A CENTURY of village life has been captured in a millennium project that united a whole community.

An idea to preserve precious memories snowballed into a scheme which has led to publication of a new book on the hamlet of Hilton.

On Sunday, Hilton: Past and Present was launched, featuring 48 pages of pictures and words reflecting how the village, nine miles north-west of Darlington, has fared over the past 100 years.

Funding totalling £1,000 from Royal Mail and Awards for All brought the project to fruition. Residents are now talking about restoring the village pump with money left over.

The Hilton millennium association secretary, Mrs Wendy Watson, said the idea was born when residents decided to mark the millennium with a history of the County Durham village.

"Some older people had died and we realised we needed to preserve our heritage," she said. "It snowballed from there."

The £500 from Awards for All started the project off. "But the further we got, the more we wanted to write," said Mrs Watson. "Picture albums were brought in and the project just got bigger and bigger."

All the villagers wrote something about their home, why they bought the houses, who had lived in them previously and its history. Long-time residents recalled their childhoods, the war and even days when horses were used for transport.

The book was edited by Mrs Watson and Mrs Doris Raper.

Lord Barnard was at Sunday's launch as some cottages are still tied to his estate. He was given a copy of the book, which took 18 months to compile from the hamlet of ten homes and ten outlying farms.

"This brought everyone together in a wonderful way," said Mrs Watson. "We are now considering restoring the village pump as our next project."

With an initial print run of 200 copies, the book is on sale at about £4 at gift and village shops. The Royal Mail grant came through its Stepping Stone Fund, set up to help community-led projects.