Life in Wigton post-World War Two will be documented in detail as part of a new £30,000 oral history project.

The two-year scheme, called Cumbria Speaks, is being run by a group of volunteers from the North West Cumbria Oral History Project, who've attracted funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The project is broken down into two parts with the first phase being the recording of at least 20 interviews of people living in Wigton.

Similar sets of questions will be asked of each interviewee, with the project team looking to speak to some of the oldest members of the community who have lived in the town since World War Two.

It is hoped the interviews will chart the changes seen in the community and how different individuals have lived through them.

Questions will cover family life, leisure time and work.

The second phase will be after roughly one year to take extracts of some of the recordings into local primary schools.

Schoolchildren will then be involved in creating pictures from these extracts and the work will be put together in a book for primary school-aged children.

Project manager, Isanna Curwen, explained to The Cumberland News where the idea came from.

"There are snippets of oral interview pertaining to Wigton, but no interviews where life stories are taken," she said.

"In fact the whole of north Cumbria is short on overall life stories from local community.

"Wigton already has a strong community and this project will collect and store the valuable memories of its peoples, then share those memories with the younger generation of Wigton and beyond.

"All interviews will be available to listen to online and available as research material in transcript form to the town and the wider world."

From the outset, all interviews will be available to listen to on the Cumbria Speaks website and at the Carlisle Archive Centre.

The key players are Isanna, who helped build the idea and put in the HLF bid, Dennis Graham, a director of the Free For All Community Recycling charity, and his wife Kath, who is orginally from Aspatria.

They're being supported by Wigton-based historian Trevor Grahamslaw, writer and jewellery business owner Angela King and artist Dave Gowers.

The project officially got underway in October but following training it is hoped the interviews can now begin.

The team are looking for more people to be interviewed and extra volunteers to carry out interviewing or help with other tasks.

Interviewees should be people from Wigton who have lived there most of their lives who'll be happy to talk about their memories.

Kath Graham, who is taking part in the project, said: "We’d heard many great stories over the years and knew there was a rich source of history here.

"Wigton and the local surrounding communities are strongly bound with a lot of fascinating life stories.

"People don’t think what they say is interesting, but get them talking on the street and you wouldn’t believe the things they’ve lived through."

Sophie McKee, project grants officer, welcomed new ideas.

She said: "This is an exciting new project for north Cumbria that will bring young and older people together to preserve the memories and experiences of local communities."

A spokeswoman for the HLF said: "From the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife, we use National Lottery players’ money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about."

If the project is successful Isanna and her team hope that it can be extended into the Aspatria and Silloth area, so more memories from north Cumbria can be preserved.

Isanna added: "Ultimately we hope to follow in the footsteps of one of our partner organisations, the Ambleside Oral History Group, who have been collecting people’s memories since 1976 and have a huge collection of interviews."

* A website and social media accounts are in the process of being set up so people can contact the team.