With our support, these organisations are saving all kinds of heritage from loss, damage and decline and helping keep it accessible, relevant, sustainable and valued.

Revitalising places and safeguarding skills

These projects are bringing at-risk sites back into use, transforming local areas and boosting the skills needed to maintain heritage for generations to come.

The Landmark Trust combined the restoration of Calverley Old Hall with training in traditional crafts such as masonry and timberwork. The project conserved not only a Grade I listed medieval building and rare Tudor wall paintings, but also valuable heritage skills.

The Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust is securing a sustainable future for the Grade II* listed country house and park by transforming a disused 19th-century stable block into a thriving community hub with spaces for wellbeing, retail and events..

Our support has helped save the UK’s last major bellfoundry from closure. Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust restored and improved the museum and Grade II* listed factory buildings, allowing the site to continue the centuries-old craft of casting and repairing bells using traditional skills and techniques.

After more than 25 years on Historic England’s Heritage At Risk Register, Abney Park’s Grade II registered cemetery and Grade II listed chapel have been saved. Hackney Council and The Abney Park Trust’s programme of conservation and community engagement has restored the park as a thriving green space for local people.

Saving species and landscapes

Wildlife recovery and landscape resilience projects help protect the UK’s precious natural heritage.

Vincent Wildlife Trust is supporting the recovery of the pine marten, a critically endangered mammal in England and Wales. Martens on the Move is recruiting and training a diverse range of community groups, landowners and organisations to monitor pine martens as they move into new areas. 

The Skell Valley Project aims to rejuvenate 12 miles of the River Skell, protecting the valley from the effects of flooding caused by climate change. The project will help safeguard rare wildlife such as curlews and golden plovers, along with cultural heritage, including the 12th-century Fountains Abbey.

Preserving cultures and memories

Saving heritage also means making sure our traditions and stories are celebrated, remembered and passed on to future generations.

Creative Design & Manufacture UK is helping keep the important cultural heritage of Manchester’s South Asian community alive. Memories of My Mother will use saris as the inspiration for its women-focused intergenerational storytelling project. 

Glasgow Zine Library is not only saving and sharing heritage but also supporting the production of it for the future. Alongside collecting zines and bringing the stories captured in these self-made publications to new audiences, the library is inspiring more people to get involved in zine-making.

HERe NI, Cara-Friend and The Rainbow Project are capturing and preserving unrecorded and uncatalogued stories from Northern Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community. An online archive and podcast series will uncover and share forgotten LGBTQ+ history.

Investing in heritage for the future

Saving heritage is one of the four investment principles we ask all the projects we fund to take into account.

Find out how projects have approached our other investment principles: Protecting the environment, Organisational sustainability and Inclusion, access and participation.