9:32am Monday 8th February 2010
By Matt Clark
ELSIE ROBINSON has been looking forward to today. It’s her favourite day, the day when the mobile library calls.
Her hamlet, Hill Cottages, is a remote collection of former miners’ houses in the lee of Blakey Ridge on the North York Moors.
The weather is overcast, cold and dank. The tops of the surrounding hills are still snowy, but Elsie is snug and warm inside the house where she has lived for 60 of her 98 years. Her neatly buttoned mauve twin-set and electric fire keep her that way as she leafs the final page in her borrowed book.
Elsie is housebound. The mobile library is her ticket to the romantic far-off places she still loves to visit in her mind.
Barrie Pickering pulls up and toots the horn to alert the rest of the village that he has arrived. He raps on Elsie’s door. She can’t hear too well these days so he shouts a cheery “hello” through the letter box.
Barrie’s arms are full of carefully chosen books. After all these years he knows what Elsie will enjoy.
She is partial to romantic sagas and gleefully picks out Maid Of Honour, smiling warmly at Barrie.
Outside, the van gets busy. People don’t just come for the books – it’s a social gathering, a time to catch up on village news.
Barrie drives on to Joan Morton’s house. He jumps out of the cab to collect her and the pair return arm-in-arm.
Joan is 85. She used to walk the half-mile to the next stop, but now the mobile library goes to her.
Joan has 16 books to return and 18 to collect. She said: “I like a good old- fashioned murder story. I can’t be doing with all that slushy romantic stuff. Barrie knows which ones I have read and he always looks out for new ones,” she says.
Joan’s house is now an official stop, and Scarlett Brown climbs aboard with her daughters Esme, three, and Orla, 19 months. Scarlett and her husband moved here to give their children a proper childhood. She said: “The mobile library is a fantastic resource. My girls love it. They call it Barrie’s library van – they think he owns it.”
Barrie waits ten minutes at each stop and is a stickler for punctuality. If he is delayed, he rings ahead. He doesn’t like the thought of customers waiting in the cold.
One woman depends on his impeccable timekeeping. She gathers her books while The Archers is on and sets off when the theme tune plays. It’s a ten-minute walk to her stop and she knows she will arrive at the same time as Barrie. Barrie is 64. He might retire next year, which would be a devastating blow to these isolated communities.
“I’ve been delivering around Rosedale for most of my life,” he says.
“I’ve done nothing else really. I began as a van lad and then drove a mobile shop. This job is about the personal touch. I think it’s important for customers to get to know you.
“I enjoy toddling around these roads. It’s a bit hairy in winter, but I manage.”
Barrie got round on most days during the recent snow.
“The trick is turning round. I once got stuck and had to reverse for two miles. I generally ring round my customers to see what the conditions are like. They’ll often say ‘oh you’ll be okay’, but then again, some have 4x4s.
“It’s nice to see the changing seasons. I think spring is my favourite, when the verges come to life with snowdrops and then the daffodils.”
At Barrie’s next stop, Thorgill, there are 20 cottages, only seven permanently inhabited. Helen Langthorne lives in one of them. An original mobile library customer back in the 1960s, she said: “This is an excellent service and it’s always a pleasure to see Barrie’s friendly face and stop for a chat with him.”
The sun finally peeks through as we set off for the final call of the day, which is intriguingly listed as a gravelled lay-by near Hartoft.
We are greeted by a cheery Sandy Anderson dressed to cope with the worst the elements can throw at him. His piece de resistance is a Russian fur hat.
Sandy and his wife, Kelly, live the good life on a smallholding in the middle of a forest.
With no car, he has walked a mile-and- a-half to return his library books.
Sandy and Kelly have no TV or radio, but they do have the internet and order library books online.
He said: “I can’t praise the library service enough. The best example I can give you happened when the roof blew off our goat pen. I searched for books on traditional timber-framed roofs, but they all dated from the 1930s to 1950s and were out of print. I finally managed to track some old reference books in the archive and they were delivered by the mobile library. Without it we would still have a hole in the roof.”
It’s turning cold again and the wind veers to the north. Sandy pulls up his collar to keep out the rain and embarks on his long hike home. Barrie starts the van for the last time before heading back to the depot.
It will be three weeks before he is back this way. By then Elsie Robinson will have visited a score of romantic destinations in her mind, Sandy Anderson will probably have a new project in mind and, hopefully, the snowdrops will be out.
North Yorkshire County Council serves rural communities throughout the county with its fleet of 12 mobile libraries and one Supermobile. They call in to more than 800 hamlets, villages and towns in the area.
You can request a stop by phoning 01609 533800 or email Contact: libraries@northyorks.gov.uk
All requests are considered, but priority is given to those who are housebound.
Mobile libraries visit every three weeks and each carries about 2,500 items, including books, videos, DVDs and audio books. The vans also provide access to the full range of stock held by the Library and Information service.
You can order other books and if they are available from North Yorkshire’s own stock of some six million they will be dispatched to the nearest mobile library depot.
If the library has to source a book from another part of the country there will be a small charge.
Any items that you request will be available for you to collect from the mobile library on a later visit to your village.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk