ORGANISERS behind several history projects in Worcestershire are breaking out the bubbly after being awarded grants totalling almost £72,000.

The Heritage of Cradley Group, Unlocking Stourport's Past Project, Mapping the Past in Chaddesley Corbett Scheme and Guarlford History Project have all received cash through the Local Heritage Initiative.

The scheme is administered by the Countryside Agency and they are among 15 projects to have been granted funding.

The Stourport-on-Severn scheme is organised by the town's civic society and aims to record its sites, monuments and historic buildings to create a map of its development.

Local community members will also be encouraged to become involved in the project, which will involve recording and photographing buildings - in particular the walls of the unusual inland port, basin, canals and lock which are important characteristics of the town.

Locked up

"For too long, Stourport's past has been locked up to all but an enthusiastic and passionate few," said society president Will Scott.

"This project is a wonderful opportunity to unlock that past and make it available to many."

Elsewhere in Guarlford, near Malvern, the village's history project has received £8,976 to research and publish the settlement's history and development.

The group intends to compile a book and digital archive of photographs - and later plans to create a village website.

And in nearby Cradley, the village hall management committee has been awarded £11,886 to investigate the village's heritage for a book.

It is also planning an exhibition and undertaking an oral history project, recording memories of the village's elders.

Further north, the Chaddesley Corbett Local History Society is jubilant after being awarded a £24,827 grant to trace the history of the parish using maps.

It will trace the development and changes in housing, also using sources such as census returns, leases and illustrations and photographs and chart changes in land use and the parish.

The information will then be entered into a database and the results made accessible through Worcestershire County Council's Tithe and Enclosure Map Projects website.

In Herefordshire, four other new schemes received total grants of £92,204.

The latest grants coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Heritage Lottery Fund - the main initiative funder.