Millom and District Local History Society's first event of the year featured a talk discussing an 18-year research into the Swinside stone circle.

The talk saw a crowd of 93 people in attendance.

Guest speakers Sue and David O'Neil shared their research which underpins Sue's new book, Stone Circle Calendars, A New Understanding.

The literature is available from local retailers, Greetings in Millom and Sutton's Bookshop in Ulverston.

The society is expecting a year filled with talks and projects, with one of the highlights being an archaeology project, currently in its second phase through a funding of £5,000 from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeology Society.

The funds are allocated for a high-tech drone survey, evaluating the walls of Millom Castle and its neighbouring fields.

The results are expected to materialise into a 3D model for scrupulous examination for traces of any reworked stones and cues from the time the castle was besieged by Roundheads throughout the English Civil Wars.

Jan Bridget, the society's chair, said they applied for funding from the government's Levelling Up scheme for Phase Three which.

If successful, there will be around twenty volunteers trained by Greenlane Archaeology of Ulverston dig trenches in the fields around the Castle and Holy Trinity Church in June.

She said the discoveries within the land, occupied since prehistoric times, are thrilling due to the potential unveiling of archaeological fragments spanning several millennia.

The society is also venturing into the realm of publishing, as they plan to compile a book titled Millom Castle, the Huddlestons and the English Civil Wars.

The book will be derived from the in-depth research led by volunteers, who have dug up original seventeenth-century documents shedding fresh light on the siege of Millom Castle.

Various events are being planned for the History Society, including collaborations with the Norman Nicholson Society and Wordsworth Grasmere Trust.

The society is also organising an engagement to display the findings of their Sykes Project, the update of three research notebooks gifted to Holy Trinity Church in the late 19th century by the Reverend William Slater Sykes.

More details about the society's upcoming ventures can be viewed on their website at https://www.millomhistory.org.uk/