We are delighted to announce that Surrey Heritage has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for its ambitious project ‘A County Remembers: Surrey in the Great War’. The project is at the heart of the county's commemoration of the First World War and the quest to understand how the war changed the face of Surrey and the lives of its residents.

The HLF believes the project has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money and has awarded us funds to employ a consultant to further develop the project, publicise it to schools, community groups and other potential partners and participants and, most importantly, prepare a bid for HLF funding for the main project which will run for the full 5 years of the commemoration of the war, 2014-18. The application was in competition with many other projects, so our first-round pass is a recognition that the outline proposals presented in the stage 1 bid are very much on the right track .

If our stage 2 application is successful, the main project will lead, collect and publish online community-based research exploring all aspects of the impact of the war on the county and the stories of those who served in the armed forces and those who contributed on the home front.  People of all ages and backgrounds across the county will be inspired to come together with the common aim of creating a global, interactive, accessible and enduring digital resource telling Surrey's story during the war years.  

At the heart of the full project will be a new website recording the stories of Surrey's towns, villages, organisations and individual men and women who experienced the war, both those who survived and those who fell.  This constantly expanding and developing resource will enable people to explore, and understand the impact of the war on the county. Contributors of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience will discover the thrill of exploring and understanding the past as they investigate original records, letters and newspapers to add content to the website. As people are inspired to investigate the impact of the war on their families and communities, memories and memorabilia of the war, in danger of disappearing with the passage of time, will be captured for posterity.

With the support, enthusiasm and energy of current residents of Surrey and those with former links to the county, the project will create a fitting tribute to the sacrifices and suffering of their forebears of 100 years ago who endured the first global, industrial war in human history.

Further information is available via Exploring Surrey's Past: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/military/surreys-first-world-war/remembers/

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