LOTTERY cash is helping historians research the impact of World War I on Netherton to mark the conflict’s centenary.

Netherton Regeneration Strategic Group has been awarded £9,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to pay for work to uncover the roles people from the area played both at home and on the battlefront during the 1914-18 war.

Volunteers will be scouring archives to reveal wartime stories which will be the foundation for a series of courses on the Black Country during the war, to be delivered at Netherton’s Savoy Centre.

John Mason, chairman of the Netherton Regeneration Strategic Group said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. This fund will enable local people the opportunity to explore and understand just what an incredible chapter this was in the history of the world. It changed people’s lives forever and many local people have stories to tell and to discover about those terrible years”

Reyahn King, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands said: “The impact of the First World War touched every corner of the UK.

“The Heritage Lottery Fund has already invested more than £56million in projects – large and small - that are marking this global centenary; with our small grants programme, we are enabling even more communities like those involved in Out in the Dark (A Study of Netherton and the First World War) to explore the continuing legacy of this conflict and help local young people in particular to broaden their understanding of how it has shaped our modern world.”

Courses at the Savoy Centre will be complimented by trips to museums hosting WW1 exhibitions.

The lottery cash will also help pay for an annual community event in Netherton in September which is expected to attract more than 3000 people.

This year the event’s theme will be commemoration of the Great War and alongside the regular family attractions, the show will include WWI productions, exhibitions, talks and displays.