A FORMER ironstone mining community has secured lottery funding to explore the impact the First World War had on the village.

The Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum at Skinningrove has received £8,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the project called “Home Front & Western Front”.

The initiative will focus on the experiences of the people of the village during the war years, both those who went off to fight and those who remained behind and kept the home fires burning.

The ironstone mine continued to feed the furnaces of the nearby ironworks, producing steel for shells used on the Western Front. As a result the village attracted the unwelcome attention of Zeppelin airships causing local people, including children from the local school, to take shelter inside the mine drifts.

Museum chairman David Dance said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the HLF for this project, which we hope will help keep alive for present day residents of the village the memory of the part played by their grandparents and great grandparents in the events of a century ago.

“Anyone interested in helping with the project or who has stories, letters, postcards or any First World War memorabilia they are willing to share with us, should contact the museum.”

Research will be carried out by volunteers from the Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum together with members of the Skinningrove History Group.

Special effort will be made to involve children from the Whitecliffe Primary School in Carlin How, which most children from Skinningrove now attend.

Anyone wanting to get involved should call the museum on 01287-642877.