In a poet's footsteps (From Gazette & Herald)

In a poet's footsteps

MABEL Nixon would often tell her daughter Elizabeth about the Yorkshire dialect poem she had once written. She would even quote a line or two from memory, recalling a time when the community in which she lived was beginning to get back to normal following the Second World War.

The poem was about her home village of Nawton and also about neighbouring Beadlam, near Helmsley, though poetic licence had led her to merge the two into one community. Her daughter Elizabeth enjoyed hearing these reminiscences but never really thought any more about them. Not until earlier this year when she received a telephone call from Norfolk.

The call was from a woman who had lived with her grandmother next door to Mabel's family in Nawton. Though it is not absolutely clear, it seems as if her grandmother had borrowed the poem from Mabel and, what with one thing and another, it had never been returned. But, following the telephone call, it was not long before the delicate, fragile piece of paper, worn by years, was back in the hands of Mabel's family.

"It was probably, from what I remember, for a competition," recalls Mabel's daughter, now Elizabeth, or Libby, Capstick. Mabel was a member of the local Womens' Institute and most likely penned the poem for a group contest. Mother and daughter still live in Nawton in adjoining houses. Mabel is now 92.

Looking back on the poem, Libby is aware that much has changed in Nawton and Beadlam. The villages have grown noticeably, but there is no policeman, no butcher, no sweep, no drama group, no WI. It was, unsurprisingly, Dr Beeching who put paid to the railway station. "There are not so many characters," she says. "There is a different type of person."

Indeed, many of the people mentioned in Mabel's poem have died in the intervening years, though one or two still remain. But it is heartening that those names can still be heard in the two villages. For descendants of almost everyone mentioned in the poem can be found in the present day Nawton and Beadlam.

Libby Capstick is certainly qualified to speak about the changes that have taken place over the years. She was clerk to the parish council for 34 years, retiring last year. In January, she was presented with the freedom of Nawton to mark her contribution to the village. "At the time, people asked me how I felt," smiles Libby. "I said 'I'm absolutely chuffed'."

Bernard Simpson is the chairman of both the memorial hall and village gala committees. He arrived in Nawton in 1947 to work on a local farm and moved to Beadlam in 1951, where he has lived ever since.

"Things have changed considerably, really," he says. "The farming aspect is the biggest change. When I came to Beadlam, there were four farms in the village. There are no farms left now in the village itself. It's the same in Nawton."

Not everything, though, is different. The two pubs remain, as do the memorial hall, post office and, as Mabel puts it in her poem, the "grand lartle church", which today is both an Anglican and Methodist place of worship. The sports ground is better than ever, the football, cricket and darts teams are thriving and the gala continues to run, having been resurrected some 20 years ago.

A new feature which is shortly to be opened is a wildlife garden, adjoining the sports field. It includes a mini-lake, which seems to make up for the fact that there was no duckpond in the villages, as mentioned in Mabel's poem. Peter Addison is chairman of the committee which is dealing with the wildlife garden and says that it was conceived as a millennium project.

"We had a meeting and, as usual, we got a small nucleus of volunteers," said Peter. Trees have been planted and wild flowers will be introduced. A bridge over the lake is under construction. "We are trying to keep it as natural as possible," he added. The opening date has been set for July 13.

Peter moved to the village in 1987 after ill-health forced him to retire from the RAF after 22 years. He has always been a countryside person and his proudest moment was driving a plough with two horses when he was just 12 years old. "I like the community, I like living here," said Peter, who is one of the churchwardens for the Kirkdale parish. "People support the community and do an awful lot in both villages."

The wildlife garden is one of many welcome modern changes. Another relates to the local school, of which, according to Mabel's poem, villagers in 1948 were not so proud. This would appear to be because of the peripatetic nature of the teachers - none stayed for any real length of time. Of course, these days, Nawton Primary School is considered to be one of the best in the county. Though that "seat of larnin'", St Martin's School, recently closed, Nawton and Beadlam are home to Ryedale School, one of the best secondary schools in the area.

However, there is confusion about the exact location of Ryedale School. The school's address is in Nawton, but, as village mainstay Bernard Simpson points out, Ryedale School is in Beadlam. And it all comes down to the boundaries between the villages. In gloriously eccentric, typically English fashion, Howldale Lane and Gale Lane, on which sits Ryedale School, are split down the middle - one side of each street is Nawton and the other Beadlam. So, residents of these streets can look over to the other side of the road and see their neighbours in what is officially another village. It is also possible to walk down these roads with one foot in Beadlam and the other in Nawton. It turns out that Ryedale School is on the Beadlam side of Gale Lane.

This tale is also gleefully related by another local institution, Adam Collier. He is one of the villagers who have a strong connection to Mabel's poem, for Adam's great-grandfather Webb Collier was one of those local characters mentioned.

Aged just 21, Adam is involved with almost everything in the two villages. He is chairman of Kirkdale United Football Club, secretary of Nawton Grange Cricket Club and is on virtually every committee you can imagine in the community. He also plays the organ at both St Hilda's Church, in Nawton/Beadlam, and at the church in Harome, he takes his turn as crucifer at St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, while finding time to breed rabbits and guinea pigs, among other animals.

And these are all outside his work, because Adam has just been taken on full-time at the local funeral director. He is also known locally as an expert in the Yorkshire dialect. He gives regular talks and demonstrations in an effort to preserve what he accepts is a dying way of speaking.

"Dialect changes over eight miles," says Adam. "Ours is different from that at Pickering. I think it was because people didn't go any farther than eight miles because there wasn't the transport."

He added: "I think (the dialect) should be taught in schools but I don't think it would go down too well. We were allowed to speak that way at school but one or two teachers regarded it as inferior. But you can't stop the people from Bransdale or Farndale speaking that way."

Adam gives an example of local dialect which arose among farmers to help them count their sheep. Instead of counting one, two, three, four, five, Adam said the local dialect was, and still is for that matter, yan, tan, teather, meather, pip.

The endurance of this dialect is another testament to the strong sense of community in these parts. This is also illustrated by upcoming community projects, including the plan to reinvigorate the facilities at the sports field.

In an ideal world, says villager Christine Rymer, there will be a junior play area, infant play area and, unusually, an area set aside for teenagers. The tennis court has recently been refurbished and basketball hoops added - despite the fact a lottery grant was refused because of "lack of community activity". Villagers rallied round and raised the cash themselves. They are hoping for more luck with a lottery grant for the children's play areas.

Another initiative is a community study which involves determining the sort of people who live in Nawton and Beadlam, the age range, where people travel for work, etc. This will hopefully lead to a community plan to address people's needs.

What is also likely to come out of this process is the genuine affection in which Nawton and Beadlam are held by their inhabitants. Adam Collier, in all sincerity, declares that he would live nowhere else. Though things have changed, sentiment has not. There seems to be no doubt that this community's residents would still concur with Mabel Nixon that Nawton and Beadlam are the best lartle villages of all.

Updated: 11:30 Thursday, June 20, 2002