IMAGINE the scene - a working farm village nestling in the undulating hills between Malton and Helmsley.

In days gone by, the people of Amotherby would rise early and walk to work together out on the land - perhaps mothers would take children to join their fathers for lunch in the fields. Even the village's name betrays its farming origins. Amotherby appeared in the Domesday Book as Aimunderbi, which derives from Eymund's farm.

Things change. Time moves on. Modern life is always pressing in on our various Ryedale communities, and we see how some are better able to adapt than others. In a time when much wringing of hands goes on about life going out of villages - losing post offices, village shops, a sense of community - Amotherby has moved with the times and weathered change remarkably well.

Villagers are the first to admit that it is not the prettiest of places. "We don't have that picture postcard appeal," said Barbara Borrett, a key player in village life. "But it's a nice village and we all like living here."

And perhaps that's why it has been able to move with the times, acquiring new businesses and enjoying a thriving school, because, rather than becoming an untouched relic of the past, it has been able to grow and change, and has not been used as a location for second homes.

It's a working village, but not in the way it once was. There is now only one farm left, Post Office Farm. It is the home of two of Ryedale's significant employers - Westler food manufacturers and BATA mill.

It has a very successful community primary school with a burgeoning number of children in a bright 'new' school building which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Having recently acquired a large extension, it has one room entirely dedicated to information technology, with a full suite of computers which the various classes can share, one between two. Between 60 and 70 of the school's 180 pupils come from outside the catchment area.

Head teacher Bob Audsley suspects the reason why it is so popular with parents is that it has a good balance between the modern and the rural village school.

"Rightly or wrongly, we are seen as a halfway house between the very small schools which parents may feel would not offer them a wealth of facilities or opportunities, and Malton which they may feel is too big."

The village is just about to get a new vicar at its church, St Helens - Beryl Bowes, who was previously vicar of Wilberfoss, near York.

"You're very lucky to get a vicar living in your village these days," said Barbara.

She will live in the vicarage with her husband, and it is the first time in six years that the village will have had a vicar in residence, since the previous vicar lived in another village of the benefice.

A more earthly focal point in the village is Bentley's garage, well-situated on the road into Malton, though villagers will be sorry to see this go soon as it is closing. Other businesses based in the village include M & S distributors, run by Martin Dodsworth, which manufactures industrial fasteners such as nuts and bolts. There is also a repair garage, Collier's, owned by brothers Brian and Ken.

New businesses have moved to the village more recently - two in fact - courtesy of an industrious couple who ditched the rat-race for village life who now run the Station Farm Country Guest house, and Malton Business Services.

Kevin and Heather Hailstone moved to the village from York eight years ago, and have transformed their six-bedroom Georgian house into an unusual country bed and breakfast. Their other business offers payroll, book-keeping, secretarial work and data-basing, and has clients based both locally and nationally.

The aim for their bed and breakfast is to combine the look and feel of a country house hotel with a regular B&B, and it really does work. There is a magnificent dining room with a table that seats 12, and can be hired out for private dinner parties. Breakfast is served to guests there and there's a private sitting room, with an open fireplace.

The couple have surrounded themselves with a menagerie of animals - dogs, horses and a sheep, and you can tell that they relish country life in the village and do not regret their move from the city.

Amotherby is also home to a Cantonese restaurant. The Queen's Head used to be your average village pub until Jon Woollen and his wife Mandy re-launched it on April 25, 2001.

"My wife had already done it before, with her business partner at the Station Inn at Tollerton," said Jon. "That was how we met - it was my favourite watering hole. It's my idea of heaven, being able to drink a proper pint with Chinese food!"

It's a good combination which seems to have worked well, with an element of the traditional with the old-fashioned bar intact, along with a highly-regarded restaurant.

"It's a niche that hasn't really been experimented with much," said Jon. "A lot of people travel to eat nowadays, especially in this area, and I think it's nice to be able to offer something a bit different."

But tradition holds true as well in this village, and none knows that better then Barbara Borrett herself. As dinner lady, lolly-pop lady, parish clerk, chairman of the village hall committee and a member of the Amotherby church yard conservation group, she knows all there is to know about the village life. From the old tennis court, which she helped to restore, to the village hall, she has been involved in keeping things alive.

"When we first moved to the village, I didn't know anyone," she said. "I saw the job as dinner lady advertised and thought that would be a good way to get involved. Once you get to know the children, you know the parents as well and now there are children at the school whose parents were pupils when I first started."

Barbara gradually became involved in more and more aspects of village life. She remembers back to 1980 seeing a poster asking if anyone was interested in restoring the village's old tennis courts.

"I went along and, of course, if you turn up you end up on the committee," she said. "It was great fun raising the money, and we used to take our children up there at the weekends to stone-pick; clearing the grass of any rubbish to make way for a clear court."

Now Barbara has a key to the court which children come and borrow from her.

"It's nice that the children feel they have somewhere to go and it keeps sport alive in the village," she said.

Perhaps we view the past through rose-tinted glasses and imagine an idyllic, stress-free existence. But here, in this village, at the start of a new century, it is little community luxuries which speak volumes about the qualities of country living which remain alongside inevitable change.

Updated: 10:31 Wednesday, February 25, 2004