HERITAGE projects in York have been given a welcome boost after being awarded thousands of pounds in cash grants.

Members of the Tang Hall local history group will receive £7,000 to publish a book which will feature "photographic memories" of the area of York around Tang Hall, Heworth and Lawrence Street.

The grant has been given by the Local Heritage Initiative (LHI), which is run by the Countryside Agency, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Nationwide Building Society.

The book, which will also include anecdotal material, is to be distributed to local community centres and libraries.

The group also plans to use the cash to run a series of open days, where locals will be able to admire the group's photographic archive on computers, overhead projectors and display boards.

History group member John Garton said: "Thanks to the Local Heritage Initiative the members of the Tang Hall local history group will now have the opportunity to display and present our archive of local photographs and personal biographies to a wider audience, at schools, care centres and church halls in our local community."

The council's parks and open spaces department has also been awarded £10,000 of LHI money, which is to be put towards the city's three local nature reserves (LNRs) at St Nicholas Fields, Hob Moor and Clifton Backies.

The council is to run up to 30 events, activities and workshops at the nature reserves. Friends' groups, schoolchildren and locals will be invited to attend the events, which will include wild flower identification and survey sessions, habitat survey sessions, bird and mammal surveys and guided historical walks. There will also be oral history meetings which will give people a chance to look at memorabilia such as wartime artefacts from Clifton Backies - formally an air base.

Three information panels will also be installed at the reserves.

Stephen Whittaker, the council's LNR officer, said: "It's great to see that the Local Heritage Initiative has seen the value in this scheme."

For details about LHI grants, phone 0870 9000401 or log on to www.lhi.org.uk

Updated: 10:48 Friday, May 20, 2005