AN Austwick councillor who in his youth secured a much coveted England rugby cap has just stepped down after serving 50 years as parish council chairman.

Coun Bryan Braithwaite-Exley said he had thought of retiring from the post as each decade passed, but was continually voted back.

Coun Ian Smith has filled his vacated seat.

First joining the parish council 52 years ago at the tender age of 25, Coun Braithwaite-Exley has only missed a couple of meetings in all that time.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed it and will continue as a parish councillor because I enjoy being involved in local issues," he explained.

Born in Leeds, he lived in Ilkley until he moved to North Craven to work for his family's quarrying firm, XL Granite, at Ingleton. The company also owned the quarry at Helwith Bridge.

The firm them sold out to Amalgamated Roadstone which then sold out to Hansons.

Mr Braithwaite-Exley moved to his present home, Pant House, when he married local girl Barbara Fell, from Otterburn 54 years ago. The couple met while members of Craven Tennis Club at Gargrave.

They have a son Marcus, an Army major with the Highlanders regiment and a daughter, Susan, who lives in Devon.

He was educated at Sedbergh School where he picked up a love of rugby and played for Headingley. He is one of a number of former Sedbergh School pupils who went on to play for England.

"I was what you would call a 'one cap wonder' because I only played one match for England. The match at Cardiff Arms Park in 1949 was against Wales, which we lost," he mussed.

He added that his slight stature was a problem. He played at number eight and his coach said he was too light and had to put on weight.

"I weighed 13-and-half-stones at the time, although I did get up to 16-and-a-half stones in 12 months when I first came up to work with the family firm because I was in digs with a butcher," he quipped.

"It was much harder losing the weight later on," he added.

He was managing director of the quarrying company and after it was sold, he continued working for the new owners and ran the whole of the northern area which stretched into Scotland.

"I told them initially that I would carry on for six months at the most, but stayed for a further 20 years," he added.

He has always been extremely community focused and enjoys local government work.

He was chairman of the old Settle Rural District Council and also chaired the town and county planning committee of the old West Riding County Council.

As chairman of Settle RDC he was automatically placed on the Yorkshire and Humberside economics planning council, a seat he held for three years.

Other community positions he has held include chairman of the bench at Skipton Magistrates' Court, school governor of Sedbergh, Settle High, Giggleswick, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Bentham and Austwick, and three decades as a director of Skipton Building Society.

Today, aged 77, he is taking more of a back-seat in local affairs, choosing to stay on only as a parish councillor although he has recently become a churchwarden at the village's Church of the Epiphany.

While there has been little time for hobbies, he does have a passion for fly fishing and has just returned from a trip to Scotland where he has been casting for salmon on the River Dee.