National Lottery Heritage Grants

Milton Heritage Project

Applicant: Artworx

Project description: To engage community members to discover Milton’s lost history. To launch community heritage talks, create digital school resources and an accessible heritage trail captured in a downloadable ‘Milton Through the Ages’ community leaflet to open Milton’s heritage to everyone in the present and future.

Decision: Award grant of £14,159  

Tortworth Forest Centre & Arboretum: 10-years of Restoration

Applicant: Tortworth Forest Centre Community Interest Company

Project description: The project aims to: raise awareness and celebrate the restoration of Tortworth Arboretum; showcase stories of people and trees across the decade; springboard the reach in the local community, and connect with local organisations to achieve an even bigger impact in the next 10 years.

Decision: Award grant of £16,624  

Old Songs/New Songs

Applicant: Invisible Folk Ltd

Project description: To create new arrangements written for some of the 'Old Songs Sung in Bedfordshire' and create new recordings. To commission Inspiring Music to go into five junior school classes to make up songs in response to the Old Songs and the people who used to sing them.

Decision: Reject

Heritage Skills at Risk Training Programme

Applicant: CarringtonLIME Heritage Skills Training C.I.C

Project description: To develop a series of practical courses to focus on heritage skills currently classed as endangered. The courses will focus specifically on skills found on the Red List of Endangered Crafts.  

Decision: Reject

ST THOMAS'S CHURCH MELBURY ABBAS ROOF REPLACEMENT

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of Melbury Abbas

Project description: To remove and replace the tiles on the northern aspects of the church roof which have degraded significantly to prevent further water ingress and damage to the church.  

Decision: Award grant of £30,487  

George's Diary - Children's life during WW2 through children's eyes

Applicant: Inspiring Audio Ltd

Project description: To introduce children to childhood life during the Second World War and explore what communities looked, sounded and smelled like through the voices and eyes of children. The project will work with heritage museums across the UK to create a series of audio drama programmes for broadcast and animated versions for online.  

Decision: Award grant of £36,903  

Wetlands and Reedbeds 2. This is a Priority Habitat for the Greater London Authority (GLA).

Applicant: The Friends of Clapham Common  

Project description: To design and construct a new wetland with reedbeds adjacent to Eagle Pond on Clapham Common. The project will renovate an existing derelict site to provide sustainable habitat for aquatic and invertebrate wildlife. It will also provide an educational resource for local schools to study aquatic wildlife through the seasons.  

Decision: Award grant of £64,892  

What's for dinner?: Women's responses to food poverty in East London 1870 - present

Applicant: Share UK

Project description: To conduct research and oral history interviews to create an archive around responses to food poverty between 1870 and the present day in East London. The project will share the heritage with the public through an exhibition, six-part podcast series and social media campaign and disseminate the findings of the research in a cookbook.

Decision: Award grant of £65,146  

Let's do the time walk again! Exploring the East Kent Coast through digital heritage.

Applicant: Canterbury Christ Church University

Project description: To work in partnership with four museums to digitally upskill local museum volunteers in East Kent, to provide training workshops for volunteers to explore and record at-risk archives and develop a story-telling digital space, to build confidence, boost employability and protect local heritage. The project will create additional web content including a 360 tour and artists’ interpretations of aspects of 19th and 20th-century life in Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Deal and Sandwich.

Decision: Award grant of £67,397  

Hidden in Plain Sight: Exploring & Reimagining Brighton's Colonial Heritage

Applicant: University of Sussex

Project description: To achieve skill enhancement for a new and diverse cohort of heritage knowledge producers and curators. To use innovative outreach methodologies to explore the presence and significance of colonial legacies in Brighton’s built environment and the links to the marginalisation of Black history and black narratives. To actively target under-served groups and centre the narratives to address the gap in cultural provision through participatory knowledge production and dissemination.

Decision: Award grant of £89,401

Red Light Busking presents Kanda Vol.1 - Bedroom Shut, Music Up

Applicant: 4TY Ltd

Project description: To explore the cultural shift for African Caribbeans in Waltham Forest during the early 2000s. The project will delve into the effects of imprisonment on families and communities and capture this through oral histories, interviews and physical collections. It will form a set design of a typical bedroom, transforming the oral histories into music tracks to highlight ongoing inequalities affecting the new generation, foster understanding, preserve cultural heritage and promote social change.

Decision: Award grant of £97,001

Solent Sky: Navigating a Sustainable Future

Applicant: Solent Sky Ltd

Project description: To create a fully costed strategic development plan to ensure that our community-based museum will continue to flourish over the next 50 years.

Decision: Reject

Engaging our communities in Watershed's heritage and establishing the feasibility of the conservation, regenerative design and retrofit of our building to design a resilient Watershed fit for the future.

Applicant: Watershed Arts Trust Ltd

Project description: To engage with our building users and communities in Bristol with the important issues our heritage raises in an inclusive and caring way. This project will undertake discovery and feasibility work for a large-scale conservation, regenerative design and retrofit project.

Decision: Award grant of £115,398  

Magna Carta 1225–2025

Applicant: Society of Antiquaries of London

Project description: In commemorating the 800th anniversary of the 1225 Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest, this project aims to provide the opportunity for new and targeted audiences to respond to our Great Charters through a learning and outreach programme of events and activities. There will also be a new online resource of digital editions of the Charters to be hosted permanently on the website and accessible to all.  

Decision: Award grant of £123,304  

RNLI 1939-45: Stories of Courage

Applicant: Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Project description: To share stories of courage and capture personal stories of the crews who served not currently held in the archive records. This project aims to fully understand the heritage and commemorate, celebrate and inspire others. It will digitise records in the collection to preserve them and make them widely available.

Decision: Award grant of £131,122

Mix n Mortar: Plugging into Camden & Somers Town

Applicant: Museum of Youth Culture CIC

Project description: To capture the everyday lived experiences of growing up in Camden, this project will move beyond the well-trodden tourist paths and commercialisation of the area, from Amy Winehouse to the underground squat collectives of the 1980s. It will gather and archive photos, objects and oral histories, build on local collaborations, engage the community through outreach and workshops, gain front of house training, and launch a fully programmed major exhibition for summer 2025.

Decision: Reject

Kingston 2025: Celebrating our past, present and future.

Applicant: Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Project description: To reposition the role of heritage and culture and to use the Athelstan moment to bring people and organisations together to explore the borough’s diverse and contemporary identity. To engage with Kingston’s communities and uncover and share more diverse and inclusive stories. To build a legacy for new ways of working, to strengthen relationships and to advocate for future investment.

Decision: Award grant of £178,486

A Stitch in Time

Applicant: B-SIDE MULTIMEDIA FESTIVAL COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Project description: A two-year, place based, community-led programme to explore, protect and celebrate the Isle of Portland’s and the complex history of migration, movement and belonging. The project aims to upskill the community to value, protect and share their stories and histories, reduce barriers to access, foster better understanding and cooperation, and enhance a sense of place and community.

Decision: Reject

Butterfly Conservation's Land Management Hub Project - Phase 1

Applicant: Butterfly Conservation

Project description: As the UK’s leading organisation on butterflies and moths, Butterfly Conservation is to seek and create a unique, innovative ‘Land Management Hub’ website: a bespoke mixed-media resource to benefit land managers and land advisors in the UK.  

Decision: Reject

ENLab

Applicant: Enfield Council

Project description: To develop in partnership across the borough a curriculum-based heritage education offer to ensure Enfield’s heritage remains accessible, valued, relevant and sustainable and that heritage is not forgotten, from its landscapes and parks to historical objects and civic architecture. The project will bring it all to life for primary school children through resource packs, site visits and a family festival.

Decision: Award grant of £240,000  

Fairfield House: securing the future.

Applicant: Fairfield House Bath CIC

Project description: To develop the organisation's capacity and take responsibility for the running of Fairfield House. To deliver and implement a fundraising and marketing strategy and to invest in capital works and plan for a sustainable and long-term future.  

Decision: Award grant of £244,380  

Cartoons for the Future

Applicant: Cartoon Art Trust Ltd

Project description: To undertake strategic curatorial work to safeguard the collection for the future and catalogue uncatalogued items with the focus on the 500+ British comic artworks and recent acquisitions from 2020 to the present day. To enable better use of the collection by partners, researchers, the public and the professional and emerging artist community.  

Decision: Award grant of £245,000

Keeping it Real.

Applicant: Museum of Colour C.I.C.

Project description: To engage an intergenerational audience across two cities to give historic non-fiction writers of colour greater public attention. To work with Words of Colour (WoC) and the British Library to research forgotten and under-celebrated writers, introduce audiences to places and heritage they may not usually visit and grow visitor numbers, strengthen collaboration and improve site accessibility.  

Decision: Reject

ARK - an inclusive creative space in a culturally iconic building, reflecting the synagogue's heritage and embracing Cliftonville's diverse communities.

Applicant: Cliftonville Cultural Space

Project description: To celebrate the heritage of ARK – the former Margate synagogue – the culture it represents, and the cultures represented in the local community. This project aims to increase organisational resilience, develop a business plan and create a fundraising strategy.  

Decision: Award grant of £248,983  

Wood Culture: Making stories of human-nature reciprocity in an Ancient Woodland

Applicant: Neroche Woodlanders Limited

Project description: To enable Neroche Woodlanders to listen, hear and tell the story of the relationship between people and the ancient woodland. Through a programme of practical activities, skills-building and research to create new meanings for these times, the project is to provide a pivotal developmental step for the organisation.

Decision: Reject

Surrey's "Heritage for All" grants Programme

Applicant: Community Foundation for Surrey

Project description: To create a new fund to distribute grants of up to £10,000 to organisations to conserve, share and utilise Surrey’s tangible and intangible heritage and natural environment to enrich people’s lives and the community.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000  

Havering Unearthed - an ambitious, two-year programme dedicated to uncovering, celebrating, and promoting the diverse and often hidden heritage of Havering.

Applicant: London Borough of Havering

Project description: To uncover, celebrate and promote the diverse and hidden heritage of Havering. To develop skills and capacity within the community to sustain heritage and create a legacy to embed heritage into the fabric of the community for generations to come.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000  

Tewkesbury Abbey - Welcoming All

Applicant: THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF TEWKESBURY ABBEY WITH WALTON CARDIFF

Project description: To save the heritage of the abbey and improve environmental sustainability. The project will outline plans for future capital build, implement a fundraising infrastructure to develop and improve the visitor experience and introduce a long-term Business Plan and Strategy to ensure a sustainable future for the abbey.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000  

Looking back to look forward.

Applicant: Army Welfare Service Blandford Forum

Project description: To connect young people from a service background with those who came before their parents. To take 10 young people on a journey with their own family to research the lives of the signaller assigned to them who fell. To understand their families and the important context with how service life in the past connects to their serving parent in the future and the importance of valuing the past.  

Decision: Reject

St Giles Lychgate Restoration

Applicant: Little Torrington Parochial Church Council

Project description: To restore the historic Lychgate at St. Giles church built in c. 1860, the main entry to the churchyard and church. It is centrally located in the village and requires significant repairs to conserve it for future generations.  

Decision: Reject

Refurbishment of St. Mary Tory cottage

Applicant: Trustees of the Saxon Church

Project description: To refurbish the cottage (Grade II) which adjoins the chapel of St. Mary Tory. The property is the Churches main form of income, restoration of the cottage would enable the property to be Let at market rate and prevent further deterioration.  

Decision: Reject

To Life! From Memory to Canvas: Celebrating the Life and Work of Stanislaw Brunstein

Applicant: South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue

Project description: To celebrate the heritage of the synagogue community, to connect with Jewish history and generate a sense of pride in Jewish culture. An exhibition and a series of events of Brunstein’s work would enable the synagogue to bring Brunstein’s work to a wider audience and safeguard it for future generations.

Decision: Reject

Torpoint Town Clock restoration

Applicant: Torpoint Town Council

Project description: To restore the clock and its structure, repair and repaint the bell cote, refurbish the clock face and replace the bell spring to ensure the long-term preservation of the clock's mechanisms.  

Decision: Reject

Preserving the Barrowfields: Protecting Newquay's Heritage and Beloved Green Space

Applicant: Alma Arts Space Ltd

Project description: To safeguard and celebrate the heritage of the Three Bowl Barrows at Newquay Bay, increase public engagement and foster a deeper appreciation and understanding of the Bronze Age site. To build a legacy of community involvement and heritage conservation to ensure the Barrows' stories are preserved and cherished by future generations.  

Decision: Reject

St Anselm's North Transept Heritage roof repairs

Applicant: THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF NORTH LAMBETH

Project description: To restore the original historic pan tile roof of the Grade II listed church to enable the ongoing use of the church as a 7-day a week community resource.

Decision: Reject

Heritage Pakistan Legacy

Applicant: Fiesta FM CIC

Project description: To further preserve and collate information about the arrival of the Pakistani community into Southampton and the difference this has made on the culture of the city since their arrival in the 1960's to present day. To celebrate the success of the community and how they have contributed to the local area and to maintain, share and celebrate culture and heritage throughout the city.

Decision: Reject

"Local Hero: John Ambrose Fleming - the Father of Electronics"

Applicant: LEA VALLEY HERITAGE COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Project description: To generate, communicate and celebrate the achievements of Professor Fleming and his role in establishing the UK as a world leader in the electronics industry before the emergence of the giant technology companies in the USA and worldwide.  

Decision: Reject

Tressell Works: history from below

Applicant: MSL Discover

Project description: To re-focus the mission of MSL Discover, to build in organisational sustainability, increase commercial potential and resilience, and to bring our established digital and partnership expertise to support and augment other heritage programmes. To focus on the southeast of England, where there are established partnerships and commonality in the coastal heritage narrative, to coalesce within a major environmental themed national festival, Beach of Dreams and explore and celebrate the ways in which our coast and its peoples are distinctive.

Decision: Reject

St John the Divine Kennington's Organ and Choral Music Project

Applicant: THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST JOHN THE DIVINE WITH ST JAMES THE APOSTLE KENNINGTON (commonly known as St John the Divine Kennington, or SJDK)

Project description: To transport, renovate and install a cathedral-standard Mander organ, currently in St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge, to further enable the church to cultivate its expertise in the intangible heritage of the Anglican choral tradition. The project also aims to enhance the quality and quantity of its musical output, to strengthen and sustain the nationally-recognised free youth music programme, and develop SJDK’s earning potential as a concert venue.

Decision: Reject

Grant increases

'Moor Imagination Centre: Heritage and Hope'

Applicant: Moor Imagination Collective

Project description: To create a space to encourage a shared culture, offer affordable spaces to hire in a supportive, inclusive and values-led ecosystem and be responsive to the needs of local people. The project will create a hub for grassroots performance, deliver a range of community programmes in education, arts and wellness activities, and work in partnership with established local organisations to reach a wide range of people and deliver services that will help them thrive.

Decision: Award grant increase of £29,000

Restoring the Bubwith Chapel 2023  

Applicant: City of Wells Almshouses

Project description: To restore, repair and rejuvenate the chapel building to re-animate it for public use. The project aims to share, articulate and preserve this unspoken history of some of Well’s poorest citizens and the historical significance of poorhouses and Almshouses. It will provide an open and flexible community space to benefit the whole community in Wells.

Decision: Award grant increase of £48,000