A UNIQUE social history project for the Millennium year has been launched by a group of amateur movie makers in Pendle.

Local people have been asked to video events during the coming 12 months and allow the tapes to be copied and kept for posterity to give future generations a "snapshot" of what life was like in the borough at the dawn of the new millennium.

The unique scheme was officially launched by Pendle Movie Makers group at its annual meeting at Trinity Baptist Church, Colne.

Secretary Peter Copestake said: "We are asking people to lend us their video tapes which we will copy onto digital tape and then return the original to its owner.

"We want to build up a bank of tapes that will show future generations how we celebrated not just the arrival of the new millennium but the whole year, how people spoke and what they were wearing. It will be a unique fund of video archive of life in the borough on a large scale. We're not making any judgments on what kind of events we're after. It could be anything from a family party which shows what people were eating and drinking to a large scale public event.

"We're trying not to limit it."

The tapes can be dropped off at any local library and will be returned.

Pendle Movie Makers is a group of video enthusiasts who regularly attend events in the area to film them for local history purposes.

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