Back In The Village.

So, I am now a year back in the village. Whats changed since 1986 ?. Much of the artitechture of the centre of the village remains the same with the obvious exception of the demolition of the New Hall. The paper shop, Londis and the Dairy are no more and Imades has come and gone. The British Legion has also bitten the dust as has Brady's Garage. Outside the centre we now have the Community Hall and the St Mary's View extension to Wyndham road . Numourous former open spaces and gardens have now been built on throughout the village.

In terms of the wider community areas like Wyndham road have bedded down and have matured since the 80s. The population has substantially changed and there dont seem to be the lurid tales of wife swapping parties that I remember drom earlier decades. That area, like Hederman close now seems to be much more part of the village. many of the old Silvertonians that I remember from my youth are, of course no more and some families once prominent in the village now play little part in the centre of village life. It is an inescapable fact that in Silverton, as in many other villages, institutions like the parish council are now dominayed by incomers. This trend was becoming established in the 1980s and is now the established position. We also now have a much more transient population with people using the village as a stopping off point on the way up their career ladder.

Despite tales of drugs and excessive drinking that emerge occasionally, I would say that Silverton is currently quieter then I remember it in the 80s. Luckily, unlike some villages we have retained our pubs and they remain a vital part of village life. It is notable though that there are far less of the pub characters that I remember from my youth. The village as it now exists probably is less conducive to the emergance of such characters. I suspect also, that the smoking ban has probably had a deterrent effect on the sort of people who might have become pub characters, but I know this would be disputed by some observers.

On the whole Silverton retains a social structure and range of community organisations that make it a thriving and continually evolving community. Sadly, however it is the case here, as elsewhere, that some of the closeness that marked out Silverton as a distinctive community has gone. Most of the population no longer work in papermaking or on the farms and the ties that such employment created are no more. While Silverton obviously remains a desirable place to live, kin the eyes of this observer at least, the passing of the Silverton that I grew up in has left a vacuum at the heart of the village that it is difficult ever to see being filled.