The little place making big headlines

APPROPRIATELY, West Heslerton had one of the first WIs in Yorkshire. It's that sort of place really; a time capsule of jam making, where phones have bells and tweeting is left to the birds.

Time ticks by slowly in West Heslerton. Picture: Matt Clark

Families have lived in the same houses for generations. It seems the only thing that's altered in 50 years is the number of cars parked on the streets.

But there is a collective holding of breath in this rural idyll, because change is on everyone's lips. The whole place is up for sale. Yes, really, from the manor house, cottages and pub, to the village hall. There's even a petrol station.

And it could be yours for £20million.

That said, the flagship of the sale; West Heslerton Hall will take a pretty penny to put right. The 21 bed mansion hasn't been lived in for 30 years since the village owner Eve Dawnay moved out.

Perhaps the intriguingly named cottage Tuppence Mansion would be a less daunting place for a future buyer to rest their head at night.

So what do you get for the price of a Knightsbridge apartment? Well, 2,000 rolling acres for starters, another 112 acres of woodland and 43 houses, not to mention the village local.

Claire Marshall is the landlady of The Dawnay Arms and says villagers have known the sale was impending for six months.

Claire Marshall, landlady of The Dawnay Arms.

"All the gossip went on then, we've just been waiting for the go ahead," says Claire. "We certainly didn't expect all this attention, but I must says it's good for business."

Indeed so. A couple from Beverley have just arrived for lunch having seen the village featured on the news.

They order today's special; homemade turkey and leek pie. Come to think of it everything is homemade here, which has made The Dawnay Arms Trip Advisor's number one in the Malton area. There's a selling point for you, and explains why Claire isn't worried about someone else owning it.

Sadly the lovely village church is not part of the sale package. Picture Matt Clark.

"I'm quite happy, I'll just be paying rent into someone else's bank account," she says. "This is a traditional pub, I don't think any buyer would do something stupid with it."

But not everyone is so relaxed about the sale.

"A lot of older residents are understandably nervous," says Claire. "They've enjoyed very reasonable rents for a lot of years, in return for working on the estate. It was Miss Eve's wish that they were looked after.

"She was very much a recluse. The Colonel was part of the village and apparently his door was always open to anyone. Miss Eve, on the other hand, came to the annual produce show, but apart from that kept herself to herself. She was quite eccentric, I think, but very clever."

Eve Dawnay

Exceptionally so. After graduating with a BA in French from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1948 Eve worked in Paris and London before returning to Yorkshire to manage the family estate.

Once at the helm she indulged her passion for bucolic simplicity and conservation. Eve was also a skilled craftswoman and made a unique collection of historical figures and scenes that only came to light when she died, six years ago.

Two of her once hidden dioramas are now on show in the Dawnay Arms.

In putting the estate on the market, Eve's relatives have issued a plea that this pastoral time warp should stay exactly the way it is.

You can see why. In a world of indenti-villages West Heslerton deserves to stand alongside Laxton in Nottinghamshire, famous for having the last working open field system in the country.

It's that important.

"This is a really strong community," says Claire. "The press are reporting that West Heslerton has been frozen in time for 50 years. It's not quite as bad as that. The spirit may be as it's always been, but we have high speed broadband now."