Industrial, maritime and transport

Casting a bell at Taylor's Bellfoundry. Photo: Katelyn Collins.
Celebrating the innovative buildings, transport and technology that helped shape the modern world.
Since 1994 we have awarded £630million to 1,600 industrial, maritime and transport projects across the UK.
We want to help more people conserve their local industrial heritage and pass on skills to younger generations.
What do we support?
Projects we fund include:
- printing presses
- pumping engines
- windmills
- historic ships
- locomotives
- natural landscapes transformed by industry
Project ideas
Our funding could help people:
- uncover and record people’s memories of our industrial past
- give a disused site a new purpose
- restore and maintain operating machinery
- reveal the history of industry in your area
- explore the nation's network of canals
- provide staffed visitor facilities and learning resources
- help young people learn new skills and care for their heritage
See the stories and projects below for more inspiration.
How to get funding
If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.

News
Heritage groups offered free coaching to hone fundraising skills
Wales’s museums, libraries and other heritage and environmental organisations are being offered the chance to give their fundraising a major boost.

Bilingual interpretation boards at the Holyhead Maritime Museum
News
First World War remembered in Anglesey thanks to Lottery funding
HLF has recently awarded over £20,000 to projects in Anglesey, which will ensure the repair of the memorial village clock in Gwalchmai, expand and revitalise Holyhead’s Maritime Museum and fund a programme of commemorative events in Beaumaris. Jennifer Stewart, Head of HLF, Wales said, “We want to

Carys Howell speaking at an event
News
Opportunities to join Wales Committee
I was first attracted to applying for a role as a Committee member because HLF looks at heritage in its broadest sense. It includes landscapes, people, language and it also covers the whole of Wales. I know how important it is that heritage in all its forms across Wales is protected so this was a

Educational activity at Giant's Causeway
News
Opportunities to join our Committees
The work of our CommitteesOur committees meet four times a year and take decisions on requests between £100,000 and £2million. They also provide crucial local perspectives and a steer on priorities for larger grants and targeted initiative decisions which come before the UK Board. Members will have

News
HLF helps lift the curtain on Citizens Theatre redevelopment
Originally opened in 1878 as a variety theatre in Glasgow’s Gorbals, the Citz, as it is affectionately known, became home to the Citizens Theatre Company in 1945, launching the careers of actors such as Stanley Baxter, Bill Paterson, Rupert Everett, Gary Oldman, Helen Baxendale, Alan Rickman and

Roberts Park
News
Public parks under threat
Today, the Heritage Lottery Fund has published State of UK Public Parks 2014: Renaissance to risk? its first report to comprehensively review the condition and management of the UK’s public parks. Two decades of public and Lottery investment has ensured that the majority of UK parks are in better

Hedd Wyn
News
£2.8million Lottery grant success for Hedd Wyn’s home
As Wales embarks on four years of First World War commemorations, the HLF is playing a key role in the centenary by conserving the Grade II* listed home of the iconic Welsh poet who lost his life in the conflict. Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his bardic name, Hedd Wyn, was raised at Yr

News
London Transport Museum unveils restored B-type ‘battle’ bus
London Transport Museum has unveiled a restored double deck open top B-type bus as part of its commemorations of the First World War. The B-type bus No. B2737, appeared in public for the first time in Covent Garden on 12 June 2014 - resplendent in its red and cream livery, and featuring

News
Archaeological investigations of Barnsley Pals training camp
To mark the Centenary of the First World War, this project will enable local people in the Barnsley area to be involved with the archaeological, geophysical and landscape survey of the Silverwood Newhall Training Camp site. This project will add to the understanding of the Barnsley Pals battalion’s

News
Just Imagine life without National Lottery funding
To highlight the difference this money makes to real people and projects a short animated film, narrated by Ricky Tomlinson and starring Ricky, Chris Hoy and Beth Tweddle will be launched on 28 April. The film connects people and projects across the UK and asks the nation to imagine what life would

News
Support for Portsmouth's D-Day Museum in 70th anniversary week
In the week that the eyes of the world are fixed on Normandy and Portsmouth as the 70th anniversary of D-Day is commemorated, it is announced today that Portsmouth City Council's D-Day Museum has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a £4.1million bid to completely

News
£34.5m Lottery investment in UK’s public parks
Today the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Big Lottery Fund announced £34.5million of investment in 13 parks across the UK. This new funding follows the publication of the HLF’s recent report (26 June) which revealed the UK’s public parks are at serious risk of decline unless innovative new ways of