Gwavas Residents Association in Newlyn has been granted an award of £20,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative to explore their local heritage and create an online digital archive.

The Residents Association partnered with the EverybodyOnline project to apply for the award which will enable local residents to receive training and resources to complete the online archive.

The award will fund an oral and visual history of the area, and in particular explore the relationship between the area and Penlee Quarry, where some of the older residents had once worked. The archive was the brain-child of Gwavas Residents Association Chair Jenny Beamish and EverybodyOnline Project Officer Gary Palmer. 'We saw the project as a way for the younger members of the community to engage with older residents while learning and passing on new skills' said Jenny. 'The project has film, photography and performance elements, so we are looking to get a really good cross section of the local community involved, including residents from Mousehole and Paul'.

Gary commented 'It's a very exciting project and a great way for people to engage with the new digital technologies. Everything produced by the project will eventually be put online. The archive will be a contemporary, as well as historical, record of the area to draw knowledge and inspiration from and make the Internet relevant to local people. We will be working with partners from Age Concern and the YMCA starting over the summer holiday.'

The EverybodyOnline project, recently launched in Newlyn, is an initiative of charity Citizens Online and is supported by BT. It is designed to help everyone in the local community overcome any barriers they might have to technology and the Internet.

If you live in the Newlyn, Paul or Mousehole area and would like to get involved with the project, or if you have some local knowledge or stories that you feel should be recorded and archived for the future, please contact either Jenny Beamish at Gwavas Residents Association on 01736 365021 or EverybodyOnline Project Officer Gary Palmer on 07793 742351.