A war of a word is brewing in a village over a missing 'n' on a special millennium stone.

The landmark stone in Eldwick, near Bingley, has millennium spelt with one 'n' instead of two.

Villagers have pointed out the error to members of the Eldwick Village Society, which organised the wording on the stone and provided funding for the project.

But society member and historian Allan Mirfield insisted today he had checked the spelling in the dictionary before it was inscribed - and the unusual spelling was, well, now cast in stone.

"The stonemason rang to query it and I checked it in the Longman New Generation Dictionary first and literally took its word for it," he said.

"I'm sure we can all get on and live with it - no-one has rushed forward with offers of masses of money to get it corrected so it looks as though it'll be staying in stone as it is."

The Longman definition reads: "Millenium - a period of 1,000 years, a future age in which all people will be happy, contented and living in good conditions."

But a spokesman for the Oxford English Dictionary's Official Word and Language Service said millennium spelled with one 'n' was clearly wrong.

"We thought people had learned how to spell that word over the millennium but obviously some people have relapsed," he said.

"There's no other way of officially spelling it. Millennium's definitely got two 'n's because it is taken from the root of the Latin word annum, meaning year."

Councillor Chris Greaves (Con, Romalds), whose ward covers Eldwick, blamed the misspelling on American influences.

"It's a bit of an oops! It sounds as though they've spelled it like the Americans would.

"I've noticed more and more Americanisms sneaking in to the English language and I blame computers and spellchecks for that."

However, Dave Walker, president of the management committee of the Birches Social Club in Eldwick, said complaints over the spelling were "nitpicking".

"I have no problems with it at all. It looks all right anyway.

"There are better things in life than worrying about that."

Nigel Paramor, an English lecturer at Bradford College, said language and spellings were developing all the time.

"There are a lot of double spellings that confound many people.

"Accommodate and successful are two of them and so is millennium, although that's not a word written that often now.

"People think there can't possibly be two lots of double letters in one word so they often drop one set."

Mr Paramor also believed that the Longman dictionary's spelling of millennium was an American derivation but he agreed that it should have two 'n's because of its Latin root.

He added: "I think millennium with just one 'n' is quite excusable; I'm sure a lot of people spell it that way."

But Eldwick Primary School head teacher Sue Greenwood said it was not a version she would teach.

"I hope the mistake wasn't made by one of our ex-pupils!" she said.

The millennium stone was funded by the village society along with Bingley Civic Trust.

AMEC, the firm which is constructing the Bingley relief road, gave the boulder.

Help has also been given by other firms in the area and Mr Mirfield is hoping for more funding to complete the project, which will involve two more stone tablets showing how the village's name has developed, and turning the area into a garden.

Proceeds from Mr Mirfield's latest book about Eldwick will also go towards the scheme.

Eldwick - Oft Removed is published on Saturday, December 13. To buy a copy, telephone Mr Mirfield on (01274) 770871.