National Lottery Heritage Grants

In Residence at The Whitaker: The title reflects that The Whitaker was once a home

Applicant: The Whitaker Organisation

Project description: To provide additional capacity to strengthen the sustainability of The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery by developing a strategic approach, improving the engagement programme and digitising the collections.

Decision: Award grant of £249,985 (96%)

Rekindling Nello James: Cultivating Caribbean Culture with Stories of Home

Applicant: Rekindle School Ltd

Project description: To explore and share the legacy of C.L.R. James, NJC, and Caribbean heritage in a cross-generational project through activities such as interactive storytelling workshops, podcast creation, and a public exhibition.

Decision: Award grant of £104,983 (100%)

Slawit Shop and Moonraking

Applicant: Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival

Project description: To capitalise on the anniversaries of the Carr Lane shops and Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival to deliver a programme of research activities, workshops and events centred around Slaithwaite heritage, folk traditions and community identity.

Decision: Award grant of £97,195 (92%)

Organisational Resilience for the Friends of Stockton & Darlington Railway

Applicant: The Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway

Project description: To capitalise on a decade of investment and volunteering by developing a sustainable plan to protect, preserve, and promote the heritage of the Stockton & Darlington Railway beyond its bicentenary in 2025.

Decision: Award grant of £238,788 (97%)

Restoring pine martens in Cumbria: connecting lives and landscapes (RPMC)

Applicant: University of Cumbria

Project description: To work with volunteers and the local prison community to support the recovery of the pine marten populations in North West England and restore the local forest ecosystem’s health and resilience.

Decision: Reject

Going Underground – Accessing Tyldesley's Unique Hidden Heritage

Applicant: Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley Heritage Group CIC

Project description: To save a locally important heritage building and its unique Victorian mine training facility from commercial development by making it accessible. To undertake an audience development plan, create a museum space and develop a targeted education programme.

Decision: Award grant of £102,300 (72%)

Building capacity and resilience of the Three Counties Partnership for landscape-scale programme development and delivery

Applicant: The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust

Project description: To strengthen the Three Counties Partnership to deliver a landscape-scale project in the Lune Valley and create an effective legacy through facilitated workshops, a new governance structure, and the creation of a youth steering group.

Decision: Award grant of £100,202 (94%)

10 Years of Elizabeth Gaskell's House: Inaugural Writer's Residency

Applicant: Manchester Historic Buildings Trust

Project description: To engage a younger audience with Elizabeth Gaskell's work through the delivery of a young writer's residency, the production of learning resources for schools, an exhibition and the creation of a short film to promote the project and Gaskell's legacy.

Decision: Award grant of £33,000 (100%)

Tree Equity for Hartlepool

Applicant: Trees for Cities

Project description: To restore Hartlepool’s natural heritage by addressing the urgent need for increased tree canopy cover in the city through tree-planting, administering community grants to local groups, and running engagement and education programmes.

Decision: Reject

Kindling a Community Farm

Applicant: Kindling Farm Limited

Project description: To grow, protect and promote Kindling Farm and create a sustainable, achievable and community-led model for the farm’s development that protects the natural heritage through heritage skills workshops, wildlife activities and community events.

Decision: Award grant of £126,448 (100%)

#HP Shildon and Newton Aycliffe: Shaping the Future Through Heritage

Applicant: Durham County Council

Project description: To develop an evidence baseline and theory of change for the Strategic Partnership, to scope future development of key heritage assets to ensure resilience and sustainability long-term, and to place children and young people at the heart of heritage place making.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000 (89%)

‘92 Years and Counting’

Applicant: Wigan Athletic FC Community Trust

Project description: To celebrate the heritage of Wigan Athletic Football Club, using archive material in an interactive programme with primary school children and collecting personal recollections of supporters to preserve for future access.

Decision: Award grant of £130,515 (100%)

Durham Museum of Archaeology: Connecting Communities with Durham's Archaeological Heritage

Applicant: Durham University

Project description: To improve England's second oldest university museum’s infrastructure, displays, environmental impact, accessibility and engagement activities as part of a wider comprehensive redevelopment.

Decision: Reject

Brontë Birthplace 2025 Bradford Year of Culture

Applicant: Brontë Birthplace Limited

Project description: To open the Brontë Birthplace as a heritage destination in time for Bradford City of Culture and deliver a programme of activities and events that align with Brontë milestone dates and other activities in Thornton.

Decision: Award grant of £242,490 (88%)

Toon Underground

Applicant: Moving Parts Arts CIO

Project description: To support 300+ intergenerational residents of Newcastle and Gateshead to take part in free-to-access creative heritage workshops exploring the unseen and undiscovered places and voices of Newcastle, its nature and its industry.

Decision: Reject

Growing Well – Branching Out

Applicant: Growing Well Limited

Project description: To establish a new horticultural programme to grow native trees from seed on site at Tebay Services, upskill a local workforce in traditional land management skills, meet mental health needs and offer improved environmental outcomes.

Decision: Award grant of £244,256 (88%)

Greater Manchester Nature, History and Heritage Walks

Applicant: Become United

Project description: To engage BAME communities with the heritage of Greater Manchester (natural, cultural and built) through a programme of guided heritage walks, nature sessions and workshops.

Decision: Reject

Unveiling Roots: Cape Verde Heritage in the Shadows of the Slave Trade

Applicant: Djurtus United

Project description: To celebrate and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Cape Verdean community in Leeds through oral history training, documentation of significant cultural events and community workshops.

Decision: Reject

DREAMS AND STRUGGLES – Sheffield Popular Theatre 1984–1993

Applicant: Sheffield Popular Theatre History project

Project description: To explore the 9-year history of Sheffield Popular Theatre, which ran from 1984 to1993, through volunteer-led research, the creation of a website and exhibition, and heritage walks.

Decision: Reject

Connected, Collected, Catalogued: Celebrating Culture across West Yorkshire

Applicant: Wakefield Council

Project description: To increase expertise and capacity to enable West Yorkshire Archive Service to safeguard for the future the archive collections created during Bradford City of Culture 2025, Wakefield Our Year 2024 and Calderdale’s Culturedale 2024.

Decision: Reject

Preston Caribbean Carnival: Jubilee Archive

Applicant: Preston Caribbean Carnival Ltd

Project description: To research and develop an accessible archive to share the heritage of Preston Caribbean Carnival alongside community engagement activities.

Decision: Award grant of £37,500 (79%)

In Search of Pugin

Applicant: Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust

Project description: To research the original layers of decoration in preparation for a future project to restore the Grade II* listed early Gothic Revival style church interior alongside engagement activities with schools, universities, conservation groups and other interested parties.

Decision: Reject

Creating Community: connecting through shared heritage

Applicant: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Management Limited

Project description: To highlight the local heritage traditions such as Ruskin Lace making and experiences for the Keswick community to co-design and curate to share with a wider audience through workshops and exhibitions.

Decision: Reject

Miners Walk

Applicant: True North Trades

Project description: To create sculptures that celebrate the industrial heritage of Consett using heritage skills such as blacksmithing, welding and casting and situate them in protected woodlands.

Decision: Reject

Phase Two of Restoration of North and East Elevations of St Mary's Nantwich

Applicant: Nantwich Parish Church Preservation Appeal Trust

Project description: To work on phase two of the restoration of the Grade I listed St Mary’s Church in Nantwich, including completing the rest of the North and East elevations.

Decision: Reject

Rediscovering Egyptian (Kemetic) Yoga: A Journey Through Oral Histories

Applicant: The Green Yoga Collective CIC

Project description: To preserve, educate and create an appreciation for the ancient Egyptian practice of Kemetic Yoga through the recording and archiving of oral histories and teachings, training younger people in the practice and increasing the awareness and cultural importance of the practice.

Decision:  Reject

Cotton Famine Road

Applicant: History In Action CIC

Project description: To raise awareness and celebrate the legacy of Rochdale's Victorian millworkers and the historic Cotton Famine Road through research-led engagement with the community and schools including through drama, film, music, and dance.

Decision: Reject

Stranton Church tower clock faces and hands conservation and restoration

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of All Saints, Stranton

Project description: To coincide with wider restoration work on this Grade II* listed church, essential work will be carried out on the hands and lettering of three of the clock faces in the church tower.

Decision: Reject

Pioneers in the Material World: Invention and Innovation in the Lancashire Textile Industry in the 20th century, exploring how the future inspired the past and how our past must inform our future.

Applicant: British Textile Biennial

Project description: To capture the history of synthetic fabric development in the 20th century, with Lancashire at the centre, to inspire the next generation of innovators through exhibitions, a large-scale temporary sculpture, and engagement programmes.

Decision: Reject

Walking and Talking with Landscape: The Curlew Way

Applicant: The University of Central Lancashire

Project description: To engage the public in natural heritage via walks, talks and artist interventions in the Forest of Bowland, with a focus on the population of endangered birds that have been identified in the area.

Decision: Reject

Sri Guru Kalghidar Gurdwara & Community Building

Applicant: Sri Guru Kalghidar Gurdwara Doncaster

Project description: To make urgent repairs to the Gurdwara's roof, which is a key place of worship and activity for Doncaster's Sikh community.

Decision: Reject

A Deeper Dive

Applicant: Our Lido Ltd

Project description: To grow the awareness and understanding of the value of lidos, facilitate sector development, update the lido toolkit and develop a sustainable model for future lidos alongside legacy planning.

Decision: Reject

Urgent Heritage Preservation: Essential Repairs and Elevating Our Pantomime as the Critical Annual Fundraiser

Applicant: Yeadon Town Hall (Management) CIC

Project description: To preserve the Grade II listed town hall in Yeadon though essential repair work, improvements to accessibility and resilience proofing.

Decision: Reject

Heritage Through Cricket: Bridging Generations and Cultures

Applicant: Cricket Arena CIC

Project description: To celebrate and preserve the heritage of the British Asian community in Sheffield, focusing on cricket’s cultural and historical significance through workshops, cultural festivals, cricket matches and storytelling sessions.

Decision: Reject

Installation of solar panels to the roof of All Saints Church, Orton

Applicant: Orton With Tebay Parochial Church Council

Project description: To install solar panels on the roof of All Saints Church, Orton.

Decision: Reject

Mancala Connections: Bridging Cultures in Sunderland

Applicant: Utopia

Project description: To focus on the cultural and social heritage embodied by the traditional Ethiopian game Mancala through play sessions, educational workshops, volunteer training and resources, alongside annual tournaments and community building.

Decision: Reject

Community Labyrinth

Applicant: The Friends of Chances Park

Project description: To create a new permanent Cretan labyrinth path within Chances Park with signage and leaflets to explain the significance of the labyrinth and information for its use.

Decision: Reject

Grant increase

The Old Library – Lister Steps Carnegie Community Hub

Applicant: Lister Steps

Project description: To restore, adapt and extend a derelict Grade II listed former Carnegie Library building to relocate their childcare services and deliver a programme of education, training and volunteering activity.

Decision: Award grant increase of £230,462