This Malton newcomer gets the measure of local life (From Gazette & Herald)

This Malton newcomer gets the measure of local life

1:41pm Thursday 13th September 2007

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JOHN CHARLES was moved to put pen to paper with his observations on Ryedale life.

THE return of the native... actually not a true native: born in Darlington, I spent eight happy childhood years in York and later three years at university in Leeds (that, and my name, explain my long-suffering support for Leeds United).

Career kept me in the south for all of my working life, albeit travelling north, east and west on a regular basis. It had always been my intention to return to Yorkshire and earlier this year I made the break, moving from Hertfordshire to Malton.

I re-visited York last year to see if it appealed as a place to live: much as I like the city, I really couldn't cope with the madding crowds. One weekend visit to Malton convinced me that this could be a good home. A man I met in the Market Place, a complete stranger but very helpful, on hearing of my plans to relocate, told me "Malton is a very civilised place to live."

The lifestyle and pace here are hugely different from what I've been used to for some 40 years. Perhaps it takes an incomer to point out all the quirky bits - most, but not all of them, very appealing. So what do I notice?

First of all, the people. Everything they say about the difference between North and South is true: down there, people don't have the time or the inclination to talk, even to neighbours, let alone strangers met in a shop, on the bus or standing in a queue.

It's heartening to see learning-disabled people exercising their independence in the town - is this a result of the Camphill Village Trust being here, or just a more open, caring community? They are so friendly and seem to make a beeline for me, wanting to know my name and proud to tell me theirs.

Malton (or is it the North?) seems to have more than its fair share of people who are seriously overweight - men and women - and I wonder why this is. Is it poor diet (too many fish and chips/take-away food shops)? Is it lack of exercise - although there seems to be reasonable provision of sports facilities (but no swish trendy health clubs), and there's country walking to die for on the doorstep.

There's also an apparent plague of tattoos - not the discreet ones beloved of some celebrities (I'm told even David Cameron's wife has one), or the ones that seemed in the past to be almost obligatory for members of the Royal Navy, but sprawling "creations" -- sometimes in quite unusual places - which seem no more or less than desecration of the human body. I know "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I've never been convinced by the description "body art", but what I've seen locally gives it a bad name! Again, the phenomenon is common to men and women alike, across all ages. When the two (obesity and tattoos) are combined, it's a truly startling sight. (I don't see the same obesity, or tattoos in Pickering or Helmsley.) Coming back from the South, I find it disconcerting to see so few ethnic minority people in Ryedale. Why is this? Is it because of the lack of employment prospects in the area? Is it a historic thing, or is there some more sinister explanation? I'm used to living in a multi-ethnic community, and this feels very odd.

More observations to come - shopping, the surroundings, the mysterious all-powerful Fitzwilliam Estate and Malton's development plans.

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