A VOCAL visual and written archive of the Forest of Dean is now available on the world wide web after months of painstaking recording work in an initiative directed by the Dean Heritage Museum.
The Community Archive Website was launched on Saturday at Cinderford Library by Averil Kear, chairman of the Forest of Dean Local History Society.
Also present were Forest MP Diana Organ and the project's coordinator Kate Baugh.
The archive is a Heritage Lottery-funded project managed by the museum, and it includes photographs of people and places, documents and stories from Foresters. It also includes archive material from the museum.
Following publicity for the site a feature about it in the Dallas Morning Post was voted best news story of the day while a programme on Australian radio prompted a couple there to make a special visit to England to see where their parents had lived.
The web address is http://www.commanet.org">www.commanet.org and it can be viewed free at any library.
Museum staff are continuing to collect archive material at Cinderford, Coleford and Newent libraries.