IN the final month of 1998, parish councillors in Addingham were charged with coming up with their ideas to mark the new millennium in the village.

A clock tower, street parties and various mementoes were suggested, such as commemorative mugs and pens.

All good ideas but, apart from the clock tower suggestion, rather in keeping with thousands of other places around the country.

There must be lots of people everywhere straining their imagination in an attempt to devise an original millennium celebration idea.

But the recent discovery of 14 Anglo-Saxon skeletons in St Peter's Churchyard puts Addingham in what must be a unique position as the dawn of a new era approaches.

When the skeletons were initially unearthed and transported to Bradford University for analysis, church officials wondered whether DNA tests could be carried out to discover if any descendents of Addingham's 1,300-year-old villagers were still in the district.

However, the idea looks as if it will come to nothing because no-one has come forward to fund the experimental project.

Once the age, sex and pathological details of the bones have been established by researchers, it looks as if the bones will be buried again.

What a wonderful way to mark the new Millennium would it be to establish a continuous community link, not only with this 1,000 year period, but the previous one as well.

If, by an enormous chance, genetic research could establish a link between a former inhabitant of Bradford's oldest settlement and a modern family, it would put any other millennium celebration ideas firmly in the shade.

Perhaps the parish council should set about raising the money for the research project as part of the celebrations. Even if it comes to nothing, a permanent commemoration of the project could be established somewhere in the village?

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