A fond farewell to village's VIPs (From Gazette & Herald)

A fond farewell to village's VIPs

IT is a truth universally acknowledged that you don't appreciate something until it's gone, and that is what villagers at Hutton-le-Hole are realising now that Joyce and Gordon Fairhurst are leaving.

Every village has at least one stalwart, and Joyce, a whirling dervish of activity, and Gordon, mild-mannered and kind, are two of the best.

Tragically for Hutton, they left this week, but activity had not ceased at the Barn Hotel where they lived and worked when I went to visit just days before. I chased Joyce round the kitchen to ask questions, but she was so modest I had to turn to friends to get the truth.

One villager, Annabel Strickland, said: "They have been an absolutely fabulous couple in the village for 22 years.

"Anything we want to do fundraising-wise we come to Joyce and she will help."

Another, Jan Rutter, said: "They are definitely VIPs in the village."

Having run the hotel for the past 12 years, they are ideally situated to host charity events like coffee mornings, harvest festivals and auctions of promises. But now they are moving to Middleham to downsize, taking on a tea shop.

And downsize they might. You name it; they have done it over the years.

When neighbouring Lastingham lost its post office, Joyce and Gordon opened one in the hotel for villagers who would have otherwise had to travel to Kirkbymoorside.

It was only open on Mondays and Thursdays for a couple of hours - mainly so the ladies in the village could collect their pensions. In fact, it turned into quite an event - with ladies meeting for coffee on a Thursday in the tea room Joyce runs at the hotel.

"It was a good way for the older ladies to get together and find out what was going on in the village, I think they really enjoyed it," said Jan.

With not much profit to be had, I asked Joyce why she had taken the task on. Her reply: "It was just a way of giving something back to the village, really." But it seems to me that the couple have given so much over the years.

In her time, Joyce has served as chairman of the parish council and treasurer of the church committee. The couple used to organise coach trips for the Sunday school. "We had a wonderful time," said Joyce.

"We went for a cruise on the Ouse, and to Beamish, and to Whitby with our buckets and spades. The WI at Fylingthorpe did us a ham tea, and we returned the favour on another occasion."

And they have helped our company out, too, delivering the Gazette & Herald and our sister paper, the Evening Press, to villagers around and about.

Joyce noticed five papers flying over the back wall when she came to view Moorside Cottage, their original home in the village, back in 1982. The then owners delivered the papers and when she moved in she offered to take over.

She said: "I thought five papers wouldn't take long." Little did she know there were 50 to be delivered in the morning.

But they caught the bug and gradually took on Lastingham and then Appleton-le-Moors and Spaunton. "It was a great way to meet people," she said. "I knew everyone in the village by the first day."

For 22 years, Joyce, Gordon and their two sons, Alistair and Richard, went out, come rain or shine, to deliver the papers - every day except Christmas Day. "I know Joyce has walked to Lastingham in the snow with the papers when the roads were blocked," said Jan.

"I feel quite lost this week, having stopped doing them," said Gordon.

In fact, their boundless energy astounds everyone. "I really don't know how they do it," said Marilyn Boyes, who has worked with them at the hotel for the past five years. "Everything Joyce has ever served here has been made on the premises - every cake in the tea shop, all the meals for guests."

They look after everyone who comes through their door. They get up at the crack of dawn to deliver papers and serve breakfasts - and then feel obliged to join their guests for drinks in the evening - leaving not many sleeping hours. Perhaps they deserve to downsize, then.

Having tried to persuade them to stay until they were blue in the face, villagers finally accepted their decision and threw them a huge party at the pub.

"People turned up who used to live here and since left, as well as current neighbours. The place was packed and it was a wonderful night," said Marilyn.

They were waved off on Monday to pastures new, with the promise of regular visits from Hutton-le-Hole over to the new tea shop. Gone, but not forgotten, seems to be the feeling about Joyce and Gordon. As for Middleham, will it know what's hit it?

Updated: 12:24 Wednesday, May 26, 2004