» Times were about to change for bridge in the countryside
IT’S 20 years on since millennium madness reached its crescendo. As the clock ticked ever closer towards the 21st century, people across the county celebrated the dawn of a new age. And breathed a sigh of relief when the world as we knew it didn’t fall apart.
That’s what had been predicted by doom-mongers who warned that the ‘Millennium Bug’ would be humankind’s undoing. Hardly any of us understood precisely what the Millennium Bug was, but we knew it was nasty and caused computer havoc.
In a world that had become so reliant upon artificial intelligence, this was bound to be apocalyptic. Although outstripping human brain capacity in most ways, we were told, computers had a fatal flaw. They couldn’t cope with the notion of years beginning with 19 being replaced by others that started with 20.
According to the experts, this meant crops would stop growing, birds wouldn’t sing anymore, days and nights would fall out of sync, the sun would crash from the sky and the seas would dry up.
But none of that happened. So most of us decided that by far the best course of action was to have a good party. As the front page of The Echo put it, ‘Babies, parties, fireworks, beacons – we had the lot’.
On New Year’s Eve 1999, Gloucester cathedral welcomed 2,000 visitors and a congregation of 400 attended the 10.30pm service. There was, however, some debate about whether the occasion marked 2,000, or 2,001 years, since the birth of Christ. A similar number of worshippers filled Tewkesbury abbey for a combined service with the town’s Holy Trinity, Baptist and Methodist churches.
A chain of beacons extending from John O’groats to Greenwich was lit, including local ones in Tewkesbury, Chedworth, Painswick and Robinswood Hill, Gloucester.
Chipping Campden School was the setting for the town’s most spectacular firework display in living memory. “On the 12th stroke of midnight rockets wrote out the magical numbers 2000 in the Cotswold sky”, reported The Echo, and the pyrotechnics were rounded off by a rousing chorus of Auld Lang Syne sung by the gathered hundreds.
At Bourton-on-the-water, residents and tourists packed the pubs to raise their glasses as the old millennium gave way to the new, while the karaoke night at the White Hart in Stow-on-the-Wold was so lively that a 26-year-old at the bar told a reporter, “I’ve been singing Boyzone songs. This is about as good as it gets in Stow”.
Residents of Glebeland Drive in Bredon pooled resources and partied in a hired marquee, while in Aston-on-Carrant and other villages street parties continued well into the early hours.
In Cheltenham’s Regent Arcade, a time capsule was buried in the floor recording the millennium eve revels. A jazz band played and 100 children were each given a free watch.
Despite the countywide festive frivolity, the emergency services were not overstretched as it was feared they might be. The police, fire brigade, ambulance service and hospitals all had extra staff on duty, but in the event they weren’t needed. There were 179 emergency 999 calls in Gloucestershire between 8pm on New Year’s Eve and 6.15am on New Year’s Day, including 47 arrests and 16 burglaries, only slightly more than the previous year. The ambulance service recorded 123 calls, again only a little up.
At noon on New Year’s Day, bells rang out as churches across Gloucestershire joined in a collective five-minute peal in an event titled Ring 2000. This no doubt came as music to the ears of those partygoers who had embraced the previous evening’s celebrations with enthusiasm.
Certain to clear the head was the January 1, 2000 plunge taken by 200 intrepid swimmers at Sandford Lido. Despite blue skies and bright sunshine, the water was icy. But that didn’t put people off. As Ron Coltman, director the open air pool, said of the occasion: “It’s the best crowd we’ve had here for a long time on New Year’s Day.”