The people of Borrowby feared they had gone the way of Brigadoon and Atlantis when North Yorkshire County Council put up its new road signs.

A sign on the A171 that read Roxby, Borrowby and Staithes had been replaced with a sign reading Roxby and Staithes at the end of July.

The residents were up in arms and a petition was sent to the council demanding the replacement of their sign.

They also contacted Whitby MP Robert Goodwill to make him aware of the problem.

The council has admitted its mistake and has ordered a replacement to put Borrowby back on the map.

Karen Yeoman runs the Borrowby Equestrian Centre in the village and said the mistake could not have come at a worse time.

"August is one of busiest times and to be fair it can be hard to find Borrowby at the best of times so not being on the sign has meant we have had people turning up late and driving round lost," she said.

"It was a case that we all woke up one morning to find the village had disappeared from the sign.

"Everyone was talking about it as people noticed when they were driving back to Borrowby that apparently we didn't exist any more."

Borrowby is situated midway between Scaling Dam and Staithes and is home to around 50 residents.

They all got together to protest to the county council which has since admitted taking Borrowby off the map was not its intention.

David Creek, maintenance manager at North Yorkshire County Council Highways, said: "We have been made aware of the problem and I can assure the residents of Borrowby it was a genuine mistake and we were not trying to take them off the map.

"We have ordered a new sign and we hope it will arrive in the next two to three weeks when we will replace it."

He added it would cost £100 to have the incorrect sign replaced.