AN urgent call has gone out for volunteers to help restore a West Dorset beauty spot to provide a living, green commemoration of the outbreak of World War I.

And local people who lost a relative in the conflict are being invited to come and plant a tree on Allington Hill in their memory.

The scheme was started early last autumn to restore the original hedgeline along the top of Cooper’s Field.

But the weeks of recent storms have taken their toll on the project’s progress and Cathy Harvey, co-ordinator of the Allington Hill volunteer group says time is running out to complete the first stage of the work.

“It has been hard going with so many storms and valuable time taken up clearing up after them,” said Mrs Harvey.

“We are running out of time though. The weather has really hampered us. To try and complete the first stage of the project we are now holding working parties every Sunday and Monday from 10am, weather permitting until mid-March. We have to complete this before the nesting season.

“We started a project early autumn to restore the original hedgeline along the top of Cooper’s Field. When this was farm land there was a hedge mostly of hazel with mature trees spaced out along its length.

“Now the land is leased by Allington Parish Council it has given the volunteer group the opportunity to restore this area. It will take several years for it to return to its former glory but we have nearly completed the clearance work to allow us to start stage two.”

To get involved email allingtonhill@gmail.com