A TAVISTOCK charity has been given a large cash boost for a project to share the life stories of older people in the town with future generations.

Tavistock Area Support Services (TASS) received a grant of £6,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the project Life Stories Saved and Shared.

A project to collect and record the life stories of older people in Tavistock and the surrounding villages has been running for around three years but this latest injection of funds, made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, means it will be able to continue to locate and record the stories and also place the memories on the charity’s website.

Diane Newman, manager of TASS, said: ‘We are thrilled to have received support for our project. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are confident the project will enable the stories we are gathering to be made available to a wide range of interested people through the power of the internet.

‘This new HLF project will allow us to put all of our collected stories onto the website.

‘Collecting these stories has been ongoing for three years, supported by TASS.

‘Collecting these stories is important on several levels, not least because it is our local heritage — real voices telling of real life experiences. People identify with life experience — it is what makes us.

‘As we get older, sometimes we can lose a bit of that identity and this can become evident when people become animated about their stories and you find that the telling of one experience leads on to another.

‘What you are saying to someone is that you value them and their contribution to society. Finally, of course, it is great for families to have a record of what their parents or grandparents lives have been like.

‘We are all interested in our ancestry and having a record to pass on through the generations is a lovely thing to have.’

The project will ensure that stories of lives lived by the older residents are recorded for future generations and the charity hopes that publishing them on the website will enable everyone to share in these memories.

The venture was launched at Rest A While in the pannier market surround yesterday (Wednesday), where interested people were able to find out more about the project.

TASS is now looking for more residents to come forward to tell the stories of their lives.

It is also looking for volunteers to train to record these stories. The next recorders’ training sessions will be held on May 23 and June 6.

For more information about the project, or how to get involved, contact Val Vines on 01822 610942 or email [email protected]

Picture by James Bird