I DON’T want to take too seriously the light-hearted piece about the C-word – Colburn – in Joe Willis’ column a fortnight ago (D&S Times, Apr 1), and I’m sure there will be other responses from your readers to his mockery of marketing nonsense.

But Colburn has just as much history as any other parish in Richmondshire, both before and after 1915 when the Army decided to put its biggest base here.

Colburn’s origins, development and composition are unique not just in the district but in the whole country, notably for the mix of people brought to a rural backwater, largely by the Army. It is also genuinely a mix of the urban and the rural – with the Swale valley in the north, the Risedale Beck gill in the west, Sour Beck and woodland in the south, if you want the pastoral bits.

But most of all Colburn has, as the town council website rightly claims, great community spirit. Colburn is not the most wealthy neighbourhood but there is much here that other communities in North Yorkshire might well envy.

R d’Arcy Hildyard, Colburn