Countryside crisis forces writer to review attractions of towns

He was doing quite well, thank you, with a series of books about rural rambles until the foot-and-mouth crisis erupted, dealing a body blow to his enterprise as well as to the economy of the countryside generally.

Such notables as brewing scion Mr Paul Theakston, TV's Luke Casey and Eric Robson, and the D&S Times' own Nicholas Rhea queued up to write forewords to publications extolling the delights of walks in the Yorkshire dales, North York moors and Cumbrian Lake District.

For good measure, with the committed enthusiasm of someone who once worked every day amid the smell of hops, Mr Reid, a 32-year-old former brewery sales manager, was pleased to point thirsty walkers in the direction of good ale and old-fashioned hostelries on each route.

Then came the dreaded foot-and-mouth, which not only closed vast tracts of countryside to the public but turned an annual 40pc growth in Mr Reid's business into a disastrous 87pc drop in book sales.

There were other victims too. For example, about £25,000 had been raised for Marie Curie Cancer Care over three years by charitable people who followed in his rural footsteps but then found their way blocked.

Now, like many a farmer before him, Mr Reid has had to diversify in an attempt to survive. Perhaps ironically, his answer has been to retreat from the countryside into an urban landscape to produce the first in what he hopes could become a series of town and city trails.

Town Trails: North Yorkshire (InnWay Publications, £5.95) features the history, architecture, legend and folklore of 25 places including Bedale, Boroughbridge, Easingwold, Harrogate, Hawes, Helmsley, Leyburn, Masham, Middleham, Northallerton, Pateley Bridge, Pickering, Richmond, Ripon, Stokesley, Thirsk, Whitby and York.

Mr Reid was aged five when he moved with his family from Lancashire to Harrogate where, in 1997, he set up his small Innway publishing house after giving up a successful career in the brewing industry.

He was well qualified for his new role as an apostle of the rural north country, being a member of the outdoor writers' guild. Membership of the British guild of beer writers conferred an additional degree of authority when it came to advising walkers on how and where to seek liquid refreshment if they found their tongues hanging out.

National acclaim for his modest paperbacks, plus coverage in such unlikely places as America and New Zealand as well as the rest of Europe, convinced him that he had made the right career move.

The unwanted impact of foot-and-mouth was a devastating setback. He says: "To build up a business and then lose most of your trade through no fault of your own, and have to win it back when there is very little financial help forthcoming for small businesses, is very difficult."

He did get help, from the North Yorkshire foot-and-mouth disease fund, towards the cost of producing his first book of urban walks in England's largest county.

As before, he has relied on the artistic skills of Mr John Ives, a partner in a York firm of chartered architects, to produce accompanying pen and ink drawings from a list of suggestions sent to him by e-mail once the pattern of a walk has been established.

Mr Ives, an established contributor to the pages of The Dalesman, has worked with Mr Reid for the past four years and favours pen and ink because this medium dictates that he must get a drawing right first time.

Some features, like North End and the church at Bedale, the town clock at Thirsk or the cathedral at Ripon, almost jump out at the artist. Mr Ives admits, however, that he was pushed to find any such images at Pateley Bridge, where he had to settle for a general view of houses.

It is probably invidious to ask Mr Reid if he has any favourites, apart from obvious ones such as Whitby and York, but some smaller urban communities clearly stick in his memory.

He had only ever driven through Bedale and was pleasantly surprised to find that it has more to offer than first appearances would suggest, confirming the impressions gained by countless tourists who have preceded him.

He waxes lyrical about Stokesley's wide high street, curving West Green, murmuring River Leven and ancient Packhorse Bridge. Historic Richmond earns a special mention for its castle, museums and Georgian buildings.

Mr Reid, who spent six months researching and writing the book and plans a companion volume on County Durham, says: "There were about 18 towns which simply had to be in, and I had a list of about another ten which had to be got down to seven to make up the 25. I picked the most picturesque ones and those I had most enjoyed visiting.

"Doing an urban walk is a completely different thing to a rural one. It was harder to write up because there was so much information and so much more detail involved.

"Some of the more rural towns have been quite hard hit by lack of visitors through foot-and-mouth and were not so busy."

And here we come to the nub of Mr Reid's message. While he fears that he may go out of business if the pestilence continues, he is concerned about the wider picture. "By producing this book, I hope people will visit many of the featured towns and help bring much-needed revenue back to the small shops and businesses that are suffering."

He produced official figures showing that Yorkshire tourism lost £300m between the start of the outbreak and the end of July, and added: "This crisis has highlighted just how important access to the countryside is, how much the rural economy, tourism and leisure industry is worth and how interdependent many businesses are.

"There is still a perception that the countryside is closed. Even areas that have reopened are suffering as people are staying away or booking to go elsewhere.

"Hopefully my book will bring some visitors back."