IN April of 1999 people were already thinking about how they were going to party like it was, well, that year.

Throughout Swindon and the surrounding area, pubs and restaurants competed fiercely for bookings.

In Swindon, especially, the pickings were potentially rich, as with no major public gatherings planned for December 31 the choice was generally between private parties at home and catered ones at venues.

The Swindon Advertiser’s regular food and drink supplement at the time, called Night and Day, devoted much of a late spring issue to the celebration due at the end of the year.

The advertisers included a number whose names are still familiar and others which have changed.

Among them was the Jesmond House Hotel in Highworth, billed as a 17th Century Grade II Listed hotel in the town centre. It still fits that description, but following a number of changes of ownership in the years since 1999 it is now The Highworth Hotel.

Another historic venue with an advert in the supplement was the Goddard Arms Hotel in Swindon’s Old Town, described as ideal for private dining from 20 to 200.

In the years which followed, the hotel ensured more than its fair share of ups and downs, including closure and fears that it would be converted into flats, before being extensively refurbished and relaunched.

The nearby Bell Hotel has been closed for some time, but in 1999 it was at the height of its millennial trendiness as Fusion. Upstairs was an even trendier new bar called d2.

Its advert said: “There’s no other millennium celebration in our league.” The bar also offered a full-colour souvenir brochure, and we’d be interested to discover whether copies survive.

The supplement had vouchers for the Brunel Rooms in the town centre, where every Thursday night was ‘juice’ night, with pints of Carlsberg and shots of vodka at 50p apiece and all other drinks at a pound.