CALLINGTON Town Band is delighted to have received funding of £5,800 for a project commemorating the First World War. Awarded through the Heritage Lottery Fund's First World War: Then and Now programme, the project will focus on the music and songs of the 1914 -18 period and how the war affected this small Cornish community against the background of the wider events of the time. To mark the centenary of the First World War, Callington Town Band (CTB) will lead a community activity to research local events and the popular songs, music, costume and performers. This will include research into local service personnel, including two town bandsmen who did not return. To make the research have an impact on the wider community, the project will lead performances of the music and songs interleaved with dramatic interpretations of local events. The research work will also be exhibited, digitised and archived. Students of Callington Community College, with the members of the history and drama departments, will join in the research and, through working with a professional director, be encouraged to construct their own dramatic presentation which will be performed in November.  The HLF grant will enable them to visit museums both locally and further afield. Led by a professional choirmaster and the town band, the whole community will be invited to attend singing workshops where songs of the period will be sung in readiness for inclusion in the three performances of drama and song in which the audience will be invited to participate, taking place on November 21 and 22. With help from professionals, the information gathered is planned to be displayed in an empty Fore Street shop and the archive will allow the public to discuss, contribute, share and research information about the Home Front. Shirley Morse, spokesperson for Callington Town Band, said: 'We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and appreciate their encouragement for this very special project.  'The enthusiasm already shown by local people should ensure that this is an event that will be remembered for a long time.' Head of the HLF in the South West, Nerys Watts, said: 'The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond. 'The Heritage Lottery Fund has already invested more than £56-million in projects — large and small — that are marking this global centenary. 'With our small grants programme, we are enabling even more communities like those involved in Callington to explore the continuing legacy of this conflict and help local young people in particular to broaden their understanding of how it has shaped our modern world.'