Forest of Dean heritage project granted £133k by lottery fund

The Dean Heritage Centre will host the literary collection

A project to establish a unique literary collection has been awarded a national heritage grant.

The University of Gloucestershire is collaborating with the Dean Heritage Centre to build the collection based on writers from the Forest of Dean.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded £133,886 to aid the collection.

Dr Jason Griffiths, of the University of Gloucestershire, said: "The work of these authors is of intense local interest."

He added: "It is also part of a much wider national body of work that captures the rich texture of this country's fascinating places and people."

Specialists from the university will work with museum staff at the Dean Heritage Centre - a cultural and historical museum - and local volunteers and schools to research and catalogue more than 400 unique items that make up the new collection.

The heritage centre includes museum exhibits and an activity centre

The Dean Heritage Centre is set on five acres of land, and features instalments celebrating the cultural history of the area, including mining, farming and industry.

The two-year-long project will see the original handwritten manuscripts, including poems, novels, play scripts, notebooks, drawings and photographs held by descendants from all over the UK and the USA.

Researchers are collecting material spanning more than 200 years, featuring some work written in local dialect, that reflects the landscape, people and places of the Forest of Dean.

Schools, researchers and the public will have access to the collection's content at the museum, which the University believes will give their cross-curriculum work "a local flavour and raise literary aspirations".

Dean Heritage Centre manager Mark George said: "This new collection plays an important part in our plans to diversify the museum's displays and the new stories we tell about the Forest's history. It will bring new visitors to the Centre too."