I am concerned that the village of Portesham is being taken over by urban immigrants and that a way of life is being destroyed.

In general villagers share a distinctive style of public behaviour. Socialisation in villages is, in effect, socialisation for independent but non-leadership behaviour.

Villagers take pains not to draw attention to themselves, not to exert authority over other people in public, and not to overtly express conflict. Even when disagreeing with each other their speech is quiet. The urban migrants on the other hand are used to a more assertive, explicit style of communication and to more formal methods of decision-making. Many of them consider the villagers’ indirect style as inarticulate or even backward, and in response become even more direct themselves. The villagers in general respond to this with silent non-cooperation. Despite the incomers’ desire to fit into the community, leadership qualities which may have stood them in good stead in an urban setting impede communications with the villagers. One result of this different lifestyle has been the replacement of consensus decision-making by voting at general meetings. A politically active group among the incomers has exploited the villagers’ tendency to avoid public conflict. These individuals maximise their voting strength by organising slates for candidates before meetings and then attend as a bloc to vote each other in. Through this method, they have succeeded in taking over senior positions in important local organisations.

This represents a direct confrontation between two ways of life. As one villager recently commented in the local magazine “If they didn’t like Portesham as it was, why did they move in?”

Roger Taylor