7 February

Legacy Lines: Celebrating Diversity, Heritage, and Inclusion through poetry

Applicant: Writers at Play

Project Description: To celebrate the lives and works of LGBTQI+ poets and writers in 19th and 20th century Britain. The project will deliver a series of history, writing and poetry workshops for individuals aged over 55, both online and in person. Professional heritage facilitators and poets will guide groups through research and themed writing activities, highlighting their own historic research, themes and interests.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Reaching Out with Sound

Applicant: Blandford Forum Museum, Heritage and Arts Trust

Project Description: To introduce QR codes on all main museum exhibits which would allow access to audio descriptions and additional video and photo available online. The project will also incorporate a visitor questionnaire to gather visitor impressions and create an outreach programme to Dorset care homes and special schools.

Decision: Award grant of £25,020

Chasing Crockern

Applicant: Villages In Action

Project Description: A 15 month project focusing on the heritage of Dartmoor will celebrate its ecology and landscape and explore and reimagine its folk tale and folklores. Project activities including workshops, community days and walks will engage children and young people and people of diverse ethnicities, gender identities and socio-economic backgrounds in local villages across Okehampton, Yelverton, Princetown, Buckfastleigh, Ashburton, Bovey Tracey and Chagford.

Decision: Award grant of £26,836

St Andrew's Church – My Barnsbury: Past, Present, Future

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of the Barnsbury Team Ministry

Project Description: A development project to identify future ambitions for heritage programming and enable steps towards ensuring the building is fit for purpose for future generations. Community activities will engage local underserved people including children from local schools with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, ethnically diverse communities or low-income families and young adults from ethnically diverse communities.

Decision: Award grant of £94,535

Milton Keynes LGBTQ+ Heritage Project

Applicant: Q:ALLIANCE

Project Description: To explore the history of Milton Keynes’ LGBTQ+ community, heritage which is not currently included in the ‘story’ of the city. The project will deliver community engagement activities including the recording of 30 oral histories, six History Clubs, two films, an exhibition and accompanying e-book. They will also produce and perform a play.

Decision: Award grant of £122,287

Empower to Achieve Heritage Project: Tracing the Ancestry of Women in Sport of Caribbean, Indian, and Somali Heritage

Applicant: Jason Roberts Foundation

Project Description: A sports heritage focused project, with particular emphasis on women from Caribbean, Indian and Somali heritage backgrounds. The project will engage young female students through an exhibition and public events, alongside oral history sessions to directly engage the community and encourage participants to share tangible and intangible heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £144,370

Project Title: Readying Wheal Martyn for the Future

Applicant: Wheal Martyn Trust

Project Description: A planning and resilience project to secure the future of Wheal Martyn Museum near St Austell, Cornwall. The project will focus on engaging a wider and more diverse range of volunteers through an inclusive volunteer recruitment campaign. It also aims to develop a new fundraising strategy and review of the Museum's Masterplan and Interpretation Strategy.

Decision: Award grant of £219,694

Stanley Halls' decorative scheme: widening engagement with heritage & access to heritage skills

Applicant: Stanley Arts

Project Description: To use the heritage embodied in the grade II-listed Stanley Halls to deliver a programme of activities that will target elderly people living in care homes, primary school children, Black and south-east Asian communities, LGBTQ+ and economically disadvantaged communities. The project will provide arts and crafts workshops and opportunities to develop heritage related skills.

Decision: Award grant of £226,287

Digital Transformation: Connecting Collections and Communities

Applicant: The Wiener Holocaust Library

Project Description: To review and catalogue archive collections and create new and engaging educational materials for young people and others outside London. The project aims to engage diverse audiences with global histories of the Holocaust and their wider relevance through exploring migrant experiences and post-war relief. This will include online access to material directly relevant to refugees to Britain and their descendants.

Decision: Award grant of £240,000

Living amongst the Sarsens: Revealing the Hidden Heritage of the Valley of Stones, Dorset

Applicant: Past Participate CIC

Project Description: To produce a new heritage interpretation of the Valley of Stones landscape through community driven archaeological activities, guided walks, talks, and signage installation. Over 500 new and existing volunteers will be given further training and opportunities to be involved with the Valley of Stones’ heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £249,344

Penryn Arts Centre

Applicant: GW Arts CIC

Project Description: To undertake urgent repairs to a Grade II listed building, alongside internal repurposing of the building to provide affordable studios and community spaces. Alongside the capital works, the project will deliver three community activity strands; collecting, digitising and disseminating the memories, stories and ephemera of the church, School Room and 50 women in Cornwall.

Decision: Award grant of £249,986

East London: Food Chronicles

Applicant: Mindful Photo Lab CIC

Project Description: To capture east London's culinary tapestry, spotlighting how colonialism, immigration, and contemporary challenges and environmental concerns have shaped the community's food stories. Participants will engage with culinary traditions through workshops and oral history sessions.

Decision: Award grant of £9,750

Sidney Street Mural

Applicant: John's Place Tenants' and Residents' Association

Project Description: To explore shared local heritage and memories of living in Tower Hamlets. Artists will be appointed to work with participants to design and create a mural to be placed on the southern flank wall of 61a Sidney Street. Oral histories will be collected from elder members of the community regarding their experiences of living in the area and historical moments.

Decision: Award grant of £29,773

Working Life: An SE1 audio-visual heritage project

Applicant: Pedalling Arts Limited

Project Description: To digitally restore a photographic archive from 1964 and create an oral history collection about the Lower Marsh region. The range of community engagement will include older people who remember 1964, young people in local schools, local businesses and the new local Ukrainian community of all ages.

Decision: Award grant of £43,780

Fixing Day: An Oral History of live musician's work in London's West End

Applicant: digital-works

Project Description: To explore the working lives of musicians in London's West End, with a focus on 1950s Archer Street and its unofficial labour exchange. Volunteers will be trained to record oral histories and undertake research to be edited into a film and podcast series and the creation of a website will share project outputs.

Decision: Award grant of £43,800

Mary Lockyer: Starlight

Applicant: Mayes Creative Ltd

Project Description: To explore the life and achievements of Mary Lockyer (1852-1943), an astronomer and social activist. Volunteers and researchers will carry out research on Lockyer to contribute to a travelling 'Starlight' exhibition which will follow activities across the Devon and Cornwall region. This will accompany stargazing activities including artists' camping residencies on Dartmoor and St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly, 'starry campouts' at Stithians, and stargazing at Sidmouth Observatory.

Decision: Award grant of £62,888

Trojans UK 24

Applicant: Refuge Media Productions CIC

Project Description: A six-month project to engage migrant groups in Hounslow, enabling them to share their story with the wider community. The project will enable participants to share their stories of migration in a creative and engaging way through the creation of an archive to document their stories and through interviews and performances which will be recorded and be made available online.

Decision: Award grant of £79,831

Brook Rural Museum – Reaching out into our communities

Applicant: The Wye Rural Museum Trust

Project Description: To extend Brook Rural Museum’s (BRM) reach, engage with new audiences in Ashford, catalogue and conserve collections, develop new interpretation, and build organisational resilience. The project will recruit new volunteers working with Ashford Volunteer Centre and FCN, developing and delivering wellbeing activities and training and deliver a mini-touring exhibition and hands-on activities.

Decision: Award grant of £88,294

"I love chanting!": Giving Modern Voice to the Ancient Chant Heritage of London

Applicant: Mental Fight Club

Project Description: To introduce up to 800 vulnerable Londoners to the heritage of ancient London chants and co-create creative responses (singing, movement, writing or visual art) by working with a variety of artists. Participants suffering from mental ill health and homelessness will attend heritage workshops and community research creative heritage engagement focus groups.

Decision: Reject

Bold Brave Wonder Women of Islington

Applicant: All Change Arts Limited

Project Description: A 19-month project using arts and heritage to engage the local community in the rich and varied stories of female Islington activists, covering a period of 400 years to present day. The project will deliver public festival events with artworks in high-footfall locations, guided walks and talks led by young women.

Decision: Reject

Damage and Repair – the first 20 years of Restorative Justice

Applicant: Why me? UK

Project Description: To create a national archive of 25 stories to mark the first 20 years of Restorative Justice in England. This will comprise of memories, stories and experiences of people who participated in Restorative Justice, including victims of crime, practitioners and criminal justice professionals.

Decision: Award grant of £121,130

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Southsea

Applicant: Trash Arts Open Ya Mouth CIC

Project Description: To contribute to the limited research available on the Battle of Southsea and communicate widely its social importance. The project will establish a new historical society, engage locals in archival research and collaborate with Portsmouth City Museum for the curation of a temporary exhibition. The project will also include a production of a mini historical documentary and install pavement marker coins to commemorate the event.

Decision: Award grant of £134,641

Turning Point (v2)

Applicant: Sweet Patootee Arts

Project Description: A cross territorial and intergenerational project that will explore, celebrate and record British Caribbean heritage spanning back 100 years. The project will focus on recording, interpreting, and highlighting Black British 20th century history from participants based in Birmingham and London through workshops and collecting oral histories.

Decision: Award grant of £138,801

Our Museum: Reconnecting Community and Collections

Applicant: The Egham Museum Trust

Project Description: To deliver a programme of work that aims to engage wider audiences, develop new practices, and leave the collection better managed, interpreted and preserved. Through engagement workshops and working with local communities, the project aims to reimagine what a community museum collection should include, such as the voices of those not currently represented in the collections and younger demographics.

Decision: Award grant of £140,877

Storming The Teacup: Diversifying Portsmouth's Heritage

Applicant: Downtown Pompey CIC

Project Description: To explore Portsmouth's clubbing and nightlife culture from the 1970s-1990s with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ and working-class nightlife. The applicant, in partnership with Portsmouth Museum and other local and national organisations, will diversify existing collections and archives and facilitate the collection of further queer and intersectional stories through art workshops and the collection of oral histories.

Decision: Award grant of £177,944

Creating Histories

Applicant: Bethlem Gallery Projects Limited

Project Description: To capture contemporary practising artists’ lived experience of art and mental health from their perspectives. The project will involve recording the oral histories of artists and producing a series of short films documenting the practice of artists who are service users of SLaM NHS Foundation Trust.

Decision: Reject

Elmley Nature

Applicant: Elmley Nature Reserve Community Interest Company

Project Description: To increase access and engagement with Elmley National Nature Reserve (NNR), on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, and its natural heritage. The project intends to engage underserved local audiences who do not currently visit Elmley NNR through exhibitions and events programmes. Sessions will be provided for participants involved in a Rural Youth Project for young people, including young people who are neurodivergent and have special educational needs, and Isle Connect You, a group for over 65-year-olds experiencing social isolation.

Decision: Award grant of £206,557

Square Mile Churches: towards a sustainable future

Applicant: London Diocesan Fund

Project Description: A resilience-focused project to support a co-ordinated approach to the long-term sustainability of London’s Square Mile churches. The project aims to support the churches in undertaking a Community Audit to identify new audiences and understand barriers to engagement and deliver a trial heritage activity based on the findings. The project will also aim to engage around 400 students from eight local secondary schools through education programmes.

Decision: Award grant of £240,000

The Hackney Buzzline

Applicant: ECOACTIVE

Project Description: A 36-month project to deliver a four-kilometre ecological corridor, connecting four parks, through three social housing estates in collaboration with local people. This urban landscape initiative which will enhance hoverflies, beetles, bugs, butterflies, moths, bumblebees’ habitats through establishing the corridor, and will measure the biodiversity changes.

Decision: Award grant of £249,028

From Silence to Solidarity: Growing Grief into Hope

Applicant: INQUEST Charitable Trust

Project Description: A project across Scotland, England and Wales to deliver a range of outreach work focused on working with families affected by state-related deaths. The project aims to capture their stories, create an archive and raise awareness through a touring photographic exhibition, workshops and podcasts.

Decision: Reject

#HP Medway: A Place to be Proud of

Applicant: Medway Council

Project Description: A 5-month project focusing on developing the partnership capabilities of heritage and community organisations in the wider Medway region through community grants. The project will engage with local community associations, education providers, environmental organisations and other cultural actors to increase the diversity of heritage workforces and audiences and reduce barriers for people under-served by heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £249,900

Anglo Jewry Reclamation

Applicant: Kedoishim UK

Project Description: To bring neglected and unknown places of Jewish and British heritage in England into the spotlight and preserve their historical significance. The project will engage the local community through workshops, guided tours, lectures, seminars, conferences and interactive activities including focus groups and interviews focused on personal stories and community knowledge.

Decision: Reject

Middle Street Synagogue Feasibility Study

Applicant: Foundation for Jewish Heritage

Project Description: To undertake a Feasibility Study on the Grade II* listed building Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton, researching and evaluating options to bring the heritage site back into use.

Decision: Award grant of £20,000

Melksham Bell Augmentation Project

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Melksham Parish of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Melksham, Salisbury

Project Description: To commission new treble bells, with additional capital works, for the church of St Michael's in Melksham, Wiltshire. This will include an extension of the bell tower's frame and a central handrail for the bell tower to improve accessibility.

Decision: Reject

Preserving Our Roots: "Exploring Somali British Heritage & Identity"

Applicant: Global Somali Diaspora

Project Description: To educate younger generations within the Somali community about their cultural heritage. Volunteers and young people will take part in art workshops to explore Somali heritage, such as arts heritage, food, storytelling, traditional dances and poetry.

Decision: Reject

Baring-Gould Centenary

Applicant: Lewtrenchard Parochial Church Council

Project Description: To work with local organisations to share and celebrate the centenary of Victorian author, Sabine Baring-Gould. The project is split across several themes, including hymnody, folksong & literature; with the aim to explore and celebrate each through a variety of public engagement activities. This will include a community play performance and a bell ringing competition.

Decision: Reject

Blandford Fashion Museum: Designing a resilient future

Applicant: Cavalcade of Costume Ltd

Project Description: To increase the resilience and long-term financial sustainability of Blandford Fashion Museum and improve access. The project aims to formally assess the significance of the museum’s collection, identifying items in need of conservation and specialist storage and propose a full digitisation strategy.

Decision: Award Grant of £38,700

Voices of Indian Cinema

Applicant: Peacock Screen Limited

Project Description: An eleven-month partnership project, with events taking place in Leicester, Harrow and a film screening at the British Film Institute on the Southbank. The project will involve the digitisation and editing of archive footage belonging to Peacock Screen Limited and film screenings.

Decision: Reject

The Great White City VR Experience

Applicant: Urban Flyers CIC

Project Description: To explore the legacy of the Franco British Exhibition of 1908, held in White City. Oral history interviews will allow participants to share their stories, memories, and artifacts and short films will explore the sub-themes of the project.

Decision: Reject

St Piers Heritage Square

Applicant: National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy Charitable Trust

Project Description: To increase accessibility and the awareness of heritage on the campus at St Piers and to conduct capital works leading to the restoration of the St Piers Heritage Square. The project aims to create a heritage interpretation and learning strategy at St Piers, alongside a heritage space within the Granary and the link building leading to the main entrance of the barn.

Decision: Reject

Women of Ukraine

Applicant: Creative Response Arts Limited

Project Description: An oral history project to collect and record memories of women's experiences of leaving Ukraine, coming to Surrey and living with host families. These will be documented alongside photos previously taken by Ukrainian women working with Creative Response Arts and Activate Learning and exhibited in Farnham Museum.

Decision: Award grant of £3,850

19 February

Wards Corner Community Plan

Applicant: Wards Corner Community Benefit Society Limited

Project Description: This project would develop a proposal to take on the lease and restoration of Wards Corner Department Store in Seven Sisters, Tottenham, circa 1885.

Decision: Reject

Spreading the word about 'Marmite' St Wilfred and other Brading residents

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of Brading

Project Description: To install an information point in St. Mary the Virgin Church that can present content in a variety of ways, such as images, audio, video and interactive features. Activities and events including tours will engage schools and youth groups with the historical stories of the church.

Decision: Award grant of £9,995

What Makes a Londoner?: Building Modern Communities Through London's Early Modern Heritage

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Great St Bartholomew

Project Description: To engage local communities of people from low socio-economic backgrounds with the history of St Bartholomew’s Church. The project will do this through tours of the church and a concert.

Decision: Award grant of £6,486

Capturing the stories of our past, for our present and our future: Memories of living with, and adapting to, the first English commercial nuclear power station and the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories on our doorstep

Applicant: The Berkeley Community Trust

Project Description: To capture stories from those living and working in the Berkeley Vale during the construction and operation of the Berkeley Nuclear Power Station and the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories. Volunteers will be recruited and trained to collect memories, stories and images which will be published on a History of Berkeley website.

Decision: Award grant of £9,975

INPT Communication Plan

Applicant: Itchen Navigation Preservation Trust

Project Description: To create a website that will share details of current projects, information about how to volunteer, and information about the history of the Navigation.

Decision: Reject

Tess – Free Theatre Workshops

Applicant: Turtle Key Arts Centre Trust

Project Description: To run workshops in schools exploring themes surrounding Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

Decision: Reject

We Rose – Amplifying our Heritage

Applicant: The Milton Keynes Rose Trust

Project Description: To collect histories surrounding the Milton Keynes Rose which celebrate and commemorate local, national and global events. The project will create an archive of stories, produce a film, and engage volunteers.

Decision: Reject

Celebrating 100 years – Beach House Park

Applicant: Creative Waves Community Arts CIC

Project Description: To research the history and collect memories of Beach House Park, Worthing, which was opened by the local council in 1924. It will create information boards in the park, put on a free exhibition, and create educational packs for schools.

Decision: Award grant of £9,995

FOTG Film – Celebrating 50 years

Applicant: Folk on the Green (Stony Stratford)

Project Description: This project will collect the oral histories of organisers and attendees of the Folk on the Green festival in Sony Stratford on its 50th anniversary. It will produce a film that will be shown in the town and in the centre of Milton Keynes.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Saving graves

Applicant: Exeter Dissenters' Graveyard Trust

Project Description: A conservation project to repair memorial stones and carry out a survey of the boundary walls. The project will also involve the creation of a mosaic using pottery shards.

Decision: Reject

Exeter Custom House

Applicant: Exeter Canal & Quay Trust Limited

Project Description: To collaborate with cultural partners to research and create a community-led consultation process to identify best practice examples of national and international heritage spaces. Activities and displays will involve members of the public in questioning, imagining and commenting on the role of the Custom House.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Festival of Community: Pipe Dreams

Applicant: Staffordshire Street CIC

Project Description: To deliver workshops exploring the memories, intangible cultural heritage and archives of waterparks and swimming pools in South East London. The project will culminate in a two-week Festival of Community (FoC) sharing outputs alongside a co-curated programme of workshops and an exhibition.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Food and stories of women immigrants

Applicant: Alliance For Cohesion and Racial Equality Ltd

Project Description: To collect and record the stories of women immigrants through oral history interviews. Diverse cultures will be explored through culinary get-togethers and food tasting events.

Decision: Reject

Gloucestershire Goddess Community

Applicant: Stroud Goddess Temple CIC

Project Description: To cover the rent for the temple, which volunteers intend to open 6 days a week to run workshops on meditation, singing, drumming, crafting and personal development.

Decision: Reject

Enfield's Forgotten Canal: Recreating the rich history of the Lee Navigation

Applicant: Sense of Locality CIC

Project Description: This project will engage six young leaders in the history of the Lee Navigation canal at Enfield Island Village. This will be done through three workshops and a photography shoot that will culminate in the young leaders producing an exhibition to present their work.

Decision: Award grant of £9,975

Inclusive Community Heritage

Applicant: Lady Alice Memorial Recreation Ground and Village Hall

Project Description: To improve the site’s frontage in the conservation area by adding oak lecterns with printed maps and historic information and installing new signage.

Decision: Reject

Barn 500 Assessment

Applicant: The Cross Barn Odiham

Project Description: To carry out an assessment to identify the needs and ambitions for the present and long-term future of the Barn and improve its facilities and condition.

Decision: Reject

Crossings Remembered

Applicant: Pavement Pounders CIC

Project Description: This project will re-examine Folkstone’s recent past, working with two schools to engage with oral histories of the Folkstone ferry crossing. It will also involve two university students who will gain experience recording oral histories.

Decision: Award grant of £5,105

Ska, a hidden heritage

Applicant: Unity Roots CIC

Project Description: This project will uncover heritage stories of ska music, through oral histories, public events, a webpage and an e-book.

Decision: Reject

From Children's "Mental Deficiency" Hospitals to Now: Dr Mary Sheridan and Learning Disability Heritage

Applicant: Documental Productions CIC

Project Description: To produce a film based on historical documents covering Dr Mary Sheridan’s inspection reports of long-stay “Mental Deficiency” hospitals for children throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The project will involve arranging, filming and editing oral histories by former staff of long-stay hospitals and young people with learning disabilities.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

19 February

#HP Intra Stories

Applicant: Electric Medway CIC

Project Description: The project, ran by Electric Media CIC, focuses on the community heritage of Old High Street Intra, Chatham. The project will aim to target young audiences, specifically those aged between 11 – 18 through a range of activities including guided walks, digital camps and audio content. Through these activities the project will aim to explore and preserve the stories of the artistic, cultural and community activity that took place in Chatham from the 1960’s onwards.

Decision: Award grant of £89,250