Anyone who fears the people of the Black Country don't care about their heritage should think again

As we report today, our partnership with local organisations has gained the first level of Heritage Lottery Fund backing for preserving this priceless collection.

And it is thanks to all the readers who responded by telling us how much our photos of the past meant to them.

You sent us emails backing the partnership's endeavours, letters praising the bid and completed online surveys to help shape the direction of the project.

Nobody needs reminding of the challenges facing our region but you still saw the importance of safeguarding the Express & Star archive.

As survey respondent Gemma Hopkins wrote: "I foresee schools of young people, local history buffs, families, academics and older generations all learning from, being moved by and laughing about the rich archive of material."

If the written response wasn't enough, we now have an army of more than 100 local people willing to take part in the mammoth digitisation process.

The Express & Star has been a leading part of life in the Black Country for more than a century so it was important to all of us working for Britain's biggest selling regional newspaper that we shared this historic collection with the people who make this region so great.

The next stage of the project is for the panel to put together detailed plans about how the archive can be best used by local communities.

They will again be looking for readers' help, engaging with them about the ways they would expect to be able to access our historic photos.

New technology will be a major part of the planning, as will more traditional tools such as talks, displays and roadshows.

These pictures tell hundreds of thousands of stories. We want to preserve them.

There is still hard work ahead but if the photographs become available to the public in a digital format, local people will be able to enjoy this unrivalled document of the past for many years to come.

The trust established by the Express & Star means people have let us into their lives, with our photographers documenting all manner of events in the region for more than a century.

Our newspaper's history continues. Only last month we were named newspaper of the year at a prestigious press event in London.

As a Black Country success story, we are delighted that the communities we serve have helped us on the way to sharing the past with future generations.