A MAJOR grant has been awarded to a residents group for a new heritage project.

Stanhill Village Residents and Fete Committee has received £32,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for The Stanhill Village Heritage Project.

Led by volunteers from the community, the project focuses on the birthplace of James Hargreaves who in 1764 invented the Spinning Jenny.

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The machine was a major step forward in the textile industrial revolution and the project will be funded until 2017.

It will create a permanent two-and-a-half mile physical heritage trail in and around the village.

An interactive website will also be created to provide a source of information and learning for people from all over the world who wish to find out more about the village’s history.

Project co-coordinator Richard Hooper said: “Stanhill Village is a very significant place in the creation of Lancashire’s prosperity through the development of the Spinning Jenny.

“However, that isn’t all the project is about. We are interested in showing how the village has developed since Hargreave’s time and how people have lived, worked, played and worshipped over the past 250 years.

“A key part of our mission is to enthuse people and make them aware about their heritage.

“There are a range of projects that we plan including helping people research family history, record the experiences of older residents who have grown up here and to encourage people to look more closely in their lofts and drawers to see what objects from the past can help on the way we lived.

“We also intend to build a working model of the Spinning Jenny from the original patent drawings and hold talks based around it.”

Stanhill Village is also associated with other famous people including Robert Peel, a pioneer of calico weaving and the grandfather of the Prime Minister who created the first organised police force, the ‘Peelers’, and William Westell, a popular Victorian novelist, who lived at Stanhill Hall.

Committee chair Susan Wilkin said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the project will help to deepen the appreciation of local people in their local heritage.”