An idea to 'put the Wych back into Droitwich' was given the green light when the Wych Barge project won ITV's People's Millions lottery programme.

The scheme to build a replica Wych barge in Vines Park beat seven other schemes nationwide to scoop £50,000 in the Big Lottery Fund vote on television.

A delighted Kim Chester, development manager for the Waterways Trust, said: "We would like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who has been involved in this project so far - from the crowds who turned up last Thursday to support the filming of our bid, to the thousands of people who voted on Tuesday night.

"We would particularly like to thank the members of the local youth club, Kingsfield Day Centre, Droitwich Canals Trust and Droitwich Civic Society for their support with the filming and Pirelli Street Lighting for its help in giving the TV director a unique view of the town."

Once built, the static life-size barge will provide a fully accessible recreation facility for everyone to use. It will also provide information about the locality so that Droitwich residents and visitors can learn more about the heritage of the town.

Droitwich residents will be invited to help with the design and construction of the new recreation and seating area.

The memories of people who worked on the boats and pictures of the barge working on the canal will also influence how it looks and what is included.

The site for the barge, Vines Park, was chosen due to its historic interest.

The park is the point at which one of oldest canals in England, the Barge Canal, meets with one of the youngest canals in the country, the Junction Canal.