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Boothstown Methodist Church received a grant from Local Heritage Initiative for over £12,000 to involve the community of Boothstown in researching the history of the area and recording people's memories. The Local Heritage Initiative is a scheme run by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nationwide Building Society.
Local history material was gathered and formally researched, and was collated into a fully illustrated book by residents. The project aimed to encourage the local community to get involved in researching their local heritage and already has received support from the Methodist Church, School, Salford Heritage Services and Boothstown Local History Society.
The resulting book Memories of Boothstown was published in 2004, and is available for £3 from Boothstown library. It provides an excellent accompaniment to this web site.
The project was led by Paul Hassall, and drew on the local history collection of the late Ken Fairfax, and on interviews with many Boothstown residents. For more information please contact:
Paul Hassall, 183 Greenleach Lane, Worsley, Manchester, M28 2RR. Tel: 0161 790 5164; e-mail: Paul.Hassall@tesco.net
The Local Heritage Initiative is a scheme run by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nationwide Building Society. Said Susannah England, the Countryside Agency's Local Heritage Initiative adviser in the North West, "The Local Heritage Initiative recognises that the long term future of our local heritage lies in the hands of those who value it at local level. Each area has a wealth of heritage just waiting to be explored and explained to the wider audience – heritage that would otherwise be lost forever. What is great about both these projects is that they involve everybody - from the very young to the old and newcomers into the communities.
The Countryside Agency initiative is designed to provide cost-effective, 100% grants of between £3,000 and £25,000 to encourage communities to take practical action to care for their local heritage. The three main components to the Local Heritage Initiative are for communities to assess their local heritage, carry out community-led action, and gain support for local organisations to ensure the sustainability of heritage action. While LHI is unable to fund one-off repairs or restorations to individual heritage features, these costs may become eligible where they form part of a broader scheme.