PROJECTS in West Devon commemorating the centenary of the First World War could be in line for funding, following an announcement from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Devon County Coun-cil's Heritage Service has received initial support from the HLF for the heritage strand of the Council's Devon Re-members project.

The Devon Remem-bers project will commemorate the centenary of the First World War over the next four years, focusing on the county's rich legacy of public war memorials.

The HLF element of this project will encourage, co-ordinate and support up to 50 community projects carrying out inter-generational and interpretative projects focusing on the stories behind the individuals recorded on their war memorials.

Nerys Watts, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said: 'The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond.

'We have already invested more than £41 million in com-memorative projects, including local community projects like this one in Devon, which will enable people to explore and record their local wartime history and commemorate the thousands of people from Devon who lost their lives during the conflict.' 

More than 11,000 men and women from Devon died in the First World War, and there were around 2,000 war memorials set up in local communities, as well as by schools, clubs, churches and even businesses.

While many memorials survive and are well maintained, many have fallen into disrepair and lie largely unnoticed.

The Devon Remem-bers project will bring the county's legacy of war memorials and those they commemorate back to prominence and re-position them at the heart of their communities.

The aim of the project is to stimulate wider engagement from schools, residential homes, local history groups, services organisations and others to explore the heritage and stories inspired by the memorials and investigate the legacy of the conflict on their communities.

Such engagement will encourage research and the accumulation of legacy collections con-tributing to an online digital archive, exhib-itions, publications and creative productions, culminating in a grand event to mark the conclusion of the centenary in November 2018.

The Heritage Service will offer signposts to resources available both within Devon and further afield and provide practical assistance with research.

There will be talks, workshops and events in all participating com-munities and plenty of opportunity for people to contribute through offering content, carrying out research or volunteering their time, learning new skills in the process.

Planned creative pro-ductions include working with professional practitioners on creative writing, visual art, music and drama projects, all of which will be showcased on the website, in the exhibitions and at the event at the conclusion of the project.

Roger Croad, Devon County Council cabinet member for community and environmental ser-vices, said: 'We are pleased to have been awarded this first round development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will allow us to engage with our communities about the huge range of centenary activity being planned over the next four years, identify the projects we are able to support, and plan the infrastructure to capture all the information we wish to collect for the benefit of future generations'.

For further information or to register your interest in the Devon Remembers project, contact devon [email protected]">[email protected]