ACCLAIMED West Somerset-based author, historian and education consultant Hilary Binding died last Sunday.

Hilary, 75, had penned the West Somerset Free Press' 'Notes by the Way' column, sharing a wealth of local history, traditions and reminiscences, for the past 20 years.

Ill health forced her to relinquish the role in June and in her 'final edition' she described local history as a complicated jigsaw and the excitement when missing pieces turned up unexpectedly and slotted into place.

Hilary, who lived in Carhampton, had been a resident of Exmoor for 45 years.

She began her career as a teacher, working in Oxfordshire and later Somerset before becoming a freelance educational consultants for organisations ranging from the Exmoor National Park Authority, the National Trust and the former Somerset Records Office.

Always keen to make history accessible to both adults and children, she was the author of a number of books.

Hilary played a key role in the launch of the Exmoor Magazine, becoming its first editor.

She relinquished the role in 2008, handing over to the current editor and managing director Naomi Cudmore - a former pupil of hers at Minehead Middle School.

But she continued to write for the publication and was consultant editor when she died.

Hilary's funeral will be held at Carhampton Parish Church on Tuesday December 30 at noon