Heart of the village

An article in The Observer this Sunday reported research that showed our villages continue to decline as they lose services - post offices, shops, pubs and churches etc. The worst affected area is East Yorkshire, followed by Herefordshire, East Lindsey and then our own Ryedale.

Cynically I might say that the reason we are only in 4th place nationally is that we already lost most of our services prior to the period covered by the research.

It is true that we no longer have any local service here except the pub, which struggles to operate viably; the church, which is now part of a rather sprawling united benefice; the Methodist chapel; a post office counter service 2 days a week (we are very lucky there); and the Village Hall. There is no shop or garage, and the school closed so long ago that a proposal for a reunion has now widened to include any Kirby Misperton strays who have moved away, as so few people are around who ever attended the school itself!

Declining rural life is not news. Thomas Hardy wrote much of his material as a means to document rural traditions which he saw were dying out as a result of the Industrial Revolution. It is unlikely he would recognise much of what we now see as traditional country life. But changing rural life is not necessarily decaying rural life. We can't keep an old way of life going just because it is how things have always been. That would leave us with stone tools, the divine right of kings or only a handful of landowners able to vote on how to run the country.

And again, in towns and cities communities face erosion as the local corner shop loses out to the giant supermarket. During the day no one is around, in village or town, as everyone goes to work except the elderly and the unemployed - neither group being able to afford to do much more than survive. The libraries and community centres fade away too, or are replaced with new services people don't necessarily want. Libraries have computers not books, and evening classes have to be vocational to attract funding. When I was teaching evening classes, the retired people who came to learn how to use computers weren't interested in getting a certificate - they just wanted to email their grandchildren.

In our village we don't have a library, but we do have a mobile van that visits every 3 weeks on a Friday afternoon. It isn't available to most working people, but it is a hive of activity when it does arrive. The driver is fantastic - he gets to know what books people like to read and helps them find more books to their liking. One kind villager returns and selects books on behalf of neighbours who aren't around that day.

Equally we don't have a fish and chip shop but we do have a mobile one on Tuesday evenings. You can also rent videos or buy sweets, and everyone has a good time queuing up for chips and gossiping while they wait.

The difference here, from living in a town - in my experience anyway - is that people talk to one another more. I don't have to be part of local activities if I don't want to be; some people move here for the quiet, not bustle. But there are things to do and people to meet if you want them. A lot of activities happen in each other's houses, because there aren't many public places to go, so perhaps they are not as obvious. It's different, and it's true we are losing many things, but we are also changing and adapting and using new services to carry on with the lives we choose. No longer do I have to drive miles to a supermarket; it is cheaper to get the supermarket to bring my order to me, as well as quicker and hopefully better for the environment. (The same for any other on-line ordering service of course!). I can work from home as well as I can at the office. And I know who my neighbours are, which in this village is a great blessing.