Great news today! The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the Cathedral a grant of £2.5m to help develop our education and heritage ministry. It’s a most encouraging affirmation of our plans to improve not only physical but also intellectual and cultural access to the Cathedral, with a new Heritage and Visitor Centre and state-of-the-art interpretation in the Cathedral itself. In particular, it will enable us to double our capacity for hosting educational visits by schools and colleges from a radius of 50 miles or more.

Great news also for the City of Peterborough and beyond! This award recognises Peterborough’s heritage as of national significance. Moreover, as more visitors are attracted and welcomed by the Cathedral, so more business will be generated for other premises in the city centre!

It’s been a long haul getting this far. The team and Project Board at the Cathedral has been working for over two years on the bid. More than one of my colleagues has turned grey in the process, and the final documentation was so heavy it almost needed to be delivered by rail freight! But we’ve received great support from HLF as we’ve gone along, and we look forward to working with them to bring the plans to life. There’s still a great deal to do to refine the detail, but we aim to start work on the main access to the Cathedral as soon as possible – so long as we’ve raised the required matched funding of £400,000. All donations gratefully received!