Vicar on the run

I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year -

Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.

And he replied -

Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God, That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a Known Way -

ML Haskins; God Knows

THE last time I'd been to a service at St Margaret's in Hawes was the funeral in 1981 of Canon James Llewellyn Grice Hill, who'd been vicar for 51 years until retiring - at the age of 90 - the year previously.

A holder of the Military Cross, though he swore he couldn't remember what on Earth he'd done to deserve it, Canon Hill once told the column that the Church seemed to have forgotten what it was there for - "It just seems to get up to all sorts of silly stunts. I wouldn't care if it filled the pews" - and that his binman earned more than he did.

Back then, apparently, the Church of England's maximum retirement age was 99 - thus allowing several years to repent at leisure - now it's 70, though those in the same post for a very long time legally missed the cut.

The Reverend Edward Underhill, now 83, thus continues as Vicar of St George's in Low Fell, Gateshead, where he's also served for 51 years. "It has been said by someone close to him that he can do two things well: dig a kitchen garden and write a letter," observed St George's centenary brochure.

Several of his letters, and his wife's, have appeared in The Times. The centenary brochure was quite close to him, too.

St Margaret's present incumbent is the Reverend Bill Simms, still just a bit bairn of 66 and fit enough regularly to complete marathons and half marathons when not distracted by itinerant ice cream sellers.

"It was wonderful but it added at least five minutes to my time," he once observed after yielding to stop-me-andbuy- one temptation on the Great North Run. He wasn't going to heaven, Bill added, unless there was trad jazz and ice cream.

He's been vicar since 1993 - Hawes work, maybe, but richly enjoyable. "Fifteen wonderfully happy years, they're a lovely, down-to-earth crowd," says Bill (or Father Simms, as the church notice board announces him.) Until 1985 he was head of personnel and management services at Darlington Borough Council, as well as an enthusiastic local league footballer and referee.

"You need a thick skin to be a referee,"

he says. "It was good training to be a vicar."

He'd long contemplated the priesthood, though the binman may still earn more than the vicar does. "When you look at local government now, I think I probably got out at the right time, but I thoroughly enjoyed Darlington council.

Whichever party was in control, they were very progressive."

Hawes is at the top of Wensleydale, described on a website as "one of the honeypot attractions of the Yorkshire Dales National Park" and badly flooded in the days after Christmas.

We'd last met Fr Simms in 2004 for harvest festival at Hardraw, an attractive village of 50 or so folk - most of whom are Fawcetts - a mile up the hill. He was also in the pantomime, though the relevance of that is long forgotten.

St Margaret's, visible far around, has stood since 1851, the approach - the line about the steep and rugged pathway came to mind - recently restored to its former glory.

At the bottom of the path is a large crib scene and a milk churn, on which a hand-painted notice announces that £250,000 is urgently needed for essential repairs. The notice has been there since 1983, the repairs no less essential.

"It's amazing how well we do out of that churn, but there's always something needs doing, it's probably more than £250,000 now," says Bill. Major work is expected later this year.

In 2000, the year following the 300th anniversary of the granting of Hawes' market charter by William III, they also installed a handsome stained glass window depicting a latter-day Christ - as the Good Shepherd - with scenes from village life over the preceding three centuries.

The vicar had sent a letter - a billet doux, he calls it - to every house in the parish, raising £11,000 in two weeks. "We had 400 people in here when it was unveiled,"

he recalls. "They were all over. I still don't know how we got them all in."

AROUND 60 are there on the final Sunday of 2007. The chap in front has spread the Sunday Telegraph on the pew but, as if to resist temptation, has it upside down.

Everyone has been given a sheet of paper with the quote about the gate of the year, most memorably used by King George VI in his first Christmas broadcast after the outbreak of the Second World War. He'd not known of it, apparently, until someone sent it to the Queen in a Christmas card.

Minnie Louise Haskins, an American who came to England as a child, is said thereafter to have done very well from the royalties. She gave the money to charity.

Mr Simms emerges from his vestry with a single server, essays a half circuit of the church, picks up eight robed choristers en route - a bit like loose shunting on the old Wensleydale railway - and bids an ebullient good morning.

He remains enthusiastic, passionate, greatly caring and greatly liked, though the trained ear can detect the rustle of sweetie paper - Quality Street, at a guess, probably one of those purple ones - when he embarks upon his sermon.

The Sunday Telegraph remains upside down.

The sermon is in part a short story called The Monastery, the prayers include thanks - as they had done three years previously, at Hardraw - that they have been placed in such a Garden of Eden. The church bell is rung at the most solemn parts of the service.

Afterwards there's chance to chat with Mabel and Gladys Metcalfe - one 87, t'other 83, unrelated. Metcalfes are to Hawes what Fenwicks are to Hardraw. They knew Canon Hill, recall that he was also organist and choirmaster, are appreciative of the ministry of Fr Simms.

"He's a wonderful man, nothing ever too much trouble for him," says Mabel.

Still some way short of his 90th, Bill himself contemplates retirement within the next 12 months to Richmond - where, come the autumn, his grandkids hail a conkering hero.

It's expected that he'll be replaced by Ann Chapman, vicar of the neighbouring parish of Askrigg, and that the benefices will be united - with luck with a curate, too. He and Ann are running mates, fellow Harriers, too. "We have deep and meaningful theological discussions while we're out training," she once said.

Fr Simms, meanwhile, is hurrying off to spend Hogmanay with family in Scotland. The gate of the year stands wide open.