National Lottery Heritage Grants 

Value our History – Our society, Our Groups, Our People

Applicant: Bolton Deaf Society

Project description: To research and share the D/deaf heritage of Bolton Deaf Society using theatre, film, a pop-up museum and online resources to commemorate the group’s 140th anniversary.

Decision: Award grant of £56,784 (100%) 

Forging a Future

Applicant: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum

Project description: To increase the capacity of the museum with several extra staff posts, to improve the quality and accessibility of the museum, retain Museum Accreditation, and improve their economic sustainability.

Decision: Award grant of £244,318 (100%) 

Putting the moss back in Moss Side

Applicant: Sow the City Community Interest Company

Project description: To engage Moss Side residents with the natural moss land heritage of the area through interactive and educational activities and trips, and creating green and blue spaces in the area.

Decision: Award grant of £78,200 (100%) 

So What Heritage

Applicant: Beacon Films CIC

Project description: To support 32 D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent creatives to produce film and video art interpreting museum spaces and collections, and share their work to encourage similar initiatives across museums.

Decision: Award grant of £104,490 (92%) 

Lights Up on Liverpool: A Theatre History Exhibition

Applicant: ArtsGroupie CIC

Project description: To hold a public exhibition of 250 years of Liverpool theatre history with walking tours, oral histories, play-reading sessions and workshops on preserving historical items at home.

Decision: Award grant of £20,742 (100%) 

Woolovers

Applicant: Holme Valley Sharing Memories

Project description: To share and celebrate West Yorkshire’s textile and woollen heritage with intergenerational knowledge sharing, traditional skill sharing and a final exhibition for Huddersfield Woven Festival 2025. 

Decision: Award grant of £31,506 (95%) 

Tree Story: The Story of Wigan Through its Trees

Applicant: Open Eye Ltd

Project description: To hold workshops with schools and community groups, deliver public exhibitions to tell the story of Wigan’s former industrial land turned wildlife haven and develop an interactive map sharing Wigan’s history through trees.

Decision:  Award grant of £49,800 (89%)

Birtley Heritage for All

Applicant: Skills 4 Work (Gateshead) Limited

Project description: To produce three local history videos, a website and social media content to make their in-person services accessible online.

Decision: Award grant of £12,150 (100%) 

Funny Stuff

Applicant: Lip Service Ltd

Project description: To produce a touring exhibition of oral histories, video and a physical archive to commemorate 40 years since LipService Theatre’s establishment and its collaboration with Manchester Fringe Forum to the Radical Theatre Movement.

Decision: Award grant of £46,197 (100%) 

Keighley Bangla Mela

Applicant: ISSE ltd

Project description: To engage 60 participants with Keighley’s Bangladeshi diaspora and heritage and through music, poetry and arts workshops.

Decision: Award grant of £79,610 (100%) 

A Taste from Home: Cultural Traditions of Migrants (Stories & Food)

Applicant: NUMERACY 4 ALL LTD

Project description: To share culinary heritage from Liverpool’s migrant communities through workshops, activities, making a cookbook and the production of documentaries to share and archive. 

Decision: Award grant of £57,510 (100%)  

Tales from the Tunnels

Applicant: Goofus Theatre CIC

Project description: To tell Stockport’s history through workshops and non-verbal puppet shows to children and young people who are disabled, neurodiverse or have additional needs in the Stockport Air Raid Tunnels.

Decision: Award grant of £22,922 (96%) 

The Graveship of Holme – A Pageant

Applicant: Holmfirth Art and Music Ltd

Project description: To co-create public performances, events and displays exploring local heritage over three weekends in seven very small townships in the Holme Valley, allowing the groups to share local knowledge and skills.

Decision: Award grant of £34,879 (87%) 

Preserving with Chutneys and Chats

Applicant: Arts 2 Heal

Project description: To encourage cultural exchange in the local community by documenting and sharing traditional recipes, while learning about the history of chutney in different cultures. 

Decision: Award grant of £29,777 (100%) 

Walking and Talking with Landscape: The Curlew Way

Applicant: The University of Central Lancashire

Project description: To raise awareness of the endangered curlew, and support farming and student communities to connect with each other and Lancashire’s natural heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £51,635 (100%) 

St Paul's Bell Tower Restoration Project

Applicant: St Pauls Church Stalybridge

Project description: To restore two damaged church bells and the bell frame, which have been in use for 183 years, after ageing and weather damage.

Decision: Reject

The Champs Camp Archive

Applicant: Moss Side Boxing and Athletics Association

Project description: To chronicle the history and impact of Phil Martin’s Champs Camp, Britain’s first successful black boxing gym, with film, permanent digital archives and activities with young people from disadvantaged communities. 

Decision: Reject

The Courtyard: Community, Sustainability and Access

Applicant: Harewood House Trust Limited

Project description: To improve the business’s economic resilience, sustainability and capacity by further developing the Grade I listed building into a community hub, adding green technology and a new Community Engagement Officer role.

Decision: Reject

Trinity 600: Celebrating 600 years of History with Hull Minster

Applicant: Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, Hull
Project description: To celebrate the church’s 600th anniversary and its significance to the city with music, arts and crafts, festivals and sharing traditional practices.

Decision:  Award grant of £113,562 (93%)

Tree Equity for Hartlepool

Applicant: Trees for Cities

Project description: Building on Hartlepool’s natural heritage which has been lost, this project seeks to address the low tree coverage in Hartlepool with community tree planting projects in the area.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000 (53%)

Unspoken Histories

Applicant: Stand Up Sisters CIC

Project description: To record and share the histories of Bolton women who have experienced mental health challenges by recording oral histories, producing poetry, stories and narrative films to share online, in-person and in a poetry book.

Decision: Award grant of £31,285 (100%) 

Lady Lumley’s Alms Houses Roofing Project, ensuring that our Alms Houses remain a safe and comfortable place to live for generations to come.

Applicant: Lady Lumley's Almhouses

Project description: To remove and replace the damaged rear roof extensions after previous efforts were disrupted resulting in further weather damage to the buildings. 

Decision: Reject

Wistow All Saints Church pipe organ restoration

Applicant: The Wistow All Saints Church Parochial Church Council

Project description: To complete repairs on the 164-year-old church organ over six months and have a piano substitute for church services during this period. 

Decision: Reject

Celebrating the contributions of unacknowledged musicians from marginalised communities to Leeds' rich musical heritage and diversifying the future of Leeds’ music by linking its past to its present.

Applicant: Come Play With Me CIC

Project description: To deliver interactive online and in-person activities to share and celebrate key contributions to Leeds’s musical heritage from members of marginalised communities, which have been previously under-served. 

Decision: Reject

Unsung Stories of Resistance & Resilience: Protecting, Celebrating and Passing on the Heritage of the Abasindi Black Women's Cooperative

Applicant: The Louise DaCocodia Education Trust

Project description: To raise awareness of and celebrate the Abasindi Black Women’s Cooperative’s history and achievements with three months of activities and a one-day African and Caribbean arts and cultural heritage festival.

Decision: Reject

Tradition Alive: A Heritage Skills Celebration

Applicant: Friends of Stoneface Creative

Project description: To host an immersive heritage skills showcase in an ancient woodland to engage new audiences in practicing traditional skills in a historically relevant space.  

Decision: Reject

Wood Yew BeLeaf It!

Applicant: Synergy (Grimsby) Community Interest Company

Project description: To engage 50 or more young people in research of 10 Lincolnshire ancient and plantation woodlands, the creation of a historical timeline and woodland preservation activities, whilst creating partnerships with similar existing schemes to share knowledge.

Decision: Reject

Otley COMMON

Applicant: Friends of The Wesley Otley Limited

Project description: To purchase the Grade II listed former Otley Methodist Church and convert it into a community hub and space for local people after the loss of their civic centre, while ensuring the buildings preservation.

Decision: Reject

Mirfield Show 2025 – 80th Anniversary of the Inaugural Show – Preserving for Future Generations

Applicant: Mirfield Agricultural Show Society

Project description: To host a community celebration of the show’s 80th anniversary and 30th relaunch with events and activities, engaging the local community and new audiences from surrounding areas with rural tradition. 

Decision: Reject

NS800 Heritage Project

Applicant: Linskill and North Tyneside Community Development Trust

Project description: To support North Shields’s community to learn about the area’s history and commemorate 800 years since the foundation of the original village with a range of local-led activities, events, exhibitions and performances.

Decision: Reject

Putting Heritage First

Applicant: Kirkgate Arts

Project description: To improve community access to the Cockermouth Heritage Collection by conducting research, developing their strategic work and delivering more activities and events.

Decision: Reject

IOU at 50 – Building the North's Hidden Super City

Applicant: IOU Ltd

Project description: To celebrate IOU’s 50th anniversary by holding public exhibitions, publishing online resources and involving the community in co-creating archives and collections conservation. The project will also complete essential roof repairs to their mill workshop space.

Decision: Reject

'Help Us Preserve Our Heritage and Keep It Warm.'

Applicant: Gorton Evangelical Church

Project description: To renovate the church building and improve its sustainability, adding accessible entry points and improved security to allow the church to diversify its income with venue hire and a nursery.

Decision: Reject

Byker Community Archive

Applicant: Northern Cultural Projects Community Interest Company

Project description: To create a community archive to showcase the evolution of the Grade II listed social housing estate, its architecture and community narratives, led by the community itself to make the area a better place to live. 

Decision: Reject

Grant Review

Insights, identity and imagination – taking steps to engage a wider audience and improve organisational resilience.

Applicant: Thackray Medical Museum Company Limited

Project description: To inform the museum’s strategy through audience research, deliver relevant events and engagement, support team members to lead and develop new skills and create a wellbeing garden with volunteers to make the museum more visually striking.

Decision: Award grant decrease of £25,105 to make a total grant of £203,806 (94%)