New life is to be breathed into an archive film collection which features fascinating glimpses into the lives of people in Norfolk in years gone by.

The future of the Digital Heritage Project, a scheme which converts films dating back as far as 1896 so they can be watched online, looked in danger after Screen East, one of the partners for the project, collapsed.

But Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART) has stepped in to support and fund the Anglo-French project, which means the project can continue.

Norwich HEART'S Digital Heritage Project will bring the archive alive, working with two major film archives from both sides of the channel, the East Anglian Film Archive and P�le Image Haute-Normandie.

The project will develop and work with the extensive film archives in the twinned cities of Norwich and Rouen to showcase films which are an important part of social history on both sides of The Channel.

Footage in the collection includes holidays in Great Yarmouth in the 1920s and a day out cockling in Wells in the early 1950s.

Jane Jarvis, digital heritage project manager at Norwich HEART, said: 'It is fantastic that Norwich HEART is supporting this project, and with the funding in place we can now build on the successes the programme has already achieved.

'As well as being a wonderful resource to both entertain and educate, this 'French connection' brings a new edge to how we compare and contrast our lives on both sides of the Channel during the last century – films shot during World War Two show East Anglians protecting the Home Front whilst the French were under occupation.'

The website will launch in 2012 and between now and then there will be a programme of events and screenings planned throughout the region.

Visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk to see archive footage of a trip to Wells in the 1950s.