TWO West Devon women are celebrating the award of a grant which will ensure the launch of a fascinating new project this April.

Jenny Sanders and Ann Cole have a passion for the history and architecture of buildings and thanks to the grant from the Tarka Country Millennium Awards, they are about to embark on an in-depth study of houses in the West Devon area.

Jenny, who lives in Tavistock, said: 'We are absolutely delighted because it means we can get quite a bit of equipment, which is quite expensive.'

Once the year-long project is finished, the equipment will be given back to the Tarka Trust, to enable other people to use them.

Jenny said researching houses could be very time-consuming and sometimes frustrating, particularly if the buildings are three or four hundred years old.

She said: 'It's very exciting, it's a bit like a jigsaw, because you can't solve absolutely everything, or you are very lucky if you do.

'What we want to do is build up an overall picture, looking back through the records to see who lived there. We are trying to bring a human element into it, so the history of the house's architecture is supplemented by the inhabitants.'

Jenny and Ann have permission to research four houses at present — two on the moor and two on its western fringes. If there is time within the year, they would like to investigate a further two .

Once the work has been completed, they will be holding free presentations, complete with slides, in village halls throughout the area.

The owners of the homes researched will receive a copy of the report — other copies will be lodged with Devon Records Office, Dartmoor National Park Authority and other relevant bodies.

Jenny said she finds old houses 'absolutely fascinating' — apart from learning about the homes themselves, she hopes the project will develop her computer skills and knowledge of mediaeval text.

Ann said her speciality is digging through the record books to research the human aspect of buildings.

'Jenny has done more to record the physical structure of the buildings — I've done more to research the actual history of the houses.

'We decided to put our heads together and do a complete project,' said Ann, who lives in Lamerton.

'It's fascinating — you never know what you are going to find next.

'We want to find out why a particular site was chosen, who lived there and what happened to the people in the house,' she said.

Ann has been interested in local family history for many years, but she has never undertaken an in-depth project like this.

She said April was chosen as the start date for the project so she and Jenny could maximise their daylight hours on site. The winter months would be used to give talks and presentations on their findings.

The Tarka Country Millennium Awards are for individuals and the Trust administering the grants still has more than £450,000 to give to people with good ideas which will benefit them, and the community in which they live.

To find out more, contact the Tarka Country Millennium Awards team on 01237 472960.