Now is the time for rural Yorkshire to speak up and be heard - Helen-Ann Hartley

SOME childhood memories stay with you into adulthood, and often you don’t know exactly why that is. I have a particular vivid picture in my mind of visits to my Granny in the Scottish Highlands.
The Bishop of Ripon believes a national rural policy will help to improve connectivity in countryside communities.The Bishop of Ripon believes a national rural policy will help to improve connectivity in countryside communities.
The Bishop of Ripon believes a national rural policy will help to improve connectivity in countryside communities.

She and I would walk from her home up a path into a nearby wood, and at a certain point we encountered a tree. I would draw close to its trunk and touch it, my hand springing back from its bark. We called it ‘the bumpy tree’, and I really would like to go back one day and see if I can find it.

I’m grateful to have that memory as part of my tapestry of life stories, and now that I think of it, I’ve always been fascinated by trees. We have a Redwood tree in our front garden just outside of Ripon.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It seems out of place, but it stands majestically and sometimes I like to stand at its base and look up, wondering at all the years of its life.

The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is the Bishop of Ripon.The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is the Bishop of Ripon.
The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is the Bishop of Ripon.

When we lived in New Zealand, we made a trip to the far north, and marvelled as we stood looking at a mighty Kauri tree, whose age is thought to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years.

Called by its Māori name, Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the forest), it’s hard to put into words the effect of seeing it, other than becoming profoundly aware of the passing of time, and our own impact on nature in our comparatively short span of years.

Our own region has many features in its landscape that tell stories of their own. It’s no wonder that tourism is a major generator of our economy and why, as 
we emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, we are seeking to balance welcome with the reality of a virus that has not gone away.

Read More
Homeworking could give a boost to Yorkshire’s economy, especially in rural areas
Covid-19, says the Bishop of Ripon, has highlighted the need for a joined-up rural policy.Covid-19, says the Bishop of Ripon, has highlighted the need for a joined-up rural policy.
Covid-19, says the Bishop of Ripon, has highlighted the need for a joined-up rural policy.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Covid-19 has reminded us of our mortality but also of our connectedness with one another, and with the communities we are part of.

It has also highlighted the challenges of our landscape, and in particular the theme of connectivity.

From online gatherings where folk drop in and out due to sketchy internet connection, to a rural school bus service threatened by the difficulty of making it economically viable due to distancing measures, Covid-19 has laid bare issues that have long been identified as making parts of our region vulnerable. Now is the time for a joined-up national rural policy, itself the product of connectedness between Government departments. More than that, now is the time for the rural North to speak up and be heard.

It will take far more than commissions and meetings (important as they are); it will take a fundamental rethink of how policy is created, resourced and directed for the common good.

The Yorkshire Post's week-long Blueprint for Yorkshire is focusing on market towns like Skipton.The Yorkshire Post's week-long Blueprint for Yorkshire is focusing on market towns like Skipton.
The Yorkshire Post's week-long Blueprint for Yorkshire is focusing on market towns like Skipton.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

None of this is proverbial ‘rocket science’, but neither is a naïve hope. While I’ve been doing far less getting out and about of late, I have managed a couple of recent visits, one of which was to help plant a tree to mark the closure of a village school after 150 years.

The local community were understandably saddened by the closure, but the cold reality is that a lack of proper investment in local communities over generations has led to reduced population, and accessibility.

It’s not a simple matter of an urban/rural divide; rather more a lack of vision that values the deep wisdom and generational stories that our rural communities hold in their keeping.

Shops, pubs and churches too are not immune to the challenge of connectivity, yet there have been some remarkably creative and imaginative responses to decline which tell a different story of hope for troubled times.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It may indeed be that we are witnessing a shift from urban density to a desire to reconnect with landscape and its beauty and openness.

I’ve been struck how many of the businesses that have thrived in recent months are local: from farm shops to artisan bakers.

There have been some terrific stories of adaptability and a real focus on connecting communities with where their food comes from.

It’s absolutely vital, however, that potential growth and investment in our rural landscape not be the sole preserve of those who can afford it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Kingdom of God is about raising up the most weak and vulnerable in society and letting go of personal agendas and selfishness.

On our way back from the ‘bumpy tree’, my Granny and I would also stop at (what seemed to me as a small child) an enormous rock. I’d climb onto it and while standing proudly would declare ‘I’m the king of the castle’ (and our nursery rhyme trivia knowledge might fill in the next bit).

Decades later of course I don’t think that, and therein lies the greatest challenge of them all: to recognise that our own lives are bound up in the wellbeing of our neighbour. What an opportunity that is!

The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is Bishop of Ripon.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

Related topics: