THE spotlight will be on the village of Wribbenhall in the coming year as Bewdley Historical Research Group looks into its history and development.

With 21 years behind it and many historical publications to its credit, the group has not previously turned its attention to Wribbenhall, but the project has now received the backing of a £4,989 Awards for All lottery grant.

"We cover the whole of Bewdley, which in-cludes Wribbenhall, Ribbesford and Dowles, but Wribbenhall has been neglected in the past," said secretary Angela Purcell.

"We don't know what we are going to find and we hope local people will help. There must be people out there who know a lot about Wribbenhall."

Turnpike roads

The 18 members of the Research Group have already begun to collect material on various aspects of the village, such as the turnpike roads and toll houses, schools, churches, the former workhouse, major houses, farms and families.

A laptop computer and software will be bought so that researchers can enter information found at the County Records Office directly on to the database.

This will, of course, be equally useful for the group's future research into other parts of Bewdley.

Display boards

The grant will also cover the cost of buying display boards for local exhibitions and producing a book on the history of Wribbenhall.

"We have to show that we have spent or committed the money within 12 months and we have to give a report at the end of the project, so that helps to concentrate minds," said Miss Purcell.

"We are the sort of group that grabs material as it comes around, even when we are not specifically looking for it, so we have quite a bit of stuff in our hands already."