Today, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced initial support¹ worth £76m for eight major projects in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The sites are:

• Ditherington Flax Mill Maltings, Shropshire – internationally important conservation area and home to the world’s oldest iron framed building;
• V&A at Dundee – an exciting new museum to be located in Scotland’s fourth largest city as a showcase for design talent, past and present; 
• The Royal Academy of Arts, London – one of the capital’s most famous centres of artistic excellence;  
• Northumberland National Park – the North East’s ‘cathedral’ of the natural world, stretching from Hadrian’s wall to the Scottish borders;
• The Maze Long Kesh, Lisburn – former Second World War and prison site set to be transformed into a centre for peace-building and conflict resolution;
• Knole, Kent – a grand but jaded estate steeped in 600 years of turbulent history;
• National Army Museum, London – a much-loved museum telling the stories of the British Army from 1415 to recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq; 
• Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire – one of the UK’s most treasured places of worship and home to the 12th-century Winchester Bible.

In a highly competitive round of major grant (£5million plus) applications – with almost twice the amount of requests compared to money available – these eight projects highlight the continuing demand on HLF for capital funding with the potential for national and local economic impact. 

Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of HLF, said: “This latest portfolio of projects is probably one of the most wide-reaching we have ever seen. It covers so much that is important to the UK’s heritage – from cathedrals to national parks and industrial buildings to great museums. It recognises the role the UK has played in the development of modern architecture and in doing so will help ensure some of our most-loved places are saved for future generations.”

Ditherington Flax Mill Maltings, Shrewsbury, Shropshire - initial support for a £12.1m HLF bid, including £465,300 development funding
The Ditherington Flax Mill Maltings comprises seven listed buildings, including the 18th-century main mMill which is the oldest iron-framed building in the world. As an early prototype for contemporary architecture, the mill was the forerunner of the skyscrapers that are now such a familiar backdrop to city life. This internationally important site reflects a time when Britain led the way in engineering innovation. A partnership including Shropshire Council, English Heritage and the Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings (who also represent the local community) plans to restore and redevelop this conservation area transforming it into a centre for learning, leisure, culture and enterprise.

V&A at Dundee, Dundee – initial support for a £9.2m HLF bid, including £200,000 development funding
Design Dundee Limited² is progressing with ambitious and exciting plans to create a new V&A at Dundee; a museum which will celebrate Scotland’s influential design heritage from the 18th century onwards. This project has the potential to deliver far-reaching benefits for the city akin to Bilbao ‘Guggenheim Effect’. Scotland has a tradition of producing outstanding designers from a variety of disciplines including: Charles Rennie Mackintosh (architecture); Christopher Kane and Jean Muir (fashion); Patrick Geddes (town planning); and Thomas Telford (engineering). With a large and thriving creative industry still in place this is the perfect time to focus attention on a rich seam of Scottish talent and help develop new connections between heritage and industry. 

The Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London – initial support for a £12.7m HLF bid, including £458,700 development funding
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA), synonymous with Britain’s artistic heritage, will be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2018. A key player in the cultural landscape of London, the RA will use this milestone as the impetus for transforming its existing Burlington House and Gardens site, including the creation of a new public entrance at 6 Burlington Gardens (formerly the Museum of Mankind), and to reinvigorate relationships with both existing and new visitors. Plans include vital restoration work and the establishment of a link between the two buildings as well as the creation of new learning spaces and programmes and the establishment of conservation apprenticeships.

Northumberland National Park – initial support for a £6.3m HLF bid, including £399,200 development funding
Northumberland National Park is the North East of England’s sole national park, comprising 400 square miles of land stretching from Hadrian’s Wall to the Scottish borders. It is home to an extraordinarily diverse range of nature including: the rare river jelly lichen; the enigmatic freshwater pearl mussel; and threatened species such as the red squirrel, curlew and black grouse. Northumberland National Park Authority welcomes large numbers of visitors every year and will work in partnership with YHA to create a new Landscape Discovery Centre and youth hostel to provide a world-class experience of the area’s wildlife and cultural heritage. 

The Maze Long Kesh, Lisburn – initial support for a £6.4m HLF bid, including £351,600 development funding
Plans for the future of the Maze Long Kesh in Northern Ireland have taken another step forward thanks to HLF’s support. Working with a range of partners, the complex recent history of this site as a military base and prison, as well as stories relating to its time as an airfield, its links to the Second World War and motor racing will be explored. These different strands will be brought together in an innovative exhibition and archive, housed in the new European Union funded Peace-building and Conflict Resolution Centre, with the focus on international exchange, education and research.
 
Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent – initial support for a £7.5m HLF bid, no development funding
Grade I listed Knole, an architecturally spectacular Tudor palace and renaissance mansion in the heart of Kent, has a fascinating history encompassing the eras of King Henry VIII and novelist Vita Sackville-West. Linked to the bustling market town of Sevenoaks, the house and surrounding deer park have been a constant backdrop to the community’s daily lives over the centuries. Whilst the built fabric of the house requires urgent repairs, the National Trust is also developing plans for new studios to showcase the best of heritage conservation as well as provide a range of training opportunities, such as apprenticeships and short courses, throughout the year.

National Army Museum, Chelsea, London – initial support for a £11.3m HLF bid, including £350,000 development funding
The National Army Museum was opened in 1970 to house the national collections of the Land Forces of the Crown. It holds one million artefacts, including a muster roll from the Siege of St- Denis in 1435 and more contemporary pieces such as a Belsen Medical Kit which was used to help treat Holocaust survivors in 1945. Exhibitions explore a range of issues facing the military, including challenging subjects such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and homelessness amongst veterans. The current exhibition is entitled War Horse: Fact & Fiction. Plans involve the complete physical makeover of the museum building and an extensive outreach programme. The range of innovative ideas in development will transform the visitor experience and widen the overall appeal of the Chelsea site. 

Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire – initial support for a £10.5m HLF bid, including £475,500 development funding
Winchester Cathedral, built on the instruction of William the Conqueror, has weathered both the religious and political storms of over nine hundred years worth of history. In order to ensure it survives into the next century, a five-year programme of urgent conservation work will be undertaken on various parts of the Grade I listed building, including the presbytery roof and clerestory windows. The cathedral is also developing ideas to help sustain it for the future by attracting more volunteer involvement and a greater range of visitors. Learning will be a particular focus with precious treasures – such as the exquisitely illuminated Winchester Bible and the Mortuary Chests containing the bones of Saxon Royals – better displayed to reveal the hidden stories behind this extraordinary building.  

Notes to editors

• ¹ A first-round pass means the project meets our criteria for funding and we believe it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals.  
• ² The Dundee Design Limited Partnership consists of: Dundee City Council; the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee; Scottish Enterprise; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Further information

Please contact Katie Owen or Lydia Davies, HLF Press Office, on 020 7591 6036 / 6035 / out of office hours mobile: 07973 613 820.