Sharing Heritage is a new programme that follows the unprecedented success of last year’s one-off HLF grant scheme ‘All Our Stories’, which ran in tandem with BBC Two’s The Great British Story: A People’s History, presented by historian, Michael Wood. The scheme was four times oversubscribed and convinced HLF of people’s appetite to get involved.

Helping to launch Sharing Heritage, at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, projects from Sheffield, West Riding and Leeds joined others from across the North of England to share their stories with community groups attending today’s event hoping to apply for funding under the new scheme.

From the story of the world’s oldest football club in Sheffield, to the rich sporting heritage of our mining communities, and how cinema has played such a key role in Leeds’ local communities of the past, the Yorkshire projects are all working with young people to explore significant community heritage themes and how these have impacted and shaped the area in which they live.

Michael Wood, HLF’s champion for Sharing Heritage and speaking today at the launch, said: “We have already seen just how much people want to be able to delve into their local history and what those fascinating explorations can reveal. Community projects from last year are now underway ranging from school children discovering how Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club, has helped shape the modern game to looking at the lost pubs of Salford that were once at the very heart and soul of the town. I can’t wait to hear about the surprising stories that will come out of this new scheme. It’s the people who own history and this is a great opportunity to share that history with others and future generations.”

Fiona Spiers, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for Yorkshire and the Humber, added: “This new scheme will bring the giant jigsaw of our islands’ local stories together to create an unprecedented picture of our past. Here in Yorkshire as elsewhere in the UK heritage means such different things to different people, and this investment will offer a wealth of opportunities for groups to explore and celebrate what’s important to them in their local area. We are looking forward to receiving an exciting variety of applications under this new programme, reflecting the breadth of heritage across the region.”

Projects are expected to cover a wide spectrum of subject matter but could include exploring local archaeology, a community’s cultures and traditions, identifying and recording local wildlife and protecting the surrounding environment, collecting and digitising old photos, producing local history publications, conserving sites or items of local significance, managing and training volunteers, and holding festivals and events to commemorate the past.

John Wilson, leading The Home of Football project in Sheffield, said: “During the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands there were 619 million viewers but few of these knew that Sheffield was the home of football. With support from HLF we hope the school pupils will learn about and share the story of Sheffield’s football heritage with the world.”

An online application pack is available on the Sharing Heritage page or call 020 7591 6042 if you have any queries.

Notes to editors

Sharing Heritage is for any not-for-profit group wanting to explore their community’s heritage.

All Our Stories was developed in response to HLF’s Strategic Framework consultation with both the public and heritage sector. Based on this, HLF has made applying for funding simpler and easier for first time applicants and community groups. Last year All Our Stories grants were promoted through five BBC Learning events at flagship heritage locations and regional events across the UK which ran in tandem with BBC Two’s ‘The Great British Story: A People’s History’ series which inspired people to get involved with their local heritage. These events provided opportunities for people to discover their place in history and uncover the history of their local area and encouraged applications to HLF. The All Our Stories programme was four times oversubscribed with a total investment from HLF of £4.5m. Over 500 successful projects were announced in November 2012 and are currently underway.

Sharing Heritagewas launched at The People’s History Museum in Manchester on Tuesday 19 February by Michael Wood who was accompanied by a range of HLF-funded community heritage projects. Examples of some of the Yorkshire projects who took part are included below:

• The Home of Football, Sheffield – this project will involve pupils from local schools and colleges to explore Sheffield’s football heritage and investigate a number of archives under the guidance of football historians. Sheffield has a genuinely unique football heritage, which has influenced the modern game and can be found nowhere else in the world. The pupils will identify material to produce an historical record in the form of a football programme, describe this process in a blog to share with the world as well as recreating a traditional game of football using the Sheffield Rules from 1857.

• Coals, Goals and Ashes, West Riding – this All Our Stories project will see Fryston FC explore and celebrate Fryston's sporting heritage and the 50th anniversary of Fryston Colliery Welfare winning the West Riding Football Association County Challenge Cup - long regarded as the local equivalent of the ‘FA Cup’ for teams playing in the amateur leagues of West Yorkshire. The project will see young people examining the important legacy and demise of football since closure of the mine, to produce a DVD that will be premiered at the local school's 350-seater Phoenix Theatre and given to the National Coal Mining Museum.

• Lyric Picture House Community Project, Leeds - The Lyric, located in Armley, West Leeds, opened as a silent picture house in the 1920s and stopped functioning as a cinema in 1988. This project saw 20 young people working with Pavilion Visual Arts to raise awareness of Armley's local heritage, pass on knowledge of film history to local young people, and get the community involved in the cinema's reopening after restoration. They learnt to use the Lyric's 35 mm projectors, gathered local community memories, made short documentary films and gave public talks and tours of the cinema in collaboration with local history societies. As a result, the community are now working together to reopen the picture house again for a series of film screenings.

Further information

Vicky Wilford, HLF Press Office on 020 7591 6046 or vickyw@hlf.org.uk