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.
Projects
Celebrating the rich heritage of Leeds with a landmark year of culture
In a programme of community projects, local people will come together to showcase what makes Leeds a city to be truly proud of.
![A colourful banner commemorating the landing of the Empire Windrush, saying 'Docked here at Tilbury, June 22nd 1948'](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/imgs/windrushtilbury1_954.jpg.webp?itok=9e1fdsFe)
News
Six projects celebrating the legacy of the Windrush generation
![Children with pysanka egg display for Eurovision Children stand next to pysanka egg display for Eurovision celebrations](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/imgs/social-children_with_pysanka_eggs-dsc_5279-pete-carr.jpg.webp?itok=ZrQqEFkx)
News
Eurovision fever in full swing across Liverpool City Region
Projects
Wordsworth rewritten by people who experience homelessness
The Refuge from the Ravens project explored and retold the stories of an 18th-century book of poetry which featured poor people of the time.
![Group of children hold books whilst looking at the camera](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/imgs/bradford_book_project_heritage_fund_the_leap.jpg.webp?itok=xCSQkIzd)
Stories
Bradford’s diverse community heritage celebrated and shared thanks to local knowledge
Projects
RoseTinted: Empowering women in Walsall and beyond
This project used heritage as a lens to engage a wider range of people, while developing skills in research, financial planning, personal care and wellbeing.
Projects
The Gardeners' House: connecting people with nature
£2.2million has been awarded to create a new green community hub in Penzance, housing 200 years of Cornwall’s natural heritage and a sensory garden.
Projects
Neurodiversity through the ages
Educating local communities in Grimsby about neurodiversity throughout human history, including – the development of psychiatry as a discipline, the history of diagnoses and how society treated neurodivergent people.
![Rickshaw being painted as part of the South Asia Gallery at Manchester Museum. Credit: Manchester Museum Person painting a rickshaw on display in the South Asia Gallery at Manchester Museum](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/imgs/Rickshaw%20being%20painted%20-%20South%20Asia%20Gallery.jpg.webp?itok=IieMYSEe)
News
Hello Future: Manchester Museum to reopen following ambitious transformation
Projects
Temporary exhibition presenting the history of the Chinese community in Chinatown 1960 to present
The project resulted in an exhibition to explore, celebrate and understand the heritage of the Chinese community in London’s Chinatown from the 1960s.
![People posing with the Heritage Fund logo with a beautiful landscape of a glen in the background](/sites/default/files/styles/hlf_xlarge/public/media/imgs/Glencoe%20Museum%20in%20the%20glen%2012.JPG.webp?itok=6Cj053yn)
News
£1.4million to transform the Highlands’ Glencoe Folk Museum
Projects
Our Heritage: supporting D/deaf children in Walsall
Families of children with D/deafness or hearing impairments took part in social activities that taught them about local heritage, traditions and skills passed down through generations.