MILLENNIUM GROUP
Eyke Millennium Group came into being in 1999 when a group of a dozen or
so villagers got together informally to think up ways for the village to
mark the Millennium.

Fundraising events were held, and a questionnaire sent to all houses in the village asking how people wanted to mark the occasion. As a result, the group decided that a bench would be placed on the village green, and a time capsule buried, and a book about the village would be published, with help and contributions, both written and pictorial, from as many people as possible. Our aim was to include the names and pictures of as many villagers, past and present, as we could.

We applied for, and received, a Millennium Lottery Grant to cover the costs of publishing the book, and work began! I think many people in the group would agree that it seemed to take over our lives for the best part of a year, as we sifted through the piles of wonderful material which people
generously supplied.

The book was finally published in June 2000, when every household in the village, and every young person under 18, received a free copy. The feedback was amazing. There was a piece in the East Anglian Daily Times, and Karen Watson was interviewed on local radio. There was also a very favourable review in a local history publication, as a result of which we had family history researchers from various parts of the country contacting us to obtain copies, in the hope of filling in spaces on their family trees, and indeed in two or three instances this happened. To our knowledge, copies of the book have now reached the USA, Canada and Australia, as well as France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium. MORE >>