Foden's Band has received a grant of £26,400 to help fund a project to digitise their decades of history and publish more of their work online.

The Sandbach-based brass band will also be building links with the community through a piece of public art in the town consisting of an interactive information board with QR codes.

The grant follows a successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and equates to 88 per cent of the entire project cost of nearly £30,000.

Mark Wilkinson, the principal cornet for Foden's Band, said: "We would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for the award which comes on the back of a previous grant in 2016. The grant enables us to protect and share our history as well as working with our younger members and community to gain a greater understanding of the band."

The main part of the project will see the band's archive housed in a central location where visitors will be able to view the artefacts in person as well as via a virtual tour.

New work will be commissioned to celebrate the opening of the "museum" and a launch concert to an invited audience.

To increase awareness of the band and local history, 20 members of their youth and junior bands will undertake the Arts Award scheme working with a heritage artist resulting in the young people attaining a nationally recognised award.

Mark added: "To increase the outreach of the project, we will be collaborating with a number of partners and this includes furthering the work of our recently awarded Arts Council England grant where we are working with a group of young people with hearing impairments to add sign language and subtitles to make the heritage accessible to all."

To find out more about the last 100 years of Foden's Band, click here.