IT'S been a labour of love for two Bridport woman to bring the history of Allington Hill alive.

And now Chris Toombs and Cathy Harvey have published a book to preserve that history.

But they haven't done it to make money - they just wanted to share their love of the beauty spot and to make sure people's memories of it are not lost.

Cathy, who is an Allington Hillbilly - a volunteer group set up to look after the hill and Coopers Wood after it was bought by the Woodland Trust - said: "We joined as volunteers for the Hillbillies and basically we started hearing people talk about when they were children doing things on the hill and spending a lot of time there.

"We felt that we didn't want to lose those memories and nobody has written anything about the hill and the history of it."

Those memories range from family picnics, games of cowboys and indians, to blossoming love affairs and hiding during air raids, cross country running.

Chris said: "People have a great affection for the hill definitely and that's been handed down through the generations. It is very much somewhere where people take the family."

The history starts with King Alfred the Great and goes all the way with all the information they could find on different landowners and farmers and then when it was bought for the community by the Woodland Trust.

They found the research fascinating although neither has had any training.

Chris went to the Local History Centre in Bridport and started with old books and archives and the Bridport News archive she found invaluable

She added: "I used Memories of Bridport Facebook page, I had loads of responses then and it really took off."

The pair have funded he venture themselves, not wanting to risk money donated to the volunteer group on such a risky venture.

Cathy said: "We have self funded it independently of the Hillbillies because we didn't want to risk any of the money that has been donated by the community

"Because obviously it is quite a risky venture as we didn't know if would sell or not.

"But we felt it was important to have it as a historical document."

It's already proved popular and Chris has sent copies to ex-Bridport people living all over the country and even to America.

So if you want to know who owned the hill and when, who remembers what about enjoying it, how it was bought for the community, how volunteers have been helping preserve it, what happened to its Grandpa tree, how Gerald Stansfield's Guide Dog made him blush and what goes on there now, you''ll have to get to The The Bookshop in South Street, the corner shop in north Allington or Gilian Hulse's unit at Symondsbury to buy it.

Price £14.99.