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Closing time for shop at the heart of historic village
Unless a buyer comes forward, another village shop and post office are doomed. They happen to be in one of Yorkshire's finest treasures. John Woodcock reports from Coxwold.
Wherever you turn in Coxwold, there's a page of history.
Behind Lilac Cottage and its neighbours is that great non-runner, the White Horse of Kilburn. To the right, the ruins of Byland Abbey. Up the main street there's a reminder of Oliver Cromwell, and further along, Shandy Hall, where a century later the parson Laurence Sterne transformed English literature.
Once this was an entirely self-sustaining community. That's clear from the Old Prison House, and signs of the village's more recent past in the shape of The Old School, Old Station House, and the Old Post Office. They are all the names of private dwellings now.
Rumours that before long there could be a plaque saying the Old Garage are unfounded. But unless someone makes an offer very soon, it will definitely be a case of The Old Shop.
Arthur Watters and his wife Valerie are calling it a day after nearly 26 years running Coxwold Stores, which also means the end of the service they took over from the postmistress whose counter had been down the hill.
Arthur has reached 65, and the prospect of serving a pension to himself is not his idea of retirement. The problem is that no-one else appears to want the job.
It looks like shopkeeping is about to join jailing, schooling, tailoring and the railway among Coxwold's list of lost amenities.
The Watters' home and business has been on the market for a year and they haven't received a single offer. Maybe the asking price of 620,000 is too daunting, but that's the going rate nowadays for a five-bedroom stone property, and with an income, in one of the loveliest settings which is in – just – the North York Moors National Park.
In 1982, Arthur had been a partner in a Buckinghamshire dairy farm which was sold. He was on his way to Bedale to see about a farm manager's job, when he took a detour after seeing the house and shop advertised in the Yorkshire Post.
"I had to look up Coxwold on the map. Our reaction was like everyone else's – wow, what a beautiful place to live. We hadn't thought of running a shop, and an accountant friend had quick look at the books. He told us we would never worry Mr Tesco but said we should be able to make a living. We reasoned that even if the shop didn't work out, at least we'd have a lovely home."
The Watters paid 68,000, and absorbing the post office later on gave the business a boost. They also took on a newspaper delivery round, and much more. Arthur became treasurer of the 15th-century church, and an informal branch of social services.
Now the official lifelines they provide are being cut one by one, and will probably not be replaced. The post office shuts on February 26, newspaper deliveries end on March 1, and the shop closes two weeks later, by which time Arthur hopes to have sold the last of his greetings cards, Yorkshire-made preserves and cheese, Masham sausages, Eccles cakes, sugar from Mauritius, and emptied the jars of Mint Imperials, jelly babies, and wine gums.
"Despite being educated in metric, the kids still ask for a quarter of sweets. I doubt they know what it means, but it's one tradition which hasn't gone. The village used to be self-sufficient, and things have changed considerably even during our time here. There are fewer villagers who grew up and work in the area, partly because many of the old jobs have gone. It's attracting more outsiders. Nothing wrong with that, except that commuters and second-home owners alter the balance."
Among customers mourning the Watters' retirement are the former TV presenter Selina Scott. She says the couple have been stalwarts of the village, even finding time to help care for the sick and bereaved.
Arthur, in his trademark bow tie, has also been a retail God-send, says Ms Scott.
"The shop is tiny and cosy, but has everything in it, from heather honey to Greek currants. When the shop and post office close, like so many others in the countryside, the village will practically seize-up unless someone steps in and takes it on."
That seems unlikely. As Arthur says, if you're paying more than 620,00 for a home, who would also want to take on the commitment that involves him at least 13 hours a day, six days a week, except for Tuesday which has been his half-day closing? He used to open on Sundays too until trade fell away.
What happens next? He's not sure. Ideally, he'd like to sell everything on the present basis and move to somewhere nearby. Closing the shop
and extending the house may not be an option. He gets
the impression that the council would resist any change of use.
Even if it didn't, a prospective buyer might be reluctant to be seen as the person who closed Coxwold's focal point. The nearest post office then will be nearly four miles away at Ampleforth.
"All told, it's a bit of a dilemma," admits Arthur. What he knows for sure is that he won't change his mind about retiring. He and his wife want more time with their grandchildren, and they've booked their first holiday in more than a quarter of a century – a luxury rail journey through Switzerland.
The shop's closure, after at least 50 years of service, is timely in one respect. It coincides with a project involving sixth-form pupils at Easingwold School and county archivists, looking at how Coxwold is adapting to change. Several villagers have been interviewed about their memories, and social needs.
Shandy Hall at the top of the hill is also contributing. Its curator, Patrick Wildgust, said: "The fundamental question of the study is 'How will a rural community continue to survive in the 21st century?'
"What will happen when the Post Office closes? Contact between residents will become increasingly infrequent. Those accidental meetings at the shop and the like are part of life and impossible to replace. Also, the population is ageing. What are the residents' hopes and expectations for the future?"
At least Coxwold still has a village hall, a tennis and indoor bowls club, a weekly baby and toddler group, and events in aid of the church window. They can also point to at least one significant gain among
the losses, to which was recently added the football team.
Coxwold's historic and atmospheric inn, the Fauconberg Arms (named after the earl who was married to Cromwell's daughter, Mary) had been shut for 18 months. Then a family from across North Yorkshire saw it as
an opportunity to change their lives.
Simon and Helen Rheinberg, one-time Aga specialists, are now in partnership with their daughter Harriet and son-in-law Jonathan, who used to run ski chalets in France and Colorado. Such is their confidence in the future they have taken 30-year lease on the inn, owned by the Newburgh Priory Estate.
It's like old times there again around the log fires.
Townies are finding their way back in numbers, and so too are the locals. The Bilsdale Hunt has booked its ball there, and one old boy cycles for his pint from the next village.
It's not for his benefit, but the innkeepers have restored a bit of the past they found discarded in a hedge at the bottom of the garden.
With a slight amendment, they've re-hung the old pub sign, with the original phone number. None of this 11-digit modernity here. It says Coxwold 214.
Bonne et Belle Assez is the motto on the Fauconberg crest – "good and handsome enough". Shop or no shop, that neatly sums up Coxwold.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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