Last year a century-old house in the centre of Darwen was transformed into a new home for the town's history. Already the corridors and rooms are abundant with artefacts and memories and there are high hopes for its future.

Darwen reporter Steph Brawn went to take a look inside.

In a villa style house overlooking Darwen Market there is a small yet passionate group of people who want to keep the town's history alive.

As I sat down in Holker House, the new shrine to the mill town's past, a Darrener called Pete Jepson walks into the room holding a shaving mirror.

But it was no ordinary mirror. It had belonged to his grandfather Clement Ashworth who was part of the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War.

This is the ethos of the Darwen Heritage Centre. Collecting small things that at first sight may not seem like much but that hold great stories which are worth telling.

Since Holker House was bought by charity the Livesey Foundation last year, it has been slowly filling up with artefacts and pictures including the main attraction of an industrial exhibition, which displays a variety of images harking back to a time when it seemed there there were almost more mills than houses.

But the biggest project of them all is just beginning.

Volunteers are looking for almost £10,000 in cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create the first roll of honour for the 1300-plus men and women from Darwen who died in the First World War.

And project leader Albert Gavagan said it won't just be about creating a list of names.

He said: "I used to teach and I used to meet students who would ask me when the Second World War was.

"This is the stage we are getting to now. These huge parts of history are meaning nothing to the younger generation.

"And if we just put up the names of these soldiers, it still won't mean anything. What we want to try and do is to tell their stories so they can realise they were real people.

"Now we have this place, we have to make sure Darwen's history does not disappear.

"Our vision is to have a space in the centre where people can look at photos, archives and artefacts which belonged to these people in the First World War and also create a website where people can find biographies of every single person."

The committee is hoping that a smaller display of information will also go round schools to keep the war prevalent in young minds.

The project was born out of the frustration that Darwen's neighbouring town Blackburn had a roll of honour produced but the market town missed out.

Mr Gavagan said Darwen had never been great at recording its history. For example, when names were being placed on the Boer War Memorial in Belgrave Square, a newspaper article had to be put out asking if people knew anyone that should go on it.

Mr Gavagan said: "We are trying to encourage people to keep bringing things in here so we can treasure them and tell their story.

"We're seeing bits of Darwen go up on Ebay sometimes and we are losing history when that happens."

The volunteers might feel like they have a mountain to climb but already the house, which once belonged Dr George Hindle, Darwen's first medical officer of health, is beginning to feel a bit like a time capsule.

Outside the heritage centre stands the three-day market building, empty and set to be demolished, and inside you'll see its open-air look from decades ago.

In the Industrial Darwen exhibition you can see places like Knott Mill, which was demolished and replaced by the Darwen Grammar School building, now home to apartments.

Then there's pictures of Orchard Mills, now occupied by Lucite International, and Bowling Green Mills, now an expanse of greenery and bungalows.

Tony Foster, committee member, said: "We get a lot of people coming in, particularly the younger generation, who cannot believe that this is how the town used to be.

"We're just thankful to the Livesey Foundation for buying this building and allowing us to save Darwen's heritage.

"There must be so many interesting artefacts people are keeping at home that they might no longer want. Please do not throw them away. There's a home for them here."

Although on the outside the town will continue to change through time, you get the sense that this is the place where memories will be stored, made and treasured.

And it will be something future generations can be interested in and learn from.