UNTIL now, this column has managed to avoid using the M-word. I suspect that for many people, the prospect of bringing in the Third Millennium promises panic rather than partying, writes John Sheard.

Not so Bob Swallow, for he knows exactly where he will be and exactly what he will be doing when the year 2000 chimes. In fact, he will be chiming it.

Bob is one of the people who answered the call to help plug a sad gap in what after all should be very much a Christian celebration.

Sadly, in thousands of churches throughout the land, the bells will be silent at midnight on December 31. The reason: there is a nationwide shortage of bell ringers to mark this momentous moment in history.

In the parish of All Saints, Burton-in-Lonsdale, however, the bells will be ready to send a short, sharp but sweet peal climbing the fells and Bob, comparative novice though he might be, will be one of the band at the salties - the name for the soft bit of coloured binding that the ringers grip.

The band - as ringers are known in the trade - need that soft grip because a swinging bell can exert a force of some two tons: it is not unusual for a ringer to have bloodied hands after a peal.

Just how Bob Swallow, chairman of Burton Parish Council, walker, writer and outdoor film-maker, took up bell ringing is a story that well illustrates the "get-up-and-go" spirit that can exist in Craven villages, however remote they are from so-called civilisation.

The bells of All Saints had been silent for almost 20 years, for they needed expensive refurbishing, when the Millennium Commission announced it had £3 million in the kitty for churches wishing to apply.

The people of Burton were amongst the first in the queue and managed to raise almost £15,000 in grants to have their bells removed and taken away to a foundry to be given a new lease of life. To match that, the residents raised another £8,000 themselves, no mean feat in a community of some 600 souls.

So they had the bells - but not enough people to ring them. Bob, a 59-year-retired building society branch manager who has lived in Burton for 21 years, thought he might have a go. He didn't realise what he was letting himself in for.

"The first thing we had to do was hoist the bells into place and that was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life," said Bob who, as a life-time walker and climber, is no stranger to heights.

"Then, when we first began to practise, I realised what a physical challenge I had let myself in for. Most people think this is a hobby for wimps. It takes three hours to ring a full peal on six bells and, after that, you know what exhaustion is all about."

I should rush to add, for the benefit of people who don't like bells ringing - and, sadly, they exist even in Lonsdale - that the midnight New Year peal will only last for a few minutes.

"There are people who object to our practising, so whenever we are planning a long session we circulate everyone in the village to let them know in advance," said Bob, a little ruefully. "We believe in a good-neighbour policy so the New Year peal will only last for a few minutes, just to mark the end of one millennium and the start of another."

However, the good news for those who love the sound of church bells is that there will be a much longer peal at midday on January 1 and one which many people outside Burton-in-Lonsdale can enjoy.

All Saints and dozens of other churches in the Dales will be taking part in a national peal which, it is planned, will ring out all the way from Land's End to John O'Groats - except, that is, in hundreds of villages where the bells have fallen silent thanks to disrepair or the lack of anyone to man (or woman) the salties.

I wondered how Pauline, Bob's wife and mother of their four children, felt about her husband spending such a historic few minutes sweating and heaving high above the ground when many ladies would be expecting to hear the sounds of champagne corks popping?

Bob laughed: "She's looking forward to it. She will be in the congregation below. And afterwards, we're all off to the pub. Bell ringing's thirsty work."

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