Local family names feature in a new exhibition staged by the Cockermouth Heritage Group.

The exhibition, ‘Cockermouth and WW1 – Those who left to fight and those who stayed’, is the culmination of a Heritage Lottery Funded Project that has included oral history interviews with residents in local care homes; a new resource pack of information for primary schools and performances especially created by the Kirkgate Youth Theatre.

The free exhibition will be on display at Christ Church at 10am to 4pm, from May 18 to 23, and at the town library from May 24 to 31.

Cockermouth Heritage Group is based at the Kirkgate Centre. New pages have been created on the centre’s website (www.kirkgatearts.org.uk) which will feature many of the artefacts, photographs and information which form part of the Heritage Group archive.

Gloria Edwards said: "We have lots of new material now, donated or lent from townspeople and this will contribute to the heritage group archive and the WW1 collection.

"The new webpages will be like a virtual museum and we hope to be building them over the coming months – not just for WW1 information but for the local history of Cockermouth.

"We are still looking for local stories and would welcome information about relatives of local people who fought in the First World War, or any photographs or stories from 20th century Cockermouth."

Gloria can be contacted at: cockermouthherigategroup@outlook.com