DORSET landmarks have triggered a search for a long-lost family after more than 50 years.

A 65-year-old woman who visited the county this summer is now appealing to Echo readers to help trace the cousins she last met when she was about 12.

Childhood memories were stirred for Geraldine Gay, ne Selwood, of Petham, near Canterbury, when she was on her summer holiday in Weymouth.

While staying in London with her estranged father, George Liberty-Selwood, Mrs Gay was taken to visit his family in the countryside, but when she wanted to get in touch later in life could not remember where they lived.

Mrs Gay, who was living with her mother in South Wales at the time, said: "My father took us to meet his sister and her family. He took us on a long journey, but where I cannot remember.

"I have been trying to find them for years and years. It was only when I came down to Dorset on holiday a couple of weeks ago with my son that I recognised the White Horse.

The Cerne Abbas Giant and the White Horse near Osmington were both landmarks Mrs Gay thought she had seen on the trip with her father.

"We either went to or passed each figure because that is all I can remember," Mrs Gay said.

"I know my father's sister and her husband are not around now, but there was a big family. I can only remember that one son, Anthony, was a stable boy for a Sir John White, or a Major John White.

The family lived on a farm and supplied eggs to Tesco.

Mrs Gay is looking for relations of her father's sisters Rosie and Doll Selwood, or Rosie's son Jeffery Smith.

"All I want to do is find my cousins, although they probably won't remember me now," Mrs Gay added.

"If nobody gets in touch I will just have to forget it, but there must be someone out there who recognises my father's name."

If you can help Mrs Gay contact her family, please contact Rachel Grant at the Echo on 01305 830984.