THE life of a country vicar in West Devon probably appears idyllic to many people — and yes — in the Rev Greg Stanton's eyes it's pretty good.

Greg covers a number of parishes spread wide over rural and beautiful West Devon — life might be idyllic but it is certainly full to brimming.

'We have got six churches and five parishes and it's a vast area to cover.

'They're all different but you couldn't be with nicer people. The drawback is you can't be everywhere at once and there's a lot of travelling involved. It would be lovely to be in each church on a Sunday,' said Greg, a touch wistfully.

'The compensations far outweigh the drawbacks. There's a lovely spirit about the place that you certainly don't find everywhere,' he said.

Greg covers the parishes of Lamerton, Milton Abbot, Sydenham Damerel, Marystowe and Chillaton and has lived in West Devon since 1990.

It's a far cry from his roots in the Black Country though he retains the accent.

Although his family were not particularly religious, Greg said he knew from his earliest memory his life would be involved in the church.

'Our local church had a crucifix outside and if my Mum wanted me and I was nowhere to be seen, I was always found sitting at the foot of this cross — I was absolutely amazed, glued to it really.

'That went on for years and every time I went past that church I had to stop,' he said.

After leaving school in 1961, he followed his father's, grandfather's and great-grandfather's footsteps and started work on the railways as a fireman, until he was made redundant in 1968.

He retrained as a carpenter and joiner and undertook religious training at college, married and moved to Cannock Chase — coal country.

At Cannock he became minister to the miners, regularly going down the pits with the men.

'The pits are like nothing else really. They're deep, they're dark, they're old — and as you get further in they get hotter,' he said.

Working 2,000ft underground produces a bond between men unlike any other, said Greg, who could well understand the drastic effects redundancy had upon the miners.

'They were just devastated and there were so many. They tried introducing other industries there — but once a miner . . .

'Many, many of them couldn't retrain. Some did but a lot didn't.'

Greg left the Midlands and was ordained in Salisbury in 1984, one of the most moving and wonderful experiences of his life — and underwent a full-blown culture shock produced by moving south.

'I just couldn't believe there were two Englands within two hundred miles. The food they ate, the pace of life, the arts, crafts — everything, it was just

wonderful.'

A hankering for the Black Country brought Greg and Joyce Stanton and their three children to Wolverhampton for a spell before the family was moved to a ministry in Plympton.

Just three years and a phone call from the bishop later, the Stantons came to Milton Abbot.

'We didn't expect it, he asked us if we'd like to come here and as soon as we came, met the people and the place, we were hooked,' said Greg.

Between buzzing around his parishes, Greg has a new hobby — bee-keeping, which he sees as an appropriate, monastic type of pastime for a vicar.

He bought his first colony in August last year after making his own hives and now he has ten more which are very productive. Delicious honey, wax, which is made into candles, hand cream and furniture polish result from Greg's hobby.

Next year he is hoping to rear his own queen bees.

'I learned a heck of a lot this year through hands on.

'You start off with three or four thousand and it can build up to sixty or eighty thousand, so you've suddenly got a lot of bees in one hive.

'When you open them up there's a big difference, especially when they're angry! The sky goes black and the tone changes and they come for you!'

He said he is on a constant learning curve and regrets the fact the bees haven't read the same books he has!

As a result of Greg's new venture, he is running bee keeping classes for other would-be apiarists in the church at Lamerton, in conjunction with Tavistock Bee Keepers.

A man of many talents, one of Greg's other great loves is flying which he first tried in 1966 at Blackpool.

'It was a pleasure flight and I'd always wanted to fly. As soon as I got off the ground, I was bitten, absolutely bitten,' he said.

Many flying hours later, Greg is now a qualified pilot who also flies gliders and microlights.

His connections with flying don't stop there. Greg is padre to Plymouth ATC where he teaches navigation.

He gets involved in as many things as he can with the youngsters — he has even become an RAF marksman.

'There's a heck of a lot of young people who would never set foot in a church, yet they will sit and talk to me about all sorts of really important issues in their lives,' Greg said.

He feels the church will change substantially during the next Millennium, to involve many more lay people and a big increase in local ministry.

'The church is now 2,000 years old — it's had its problems big time, but on the whole it's safe and people feel secure with it,' he said.

Greg's vision is to take the church into the next Millennium in the healthiest state possible.

He is quietly certain there will always be a place for religion, no matter what the new century may bring.