THE history of one of North Yorkshire's best known moorland parishes has been depicted on a millennium map which is being sent to families and ex-residents worldwide.

Geographer and artist Judy Rawlinson's masterpiece of Egton and Egton Bridge has taken three years of planning and 80 hours of painting.

"My spare room steadily filled with old papers and reference books, magazines, tracings, scribblings and audio-cassettes," said Judy.

"We soon had more than enough material and we then had to decide what features of the parish to include."

She used her cartographic skills to produce a map of the parish which is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

"With my husband Bob, I tramped around the parish photographing corners we didn't know existed," she said.

A coast-to-coast sponsored bike ride and other fundraising events financed the production of the map, which has now been published.

It features Egton's history as a farming village, its gooseberry show, which this year celebrates its 200th anniversary, the Catholic martyr, Father Nicholas Postgate, the area's wealth of wildlife and heritage, and even the school bell which was rung to warn villagers of Second World War air raids.

"I never realised I lived in such an interesting place," said Judy.

"The response to the map has been really encouraging, especially when people tell me they are sending it all over the world."