THE effects of the First World War on Leominster are set to be revealed in a new project after an £8,900 boost to the town's museum.

The grant, received from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), will fund the Rifles and Spades – Leominster in the Great War project, for a year.

It will explore what the town was like in 1914, and how the effects of the First World War changed it forever. Research in historic sources by volunteers and school students, as well as material brought in by the public at three open days at the museum, will lead to the development of a temporary exhibition to tour Leominster and its surrounding villages.

Historical and family history talks will be staged, and a major community commemoration event will take place at Leominster Priory in the evening of Saturday September 6.

The first of the three museum open days takes place on Saturday June 7 to coincide with the Leominster

Festival, aiming to draw on Leominster families’ stories and memorabilia.

One of these – a commemorative booklet Leominster in the Great War which was originally published in 1919 – is being reissued by the museum in conjunction with Leominster History Study Group.

It will serve as a starting point for research by history students at Earl Mortimer College in Leominster.

Along with other museum volunteers the students will be seeking to uncover more about the impact

of the war on the town and its people.