CHRIS TITLEY talks to a North Yorkshire vicar and author about life in a rural diocese during these difficult times.

DURING the last foot and mouth crisis, the Reverend David Wilbourne was a boy living in Aughton, east of Selby. "The crisis was in Cheshire, not here," he recalls. "I remember my friend lived on a farm and he was shooting starlings. Everybody was convinced that starlings were spreading the disease.

"Now, people are just as inventive as to what might cause it and what might not."

No one is taking pot shots at starlings this time round, but life in the country has changed considerably since foot and mouth was confirmed.

In his parish duties as vicar of Helmsley, Mr Wilbourne has become used to the disinfectant foot and vehicle mats as he travels about by bicycle.

Like other rural clergy, he is following the guidelines issued by the Archbishop of York. That means minimising trips to farms, and conducting his ministry by phone where necessary.

Although foot and mouth has mercifully spared Helmsley's farmers so far, they are worried about the potential for infection, he said.

"They're living on a timebomb, in a sense. Everybody is bound to be stressed. There's that worry, and already the restrictions are making life difficult for everybody."

The disease has impacted directly on Mr Wilbourne's work. Services have stopped at one of the four hamlet churches he is responsible for, at East Moor, four miles north of Helmsley.

Life has become a little easier since the beginning, Mr Wilbourne said. "Initially the restrictions were quite fierce. There were quite a lot of sheep that weren't being moved.

"The fields were getting more and more muddy and miserable-looking. The farmers were having problems with not being able to move livestock.

"Quite a lot have obtained licences to move them since."

He feels particularly sorry for the moorland farmers. "Many of them have to work from dawn until dusk to make ends meet.

"The children don't do their homework until sunset because they're needed to work on the farm.

"These families don't need any more difficulties than they have got already."

The Church aims to take a leading role in the pastoral care of farmers under stress.

"The Church of England has had a national campaign in terms of being able to talk with farmers: even in times of the highest stress it helps to talk.

"In these periods they have to know that people are concerned.

"Every service we have had since the outbreak has included prayers for farmers.

"The parish church is open daily as a resource for prayer: there are prayers there for people to take away, and a book for people to record their concerns."

Mr Wilbourne is hopeful that the farming community of Helmsley will emerge at the other side of the foot and mouth crisis battered but not bowed.

"If you can survive on the North York Moors, there's nothing on heaven or earth that will stop you.

"It seems so cruel that this has come along. We've had mad cow disease, prices taking a tumble.

"But if you read your Bible, there are lean years and good years, and that's farming."

Mr Wilbourne is not only a rural vicar, but an author too.

He described his life as chaplain to the Archbishop of York in his book Archbishop's Diary.

Another, fictional chronicle, A Virgin's Diary, telling the story of the months before the birth of Jesus through Mary's eyes, caused controversy.

For his latest books, Mr Wilbourne has drawn on his experience of both the Yorkshire countryside and the clergy.

A Summer's Diary is published on May 8, the sequel to A Vicar's Diary, a book which one reviewer called "Heartbeat with a dog collar".

Set in the Vale of York, it follows the adventures of a vicar in the summer of England's World Cup victory.

Although often very funny, the book does not shirk from describing grinding rural poverty.

"It's about people, it's about humour, it's about poignancy," Mr Wilbourne said.

He has plans to write a third book in the series when time allows.

The next book might well cover the period of the 1967 foot and mouth outbreak.

One thing is certain. The heartache caused by this terrible disease will be fresh in the author's mind when he comes to put pen to paper.

A Summer's Diary is published by HarperCollins, price £14.99

The Reverend Wilbourne will be signing copies at Waterstone's in York on May 23 and Waterstone's, Scarborough, on May 15

Updated: 11:13 Wednesday, April 25, 2001