National Lottery Heritage Grants £10,000 to £250,000

Rejuvenating the Pride of Trowbridge

Applicant: Trowbridge Town Hall Trust Limited

Project description: The restoration of the Grade II listed town hall and to create a space to celebrate the rich heritage of Trowbridge, and the legacy of the town hall. Working closely with Trowbridge Museum, the Digital Studies Department at Wiltshire College, and local craft practitioners and artists, the aim is to enhance visitor experience and revive civic pride.

Decision: Award grant of £176,972 

From Beacon to Folly: Access to Archaeology Scheme

Applicant: St. Dominic's Catholic Sixth Form College

Project description: To make archaeology more accessible and inclusive; to create opportunities, introduce the discipline of archaeology and promote multicultural participation, encourage participation from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and create closer bonds within the local community.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

London Pride Community Heritage Project

Applicant: Pride Theatre Productions

Project description: To capture the story of how London Pride began. To work with the Bishopsgate Institute and the National Archives to understand the story of London Pride: why it began; who the key figures were; what challenges they faced; and the impact it has had upon the community today. To produce a small performance and educational resources to share with the local community.

Decision: Award grant of £11,000

A Black Oral History

Applicant: Mandy Parker-Sharp

Project description: To create a new digital display at the Black Cultural Archives, using ancient oral history to preserve and celebrate stories of people of African descent. A narrative that challenges perceptions of Britain’s multiculturalism, an important testament to early 1900s Britain, with racism and social issues spotlighted, to embed back in the community.

Decision: Reject

One Day in October

Applicant: Wren Music

Project description: To raise awareness and active participation in both folk singing and bellringing for the local community. To use oral history to inform writing a new bellringing song for Devon. A legacy project for the development of the next generation of leaders of Wren Music.

Decision: Reject

The Avenues Heritage Project – Then and Now

Applicant: The Avenues Youth Project

Project description: To preserve the heritage through recollections of youth workers and experiences of children and young people. To engage in intergenerational dialogue, feel pride in the diversity of the area and celebrate who the people are and the shared heritage of The Avenues.

Decision: Reject

Everyone's history

Applicant: Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services

Project description: To empower teachers to enthuse pupils in Tower Hamlets and East London about their local history and heritage. To take five strands of local history and deliver resources around storytelling to include SEND accessible material, targeted at primary and lower-secondary aged children.

Decision: Award grant of £34,200

The Franklin Festival – celebrating the rich historical connection between Gravesham and the Thames

Applicant: Gravesham Borough Council

Project description: To establish a Franklin Festival, to reference the final voyage of Sir John Franklin and establish stronger links with the National Maritime Museum. To use stories and traditions to create a programme of activity to demonstrate to current and future generations how Gravesham’s riverside history and the Thames are inextricably and forever linked.

Decision: Award grant of £38,733

Strange Doings in London – The Songs and Ballads of St Giles

Applicant: Bloomsbury Festival

Project description: To explore the 'Strange Doings' of 1,000 years of history in St-Giles-in-the-Fields parish from Drury Lane to Tottenham Court Rd, using ballads and a new history book as main research sources. Community participants will present, record and share new versions of found songs and stories.

Decision: Award grant of £39,750

What's for dinner? Responses to food poverty in East London (1870 to present)

Applicant: Share UK

Project description: To conduct research and oral history interviews to create an archive around responses to food poverty between 1870 and the present day in East London. To share with the public through an exhibition, six-part podcast series and social media campaign, and produce a cookbook to support the findings of the research.

Decision: Reject

Another World Is Possible/ This World Is The Only One We Have: (Celebrating, exploring, and engaging with the natural heritage of the Rame Peninsula)

Applicant: Rame Projects CIC

Project description: To provide community groups with an opportunity to gain experience about local natural heritage, address biodiversity loss and provide creative ways to engage with the local environment and nature of Rame Peninsula, part of Cornwall’s National Landscape.

Decision: Reject

Hampshire Schools South Downs Heritage

Applicant: Friends of the South Downs

Project description: To work in partnership with eight Hampshire primary schools to deliver a programme of learning about the heritage of the South Downs. The project will include in-school workshops, field trips and visits to local heritage outdoor museums and will ensure children's wellbeing is part of the focus.

Decision: Award grant of £70,700

'Who am I?'

Applicant: Mukul and Ghetto Tigers CIC

Project description: An oral history project to explore the question ‘Who am I?’ To investigate what it means for young British Asians growing up in a system with a colonial legacy. Project records are to be deposited with West Sussex Records Office and Museum of Croydon.

Decision: Award grant of £73,270

Curating the Martinware Collection

Applicant: Ealing Council (Martinware Collection)

Project description: A multi-partner project to provide new ways to engage with the Martinware Collection, with a focus on widening access to local heritage and co-producing programmes with audiences. To work across art forms and digital platforms to bring new perspectives to heritage and continue recent conservation work and digitisation of the collection.

Recommendation: Award grant of £80,645 (76%)

Decision: Reject

The Heritage of Portsmouth Cathedral's Centenary

Applicant: The Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Portsmouth

Project description: To install new display cases, interactive digital tools and a new welcome and information desk, making heritage more accessible to local communities and visitors. To highlight the Cathedral’s place in the city's 100-year history and the broader 850-year history as a place of worship, in partnership with other heritage organisations.

Decision: Award grant of £117,759

The Restoration and Repair of St Julitta's Historic Windows and Their Associated Heritage.

Applicant: Friends of Lanteglos Church

Project description: To restore and repair the historically significant medieval stained glass and the 500-year-old windows of St Julitta's Church. The final stage of a major restoration to update the building to make it secure and available to everyone.

Decision: Award grant of £124,230

Fender replacement on Clevedon Pier for berthing heritage ships

Applicant: Clevedon Pier & Heritage Trust Limited

Project description: To replace the fenders to protect the structure and ships from damage whilst a ship is berthed. To maintain the purpose of the Grade I listed Clevedon Pier, to allow it to continue to service ships as it has done for the last 150 years.

Decision: Reject

St Just in Roseland Church and Gardens Interpretation and Engagement Project

Applicant: Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Just in Roseland and St Mawes

Project description: To rediscover, curate and present the historical, cultural and natural heritage of the Grade I listed church. To open a new heritage centre, establish an ongoing programme of activities to engage a wide audience and to protect the wildlife-rich churchyard and gardens for future generations.

Decision: Reject

The Lost Campaigns – A Mobile Museum of Marginalised Histories

Applicant: Greenham Women Everywhere CIC

Project description: To convert a truck into a mobile, accessible ‘Motivation Museum’ and community space. To use the platform to reach out to campaigners from three 'Lost Campaigns', to share their unique contributions with audiences across the country to broaden understanding and connect past activism to current issues.

Decision: Reject

Festival of Devon in the 1920s

Applicant: Devon History Society

Project description: In collaboration with other local heritage organisations, to hold a 2025 festival of exhibitions, events and performances focused on the history of Devon in the 1920s. To save the information gathered during the project in the county’s public archives and raise awareness of heritage potentially at risk.

Decision: Reject

Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre – Building in Resilience & Sustainability – A 10-year Celebration

Applicant: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council

Project description: To build resilience into the visitor centre business, deliver organisational sustainability through improved commercial capabilities, invest in new skills and increased capacity to drive new revenue opportunities and to celebrate 10 years of public engagement to the internationally important archaeology, ecology and geology exhibitions.

Decision: Award grant of £203,258

Thunderbird: The relocation of the Accessioned Collection of the Fairground Heritage Trust

Applicant: Fairground Heritage Trust

Project description: To relocate the accredited museum collection of British fairground art and rides from its current site in Dingles Fairground Museum, Devon to Statfold Barn Railway Inn, Tamworth, and Hollycombe Working Steam Museum in Hampshire. To provide security for the collection, increase access, retain current ownership and preserve maintenance and curatorial procedures.

Decision: Award grant of £218,580

Century by the Sea: art and artists at Newhaven 1925–2025

Applicant: Art in Place Sussex CIC

Project description: To tell Newhaven’s heritage story through the lens of art and artists 1925–2025. To run an inclusive research project, culminating in a free town centre exhibition, online exhibition, oral histories, soundscape and commissioned artworks, gifted to Newhaven Museum to make them available for future generations.

Decision: Reject

Hip-hop, wriggle and jump – supporting landscape-level, community-driven conservation action.

Applicant: Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK

Project description: To create a haven for both wildlife and humans along a green corridor through South West London, Surrey and Hampshire. To increase biodiversity with a specific focus on amphibians and reptiles. To reach out to local people and communities, encourage them to value and protect ‘their’ wildlife by making the natural world more accessible and engaging.

Decision: Reject

Parks 4 All – Transforming access to and saving park heritage with Disabled people and caregivers.

Applicant: Bristol and Bath Parks Foundation

Project description: To roll-out park access assessments and a supporting toolkit. Communities nationwide to take the lead on making parks accessible, nature rich and encourage people to get involved. To save and enhance parks through sensory walks and nature-based volunteering, to lead to a permanent improvement now and in future.

Decision: Award grant of £247,976

The Ladder: Cornwall's Creative Engine House

Applicant: Redruth Former Library CIC

Project description: To rescue and transform the derelict Grade II listed library and college buildings into a centre for heritage, community, culture and education. Funded with the Shared Prosperity Fund and Community Ownership Fund to provide the people of Redruth with a cafe, nursery, rehearsal space, community space, co-working space, dark room and artist studios.

Decision: Award grant of £249,570

Local to Global 2.0: From a resilient to an adaptive network

Applicant: UK National Commission for UNESCO

Project description: To explore how six geographic heritage clusters of UNESCO sites can achieve shared goals through collaboration. Devolved decision-making among the UK’s UNESCO Network to mobilise cooperative fulfilment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To join up local knowledge and expertise among the four-nation network to foster place-based approaches that encourage heritage participation at scale.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

Migration Museum: Collections Research & Planning Project

Applicant: Migration Museum Project

Project description: To conduct a research and planning project to specifically focus on ensuring the heritage surrounding the museum’s migration to the new permanent home in 2027 underpins all future activities and incorporates heritage that is highly valued by the public, at-risk, under-explored and drawn from across the UK.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

Railway 200 @ Bluebell Railway

Applicant: Bluebell Railway Plc

Project description: A nationwide programme running throughout 2025 to celebrate 200 years since the opening of the Stockton to Darlington Railway. The programme’s aim is to encourage and involve the entire rail industry including heritage railways to run events to celebrate this milestone.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

West London Turkish summer festival

Applicant: West London Turkish volunteers’ charity

Project description: To create an immersive experience for the 7th Turkish Summer Festival; to entertain, educate and enrich the lives of community members and highlight Turkish culture to foster a sense of unity among diverse communities.

Decision: Reject

Restoration of Hedgeland Organ

Applicant: St Mary's Church Hartley Wespall

Project description: To replace a number of parts of the Hedgeland Organ, clean and repair the Bourdon pipes and conduct a general overhaul to bring the instrument back to its full potential.

Decision: Reject

Holsworthy '44

Applicant: Holsworthy '44

Project description: To provide a living history educational event, to be inclusive and allow participation and access across diverse groups, in remembrance and celebration of lives sacrificed and maimed by experiences not just in the theatre of war but at home.

Decision: Reject

World Kiswahili Day Festival

Applicant: Diversity Lewes

Project description: To promote the Swahili culture in the diaspora and bring the community together to celebrate the UNESCO recognised International Kiswahili Language Day, celebrated annually on the 7 July worldwide, to enrich communities and promote the Swahili culture.

Decision: Reject

Secondary Glazing for Corsham Town Hall

Applicant: Corsham Town Council

Project description: To reduce the town hall’s carbon footprint by 10%, create a more sustainable building that better serves both the town council and the community, to improve the usability and increase income to help sustain and maintain the building.

Decision: Reject

Yeah Man, Walking With Dignity – the story of pioneer & actor Rudolph Walker CBE

Applicant: Rudolph Walker Foundation

Project description: To create a documentary on the life and times of Rudolph Walker CBE, set in the context of the Windrush arrival and how this changed the cultural landscape of the UK permanently.

Decision: Reject

Talbot House Archive Project

Applicant: The Old Talbot House Foundation

Project description: To collate stories of Talbot House, assemble an archive on the existing website and use social media to disseminate to those people who would be most interested. The archive and interaction of people would be the legacy of this project.

Decision: Reject

Talking Generations: An Intergenerational Heritage Project

Applicant: Intergenerational Music Making CIC

Project description: To amplify voices and create unique spaces for the exploration, sharing and celebration of heritage in historically under-resourced locations across Surrey. To build relationships with local partners, integrate training and ensure inclusivity and accessibility are central throughout engagement, promotion, delivery and legacy.

Decision: Reject

Toys Hill Village Hall Heritage

Applicant: Toys Hill Village Hall and Chancel

Project description: To celebrate the Grade II listed building and the community which cares for it through conservation of the Arts and Crafts Hall. To increase access to the village archive and create a digital record both tangible and intangible to renew and protect the legacy of Toys Hill in Kent.

Decision: Reject

Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its Place in the Community

Applicant: Goldsmiths, University of London

Project description: To increase knowledge and understanding of the history and heritage of the Deptford Ragged School. To continue knowledge exchange through digitised archives, exhibitions, performances, education resources for schools and local organisations, and research into links between education, schooling, wellbeing, the environment and social mobility.

Decision: Withdrawn (due to change of staff)

Grant increases

Jewel in the Strand

Applicant: The Church of St. Mary le Strand with St. Clement Danes

Project description: To undergo both urgent repair and conservation works for the Grade I listed church and create a new public space. Being part of the Strand–Aldwych pedestrianisation scheme, the church’s aim is to present a flexible and up-to-date facility to attract new audiences, provide good access, be part of local activities and to transform the profile and use of the building to best serve its local communities.

Decision: Award grant increase of £249,770 to make a total grant of £769,770

The Brunel Museum Reinvented

Applicant: Brunel Museum

Project description: To provide a new and financially sustainable future for the Brunel Museum through improving the museum’s estate and diversifying its stories and its audiences. To create a more resilient and inclusive organisation to better embed it within the local community.

Decision: Award grant increase of £249,000 to make a total grant of £2,102,400

Restoring Cleveland Pools to the heart of the community (KickstartGIA2020)

Applicant: Cleveland Pools Trust

Project description: The restoration of the oldest surviving public open-air swimming pool in the UK and its setting beside the River Avon in Bath. It is registered as a Heritage at Risk.

Decision: Award grant increase of £250,000 to make a total grant of £6,771,400