AN EXCITING new project at Calstock Parish Archive has been given a major boost with a grant of £3,560 from the Cornwall Community Foundation's Grassroots Fund.

The grant will help to buy specialist mapping equipment that will enable the archive to record history on the ground throughout the parish.

One part of the new project aims to carry out surveys of historical features in the landscape — the new handheld GIS equipment enables information about the site, including photographs, to be stored automatically on a computer mapping system.

Initially, the project will be looking at ancient mining sites in the Calstock area which were worked by miners before the 19th century mining boom.

Another part of the project will be to take written information, such as field names and crops grown, from the written records at Calstock archive and add this to the computer mapping system. This will help to build a picture of the historic use of land in the area.

It will mean that historic information about the land in Calstock parish will be available at the click of a mouse for visitors to the archive at the Tamar Valley Centre at Drakewalls. It will help people better to understand the way that the area has changed, and will be a fantastic resource for anyone interested in Calstock's history.

Lynda Harman, chair of Calstock parish archive management committee, said: 'We are delighted with the support from the Cornwall Community Foundation.

'This year marks 25 years since the archive was set up and the new project is an excellent way to celebrate this anniversary.'

The archive would like to invite people to join in and a special afternoon to launch the new project is being held at the Tamar Valley Centre on Sunday April 25 from 2pm to 4pm.