Children from Bridport's St Mary's School will be singing a special song at our Allington Hill picnic on Sunday.

They have written the words and music in celebration of the hill and the will be accompanied by West Dorset musician Billy Bragg.

The event will also feature storyteller Chris Waters, a former teacher who used to live in North Allington. Bridport singer and guitarist Mitch Norman will be joined by multi-instrumentalist Jonothan Farey and singer Maria Farey and they will be playing acoustic jazz, folk and blues.

We are organising the event with the Woodland Trust as a way of saying thank you to all those who supported our appeal for £30,000 to buy the two fields off Hospital Lane, Bridport.

Readers will know that the success of the campaign means that the trust has now been able to buy the 11-acres of land, bringing the whole hill into its ownership.

People are invited to take their own picnics along to the event, which will be held in the fields from 2pm until 5pm. Parking near the site is limited so we would urge people to either walk to it or catch the free shuttle bus from Rope Walks car park, behind Somerfield supermarket.

The weather is currently looking uncertain - if there's a light shower, then the event will go ahead but if it's pouring, it will have to be cancelled.

This week, Coun Humphrey Dibdin, a long-time supporter of the trust, paid tribute to the generosity of locals and the part that the News played in the campaign to buy the fields.

At Tuesday night's town council meeting, he said the response showed that Bridport was very much a community concerned about its environment.

He said the town council's £1,000 grant was very heartening and added: "I would also like to mention the Bridport News which has been absolutely terrific and, I believe, largely responsible for making people realise what this was all about and enabling themselves to get involved."