A CENTENARY project to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War is putting together a study of the Dymock area in the years just prior to the declaration of hostilities.

The Moment Centenary Project is already two thirds complete, with an initial focus on the men who were recruited and conscripted and the varied stories of those left behind.

Now the spotlight will turn to the economic picture of the area at the time and a workshop is being planned for September to help get things going.

Project spokesman, Chris Bligh said: "The workshop will focus on the social and agricultural economy of The Golden Triangle - Dymock, Kempley and Oxenhall - in the years leading to the 1914 declaration of war, and then understand the impact of the Great War on the local villages."

The project will make use of "the rich seam of information" in Lloyd George's taxation maps of 1910, and auction sales of 1919 will also be studied.

The Moment Centenary Project has also been involved with the recent renovation and recent re-launching of the Garland Hut at Ryton, which is a useful information stop for hiking tourists in Dymock Poets country.

The poets were a group of writers who famously lived in or regularly visited the area just prior to the First World War.

Cantilevered over the newly laid hedge at 333 Ryton the bespoke gallows signpost features a blackbird, which is a reference to Eleanor Farjeon’s children’s hymn, Morning has Broken.

Although she was never officially classed as a member of the Dymock Poets, whose numbers included Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke and Edward Thomas, the writer Eleanor Farjeon lived in the Dymock area, she was a friend to them all, and she has achieved immortality through penning the words of the famous hymn.

Further details on the Moment Centenary Project at http://themoment.press/