THE tune Helmsley is a celebration of our Ryedale market town at this Advent time, with words by Charles Wesley - "Lo! He comes with clouds descending" - but its origins are surprisingly varied.

Ann Catley, a well-known soprano singer of her day, born in London in 1745, her father a coachman and her mother a washerwoman, is said to have been the first person to have sung it - as a secular air in the popular gardens of the period.

The actual writing of Helmsley was strongly believed to have been done by the Irish composer Charles Thomas Carter, who was musical director of the Calcutta theatre before settling in London in 1772, to write songs for the public gardens and also for the stage.

There were long runs in those days. One of his comic operas had a ten-year run and reached the United States.

Carter wrote hit shows with a modern flavour like Just in Time which was produced at Covent Garden in May 1792 while Tally-ho and Stand By Your Guns was convivially appreciated by the sporting fraternity.

But the Methodists would have none of this. In their tradition, Helmsley gained its name and present form in John Wesley's Select Hymns and a Hospital Collection, 236 years ago.

James T Lightwood, of Lytham St Annes, who catalogued all the tunes in the Methodist Hymn Book, said the tune was definitely owed to Thomas Olivers, one of Wesley's best known helpers, after a wild young life as a "lad of the village" in Wales.

After his conversion, he made a great names for himself as an evangelist and outdoor preacher.

Could Olivers have visited Helmsley and Yorkshire on his campaigns?

A number of ministers who have served in the Helmsley Circuit believe he did.

The present church in Ashdale Road was built in 1901, but there was an older building on the same site.

Also, at Hawnby on the Moors, there was a chapel built in 1770, 29 years before Olivers died, and it had occasional use well towards the end of this last century for a once a month Sunday service in fine weather.

One of those who thought that Olivers visited the district was the Rev J Neil Graham, because when he was there, that old Hawnby chapel still had occasional use.

Mr Graham was in rural work for much of his ministry, and always felt himself a Yorkshireman, as his father was a lay pastor at Thirsk and Topcliffe for a long spell.

So well-known is the tune in the musical world that when Neil was taking his last service in the Lincoln district, the organist most appropriately played Helmsley as the last voluntary, just to show that minister where he was heading for!

It is good to think that this Yorkshire town has been put on the map for a few weeks every year at least, and of course the local congregation will be in form singing it, led by their Methodist long-stay minister, the Rev Susan Greenwood.

It has also become popular through the recordings of Maddy Prior and her backing group on Radio York and elsewhere, in the style of the early Ranters nearly 250 years ago.

The appropriate words come to a fine Charles Wesley conclusion:

"Yea, Amen! Let all adore Thee

High on Thy eternal throne

Saviour, take the power and glory,

Claim the Kingdom for Thine own;

Hallelujah!

Everlasting God, come down!"

Updated: 11:16 Thursday, December 06, 2001