THE dislike of an open door seems to have struck a chord.

It’s been pointed out that you could draw a graph to demonstrate the correlation between age and grumpiness over open doors letting in cold air. For example the baby doesn’t give a fig if someone leaves the door open.

The teenager is indifferent, although recognises the consequences of leaving a door open, i.e. getting shouted at.

For elderly relatives, however, you could not anger them more if you suggested Dad’s Army was not that funny.

But as Betsy Everett, the D&S’ Askrigg correspondent, points out, not every adult thinks an open door in winter is to be avoided.

On a recent visit to Northallerton she noticed that every shop door was open – despite it being bitterly cold. Being a trained journalist she decided to find out why this was.

A man behind the counter at Waterstones said management had decided that doors were a ‘barrier’ and if people saw them closed, they thought the shop was shut.

Betsy went into five shops and, with the exception of Superdrug, where the manager told her his automatic door was broken and had to be propped open, everybody said the same thing – if the door is shut, customers think you’re closed.

“Are people really going to wander aimlessly up and down a high street thinking every shop is shut if the doors are closed on a cold day?” she asks, not unreasonably.

It does seem a criminal waste of heat and energy when most of us have opposable thumbs for just such a situation as a closed door.

I’m not sure if Betsy found the door of Bettys open or closed, although I suspect even if a closed door was covered in razor wire with snipers stationed behind the fat rascals, there would still be people clamouring to get in.

For those who have never been, it’s a tea room and you sometimes have to queue to get in.

Queue. For tea. And maybe a nice little cake. I will take a picture to prove it the next time I’m there.