National Lottery Heritage Grants £10,000 to £250,000

Touching utopia in Landsdowne: Women's squat dwellers in the 1970s

Applicant: Eastside Community Heritage

Project description: To record oral histories, conserve and share the heritage of women squat dwellers in London Fields during the 1970s.

Decision: Reject

Middle Passage Event

Applicant: Middle Passage Events CIC

Project description: To celebrate and preserve the cultural heritage of the Black British community, amplifying its history, contributions, and creativity. To weave together oral histories, artistic performances, and interactive exhibits, aspiring to bridge the past, present and future and make the history accessible and engaging for all. To empower individuals, nurture creative industries and strengthen connections within and beyond the Black British community.

Decision: Reject

Poole's role at Dunkirk – 85th commemoration

Applicant: The Poole Maritime Trust

Project description: To create a permanent and sustainable record of Poole’s contribution to ‘Operation Dynamo.’ To film surviving relatives of local families, and make use of exhibition display boards to educate and inform visitors to the significance of Poole’s contribution to the evacuation of Dunkirk. To form a permanent record for use by researchers, curators, librarians and educational specialists, who can in turn educate future generations about the historic event.

Decision: Reject

'TV on Wheels'

Applicant: Broadcast Television Technology Trust

Project description: To restore vintage BBC Television outside broadcast units and display vehicles from the 1960s and 1970s at three major visitor attractions in the South of England. To develop a plan to create a permanent home for the exhibits to ensure the work of the present volunteers continues and to allow future generations to enjoy and learn about the equipment that brought ‘live pictures’ in the 20th century.

Decision: Award grant of £26,992 

Threads of Change: Towards a Sustainable Future

Applicant: Worthing Theatres and Museum

Project description: To sustain and enhance public engagement during an enforced closure from March to September 2025 when the museum is to be connected to Worthing’s cutting-edge Heat Network. When the museum reopens, a new art exhibition, Act Now, is to focus on the climate emergency as well as showcase new exhibits. To maintain momentum as a cultural hub, safeguard the community’s connection to the museum and ensure it remains a vital resource during and beyond the transformation.

Decision: Award grant of £34,094

Victorian Britain: Female Crime and Entrepreneurship

Applicant: Shooting Fish Theatre Company

Project description: To tour ‘The Murderess’, a stage play set in a Victorian prison, at a mixture of Victorian heritage sites and theatres. To access relevant heritage collections and archives to research, develop and revise the production to ensure historical accuracy. To create four bespoke short films based on crime and punishment for women in the Victorian era and women’s entrepreneurial involvement in Victorian trade/commerce.

Decision: Reject

Please Take Your Seats: Exploring Dickens and Performance

Applicant: Charles Dickens Museum (Dickens House & Dickens House Fund)

Project description: To reach people who normally experience Dickens through performance, rather than through reading or engaging with heritage collections. To work with community partners and local people to create a special exhibition on Dickens and performance and an associated programme of activities to engage new audiences. To strengthen local relationships to grow the supporter base and add content to the digital resources to further cement the project’s legacy.

Decision: Award grant of £44,400

Confluence: The River Sid and Its Tributaries – where river meets people meets ideas and action.

Applicant: Sidmouth Coastal Community Hub CIC

Project description: To engage and collaborate with community groups, artists, children and older people to capture and document their appreciation of the river and its surroundings and what matters to them about the environment. To map stories, memories and awareness of the heritage, biodiversity and the place the river occupies in the community as part of the ecology of Sidmouth and to create a public exhibition to host this content.

Decision: Reject

Unsung Heroes

Applicant: Learning Through The Arts CIC

Project description: To showcase a selected group of individuals of African and Caribbean descent who have made contributions across a broad range of fields but are relatively unknown in the public realm. To highlight the positive contributions of people from minority backgrounds and to challenge negative stereotypes. To inspire future generations to pursue excellence in their chosen fields and commit themselves to impactful, selfless endeavours.

Decision: Reject

A Story of Squatters

Applicant: Four Corners Limited

Project description: To tell the story of how a community of squatters saved their derelict homes from demolition to create a mutual housing co-operative Grand Union. To collect and preserve photographs, oral histories and personal ephemera of residents from the 1970s to today, to document the restoration of homes and the community life of the area, and to make short films about the history.

Decision: Award grant of £60,000

Moon Journeys and Eclipse Stories: The heritage of moon watching and dark skies in the South West

Applicant: Mayes Creative Ltd

Project description: To work with communities to research, collect, archive and share stories and objects from the history of moon watching in the Southwest. To inspire people to reconnect with the history of lunar timekeeping and to highlight the importance of darkness and natural light to our circadian rhythm. To promote awareness of ways to combat light pollution which threatens wildlife habitats, species diversity and the ability to connect with the cultural heritage of the moon and our night skies.

Decision: Reject

St Mary's Church tower stonework repair final version.

Applicant: Claydons PCC

Project description: To carry out urgent repairs to the tower roof and stonework of the Grade II* listed building to enable the heritage of the church to continue for future generations.

Decision: Reject

The Barnstaple Book of Cookery 2025 – celebrating recipes from the multicultural community in North Devon, inspired by the Barnstaple Book of Cookery 1914

Applicant: Sunrise Diversity

Project description: To preserve, cultivate and celebrate the food traditions and ceremonies of the multicultural communities across North Devon and elevate awareness of diversity in the area through the universal language of food. To save the food-based traditions through a digital platform with how-to videos, a multilingual recipe book, and a bilingual oral history.

Decision: Reject

Rose Ash Church medieval tower and historic bell restoration project

Applicant: Rose Ash Parochial Church Council

Project description: To save the historic peal of six bells, repair the bell-tower roof, install a modern tower-access ladder and install a lightning-conductor. To re-establish the tradition of bellringing and make the church more accessible to encourage a wider, younger community to appreciate and be involved in the history and heritage of this part of rural Devon.

Decision: Award grant of £75,629

What Makes Us Well? (An exploration of the SHC archives considering how people in Surrey have kept themselves well across the themes of body, mind, spirit, people, planet and place)

Applicant: It's Not Your Birthday But CIC

Project description: To celebrate the heritage of people in Surrey and how they have kept themselves well. To increase engagement with heritage, particularly for people in the community currently under-served by heritage. To explore how the places and nature of Surrey contributes to wellbeing and showcase this through a programme of workshops, a co-created exhibition, a film, book, open call and a digital legacy and wellness guide that makes heritage more accessible and preserves it for future generations.

Decision: Award grant of £99,781

Humanist Heritage: Makers, Marks, and Movements

Applicant: British Humanist Association

Project description: To build on the Humanist Heritage: Doers, Dreamers, Place Makers project. To focus the offer for families and young people and increase understanding and awareness through volunteer supported research. To map and share online discoveries and form workshops to contribute to the activities of the regional groups. To culminate in an exhibition with community participants, strengthen existing networks, reach new people, add knowledge to the historical record and create a bank of heritage resources.

Decision: Reject

ChichestHER: Their Story, Our Inspiration. Celebrating the Impact of Women in Chichester District's History.

Applicant: Chichester District Council

Project description: To further knowledge and understanding about the lives and achievements of women, past and present, from Chichester District. To begin to redress the balance of equality in the recording of the district’s past. To provide opportunity for women throughout the district to learn about and learn from some of the female leaders in their field and those that have made an impact on Chichester District as we know it today.

Decision: Award grant of £117,266

#LC The Heart of Natural Beauty (Phase 1)

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

Project description: To create data-driven maps and dashboards to unlock and untap the potential to identify the needs of the communities and the forces of change at work on the landscape. To invest in people to unlock investment in nature and embrace digital solutions. To drive action to safeguard the fragile and vulnerable heritage for future generations.

Decision: Award grant of £119,461

Footprints of Love: An LGBTQ+ Living Archive of Newham

Applicant: Cameye Arts CIC

Project description: To uncover, preserve and celebrate Newham's vibrant LGBTQ+ heritage from the 1960s onwards through oral histories, documentary, digital/physical archives, VR exhibition, walking tours and a gender studies report. To amplify and share stories that have been untold/forgotten/hidden, and to expand on the success of the 2024 Newham Heritage Month pilot project.

Decision: Reject

Breathing Space

Applicant: Tooting Arts Club CIC

Project description: To secure and preserve the oral histories of Croydon and Lambeth residents that would otherwise be lost. To share the stories through accessible digital outputs, website, podcasts, QR codes and listening posts. To create and achieve intergenerational meetings and connections between culturally and economically diverse children and older people, to increase understanding of each generation's perspectives and experiences.

Decision: Reject

Beaford Archive: The Lost Decades

Applicant: Beaford Arts

Project description: To cement the Beaford archive’s position as the ‘go-to’ photographic archive of rural communities in South-West England. To fill a 30-year gap in its scope, complete the story of rural North Devon between the emergence of camera technology and the present day, and to put in place a framework for contemporary collecting.

Decision: Award grant of £180,386

"Threads of Elegance" Conserving the Legacy of Beale and Inman Tailors

Applicant: Westminster City Council

Project description: To conserve seven volumes of textile samples, honour their cultural significance, involve underrepresented community groups, teach new skills, create an oral archive/film and digital resources, train volunteers and educate participants in fashion sustainability. To culminate in exhibitions to showcase participants' newly acquired skills and their interpretation of the collection to the wider community.

Decision: Award grant of £188,775

RePresenting Camden

Applicant: Camden Council

Project description: To co-create a new balanced and multi-perspective interpretation of nine statues in the borough and uncover three diverse narratives that are hidden from Camden’s public. As well as new accessible interpretation, to develop a stronger sense of place and heritage skills within the community to enable them to take the lead and interpret their public space going forward. To build capacity in the sector to reveal more heritage stories and diversify Camden’s public realm.

Decision: Reject

Uncovering, Saving and Celebrating Portsmouth's Black Heritage

Applicant: Portsmouth Black History Group

Project description: To uncover, preserve and celebrate the heritage of the African and Caribbean community in Portsmouth past and present. To capture through oral history the personal experiences of individuals and through archival research reveal the earlier heritage of the community. The legacy: to have a permanent record, in members' own voices and in writing, accessible through the Portsmouth History Centre, of the Black presence in the city.

Decision: Reject

Urgent roof and ceiling repairs to the Lady Chapel and Chancel roofs to preserve the heritage and improve community use.

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

Project description: To re-roof and repair the roofs of the Chancel and Lady Chapel of the Grade I St Margaret's Church. To minimise further loss of historic fabric and to make the church a warm and welcoming place.

Decision: Reject

A Quiet Revolution

Applicant: West Horsley Place Trust

Project description: To develop organisational expertise, nurture new and existing strategic relationships and establish a robust evidence base on which decisions about West Horsley Place can be made. To weave the different aspects of the estate – the heritage buildings and collection, stories, biodiverse habitats and community – more closely together to ensure a holistic approach to strategic planning.

Decision: Award grant of £223,780

Seaside Heritage Revival

Applicant: GRASS Cliftonville CIC

Project description: To celebrate and preserve the seaside heritage of The Oval Bandstand and transform the venue into a hub of cultural and community engagement. To feature accessible exhibitions and events that bring the area’s seaside legacy to life. To engage with a diverse range of people and offer workshops, volunteer opportunities and local employment to allow participants to explore Cliftonville’s history and gain valuable skills. To use digital technology to offer virtual access to safeguard the legacy for future generations.

Decision: Reject

Deneway's Wild Future

Applicant: Sussex Wildlife Trust

Project description: To expand access to a unique green corridor that runs alongside a main railway line into a busy city. To ensure the site is more open and accessible for the local community now and into the future. To ensure that the nature reserve is in the best condition for biodiversity to flourish as a home for wildlife and a corridor for species to move through the urban landscape.

Decision: Award grant of £242,621

Sustainable Future Use of The Commissioner's House

Applicant: Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

Project description: To undertake critical maintenance and repair to protect the historic fabric and longevity of the structure, protect exhibits and collections through remedial works, significantly reduce operational carbon of the building, increase diverse audience groups and visitor footfall, improve organisational resilience and enhance physical access.

Decision: Award grant of £245,063

Saving Blake's Cottage and planning for a sustainable future

Applicant: The Blake Cottage Trust

Project description: To commission the conservation of the roof, thatch and timbering and stabilisation of wall tops and chimneys, to make safe the cottage. To continue to engage communities, partners and stakeholders. To develop a long-term, viable plan for the cottage and to develop the governance and capacity of the trust so it is fit for the long-term full conservation and care of the cottage.

Decision: Award grant of £243,954 

Lesnes 500

Applicant: London Borough of Bexley

Project description: To mark the 500th anniversary of the dissolution of Lesnes Abbey and provide a unique opportunity to promote the historical significance of the site through partnership community events and legacy programmes.

Decision: Award grant of £249,971

Storytellers Start Here: empowering a new national cohort of young heritage-led storytellers inspired by the innovation central to the 70-year history of the world's first youth theatre.

Applicant: National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT)

Project description: To activate the legacy of youth development, leadership and storytelling for today. To place young people in the lead to investigate stories from NYT heritage, collect new oral histories and bring to life inaccessible/at risk heritage for future generations. To create permanent platforms and management policies and sustain activities through aligned partnership building and income generation.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

Picturedrome – Arts & Heritage

Applicant: Picturedrome Glos CIC

Project description: To raise funds with the opportunity to purchase the 1922 Grade II listed cinema premises. To employ staff to better understand the value and condition of the premises and highlight any work required to ensure a safe and compliant building with attention to environmental concerns. To empower the community to take ownership of the Picturedrome and enable them to develop, showcase and enjoy their cultural heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Our project is called "Timeless Ties: Celebrating Black Culture and Heritage."

Applicant: Christ the Rock International Ministry

Project description: To revitalize and sustain the traditional African tie and dye craft to ensure it remains part of the local cultural tapestry. To preserve a form of heritage at risk and pass it on to younger generations and new audiences. To connect participants to the historical context, cultural significance, and meaning behind this centuries-old technique. To create a legacy of knowledge and appreciation to enable the tradition to flourish, evolve, and inspire future generations within the community and beyond.

Decision: Reject

Rhythms of Belonging: Dance Stories from a Global Community

Applicant: Pavilion Dance South West Limited

Project description: To bring together refugees and migrants who arrived in Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole between 30 years and three weeks ago to explore their traditional dances. To create a dance performance to celebrate and share the heritage with family, friends, school groups and the wider community in the Pavilion Dance’s 200-seat theatre.

Decision: Reject

Save the Tower Appeal

Applicant: Christ Church Community Trust

Project description: To restore the tower and spire of Christ Church Kensington, to preserve the heritage to ensure long-term use of the building and gardens and by the local community.

Decision: Reject

Each One Teach One: Pioneers of Black British History

Applicant: History Matters – Young Historians Project

Project description: To showcase the history of the pioneers who contributed to the development of Black British history. To research and create public resources from this canon to replicate the spirit of their activism and draw together the work of the many activists and historians that have come before.

Decision: Reject

Sphinx: Fifty Years of Women Making Theatre

Applicant: The Sphinx Theatre Company Limited

Project description: To create a record of the lives and actions of the artists involved in Sphinx Theatre Company. To make a book, a video film and digitize a photo archive to capture the experiences. To pay tribute to the campaigning work and the international forums and productions that created the legacy and to educate and inspire today’s theatre practitioners, activists, women and artists.

Decision: Reject

Free Wheeling: An Oral History of South London's Cycling Clubs

Applicant: digital-works

Project description: To explore the history of cycling clubs in South London. School children are to learn about the heritage through history workshops and learn skills including oral history interviewing, film-making and animation. A website is to house the interviews and digital outputs. To share the history through a launch event and subsequent local screenings events.

Decision: Reject

Delivering organisational sustainability to save The Globe Hotel – a vision for a community-owned hotel, restaurant and bar with a strong commitment to training, future opportunities and community benefit.

Applicant: The Globe Hotel Torrington Limited

Project description: To create a community-owned hotel, bar and restaurant with training opportunities. To enable the appointment of a project manager to oversee the community share issue, acquisition and existing consultant team, as well as further inspire the local community. To approve a governance review to provide stability and confidence to funders.

Decision: Reject

Bridging Cultures: Exploring the Cultural Identity of Second Generation of Horn of African descendants in West London

Applicant: Wings of Hope Community Association

Project description: To record, preserve and share cultural heritage of second generation descendants originally from Horn of Africa countries living in the London boroughs of Camden and Westminster from 1980 to 2024. To conduct, record and document interviews to preserve the heritage and deposit the outputs in the archives of Westminster and Camden boroughs for future generations. To provide opportunity for cross-cultural dialogue and exchange and promote cultural diversity and inclusion within the city.

Decision: Reject

WWII Heritage Experience

Applicant: The MGGS Development Trust

Project description: To develop experiences for children and adult visitors to the Second World War air-raid shelter tunnels buried beneath Maidstone Grammar School for Girls. A purpose-built visitor centre is to contain a replica Second World War classroom, and exhibitions, artifacts and tours will deliver a fully immersive and inclusive experience. To redevelop a second set of tunnels and to protect the unique features and use them to educate future generations.

Decision: Reject

Building to Serve

Applicant: St Mary's Headington PCC

Project description: To renovate, repair and improve St Mary's Church to equip it for accessible activities and further community use. To provide insulation, secondary glazing and heating to reduce the church's carbon footprint.

Decision: Reject

'300 Years of Parliament and the Prime Minister' – delivering a relocatable 'pop-up' exhibition to be held in the 11th-century Westminster Hall, for a period of 6 months, and to publicly launch the Museum of Prime Ministers.

Applicant: PM Museum Ltd

Project description: To establish the Museum of Prime Ministers as a museum of national and international significance; a place where the public, students and academics can explore the achievements, failures and decisions of prime ministers and understand how the office and British democracy developed over the last 300 years. To achieve a modern sustainable museum with displays, a research repository, education pathways and a visitor centre in a heritage site and online.

Decision: Reject

The Lost Campaigns – A Mobile Museum of Marginalised Histories

Applicant: Greenham Women Everywhere CIC

Project description: To increase public awareness and appreciation for activists who fought for a fairer, safer, and more inclusive world. To convert a caravan into a mobile ‘Motivation Museum’ and community space. To use the platform to reach out to campaigners from three 'Lost Campaigns'. To broaden understanding and connect past activism to current issues and inspire action to ensure these critical stories are shared and remembered.

Decision: Reject

"This Space – as a Home: A Monument to the Vietnamese Journey in Britain"

Applicant: Vietnamese Family Partnership (Gia Đình Việt)

Project description: To be the first public artwork in the UK to represent the British Vietnamese community and mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. To include a digital archive to allow visitors to engage with the stories of British Vietnamese and contribute to a deeper awareness of the contributions to British society. To promote cultural dialogue and offer both remembrance and educational opportunity for future generations.

Decision: Reject