we still meet.
The affairs of the Forum are managed by a small committee consisting of the President, the current Chairman, the Officers and other elected and co-opted members
We enjoy a good reputation and, as a result, our Member of Parliament, the Mayor and the Chief Executive of Harrogate Borough have accepted our invitations to speak. In 2009, our 2000th Meeting was held in the presence of HM Lord Lieutenant for North Yorkshire - The Lord Crathorne.

In October of 2019 following a comprehensive survey of our members we decided that men-only groups are not in keeping with modern day thinking. Accordingly, after amending our Constitution, we have changed our name to The Harrogate Forum and we are now inviting ladies to come and join us.
If you would like to come to a meeting as our guest (free of charge), we will welcome you.