We will come to rue our villages losing their unique characteristics - Carl Les

I can’t claim the same length of experience, but there are similarities. The first 12 years of my life was in Leeming Village, part of the trio of villages of Leeming Bar, Leeming and Londonderry.

A village of two halves, divided lengthways by the Great North Road because when the road was busy as it was mostly, it was difficult to cross, helped only by the fact that vehicles drove so slowly.

I remember the times with excitement that on the dual carriageway between Londonderry and Baldersby Gate my Dad could wind our Humber Hawk up to 70 mph. In Leeming you could, and we did, dodge through the gaps.

We didn’t complain about the busy road of course because it brought trade into our family business, as it did for the couple of pubs, the post office and shop where Mr Fletcher sold single cigarettes from a jar if you couldn’t afford a packet of 10, and the garage with a couple of pumps right on the roadside.

There were three small farms in the village, many more in the surroundings, a small market garden with a regional reputation for something I can’t now remember.

We were probably the largest employer in the village, no more than 20 or so, and even then, in the 1950s, people travelled out of the village for work.

The difference between our rural village and many others was due to its location, beside the A1 and in the flat Vale of York. Royal Air Force Leeming was by far the largest local employer, using local skills directly for gardening, plumbing, joinery, catering, cleaning and many more jobs, and RAFF families and children (as we referred impolitely to them) lived in the village.

They were in fact well integrated with us, but they were different, chiefly because they came and went. Where they went to we never really knew, but they came from places we kids thought were strange other worlds – Germany, Cyprus, Lossiemouth, Coningsby.

We had a village hall, which made a profit sufficient to pay for a free kids’ trip to the seaside every year, a cricket field where the storage hut was in better condition than the pitch, and a Methodist Chapel and CoE Church where in true ecumenical cooperation I seem to have attended both Sunday Schools. And we shared a village bobby as his house was between us and Leeming Bar.

When the A1 bypassed the three villages we relocated our business so I spent the next 50 years living in, or beside, the motel and service area we developed.

On retirement we moved to a village south of Bedale, more akin to the one Michael Morpurgo was describing. A village around a village green, styles of architecture showing that the village has always evolved, not been pickled in time.

A welcoming pub serving good beer and good food but also supporting quoits, football, music and quiz nights, a well-used village hall that on Fridays serves up soups and socialising, cake and conversation, pay what you’re able, supported financially by a local business.

Only one church, inevitably now part of a cycle of worship within the benefice, but with a very energetic vicar with a young family who is growing his flock. Like Morpurgo’s village, the churchyard is full of the names of local families, and also the folk who have come to live here, and become immersed in the rural life. Down the lane is the Hall, seat of the local estate, and the fields around are all well farmed, with only two farmsteads now within the village limits. Much of this Morpurgo would recognise. And what in TftD he values.

The point of all this is not a rose-tinted memory trip for me, enjoyable though that is. I won’t add to the excellent letter written by Richard Simpson, chief executive of Ripon Farm Services, a key part but only part of the rural supply chain, other than he’s right. There is something special about rural life, and its economy, and it’s worth keeping. I know how he feels about being unanswered by the PM or Chancellor. I’m still waiting after nine months for a response from the Secretary of State for Defence (although the issue is now being addressed by the Mayor), still waiting about housing numbers, but after four months got one about winter fuel payments. The Government needs to talk to understand.

“When it`s gone, it`s gone” A retailer’s call to action. But these rural values will be difficult to recreate. In fact it may be impossible.

Carl Les is the Leader of North Yorkshire Council.