Muston ready to host Tour de Yorkshire for first time

The rural retreat of Muston, just two miles away from the seaside town of Filey, is on the route of the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race for the very first time.

If there is any question of the enduring enthusiasm of the race’s host communities in this its fourth year, then the decorated streets of this North Yorkshire village offer a rather emphatic answer.

Flags and spray-painted bicycles bedeck homes and businesses for Muston’s big day. Stage three of the Tour is expected to pass through the village at around 4pm, when a ukelele band will strike up in greeting alongside cheering crowds.

It promises to be a carnival atmosphere. The Ship Inn pub will be serving refreshments inside and outside and it is organising a line up of live music.

The local cricket club will be at the pub running family activities and games and the Muston in Bloom committee will offer refreshments on the village green.

Nicky Healy, whose mother is the landlady of The Ship Inn, said: “It’s nice to get smaller villages involved in the race. It’s always in the big towns where they get lots of visitors anyway. We’ve been told to expect the village to be very busy and for there to be a good atmosphere.”

Ms Healy said Muston is a seasonal village. It is on the route of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail and holidaymakers use the local caravan sites in the warmer weather.

Local councillor Godfrey Allanson, 77, has lived in the village all his life. Like his father before him, Mr Allanson was born here.

“It’s a really good community with farming still going on and lots of children and I hope the Tour passing through helps to support other things in the village.”

After last year’s race, the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce said they hoped this year’s event - which has been extended to a fourth day for the first time - would deliver a total of at least £75m in economic benefits to communities.

Small acts are cumulative. In Muston, a farmer is opening a field as a car park with proceeds going to the Village Hall fund which was last year fitted out with a new kitchen with income generated by the village’s annual scarecrow festival - a popular annual event that returns in July.

In the run up to today’s race day, Mr Allanson said: “There is a really good atmosphere already and I’ve been amazed by the acts of people not known to us on the scarecrow festival committee who have helped decorate the village. It’s amazing how people have come together and the spin-off is going to help our village.”