Cricket Derbyshire Foundation will use the grant to conduct interviews with key figures in the Derbyshire cricket community and train 120 local clubs in how to create and care for their own archives.

The project aims to record cricket’s social heritage, including its connections with mining communities, the experiences of black and minority ethnic and female players and how the game has changed over the years.

It builds on the success of the Proud to be Derbyshire Project, also supported by HLF, which brought together thousands of unseen photographs of cricket in Derbyshire taken over the last 140 years.

Sharing memories

Many of these images will now feature in a mobile exhibition that will tour the county to encourage people to share their memories.

Jonathan Platt, Head of HLF East Midlands, said: “From tiny village teams to historic high-profile matches, cricket is a Derbyshire way of life. The images that were gathered in the last project gave us an insight into just how extensive this history is and, thanks to National Lottery players, this new funding will now uncover some of the untold stories behind them.”

President of Derbyshire County Cricket and former county captain Kim Barnett said: “Derbyshire has a rich and famous cricketing history within the county since the county club was established in 1870.[quote]“Many of the world’s greatest-ever players have represented the county and it’s great that we can share our heritage thanks to a grant from HLF.”[/quote]Many of the world’s greatest-ever players have represented the county, or played within its boundaries, and it’s great that we can share our heritage thanks to a grant from HLF.Ex-players, officials, staff and Members will get the chance to share their own individual cricketing experiences in Derbyshire and I’m excited to see what stories we can unearth.”

The award comes after HLF East Midlands launched a new initiative earlier this year encouraging more projects to apply for funding looking at the region’s key sporting moments and people.

An event will be held at Trent Bridge on 19 September for anyone who is interested in finding out more about Lottery funding for sporting heritage projects. To book a place visit our Sporting Lives Eventbrite page.