Egham's Royal Holloway College has secured a Heritage Lottery grant of £485,500 to launch its £1m Citizens project.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the project will have digital resources and support materials enabling it to stage community engagement activities, taking users on a journey that will span the period from the sealing of the Magna Carta to the suffragettes and beyond.

The university’s goal is to enable people to explore the history of liberty, protest and reform - so learning to understand how this has shaped what it means to be a citizen today.

Professor Paul Layzell, Principal of Royal Holloway, University of London, said: "Royal Holloway was founded by two social reformers whose civic contribution was to enable access to higher education for women at a time when they were largely excluded from it.

"Freedom of speech, personal liberty and recognition of the societal responsibilities that comes from education and knowledge are at the heart of university life. The Citizens Project confirms Royal Holloway’s commitment to building an educational legacy from last year’s Magna Carta celebrations.

“In today’s turbulent world, it’s important that we understand how we got to where we are, so that we know what we stand for, and can stand up for the things that matter to us.”

Dr Matthew Smith has developed the project in partnership with Egham Museum and The Magna Carta School.

Royal Holloway will host the first in what will be an annual Festival of History at the university in June 2017.

Supporting these activities, there will be a new series of constitutional conventions, where young people gather to debate and draft clauses for a modern Magna Carta to be exhibited in the Supreme Court.