University spearheads local study

The study areas include Hardwick Hall and Bolsover Castle

The University of Nottingham is starting a four-year research project to look at the local history of two communities in Derbyshire.

The £240,000 Heritage Lottery Fund project will examine the lives of ordinary people in the areas near Bolsover Castle and Hardwick Hall.

It will look at how the communities have changed over the centuries.

The university will also supply library and IT facilities, and staff time to help with the project.

Fifteen sites

University of Nottingham historian Professor John Beckett said: "It's the biggest sum of money ever invested in local history research involving volunteers - and part of the biggest single grant ever made to local history in England."

Paperback books on Bolsover Castle and Hardwick Hall will be published at the end of the project, with more information available online.

The £244,000 grant is made up of £204,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £40,000 from the Derbyshire Victoria County History Trust.

England's Past for Everyone will focus on studies of 15 key English heritage sites and will run until 2009.