FOR the past three decades Bernadette Atkinson has been sharing something very private and treasured with the public.

Her "Frills and Furbelows" collection - made up of more than 1,000 clothes - is something that she has been proud to display to anyone interested, be it the local primary school, Women's Institute group, exhibition or national television programme.

But now, in her own words, Bernadette wants the sometimes public collection to revert back to a purely private collection.

However the costume historian, who lives in Gargrave, is planning one last show - a "fashion finale".

It will take the form of a two-day exhibition in the village hall and will allow people to admire the collection one last time. It will also give Bernadette the opportunity to say a big thank you in return for all the support she has received.

It is estimated that over 30 years her fascinating catalogue of costumes, dating back to the 1850s, has helped raise around £22,000 for various charities.

Bernadette's "obsession" started as a child and can be traced to the arrival of her grandma to live with the family.

With her grandmother came lots of new and interesting clothes which Bernadette dressed up in and started collecting as they were gradually discarded.

As the years passed her gathering of childhood "treasures" as she called them gradually snowballed.

People knew of her interest in old clothes and costumes and would give her items. She was also not adverse to "rescuing" clothes from skips or dustbins.

But it is her husband, Michael, she has to thank for forcing her to take her pastime seriously when the family, including their children Lucy, Beth and Jamie, were preparing to move to the Midlands through his job as a headteacher.

She admitted that she "frightened herself" when she came to pack her belongings and realised exactly how many she had amassed.

"Michael said to me 'If you're not going to use it it's got to go. If you are going to keep it you must do something with it," she said.

Unable to part with the costumes she catalogued the items and "did something" - her first outing with her collection was at her children's school centenary celebrations.

And, if her hobby had snowballed up this point, it was about to avalanche as word spread of her chronicle of clothes.

Because since then she has exhibited her costumes the length and breadth of the country, mainly as a guest speaker, and her media work has included Channel Four's Collector's Lot and BBC2's Flog it! programme.

The millennium year, 2000, proved particularly busy and she gave 60 talks and staged three major exhibitions.

She has loved every minute of her hobby despite the fact her public presentations have involved a lot of behind-the-scenes reading and research.

Her collection is categorised by periods and styles from "Albert's Delight" (1850 ladies' costumes) to "Bright Young Things" (1920s' fashions) to "Dedicated Followers" (60s' and 70s' styles).

Particular hits over the years have been the collections based on underwear, guaranteed to make the audience giggle, and the displays of baby clothes, which Bernadette says have the "ooh, aah" factor.

But to Bernadette all of her categories feature something special and this passion for her hobby has naturally filtered through into her presentations.

"I think I have been successful because if people are going to come out on a winter evening and sit in a village hall you have got to take them out of themselves. I think I made things fun and they got a bit of history thrown in," she said.

Bernadette's decision to stop her presentations follows the physical demands of lugging the clothes from their top secret storage place to the venue.

Her showcasing of the costumes has been done through pure love of sharing them with other people and, despite numerous attempts to secure funding, she has never had a single penny out of the public purse for her work.

And through purchasing, insurance, storage and conservation costs she joked that Michael had had to do without his dream sports car!

Bernadette had originally planned to make her last appearance in Hawes until daughter, Beth, talked her out of that.

"My daughter said 'You can't do that after all these years. You have to go out with a full-stop,'" she explained.

And this is what she intends the final presentation to be. It will be held over the weekend of September 9 and 10 and proceeds will go to the NSPCC.

And then Frills and Furbelows will go back behind closed doors.

She said: "I will continue to collect because it's an illness. I think for anyone who's passionate about something it becomes an obsession and becomes part of you."

Such is her dedication she has even started planning what will eventually happen to her costumes.

One saving grace is that daughter, Lucy, who works in theatre, has inherited her mother's goosebumps and sixth sense for knowing instantly if a piece of fabric is "something special" and will probably take on part of the collection.

Until then Bernadette hopes to tell the story of her "chronic frockitis" in a book.

She said: "It should be put down. I have been in DH Lawrence's bed. I have been in the Marquess of Zetland's bedroom on Collector's Lot. I have done so much and it has been enormously enjoyable. There has been a humorous side too."