A HERITAGE lottery grant of close to £10,000 will allow Wirral people to remember those who lost their lives in the First World War.

Willaston Village Festival Society has received £9,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for its project “Lest We Forget – Willaston Remembers Its First World War Fallen”.

Awarded through the HLF’s ‘First World War: Then and Now’ programme, the project will focus on researching the background of the 34 names recorded on the village’s war memorial.

As well as marking the centenary of the war, the project will also allow Willaston people to come together to preserve the memories and heritage of those who lived through the conflict.

Students from Neston High School will carry out research into the lives of soldiers who attended public schools including Eton College and Oundle School, while members of the local church youth group will study documents at Liverpool Cathedral.

The project will also see Willaston Primary School examine the church records and churchyard relating to the casualties buried there.

Volunteers will also be researching Cheshire and Wirral archives as well as those held at Port Sunlight Museum.

The findings will then be put together to create a book and DVD, before being exhibited at the Village Festival – which takes place in 2015 – alongside an end of war street party for the children.

Joan Butcher of the festival society said: “We are thrilled to receive the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are determined to use the grant to ensure that those recorded are not just names but are remembered as villagers who left behind families and ways of life very different to our own.”

Sara Hilton, head of Heritage Lottery Fund North West England, said: “The project will span the generations with young and old researching and contributing stories to show how the impact of this global conflict was felt among the families in this small community.”