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Community heritage

Community heritage

A group of people with handmade props and decorations
Act for Action CIC, recipients of a community heritage grant from One Knowsley. Photo: Act for Action CIC.
Celebrating community heritage can help people come together, feel pride in where they live and save stories and traditions.

Since 1994 we have awarded £460million to more than 24,100 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.

What do we support?

We fund projects that are researching, conserving and celebrating the heritage of a community or place.

These projects could include lots of types of heritage, such as people celebrating living customs or improving a historic green space. What's most important is that the project involves and benefits the community.

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • research the impact of a historical event on their town, and share their findings through displays, talks and online
  • investigate the names on a war memorial
  • crowdsource documents and photographs linked to the LGBTQ+ community, creating an online archive and exhibition
  • set up an audio trail around a range of buildings, parks and monuments in a town
  • enable a youth group to research their local history and create an animated film about their learnings

For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.

How to get funding

If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.

Explore our available funding
Two people talking. Behind them are banners promoting the Windrush Scotland project.
The project started conversations about the experiences of the Windrush generation.

Projects

Windrush Scotland: African-Caribbean Experiences in Scotland

Getting people talking and creating an archive of African-Caribbean community identity in Scotland was at the heart of the Windrush Scotland project.

A group of older people waving

Projects

Solar Flares: Deaf Heritage

The Solar Flares Deaf Heritage project explores and shares Scotland’s heritage through digital art.

A group of young people sit a table interviewing another young person, with another person to the side operating a camerawith
Young people conducting an interview for the project

Projects

Windrush Generations: Evolving Heritage

A group of young people working with the African Community Centre in Swansea led a project to uncover the stories of descendants of the Windrush generation living in South Wales.

Re-enactors from the WW1 Remembrance Centre, Portsmouth looking at school panels, plus children’s own work

Projects

Charing parish during the First World War

Local volunteers and school children investigated the impact of the First World War on the people of Charing and shared their research through exhibitions, open days and online.

Women's football team face the camera in two rows - one standing behind, one kneeling in front.
St Helens WFC, 1977. Copyright: National Football Museum

News

Revealing the hidden history of women’s football

As England prepares to host the UEFA Women’s EUROs this summer, a National Lottery funded project will tell the stories of the country's female pioneers of the game.
Wickham Market community holding up a banner to save The George pub.
Wickham Market's community saving The George Community Pub. Credit: Julian Evans

News

A new lease of life for Wickham Market’s community pub

A grant of £988,200 has been awarded to The George pub in Wickham Market, Suffolk ⁠– a Grade II listed building which will serve as a thriving community hub.
The South Riverside Community Development Centre
Green fingers and happy faces at the South Riverside Community Development Centre

News

£300,000 nature funding for under-served communities in Wales

Five of Wales’s most excluded and disadvantaged communities will be making the most of nature on their doorsteps thanks to ‘Local Places for Nature – Breaking Barriers’ grants.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.