WHAT does the new Millennium hold for the people of Lancashire?

That's the big question as we approach the year 2,000. The world is changing more quickly now than ever before and even the rapid changes of this century will pale against what we have to come.

None of us can look back now to the eve of 1900, but we can imagine the same thoughts and, indeed, anxieties.

No one would have risked a couple of bob on a bet that man would walk on the moon; that a flying machine would travel at over 2,000 miles an hour; that tiny instruments would perform the most intricate calculations in a second.

Who would have imagined heart transplants, sweeping motorways and colour television?

And that the days of washing the flags would disappear for ever.

Perhaps the most startling changes have taken place along the Lancashire coast as resorts such as Blackpool and Morecambe have gone on roller-coaster rides of success and failure.

Gone are the days when everyone in Preston would have the same holidays and head off to the west coast for the week.

It was clear the county had to adapt itself for the day tripper and short-breaker and slowly it did. These days holidaymakers are going back to the resorts which now offer a fun, family day out or an action-packed short break.

But it wasn't plain sailing. There was big trouble in the resort of Morecambe in 1967, for instance. A new rule was enforced that every hotel had to have one bath for every 15 guests.

An outraged spokesman for the Morecambe hoteliers railed against the new British Travel Association rule. "Even as it is you have to lock them out of the bathroom. If you didn't lock them out they would take a bath every day! We have to lock them out," he said. With attitudes like that it wasn't surprising that guest houses already belonged to a bygone age. It's been a hard climb back.

The first part of the Citizen's Lancashire 2000 magazine, covering 1900 to 1949, was a big success and now the second part, bringing us up to date and telling such tales as the bathroom lock-outs, is on sale from our offices and selected newsagents and shops. There are 68 pages packed with colour and nostalgia and it costs just £1.50.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.