ACCORDING to a "futurologist" - whatever that is - quoted in one of the posh Sunday papers recently, the youth craze that began in the 1960s is over. The coming thing, he said, will be the era of "the more mature person" - in other words, old folk.

Now grey power has been in the news quite a lot recently. On one hand, the Government insulted poor OAPs with a paltry 75p pension increase and, reeling under the explosion of indignation that followed, hastily coughed up some more for this April.

On the other hand, one of the fastest growing sectors of the stock market has been in companies which provide goods and services for oldies with handsome personal pensions and, mortgage paid off, oodles of disposable cash and lots of time to spend it.

However, rich or poor, there are millions of old people who share a common but extremely distressing condition: loneliness. And modern trends suggest that this unhappy situation will get worse because of the breakdown of traditional family life.

Depressing? Not necessarily. The other day I met an active, bustling 75-year-old who works for a charity which exists not just to give old folk a roof over their heads (with its own private front door, I should emphasise) but provides company, companionship and even, on occasion, romance.

After a lifetime in big business, Hugh Walker, of Pendle Street, Skipton, has just taken over as public relations officer for the Yorkshire region of Abbeyfield, a charity which operates under the slogan "where older people find care in housing."

Not yet 50 years old, Abbeyfield has an endearing side to its operations, perhaps because - like so many of Britain's great institutions - it was founded by a rich eccentric who decided he could put his money to a better use.

Back in the 1950s, Richard Carr-Gomm resigned his commission in the elite Coldstream Guards and began scrubbing floors in the London slums because he thought it was a more rewarding way of passing the time.

It was then that he witnessed the suffering among widowed old folk who would cheerfully face up to all life's shortcomings except one: being alone.

So he set up Abbeyfield with tackling loneliness as one it its specific aims.

Now, there are 600 local societies in the United Kingdom providing accommodation for 8,500 residents, 330 of those scattered across Yorkshire from Skipton and Settle to Beverley and Scarborough.

The society nationally boasts no fewer than 15,000 volunteer workers, one of the newest of whom is Hugh Walker, himself a widower, who took up voluntary work when he decided to retire from a long and distinguished career in advertising and marketing at the tender young age of 74.

"I had a pretty severe attack of pneumonia and decided that it was about time to pack it in," he chuckles.

"But I got bored and approached Craven Voluntary Action to see if they could find me something useful to do. They introduced me to Abbeyfield and now I have the whole of Yorkshire to cover - it's like being back at work but much more satisfying."

Like the Abbeyfield founder, Hugh Walker has had a life of stark contrasts: the grandson of a textile millionaire, he was born in colonial Burma where his forester father died when baby Hugh was six months old.

He served as an anti-submarine officer in the Royal Navy in the closing stages of the Second World War, then began a career in advertising and marketing which took him all round the world.

Twenty five years ago, he and his late wife, Joan, were running a business consultancy in London and many of their biggest clients were in Yorkshire.

So they upped sticks in 1976 and moved here, first to Ben Rhydding, then Bradley for 10 years and finally Skipton.

"We had both spent a lot of time wandering around the world," Hugh recalls.

"Joan had family connections in Canada, I had friends in New Zealand. There are grand-children in London, France and Las Vegas. Joan and I could have lived anywhere in the world - but once we discovered the Dales, we were determined to spend the rest of our lives here."

Joan died of cancer after they moved to Skipton eight years ago and it was here, one suspects, that Hugh experienced personally some of the loneliness the Abbeyfield now spends so much time fighting.

Hugh explains: "All our residents have their own front door, whether they live in a converted Victorian house like Woodlands in Skipton or in purpose built facilities like our property at Settle.

"No one goes barging in without permission - it is essential that elderly people can protect their privacy if they so desire.

"But we also serve up lunch and supper every day in a central dining room and these become big social events - some groups meet for a glass of sherry before lunch, for instance.

"It means that people have both care and companionship and the formula has proved very successful: marriages between some of our residents are by no means unusual occurrences."

Abbeyfield need volunteers to help look after their people and raise funds. From time to time, there are vacancies for new residents.

Hugh Walker is only too happy to talk to anyone interested in either on 01756-795474. Don't be surprised if you get his answerphone, however, because he's often out - "I'm far too busy to be lonely."