Local heroes

MOST villages have a church. Many have a pub or two. Some even enjoy a bus service. But few can boast of their own castle.

One such is Ripley. The village, near Harrogate, and its castle are inextricably linked. "Nearly 200 years ago Ripley, now bypassed by the Harrogate-Ripon road, was a shabby collection of thatched hovels hard by the fortified house that has been the home of the Ingilbys for nearly 700 years," we learn in Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Villages.

"Then Sir William Amcotts Ingilby completed the film set, as it were, with a hotel de ville. This is the Ripley you see today, with a cobbled market square, weeping cross and stocks."

And this was the Ripley where Yorkshire's great and good - including cricket legend Freddie Truman and Black Sheep Brewery boss Paul Theakston - gathered to mark the launch of three books celebrating the broad acres.

Two were from the pen of Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher's former press secretary. One, as we have read, is his guide to Yorkshire villages, the other a look at the region's castles. Only Ripley and Sheriff Hutton make it into both books; and, because Sheriff Hutton castle is a ruin, it made sense to hold the launch at Ripley Castle.

The third book is Hill Farmer: A Working Year On The Fells by vet Neville Turner. A keen amateur photographer with a library of 30,000 slides, he was delighted to be asked by publishers Dalesman to chronicle the life of some of Britain's hardiest souls in words and pictures.

Does he feel that hill farmers are a breed apart? "I wouldn't say a breed apart. But you have to have tremendous character and resilience to be a hill farmer.

"I think that's the key to his success - to surviving through very, very hard times."

He believes they can survive even the current turmoil afflicting agriculture. "Margaret Beckett said at the Labour conference that farmers must change or die.

"Farmers have been changing for 3,500 years. There's always something new.

"The farmer is brilliantly resilient. He will adapt to any changes that are necessary. He's been adapting for thousands of years."

A message of hope. But then, everyone at the Ripley Castle launch was in determinedly upbeat mood. These three books, said the current Ripley Castle owner, Sir Thomas Ingilby, will help bring tourists to Yorkshire and boost the rural economy. They should also sell well to Tykes, boasting so many glossy colour pictures of the sort of Yorkshire landscape that makes residents puff out their chests with pride.

None are prouder than Sir Bernard Ingham. Following the success of his 1999 book, Yorkshire Millennium, Sir Bernard, who began his career on his home town newspaper the Hebden Bridge Times, jumped at the chance to do two more on villages and castles. He got stuck into the research as soon as he was able.

"Villages were not a problem," he said. "You are spoiled for choice. We have always been spoiled for choice - in the Domesday Book, there were 1,800 'vills' in Yorkshire.

"I didn't necessarily go for the pretty picture villages, but for villages which had a tale to tell.

"Castles were a tremendous challenge."

But it was one he rose to with typical determination. "I found 83 castles that are documented. There are probably more. There are a very large number of castles in Britain that are just not documented."

Fifty-two made it into the book, from the famous - Castle Howard, Clifford's Tower - to the obscure: well, have you heard of the ruins of Sandal?

Listening to Sir Bernard, it is impossible not to focus on his most prominent feature. A pair of eyebrows that his biographer once described as like "lovesick squirrels" now more resemble two renegade ewes from a hill farmer's flock. But I only mention them to fulfill his bluff prophecy that the press "would seize on the Yorkshire eyebrows rather than the Yorkshire castles".

And once in politics, always in politics. Sir Bernard prompted the biggest laugh of the day with this take on public speaking: "Last time I was here I spoke to a group of anaesthetists. They were a formidable challenge.

"One jab and you don't know anything - which is twice as efficient as John Prescott."

Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Villages and Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles are £11.99 each; Hill Farmer by Neville Turner is £17.99, with £1 going to the Foot And Mouth Crisis Fund. All are published by Dalesman

Updated: 08:45 Saturday, October 06, 2001