A NEW maypole has been erected on Kilnsey Village Green with the help of local residents.

Past photographs show that there have been at least two maypoles over the years, with the last one being taken down in the mid-1960s for safety reasons.

Villagers have always been allowed to select their post - from a tree at Grass Wood - and the age old tradition was followed on this occasion.

Local farmers approached the Woodland Trust 18 months ago, with a view to buying a post.

Moving the long tree from the wood was quite an operation and required the help of two tractors to manoeuvre it around the winding country lanes to the village.

The maypole was stripped and oiled by villager Bill Foster, and then the 50 feet structure was put in place. A weathervane was added to the top.

It is a copy of the old village weathervane, which had been retained for many years.

Local blacksmith John Clements put in many hours of hard work to create the new masterpiece, and copied the old detail even down to the north, south, east and west letters.

The old weathervane also had a fish design on it, but this had completely rusted away. This forced Mr Clements to think of a new design and he came up with one appropriately based on a trout.

The erection of the maypole was the finale to a village treasure hunt attended by more than 50 villagers and arranged by resident Gordon Pigeon as part of the Conistone-with-Kilnsey Millennium celebrations. There was also a champagne toast on the green and a barbecue at the village hall.

Mr Foster's wife, Jo, said: "For a couple of years we thought about erecting a new maypole and thought it would be nice to erect it as part of the village's millennium celebrations."

She added it had been a real community effort and that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the celebrations.

The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust gave a grant of £250 towards the cost of the weathervane, but the rest of the cost of the maypole will have to be met by other fundraising events organised by the villagers.