A warm welcome awaits at Harome
12:00pm Thursday 11th January 2007
This week CLAIRE METCALFE takes a trip to pretty Harome to meet some of its residents.
ANYONE hot under the collar about inheritance tax should spare a thought for the second Earl of Feversham's family. After he was killed in the Second World War, they had to pay death duties by selling the village of Harome!
With its sprinkling of thatched cottages, picturesque duck pond and mill, and village cricket pitch, losing it must have been a wrench. Even on a dark December day, Harome's charm is obvious.
Like any village, it has changed with time, and now many properties are second homes or holiday cottages. However, there is still a strong sense of community, and many older residents with rich memories of the place.
"Everyone knew everyone when we first came here, " said Tot Wardle, who moved with his wife Doreen in 1953 to work for a farm contractor. "They made us welcome from the first day."
He and Doreen remember when the children would play in the broad main street.
Tot is a former chairman of the parish council and also served on Ryedale District Council. He tells me there is no village green in Harome, and that is because the main street is itself the green. "Everyone keeps the bit in front of their house nice, " he said. The Wardle's own house, where they brought up their three daughters and four sons, is called Howerhouse, a name which gives away one of Doreen's many occupations. As well as working at Duncombe Park as a guide, and as one of our Gazette & Herald village correspondents, she is well known for the talks she gives for charity on Yorkshire dialect.
Howerhouse means "Our house".
An even longer established resident, Martin Bowes, was born in the village in the 1930s. He remembers when there were several shops, a post office, a school, a cobbler and two blacksmiths. "It was a self sufficient community, " he said.
"People used to have little pieces of land and they would do a full week's work and then farm them on evenings and weekends."
He also remembers when everyone in the village had a pig.
Martin plays a key part in keeping the Methodist chapel in use, keeping the books and helping to arrange the circuit of preachers who visit each week.
Back on the main street, St Saviours Church of England Church was built in 1863, and is part of the Kirkdale Benefice.
"We try to be at the centre of the community and I think we still are, " said churchwarden Susan Binks.
Recently, the village has been fundraising to bring the bells down for cleaning, and Susan said she was really delighted by how quickly the money was raised.
"We also had a Romanian shoebox appeal - to send Christmas presents to children living in poverty - just before Christmas, " she said. "We got nearly 70 boxes, which I think is pretty impressive in a village these days."
Susan's family also run the Feathers Hotel in the village, established from what was at one time the blacksmiths, two cottages and the shop. It has been renovated and extended to make a country hotel with 12 bedrooms.
Across the road from them, there are four generations of Otterburns, three of them working in the family business, which supplies tractors and other equipment to farmers.
"When we moved here in 1961 there were eight milk producers, there aren't any now, " said Brian Otterburn, the oldest of the four.
With the decline in need for the tractors and milk parlour machinery, the firm has diversified into more sought after sheds. The business is now run by Brian's son, Ian, helped by grandson, James, who himself has three sons.
There is a well-used village hall in Harome, where a men's club meet to play snooker and billiards, and parties and funeral teas are a regular occurrance.
Recently, the Wombleton Players performed a murder mystery in the hall.
Down at the other end of the street from the Otterburns is the internationally renowned Michelin-starred pub which has put Harome on the map in recent years.
Owners Andrew and Jacquie Pern are both from the area, brought up in Whitby and Scarborough respectively.
After training as a chef at Scarborough Coast College, Andrew worked in several North York Moors restaurants before he and Jacquie poured all their savings into the then-closed village pub back in 1996.
Since then they haven't looked back, growing a prestigious gastro-empire which includes a butchers in Helmsley, a restaurant at Scampston Hall, and a shop and hotel in Harome. They also own a number of the cottages in the village, which are rented as luxury holiday retreats.
They have kept the Star Inn as, essentially, a pub, serving classic English dishes and using the finest local produce.
The Perns have also produced four lovely children since they moved to the village - Daisy, eight, Tilly, five, Louis, two and baby Olive.
The village shop, called The Corner Shop is "a little tongue in cheek", Andrew says.
"It is literally on the corner, but unlike most corner shops it stocks frois gras and champagne."
But it also stocks fresh bread, chutneys, and, of course, the Gazette & Herald.
And apart from the regular celebrities - Dame Kiri Takanawa and Prince Andrew among them - Andrew says it is still a place for locals. "You still get you old boys at the bar eating a slice of pork pie and cheese, " he said.
The Star Inn sponsors the village cricket team, which is perhaps the thing all villagers share most common pride in. In 1992 the team made it down to Lords Cricket Ground for the final of the Village Cricket Cup.
"They are a very successful team - they did very well last season, considering it is a small village side they have a lot to be proud of, " said Brian.
"There are still a lot of local village lads who play for the side, it's stayed as a village team, " said Tot.
But perhaps the best description came from Doreen, who says it's a "proper village cricket pitch".
"You take your own deckchair to sit on, and sandwiches - there's no seating, but watching a game on a summer's afternoon, I can't think that many could beat it."