“THE tiny village of Langthorne, near Bedale, is dying,” announced The Northern Echo, the D&S Times’ sister paper, in 1964. “Year by year, more of the 21 houses in the village are condemned and families move out. Already, 10 houses are under closing orders.”
There were no nameboards at the entrance to the village, no signposts pointing to it; the village pub, The Crown, was closed and condemned; there was no main sewerage and 95 per cent of houses still had earth closets.
Most of the houses, said 68-year-old Fred Pocklington, were “tumbling down”, and garage owner Ronald Murfin said: “If the council cannot do anything to help the village, you might as well call it dead and all that is left is to bury it.”