Cultures and memories
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 which help to explore, save and celebrate the traditions, customs, skills and knowledge of different communities.
This cultural heritage is sometimes referred to as intangible or living heritage. This is because it is constantly changing and kept alive when practiced or performed.
We also fund projects which document and share people’s memories. This often involves capturing oral histories and ensuring they are accessible now and in the future.
Project ideas
Our funding could help people:
- research and share oral traditions, such as storytelling or local dialects
- train others in traditional skills and crafts, from dry stone walling and blacksmithing to basket weaving and textile making
- research the origins of culture, such as music, theatre or dance, and create performances influenced by past styles
- share the history and fun of celebrations, festivals or rituals with new audiences, from games and cooking to carnivals and fayres
- capture accounts of traditional knowledge or pass it on, such as woodland management or home remedies
- record the stories of ordinary people through oral histories, for example about growing up, migration or work
- retell people’s memories about a place or event, such as a long-stay hospital, the miners' strikes or the punk movement
How to get funding
If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.
Projects
Never Going Underground: The fight for LGBT+ rights
Never Going Underground: the fight for LGBT+ rights’ was an award-winning exhibition developed by LGBT+ volunteer community curators and staff at People’s History Museum in Manchester.
Projects
Exploring the history of Birmingham’s Bangladeshi-owned ‘Indian’ restaurants
The history of the pioneers of Birmingham’s Bangladeshi-owned ‘Indian’ restaurants was uncovered and shared through an immersive exhibition, events, website and book.
Projects
Crossings: An exploration of less visible maritime buildings and communities in Leith
Exploring the vibrant heritage of Leith through dance and film.
Projects
50 Years of the Barford Tigers
Young people recorded stories of their successful Birmingham hockey club, the Barford Tigers, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Projects
The Re-Creators: the history of computer games and how they change us
Young people will explore the evolution of computer games from Pong to modern-day narrative-based platform games.
Projects
Passing on hobbies within the South Asian community
This intergenerational project engaged migrant women in sharing the hobbies they had enjoyed back home in the sixties and seventies, ensuring these pastimes weren't lost forever.
Projects
The Sandi Hughes archive - Liverpool's LGBTQ+ diverse community heritage on film
This project made the work of black, feminist, gay filmmaker Sandi Hughes available online and in the Liverpool Record Office.
Projects
Circadius
Young people from the communities of Muirhouse and Pilton in Edinburgh have been exploring the traditions and evolution of travelling circuses.
Projects
Reflections On The Somme
Reflections On The Somme, developed and led by young people, will explore perspectives of soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Somme.
Projects
Food production in the Vale during the First World War
Community groups and university partners came together to explore how the First World War was won in the market gardens of Worcestershire as well as on the battlefield.
Projects
Discovering Their Footsteps
Pupils at North Primary School discovered and shared the stories of former students who fought during the First World War through two HLF-supported projects.
Projects
Exploring the hidden history of brain injury care in Cambridgeshire
People with brain injuries explored the experiences of similar people in the past in this innovative heritage project.