CALNE’S area board has handed out £5,000 for four different projects commemorating the centenary of the First World War.

Projects will be carried out by the Friends of Abberd Brook, Calne Town Council and the Royal British Legion, Calne Heritage Centre and villagers from Derry Hill.

The Friends of Abberd Brook will install a reflection seat, costing £1,000, along the brook to encourage people to sit and reflect on the Great War.

Calne Town Council and the Legion have also received £1,000 so school children can re-paint names on the town’s war memorial with the help of a stone mason.

The Calne Heritage Centre has been given £500 for a project aiming to record memories and photographs of the conflict between August and November.

In Derry Hill villagers have received £2,500 to buy a new bell for Christ Church, to be named the remembrance bell. The church has never had a bell and the community has begun a major project to raise funds.

The remembrance bell will launch the start of this bigger scheme and the idea is that those who hear it will stop to remember sacrifices made during the war.

Calne’s area board also handed out £1,000 to the Calne Archery Club to build a new path leading to the archery range at Beversbrook.

Last winter wheelchair users and club members struggled because the area was too wet and boggy.