THE HARVEST, or most of it, had been sold at auction a few days earlier - 36,200 sheep, two day sale, still bidding and buying as the clock turned 10 at night.

Now the folk of Hawes, in Wensleydale, were back at the spit and sawdust auction mart for their thanksgiving. "I just thought it would be good for the church to come out of doors a bit, we tend to lock ourselves in," said Andy Souter, Methodist chapel steward, whose admirable idea it was.

Some people weren't very comfortable about coming into a church. "I just thought mebbe we should go out to them."

Normally, added Andy, there'd be 40 "at most" in chapel for the harvest festival. Now the amphitheatrical auction mart was as crowded as ever it had been during the sheep sale, and each with a question familiar to generations of Northern Echo men on missionary work in Wensleydale.

"Will't account be in't Darlington as well?"

Being farmers, of course, the sheep men tend to cry wolf. Gordon Pratt, auctioneer and mart director, admitted as much but knew that there were real problems, too.

Prices had been up on the previous year but still less than half of those four or five years ago and hit further on the second day by the fuel crisis - tin hat on Dunkirk spirit.

"They're very good at tightening their belts round here," said Gordon. "It helps if you've a sense of humour, too."

The benches had been scrubbed, dusted even, harvest symbols assembled at the front of the ring - fruit and fleece, of course, but boots and walking stick to represent no vacancies diversification into bed and breakfast and a handsome Wensleydale cheese, though cattle are all but gone from the dale.

The Hawes creamery flourishes, nonetheless. Wallace and Gromit have done more for Wensleydale's economy than 100 years of agriculture ministers ever did.

Gordon Gatward, former Hawes minister and now chaplain to the Royal Agricultural Society, was to have led the service but was punctured by the petrol crisis. Likewise the five car loads of singers from across the Pennines.

Martin James, the present minister - whom last we'd seen at sunrise on Easter Sunday, atop glorious Pen Hill - led in their stead, talked of "beleaguered farmers" and of the strain of living in a depressed economy, but also of the beautiful dale and of counting their blessings, one by one.

Around him were hoardings for Farmers Weekly and for Scab Free Doctormax, official notices about missing sheep and luck money, a term lost on the townie.

The Barclays Bank clock ran precisely three hours ahead of itself. Doubtless that was symbolic, too.

Two and three to a hymn sheet, so great the gathering, we sang lustily of ploughing fields and scattering - the soft refreshing rain hard on the main ring roof - and other harvest hymns including a fetching little number written by John Arlott, the lamented cricket commentator.

Few contain references to sheep. It's a bit hard to sing "Keep thy lambs in safety's keep" if you've just sold 36,200 at auction.

There was also a charming dance from the youngsters of the Salt Club, which their mums and dads wouldn't have missed, not for all the petrol in Panama.

Mr James, who'd also attended part of the auction - "the commercial heart of our community, from where most of the harvest of the dale goes out" - spoke of the fuel crisis, recalled that the "gentle voice of one Welsh farmer had brought the country to a standstill" and that 94 per cent of the country had supported them. It was a reference, history will show, to the opinion poll on Tony Blair's handling of the situation. "If you're a farmer and you think things are going against you, then 94 per cent of the population are with you," added the minister, an interesting example of two and two making 94.

He is evangelistic and enthusiastic, his address at times drowned not by the rain (soft and refreshing or otherwise) but by the familiar dilemma of fractious children.

Mr James ploughed straight on; Gordon Pratt wouldn't have done. "The hammer would have stopped in mid-air and they'd have been out," he said afterwards. "It's a good thing it was Martin."

The other problem, very likely, was a lack of back rests and of knee room. Even more than the average Methodist chapel, auction marts weren't built for comfort, though the minister relieved the fidgeting with the joke about the missionary who encounters a hungry lion.

Immediately he falls to his knees, prays fervently that God may spare him, opens his eyes and discovers that the lion, too, appears to be in earnest supplication.

The missionary is loud in his praises, the lion indignant. "Shaddap, man, can't you see I'm trying to say grace?"

At the end of last Sunday evening's service a collection raised almost £300 for Farm Africa - "helps people there who are even worse off than the people in Wensleydale," said Mr James.

There were still some four days of summer, shepherd's delight, but as the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness fast drew on, they would harvest after all and be very thankful.

l The Rev Gordon Gatward has written special prayers for World Rural Women's Day, on Sunday October 15. Details from the Rev Jonathan Inkpin on (01388) 526580.