Ryedale has kept itself special (From Gazette & Herald)

Ryedale has kept itself special

TO dual or not to dual, that is the question.

Although the A64, for that is the subject, is largely just a holiday route, Ryedale's officials - and indeed councillors - are hell-bent on helping people from out of the area in getting to the coast faster than at the moment. How this is going to benefit Ryedale I know not, and Coun Clark appears to be the only one who seems to have given any serious thought to its implications.

That Rillington could benefit from a local bypass there is no doubt. But to increase the speed by which vehicles get to Scarborough, for instance, also means an increase in their volume and the town already has enough problems with traffic movements when the wagons get rolling in. I can visualise tailbacks of vehicles stretching out from the holiday towns which just can't cope with the increased influx. Mr Clark also gives thought to the possible increase of would-be settlers into our special environment. And he's quite right too! Ryedale has kept itself 'special', and the fears that it will be turned into just another urban domicile, no different from any other, are by no means groundless.

The developers think of it in terms of money, and so it seems do the councillors and their staff. For centuries, this area has enjoyed an enviable position in the country. But the greed syndrome puts an end to that if its aspirations are supported, and we really ought to keep something for ourselves. The character of Malton has already changed in many respects. Ask the police! Outside influences play too important a part in our everyday lives, and the view of city folk taking decisions about our semi-rural habitat is just not on.

Ryedale is special. Let's keep it that way.

The police warning about 'cross-border' criminals is a timely one, as it's getting near to Christmas and the thieves will be looking out for easy pickings. Over the years, I've often heard from road traffic constables that they develop a sixth sense about certain vehicles coming into the area. Some indefinable 'something' says: "There's something not quite right about those two in that car - think we'll just stop it and ask a few questions." Such suspicions have often paid off, and may they continue to do so. The other problem is the lack of support the police get from the courts. This has always been a cause for complaint.

Today, the courts seem to come out on the side of the criminal, and the right to defend one's own 'castle' has disappeared. The right to defend one's own property without hurting the intruder appears to be a difficult one, for that's usually the one way one can do it. In my view, there have been some very bad instances of travesties of justice.

Following mention of the use of treacle tins to make toys, I had a call from Mr Atkinson, of Rillington, who quite clearly remembers a Hornby Railway oil-tanker he had with the OXO label inside it. My own memories are of some toy with the treacle logo inside, which I was beginning to wonder if I'd dreamed up.

He tells me that the manufacturers were so short of raw materials for toy-making, that the tin-can manufacturers sold their faulty printing and stamping production to the toy people. As a youngster, I'd wondered if they had people who scoured dust bins, never realising that it was done on a far grander scale.

The post-war motor industry was in a similar position, he tells me. Recently restoring a 1948 Rover P3/75 - and doing some very serious stripping down - he found that the toe-board of 16g steel had WD markings underneath the paint work. The door trims, plywood covered in either rexine or moquette, had the words Mazawattee Tea stencilled thereon. This had no bearing at all on the quality of the workmanship, and confirmed how much these cars were handmade. More, it confirms the acute shortages that industry had to cope with post war.

When I was a youngster, at school we would look at pictures of natives around their camp fires banging away at their drums - that was their only music - and they had rings in their ears and noses, paint on their faces. I expect we accepted that this was the way of the jungle and undeveloped countries. But what now? Are we going full circle? Certainly the drums are there, heard in small hatchbacks on our streets. No music, just bang-bang-bang. Even Woolies contributes, for almost every time I go in there, its music system is giving the same monotonous bang-bang. As it was today. I jokingly commented on it, and the young ladies explained that they had to play this music along with the current singles. They referred to it as "music" but admitted they didn't hear it. As for the ear and nose rings, and body piercing - well, just look around. It amazes me that the most unlikely people should now copy the primitive peoples.

What comes next?

Heard in court:

Q. Did you blow your horn or anything?

A. After the accident?

Q . No. Before the accident.

A. Sure, I played it for ten years. I even went to school for it.

Updated: 10:12 Wednesday, October 29, 2003