Heritage Lottery Fund Success

The Bottesford Parish First World War Centenary Project: People, community and memory, wins Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) support.

Stop press – Come to our WW1 Centenary Launch

The Bottesford Community Heritage Project will receive £34,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a two-year community wide programme of research and events commemorating the centenary of the 1st World War.

This project provides opportunities for all, no matter how long they have lived in the Parish of Bottesford, to learn about and help in preserving the memory of the First World War within the local community.

 Volunteers from local societies, church and chapel congregations, schools and youth organisations will seek out stories about the impact of the war on families and the community.

Biographies will be written about the people who served in the armed forces from the villages of Bottesford, Muston, Easthorpe and Normanton: over 220 men including the 40 who lost their lives.

The staging of concerts, heritage trails and school activity days will recreate and illustrate the massive community effort that went into supporting soldiers at the front.

Exhibitions and commemorative publications will display and interpret family photographs, letters, postcards and other WW1 mementoes, to open up a window on village life in a time of war.

A significant feature of this project is that everything collected and recorded will remain permanently accessible on the Bottesford Living History website and on-line archive (www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk).

Commenting on the award David Middleton, the project co-ordinator, said: “We are thrilled and privileged to receive the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. It will enable the community to preserve the hidden history of the 1st World War – the memory of the people who served and those at home who loved, cared and coped.”

Established in 2007 with aid of Heritage Lottery Funding, the Bottesford Community Heritage Project has worked with local organisations to preserve community heritage. Their web site (www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk)  has over 11,000 regular visitors and they maintain an extensive online archive of historic photographs and local memorabilia.