Community heritage
![Visiting the 1950s hairdresser at Beamish Museum. Credit: Nigel Roddis The interior of a 1950s hairdresser's shop. A visitor is having their hair styled by a stylist in vintage clothing. A child sits in a high chair next to the visitor.](/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_desktop/public/media/imgs/Visiting%20the%201950s%20hairdresser%20at%20Beamish%20Museum%20credit%20Nigel%20Roddis%202.jpg.webp?itok=9ra5SSfo)
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.
![Part of IT- Our story Cultures CIC project exhibition](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/projects/part_of_it.jpg.webp?itok=ABKKogGW)
Projects
Part of IT- Our story
Cultures CIC led a First World War project put together by the young people in the Teesside area which explored the contributions of African people and the effect of the war on the African continent.
Projects
Worthing's First World War discovery trail
Creative Waves Community Arts enabled young and old residents of Worthing to rediscover their town.
Projects
Call Up: The effect of the First World War on rural life in Hampshire
The Call Up helped participants piece together the lives of refugees living in Hampshire during the First World War.
![Montgomery First World War Monument Montgomery First World War monument](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/img_2305.jpg.webp?itok=37tM7z-T)
Projects
Research into the fallen: restoring a war monument and creating a memorial garden
Montgomery Town Council restored an existing First World War memorial, created a small memorial garden and researched the names of those fallen in the war, gathering stories to create a leaflet and exhibition.
Projects
James Dixon's Boys
Through workshops and visits, children from Salesbury School used archives to find out how the First World War affected boys living in Blackburn Orphanage.
Projects
Broadland During the First World War
This project is exploring the impact of the First World War on the people of Broadland, from the perspectives of the men who went to war and those who remained at home.
Projects
Legacies of War - Untold Otley Stories
Volunteers used the Otley Museum archives to create a digital map showing the address of every person on the town’s war memorial.
Projects
Wor War: the First World War in North Tyneside
Young people from North Tyneside found out how the First World War affected their local communities through a range of creative activities.
![Project participants receiving their award on Awards Day Project participants receiving their award on Awards Day](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/projects/yh-08-13654_hertswindrushrecollections.jpg.webp?itok=gdzzkaHl)
Projects
Remembering the Windrush decade in Watford
In June 1948, the SS Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury bringing the very first migrants from the Caribbean to settle in Britain. There are many in the Watford community who arrived then, or in the ten years that followed, in what has subsequently become known as the “Windrush Decade”.
Projects
Woking's Story: exploring local lives
Volunteers explored six centuries of history through the lives of local personalities, sharing their discoveries through the ‘Woking’s Story’ display at The Lightbox.
Projects
The Metropolitan Railway and the birth of Amersham-on-the-Hill
Metroland researched and shared the story of Amersham-on-the-Hill during the 150th anniversary of the Metropolitan Railway.
Projects
Forgotten Industries
As part of the All Our Stories programme, young people focused on the heritage of the coal and steel industry of South Yorkshire and were empowered to tell the local story of industrial decline.