National Lottery Heritage Grants

A Town Explores A Book 2025: Gideon Mantell's Iguanodon

Applicant: ATEAB Funds

Project description: To mark the bicentenary of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell's naming of the Iguanodon species. To explore the heritage relevant to St Leonards-on-Sea through creative workshops with a festival book, ‘Iguanodon’. A festival map is to detail an art trail and mark the national #Iguanodon200 events and museums where the finds are displayed today.

Decision: Award grant of £15,580

The Forgotten Dead

Applicant: Blueprint Arts Foundation Ltd

Project description: To create an immersive, multidisciplinary arts experience that reflects on Gravesend’s rich maritime history and to engage and enrich the community's connection to its history and environment. To commemorate the tragedy of the crash and subsequent sinking of The Princess Alice. To collaborate with the local community to produce sculptures, performances, large-scale installations and soundscapes.

Decision: Reject

Exploring & Sharing our Heritage

Applicant: Creating Ground CIC

Project description: To research and record stories and practices from the diverse heritage of women of migrant background from around ten different countries who attend Creating Ground projects. To create public story-walks and a film that combine archival sources with lived experience of culture and heritage in Greenwich. To share the film through community events, migrant networks and organisations, and museums.

Decision: Reject

Roots and Resilience: The Moroccan Journey in Westminster

Applicant: Central London Youth Development Trust

Project description: To preserve and document the experiences and cultural contributions of the Moroccan community in Westminster. To collect oral histories and capture the voices of first-generation Moroccan immigrants and their journey of integration. The project is to honour their legacy but also educate younger generations, to foster a deeper understanding of the community's resilience and influence on British society.

Decision: Reject

Our People – celebrating the stories and heritage of neurodiverse and learning-disabled people from Bromley and South London

Applicant: Magpie Dance

Project description: To uncover and celebrate the voices of neurodiverse and learning-disabled people from Bromley and South London. To provide a platform to explore their heritage growing up and living in the area and reveal the societal changes they have experienced over the past 40 years. Magpie aims to actively work with Mencap on this project, which aligns with Magpie’s 40th anniversary and the 80th anniversary of Mencap.

Decision: Reject

Saving the Spirit of Dartmoor – turbo-charging the drive to safeguard Dartmoor's traditional pony herds

Applicant: Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust

Project description: To preserve and secure the future of the endangered rare breed, the Heritage Dartmoor Pony. To boost organisational resilience to ensure inclusion in the strategy developed by the new Dartmoor-wide Land Use Management Group (LUMG). To produce a new framework for the management of Dartmoor and develop a 25-year plan for land management and environment benefit under the Environment Land Management Scheme (ELMS) programme.

Decision: Award grant of £58,200

A Stronger Future – Sustainable Sociable Scientific

Applicant: Naturezones Wildlife Education Trust

Project description: To ensure the future stability of this organisation based on the Isle of Wight. To secure and explore the feasibility of new ways to reconnect with Island communities, primary schools and individual members of the public after the negative effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the economic downturn. To ensure the resilience of the biodiversity of their nature reserve in response to climate change and to reach out to all Island communities to explore new marketing streams, new activities and volunteer development.

Decision: Award grant of £72,541

Spice Odyssey: The Story of British Curry

Applicant: FilmWorks Trust

Project description: To explore the origins and rich history of Indian restaurants in the UK and to focus on the London Borough of Westminster, home to the UK’s first Indian restaurant. To preserve the legacy of the Bengali trailblazers, work with community and heritage partners, train 16 volunteers from under-represented communities and to research and document historic material, undertake oral history interviews and make a documentary film. To create a project website and touring exhibition to ensure the project’s legacy.

Decision: Reject

Cirencester Churchyard Path Project

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish Of Cirencester with Watermoor and St Lawrence

Project description: To restore a former medieval road adjacent to a Grade I listed building and connect the churchyard to the historic Market Place via a paved courtyard. To improve access for people with mobility needs and enhance the adjacent site to the restored Market Place.

Decision: Award grant of £77,418

Windrush Foundation, Celebrating 30 Years of Heritage Services

Applicant: Windrush Foundation

Project description: To celebrate and increase visibility of the Foundation’s mission, to highlight their history, innovate and advocate to strengthen the brand. To show funders and donors how their awards have helped the organisation and the community. To thank contributors, volunteers, advisors and others for their support. The project is also to pay tribute to co-founder Sam King MBE.

Decision: Reject

Capturing Brighton's last WW2 veterans

Applicant: Take Shelter

Project description: To capture, preserve and share first-hand experiences of eight Brighton wartime veterans. To improve physical, sensory and intellectual access to Brighton’s wartime heritage and create a more relevant offer for schools and community programmes. To build Take Shelter’s capacity through a business and trustee succession plan and volunteer strategy. To showcase project achievements and celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May 2025.

Decision: Award grant of £85,575

Discovering Seaton's Changing Jurassic Past, and Future

Applicant: Modern Electric Tramways Ltd

Project description: To develop an integrated environment-based visitor experience to link Jurassic Discovery with Seaton Tramway, with broader links to the town, river, beach, cliffs and inland to Seaton Wetlands and the historic town of Colyton.

Decision: Award grant of £88,600

The Caribbean Murals Project – Celebrating the Caribbean Legacy in Notting Hill

Applicant: Urban Eye

Project description: To propose a partnership with the Pepper Pot Centre, Museum of Brands and Morley College to celebrate the heritage of the Caribbean community in North Kensington. To collaborate with the community to create two durable ceramic tile murals (one mural per year) and install at prominent locations in the area.

Decision: Reject

New Earth Theatre's Living Archive: creating and celebrating a BESEA legacy for the future

Applicant: New Earth Theatre Limited

Project description: To be the first comprehensive resource to map through a British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) lens, the changing UK arts landscape since 1995. To recognise, celebrate and preserve the contribution of BESEA communities to British society and to store the archive and oral histories with the V&A museum and on their own website to inspire new (BESEA) audiences and artists.

Decision: Award grant of £94,057

Postcards From My Seaside Town

Applicant: Carousel Project

Project description: To use a range of historical sources as a framework for learning disabled (LD) people to tell their stories, share their experiences and memories of place, and to work in impactful partnership with museums, cultural hubs and community organisations. To celebrate and profile the intangible cultural heritage of LD people in high-profile, to invite others to see their town in a new light and to ensure LD people have a cultural identity for today and the future.

Decision: Reject

Reimagining the Toy Museum at Penshurst Place and Gardens

Applicant: Penshurst Place and Gardens

Project description: To reimagine the Museum, create and engage with a permanent exhibition for the target audience of families, schools and lifelong learners. To preserve the collection, become more inclusive and relevant to the public and address the educational needs of local schools. Update displays and interpretation, introduce interactive exhibits, and add multicultural voices to better reflect the community. To incorporate the old with the new to allow multi-generational conversations to flow through the universal language of play.

Decision: Award grant of £100,000

Roots to Common Ground

Applicant: Xenia

Project description: To bring together migrant, refugee, British and asylum-seeking women to connect, share and learn as equals to save and celebrate shared heritage. To enable women from a very wide range of ages, classes, cultures and migration backgrounds to share their stories and cultures, as well as engage with local cultural and natural heritage in the UK.

Decision: Reject

Stitching Light: amplifying the lives and histories of Bangladeshi women in England

Applicant: Emergency Exit Arts (Ltd)

Project description: To develop Kantha workshops with Bangladeshi women living in England. To add new technology (light thread) to this traditional handicraft to both preserve and modernise for contemporary audiences. To tour light festivals to attract audiences to learn about the historical relationship between England and Bangladesh. To use creative methodology to bring heritage to life to ensure a legacy and deposit the histories into the Migration Museum’s permanent collection.

Decision: Award grant of £128,500

Lost Voices

Applicant: Luminescent CIC

Project description: To create an oral history and visual record of the memories and stories of refugees and sanctuary seekers to London and East Kent between 2005 and 2023. Through creative work, songs and theatre and to include the experiences of the Kent communities who receive them, the legacy is to expand and preserve the heritage of these communities, generate pride locally and offer a living record before the stories are lost forever.

Decision: Reject

Dean Heritage Centre – Investing in the Past, Present and Future

Applicant: Dean Heritage Museum Trust

Project description: To transform the museum, visitor facilities and surrounding landscape to engage a wider range of audiences, preserve the heritage and make the Centre sustainable in the long term. To improve organisational financial resilience to be able to underpin plans for future developments.

Decision: Award grant of £164,000

Back from the Brink – the untold stories of the women from diverse communities and backgrounds who helped rebuild, reclaim and reinvent the city in the wake of the Second World War

Applicant: Strike a Light (Gloucester)

Project description: To deliver a three-year, female led, co-created heritage project with four marginalised communities. With a focus on the post-war period of 1948 to the present day, to represent the Afro-Caribbean, South-east Asian, Westgate ward residents and LGBTQ+ refugee communities of Gloucester. To commit to a long-term strategy to collate, curate, creatively share and digitally archive the sometimes-intangible cultural heritage of these groups and to preserve it for future generations.

Decision: Reject

Cultural Impact Award – Light and Flight

Applicant: London Borough of Barnet

Project description: To celebrate Barnet’s role in the development of aviation technology. An audio-visual arts festival in which light, heritage and technology is to promote cultural exchange and to tell new stories. To develop a heritage strategy to support Barnet Council plan for a long-term vision and approach to complement their newly launched culture strategy, and to preserve Light and Flight heritage for future records.

Decision: Reject

London's Screen Archives: Opening up Our Collections

Applicant: Film London

Project description: To increase collection awareness and access for communities, students, filmmakers and anyone interested in heritage. To evidence learning and community engagement and the impact of sustained investment with underserved young people. To improve London's Screen Archives website, identify a selection of films to share for creative re-use, establish new partnerships with education providers and increase income from commercial footage sales.

Decision: Reject

Project Inspire

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Lechlade

Project description: To restore and re-order St Lawrence Church Lechlade to preserve its heritage. To improve accessibility, the facilities and the flexible space of the church along with its eco footprint for the current growing community and future generations.

Decision: Award grant of £220,454

HMS Wellington – Connecting and Protecting the World – The Revitalisation Project

Applicant: The Wellington Trust

Project description: To address conservation works and upgrade essential systems to ensure regulatory compliance with event regulations and environmental good practice. To undertake a Food and Music Festival with Malaysian, New Zealand, West African and Polynesian communities in London. To ensure, sustain and develop strategic initiatives to cement HMS Wellington’s heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £224,200

Sankofa Resilience

Applicant: The African People's Historical Monument Foundation (Black Cultural Archives) Limited

Project description: To develop strategic plans to operate resiliently and to realise the full potential of the Black Cultural Archives’ unique collections on Black British history. To mobilise the support required to secure the organisation’s future.

Decision: Award grant of £248,900

Saving the Cemetery Junction Arch: Gateway to Reading Old Cemetery (STCJA)

Applicant: Junction Arch Heritage and Arts CIC

Project description: To carry out structural repairs to the Arch, refurbish the interior for use as a café, create an outside seating area and recycle outbuildings to create a toilet block and storage space. To interpret the Reading Old Cemetery for people to learn about the heritage it contains and deliver an Arts Award schools programme. The legacy of Saving the Cemetery is to create an inclusive meeting place where a wide range of people can come together to engage with heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £248,958

Natural Beauty and The Beast

Applicant: Cornwall Council (on behalf of Cornwall National Landscape)

Project description: To protect, manage and better understand rural/urban heritage. To address the challenges of landscape and heritage management, biodiversity conservation and sustainable farming practices. To establish a reconnection with local towns, revitalise cultural heritage and reconnect intangible heritage practices intrinsically linked with Cornish identity and the farming industry with the use of Farm Action Maps as a basis to engage and proactively make change.

Decision: Award grant of £249,569

Journeys: A National Engagement Project for Mai by Joshua Reynolds

Applicant: National Portrait Gallery

Project description: To transform the historic work of art into a living narrative. To make Mai relevant and accessible to new generations and to collaborate with partner venues to support and empower young people to explore and personalise its complex themes. To attract new audiences and contemporary readings for Mai and make Mai accessible beyond the life of the project, to ensure it continues to excite conversations about history, identity and belonging now and into the future.

Decision: Award grant of £249,590

Downham 100

Applicant: Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited

Project description: To celebrate the cultural, built and natural heritage of the seminal Cottage Estate during its centenary. To support Downham’s diverse communities to gain new skills and experiences, increase health and wellbeing, and to feel connection and pride in the place they call home. To create new heritage assets to include a digital public archive and to platform the voices of underrepresented communities on a national scale.

Decision: Reject

Time and Tide: the intangible cultural heritage of the Hastings fishing fleet

Applicant: Hastings Contemporary

Project description: To document, celebrate and raise awareness of one of Europe’s largest, oldest beach-launched fishing fleets. To work in partnership with Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society to empower the fishing community to share their stories and cultural traditions, to ensure they are passed on to the wider community and future generations.

Decision: Award grant of £249,972

Dorset Museum & Art Gallery roof replacement and reimagining of Victorian Hall

Applicant: The Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Project description: To replace the roof of the Victorian Hall Grade II listed building and resolve the issues of water ingress and damp, to allow collections currently in storage to be on public display. To enable the museum to build back their core local audiences to again tell the local story of Dorchester and the significance of the origins of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

Shakespeare Woz Here? Faversham and Shakespeare – An Investigation

Applicant: The Alexander Centre CIC

Project description: To investigate and explore the tangible and less tangible evidence of Shakespeare’s presence in Faversham through a variety of community-led initiatives. To engage with activities to make Shakespeare and his connection to the town accessible and exciting.

Decision: Reject

Memory Lane

Applicant: The London DJ & MC Academy CIC

Project description: To bring together multiple generations to create 20 podcasts to explore themes such as current life, future aspirations and reflections on being 13 years old in different eras. To create a keen sense of community and provide a platform for dialogue and mutual understanding. To collaborate with participants to create a “Memory Lane” installation to capture and visually represent the stories and insights shared during the sessions and for the initiative to become an annual event.

Decision: Reject

Whose Wild World?

Applicant: Troubadour Community Interest Company

Project description: To co-create a piece of environmental theatre with people for whom there are financial, cultural, social, personal and physical barriers to accessing nature and issues around climate and biodiversity loss crisis. To bring people together through drama workshops to explore and discover their own natural heritage. Ideas from the workshops are to form actions for each community to shape their approach to support environmental sustainability as well as shape the theatre production.

Decision: Reject

The Beacon Project: Learning from the Past, Protecting the Future

Applicant: Project Rewild CIC

Project description: To restore Hoads Wood, Mountain Field and Lower Field in a 30-month community project to bring them back into proper management, restore the heritage natural landscape and increase biodiversity. To host a variety of events to promote the success and findings, to educate and engage new audiences on the heritage skills required to restore nature and uncover local historic narratives.

Decision: Reject

Saving Kensal Green Cemetery: A new Act

Applicant: General Cemetery Company

Project description: To save the site and create a sustainable future, to submit a Private Bill to Parliament and deliver associated business plan and consultation work. On completion of the project and Royal Assent for the new Act, the General Cemetery Company is to be set up as a charity and the site transferred into that charity. The focus is then to conserve the heritage at the cemetery, care for the archive and enable public access and public benefit.

Decision: Reject

Culture and Courage: Jewish Festivals and Survivor Stories

Applicant: The Cheer-Up Squad Limited

Project description: To preserve the oral history and heritage of the community and to celebrate and connect with Holocaust survivors. To bring the festivals of Purim and Chanukah to sick children in hospitals and to involve elderly community members to share and record traditional songs and stories, to help the younger generation connect with their community's history and resilience.

Decision: Reject

Lighting Up Redruth's Market Town

Applicant: Redruth Revival CIC

Project description: To bring into ownership the dilapidated Whittaker shop, an important part of the town centre on the pedestrianised part of Fore Street. To support the project, Redruth Revival will be accepting the gift of Murdoch House from the Percy & Lily Reed Williams Trust. The project supports the CIC’s business model to allow them to diversify their portfolio of properties to attract and retain local businesses, grow employment and revitalise the town centre.

Decision: Reject

Cultural Artefacts from across the World: The Untold Stories

Applicant: We Are The Iroko CIC

Project description: To engage residents in an inter-generational, multicultural activity to foster better inter-cultural understanding, community cohesion and increase engagement with heritage programmes.

Decision: Reject

Privilege disadvantage and enable marginalised communities to access blue and green capital (Sea and Downs) across Sussex Bay and engage in the marine extension of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for 11 Councils, across 100 miles of coastline.

Applicant: Worthing Borough Council

Project description: To create a Sussex Bay seascape strategy for 100 miles of coastline and form the marine extension of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). To set the framework for future research, engagement and projects within local government. To engage with communities who do not access the coast and Downs and who would not usually engage in research of this type. To evaluate the research and produce a toolkit for other government nationally.

Decision: Reject

Brighton Youth Centre: Uncovering and celebrating 100+ years of youth culture and youth work in Brighton & Hove

Applicant: Brighton Youth Centre

Project description: To support and enable young people to uncover and share untold narratives and celebrate the vibrant stories and memories of Brighton Youth Centre (BYC). To train young people to research archival records, community collections and oral histories. To co-curate BYC's stories through digital resources, participatory activities and exhibitions. To create a repository of memories and experiences to illustrate BYC's commitment to inclusivity, creativity, and social impact.

Decision: Reject