SETTLE Voices community choir has been awarded £5,000 to fund its project to hunt out traditional and modern songs about life in Settle and the Dales.

The choir heard this week that the Lottery Awards for All body was awarding the grant.

The funding will enable the choir, featured in last week's Herald, to continue to work with professional natural voice teacher Janet Russell.

It hopes to give free performances at local events, organise singing workshops and set up a web diary to make the material widely available.

"The idea for researching Dales songs grew from our first performance at the Settle Flag Festival in May. We are thrilled that the Lottery award will now allow us to go ahead," said choir organiser Caroline Milne.