The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book – and now, with its online community archive, it is blazing a 21st century trail for future historians.

And it's doing it with a little help from the YEP Community Cash Giveaway.

* CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE YEP COMMUNITY CASH GIVEAWAY.

The Methley Community Archive was founded by a group of villagers almost a decade ago after a local historian's research for a new book about the area gathered much more memorabilia than she knew what to do with.

She placed the mountain of material into the hands of a group of locals and years later, the collection is thriving, with more than 5,000 items of online and offline items gathered.

The group, which meets weekly at Methley Community Centre, successfully applied to the YEP's 2008 Community Cash Giveaway for an £850 grant for a new laptop computer.

May Walker, who has been with the Archive since it was founded a decade ago, explained: "We only had one laptop and it meant other people could then not access the site. We needed one to enter the new items and another for people to view them."

The online archive now has more than 3,000 entries for Methley which can be seen on www.commanet. org.

"It's a case of preserving the past because things change so much, don't they?" Mrs Walker said.

She said the group may well apply for another grant from our 2009 Community Cash Giveaway.

The Methley Community Archive is currently fundraising for a TV screen to be fixed to the wall of the community centre, which would allow history fans to view a rolling selection of the collection, as well as providing entertainment for elderly centre users at other times.

The Methley Community Archive was among the record 160 or so groups and clubs which applied for a share of the 2008 YEP and Leeds Community Foundation Community Cash Giveaway.

For 2009, the fourth year of the campaign, we've again got £50,000 to give away, thanks to Leeds Community Foundation and the Grassroots Grants Scheme.

Groups, clubs, charities and other registered organisations which meet the criteria can apply for up to £900 of one-off funding.

To enter, you must represent a voluntary group with a constitution or set of rules – individuals or schools are not eligible.

Your group must have been active for at least 12 months and your average group income must have been under £30,000 a year for the past three years.

You cannot already have received a grant of more than £4,000 from the Grassroots Grants scheme in Leeds.