PEOPLE living in a village have been given a funding boost to help trace back history.

Shillington History Society is set to become one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund All Our Stories Grant.

The Shillington Test Pits project has been awarded an �8,700 grant to investigate the village’s history by getting residents to excavate up to 30 archaeological plots in gardens, allotments and paddocks in 2013.

Shillington’s Test Pits Project is one of hundreds of successful projects around the UK to receive a grant.

It is hoped that residents will find artefacts from the past and other clues that show how people lived in Shillington up to 2,000 years ago, and possibly earlier.

The award is a boost for Shillington History Society which started a programme of monthly events recently after being dormant for five years.

Commenting on the award, Derek Turner from the group said: “Shillington is a fine place to live but a lack of written records restricts our knowledge about its past.

“We are delighted to receive this grant for the test pits. We are optimistic that their contents will reveal more about the ordinary people who helped to shape the village that we see today.”