The official opening of Darwin Gardens Millennium Green was held on Midsummer Day, June 24th, marking a significant and triumphant moment in the development of the Green. After all the efforts put in by our work-parties during the past months, we were able to down tools and join in a garden party instead! It was something of a birthday party too, as the Darwin Gardens Trust is now just over a year old, and we were treated to an afternoon of merriment with music and song, dance and comedy, with superb refreshments.

A huge crowd of Ilkley folk plus many visitors from 'over the hill and far away' thronged the site to see 'The March of Time' arrive up Wells Road from the town centre, headed by a vintage car bearing our guest of honour and fellow Olicanian, the novelist Jilly Cooper. After entertaining us with a witty speech, she officially opened Darwin Gardens by unveiling the splendid plaque of Charles Darwin, fashioned by Jean Stockham, a former tenant of the White Wells where Darwin underwent hydropathic (cold water) treatment.

Mike Feist from the Countryside Agency thanked Jilly for becoming a Millennium Greens Champion; and Peter Harnett, Trust Chairman, paid tribute to the magnificent effort put in by so many people and organisations to bring about Ilkley's very own Millennium Green: Ilkley Parish and Bradford District Councils, who have smoothed the administrative path towards its creation; major business donors including Crest Homes, Booths Supermarkets, and Chippindale Plant Hire; the Sir George Martin Trust, Ilkley Community Fund, Churches Together in Ilkley, the Forest of Bradford, and Ilkley Carnival 2000, who have also granted or promised financial support; the many businesses, community groups and private individuals who have supported the Millennium Maze & Family Tree schemes; the Countryside Agency and Millennium Commission for a raft of funds to see the project through to its completion; 'Darwin's Garden Army' of work-party volunteers who have moved heaven and earth - or rather 'moved a lot of earth to create a little bit of heaven'! and the immensely hard-working and dedicated Trustees, who have organised the project and put it well on course to be an enduring, well-used, and much-loved feature of our town.

Feature flagstones continue to be laid in the Millennium Maze, the latest being those of Ilkley Civic Society, Ilkley Arts Federation, Rombalds Trefoil Guild, www.ilkley.org , Booths Supermarkets and R W Morten (Ilkley) Ltd - Yorkshire's famous hardware store.

Volunteer workers have been busy re-using cut blocks of stone from the long-demolished toilets to create a fine series of cascades between the middle and lower bridges over the main ghyll. Together with a luxuriant display of ferns that has been encouraged by removal of bramble scrub, this feature has created a series of enchanting views in the vicinity of the lower bridge; an area soon to be complemented by the Living Waters mosaic.

We welcome all sections of our community - individuals, businesses, schools and societies, to become involved in this unique opportunity to commemorate the Millennium in Ilkley!