What a great pity that York didn't have an event to mark the first moments of the Millennium.

The crowd that gathered in front of the Minster and the atmosphere it created made for a special night but, apart from that, the passing of a thousand years in one of Britain's most ancient and celebrated cities was marked only by a few fireworks someone had brought along and a man bouncing up and down in the branches of a tree.

The Minster bells didn't start ringing on the stroke of midnight - we had to rely on Big Ben on the radio for our cue - and, almost immediately afterwards, the illuminations to the west face were switched off.

It was like a party without the cake - made all the more so when we got home and watched on TV the fireworks and concerts, etc that had taken place elsewhere.

Paul and Jenni Kirkwood

Cydonia Cottage

Green Hammerton York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.