A TABLECLOTH embroidered with signatures of villagers 50 years ago which was given as a leaving present to a couple emigrating to New Zealand has been returned to its roots.

Terry Huffam, of Whangaparaoa, near Auckland City, has given the artwork to St Paul's Church Healey, near Masham, where she married her husband, Paul, in 1963, as she felt the tablecloth was more relevant in North Yorkshire.

The tablecloth, featuring nearly 150 signatures of Fearby , Healey and Masham residents, has been displayed at Fearby village hall, which hosted a nostalgia event to which everyone who is still alive whose signature is on the cloth was invited.

About 60 people attended the event, at which a film of Masham in the 1950s was screened, which raised £250 for the church and village hall funds.

Mrs Huffam, a former pupil of Skellfield School, Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, said her family were delighted that the tablecloth had generated so much interest.