East Yorkshire - Villages, the Ghost of Country Life

The beating heart of Britain, found in every country, in every county and my home county no exception, East Yorkshire beautiful open spaces of open agricultural countryside blessed with quaint villages reflecting the Britain of old, originating long before the cities of Modern Man, spanning back to the first people of Britain.

The staple & well made recipe of the British village, the foundation of British culture, these picturesque villages that are replicated across the land focused around a central worship place & holy ground which site hundreds of year old churches many of which sit atop of the same land and faith centres which reach back to the ancient indigenous population of the land whos beliefs are long forgotten but the people remain.

As beliefs changed and lands, hearts & minds where conquered, the Christian churches & new Gods emerged and where built on top of sites of ancient faiths forming the cultural heartland of early 20th Century Britain. These Villages of Britain have generally evolved near natural features which make the site advantageous usually a source of clean water or entry to the sea and are spread apart a days return walk from one another, a distance which is so easily travelled in minutes by car but was once more meaningful to practicality. The distance and isolation allowing the village to grow its own customs, accents and traditions. The Main Street cuts through the village with one way in and one way out, many overlaying long dismantled Roman Roads which themselves are based on trade routes of the pre Roman Britons.

Another of the key ingredients of the British village the Red Phone Box, now a relic of technology are in few cases still operating, many are adapted to communal heart defibrillator points or book share centres but still stand reflecting the needs of the past.

The Post office and Village shop have also rapidly closed down, these once central community hubs of every village may not survive beyond the 21st Century, beyond the 2020's as globalisation, technology and speedy travel outstrip the once essential needs of every community.

Perhaps one of the keystone ingredients to any village community standing side by side with the Church is the Village Pub which again are rapidly closing down in the society of Modern Man where profitability is the only driver, the only consideration, the only motive. These businesses & human interaction hubs can no longer survive partly due to reduced custom as the workforce that once resided in the villages working on farms and estates in the local region have been exchanged for machinery and automation, the working heart of these picturesque villages has gradually crumbled.

The social needs which are at the heart of humanity & community reflected in another village marker the Cenotaph these 20th Century memorials found in every village in Britain list the names and ages of all of the young men of the past who so willingly & bravely put their lives on the line to fight a war a world away from their homes against the most wicked of enemies are to easily ignored and forgotten as the country people leave the villages to find work in the cities, those left behind as with the red phone boxes are a mere relic of a time that once was.

What remains of the villages the buildings and architecture that took hundreds of years and many generations to flourish are quickly upscaled & gentrified. The few who remain are an ageing population as they are the only ones who can now afford to reside there, as house prices & rents rise way beyond the wages of a farm hand and wider working people. Gradually houses are sold off, bought as holiday homes to be visited as weekend retreats, churches, pubs & shops are converted to flats and more holiday & high end housing, the backbone of Britain, the beating heart, the way of Country life is quickly eroded and exchanged for emptiness. What remains are only empty shells of the communities that have lived & worked there for generations, another set of indigenous working people, as can be found the world over destroyed inadvertently by globalisation, technology and economics.

Yet still these villages are beautiful to walk through and visit, the buildings will remain although used differently as each village becomes a museums of the not so distant past.