IMAGES of contemporary Ambleside have been, snapped, filed and boxed for the benefit of future generations.

Three historically-minded individuals have been working together on the Millennium project for months and the record is now almost complete.

Beth Gabb, a librarian at the Armitt Library, Ambleside, spearheaded the project along David Hawkswell and Clare Brockbank, who are also connected with the library.

Mrs Gabb said: "We decided to ask people to take photographs of the outside of their houses to create a visual record of the village as it is today.

Many other millennium projects look at the past but this one is about looking at the future."

Well over 100 people responded to the request and now nearly 80 per cent of houses in the village have been preserved and archived.

The project's co-ordinators hope that the pictorial record will be of general interest to future generations as well as being used as an educational resource.

"I imagine school groups will use it as well as people who want to know more about how their house used to look in the past.

It would be nice if this could be a living archive, if we could keep it up to date as time passes," said Mrs Gabb.

The project was supported by the Millennium Commission through Help the Aged.