IN 1917, two schoolgirls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, fooled many into believing they had taken photographs of fairies in fields near Cottingley.
Their photographs of fairies dancing near Cottingley Beck were declared genuine by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. It was only in 1983 that Elsie admitted that the pictures were a hoax.
Apart from these famous episodes in the West Yorkshire village, which is located in the Aire Valley several miles from Bradford, there has been little for residents to boast about.
But that is all about to change with the start of a project with a budget of £8.5m.
In 2004, Prince Charles offered a personal, undisclosed sum to help fund the project whose progress he has followed since he visited the village to re-dedicate a war memorial, in 2002.
He was angered when, just months later, vandals desecrated the memorial – at St Michael and All Angels' Church – which commemorated villagers who fought in the First World War.
The church was demolished in 2003 after being condemned as a dangerous building.
As well as a new church, the £4.1m Cottingley Cornerstone Centre will provide wide-ranging community facilities, including a hall for functions and performances, IT rooms, a doctor's surgery, pre-school nursery, elderly daycare, youth rooms, respite care for young disabled people and an arts and crafts room. Bradford Council's Social Services department will also have a 24-hour response centre on site.
The project, which has been in the planning stages for three years, will have 52 town houses, ranging from two to four bedrooms, for sale. In the next few days, demolition work will start to clear away existing buildings to make way for the scheme.
In a letter written in 2004, the Prince of Wales said the scheme would help people feel they belonged to Cottingley, and he compared the project to his famous Poundbury development, in Dorchester, where he built a development of houses and shops so people could live and work together.
He said: "I think that the resulting plans for the village and Cottingley Cornerstone Centre are a shining example of what can be achieved when the community comes together to work collectively to improve the quality of life of its members."
The church's vicar, Canon Sue Pinnington, who has helped to drive the project, said Prince Charles had recently been in touch to find out about the scheme's progress.
In the next few days, the Cottingley Cornerstone Centre, the charity set up by local people to spearhead the development, together with Bradford Council, will formally hand over the keys to the site to builders Bramleys and developers Country and Metropolitan Homes.
More than £3.5m has been raised to fund the centre, including more than £1m from the Government-backed programme, Futurebuilders England, and further fund-raising will continue this year.
This will be done through a combination of local contributions and applications to charitable trusts and foundations.
Much of the remainder of the cash has come from the sale of land on the site.
The architects Wildblood Macdonald, of Wetherby, are completing detailed design work, together with cost consultants MHB Partnership, of Menston. Development consultants Jackson Quigg Associates of Halifax are continuing the fund-raising and updating financial projections and the business plan on a regular basis. A recent recruitment programme for new trustees for the charity also proved successful.
Mrs Pinnington, who is also chair of the board of trustees of Cottingley Cornerstone Centre, said: "This is our next big step forward and is a testament to the incredible hard work so many people have put into the development of new community facilities and housing for Cottingley.
"Our strong partnership with Bradford Council, Bradford Primary Healthcare Trust, Country and Metropolitan and Futurebuilders England, make this a project which has wide and lasting implications for our own community and, perhaps, many others throughout the country in the future.
"The support of the Prince of Wales, many charitable trusts and foundations and local businesses, and, above all, the people who live in and around Cottingley, means that this is a real social enterprise to serve the needs of the community."
It is expected that building work will begin in March or April and the scheme will be completed by summer 2007.

ian.briggs@ypn.co.uk