What are your memories of Millennium year - the disaster that never happened? Please get in touch if you have any photos relevant to the non-event. We have a few records of the year, but in the meantime who was in the village seats of power?

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Before the days of ‘Parish Councils’, alongside the ecclesiastical hierarchy, there was also a civil one, which grew up as more and more procedures were created by statute law that had to be fulfilled by parish officers. The parish constable, the surveyor of the highways and the overseers of the poor (responsible for the needs of those residents unable to support themselves and their families) were usually nominated and confirmed by the parish meeting, or vestry.  This was a meeting of all the rate payers of the parish, usually in the church, in the part of the church known as the vestry, hence the generic name for the meeting. Meetings were usually once a month or could be fortnightly and were usually chaired by the rector or vicar who was ex-officio, the chairman of the meeting.

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Parish officers were usually elected at the Easter meeting and there was a property qualification.  Offices were often held by rotation, the jobs passing to neighbours from year to year. Householders could be fined for refusing to hold office. If a female householder became liable for appointment, the office was usually held by a male substitute who was appointed on her behalf.

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The modern equivalent is the Parochial Church Council, and this is what it looked like in the year 2000.