National Lottery Grants for Heritage

RNLI 200: Remembering the Rescue of 'The Few'

Applicant: The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust

Project description: To engage with the heritage of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution during the Second World War, engaging volunteers in research and hosting a temporary exhibition which aims to increase engagement with the heritage from young people.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Lavender Hill: Chapel and Community

Applicant: London Borough of Enfield

Project description: To engage people with the heritage of Lavender Hill Chapel and Cemetery, as well as beginning the preliminary steps to find a sustainable future use for the building.

Decision: Award grant of £25,500

Our Victorian heritage – Uncovering the hidden voice of the LGBTQ+ community in Victorian Buckinghamshire

Applicant: Buckinghamshire Council

Project description: To assemble and train a team of volunteers to uncover LGBTQ+ stories from Buckinghamshire during the Victorian Era. The results will be curated in an exhibition (which will tour), a live theatre performance (in conjunction with the local Unbound Theatre), a digital graphic novel and a podcast series.

Decision: Award grant of £31,960

A Creative Community History of Hounslow's Diaspora Food Markets

Applicant: Hounslow Arts Trust Ltd

Project description: To collect memories of local diasporic communities to celebrate the importance of food to the borough’s cultural life.

Decision: Award grant of £33,768

Textile Tales Revealed

Applicant: East London Arts

Project description: To explore and celebrate the heritage of textile production and trade in East London. Activities will take place in and around the LB of Newham, an Area of Focus.

Decision: Award grant of £53,385

Beyond the Plate: The Mini Museum of Food

Applicant: Bounce Theatre Community Interest Company

Project description: To deliver a community heritage project, focused on the culture and food heritage of underserved migrant communities. It will be based out of the ‘Home Café’ in Earlsfield, Wandsworth.

Decision: Award grant of £91,928

Sound Waves: Music in Newham

Applicant: Rendezvous Projects Community Interest Company

Project description: Taking place in the LB Newham, an Area of Focus, it aims to capture and preserve the currently undocumented musical heritage of the borough, from its formation in 1965 to the present day.

Decision: Award grant of £135,600

Kernow Wyls – People for Pollinators

Applicant: Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust

Project description: To restore 25-hectares of habitat across Cornwall alongside targeted intervention for 10 threatened invertebrate species.

Decision: Award grant of £247,567

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Digital Heritage Trail

Applicant: Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council

Project description: To build and launch a new, free-to-use digital heritage trail that will be hosted on the popular guided walk app – MK Trails. Users will also be able to scan a QR code to access the trail.

Decision: Award grant of £5,000

Because I'm a Londoner (2)

Applicant: Absolute Theatre Company

Project description: To offer a second trench of 'Because I'm a Londoner' which was delivered in 2021–22 with the support of the Heritage Fund. It aims to engage children in three London boroughs (in this instance Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Newham) to explore and share what it means to grow up in London, presenting the results in the form of a show or special assembly in each school.

Decision: Award grant of £9,300

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Applicant: Fight for Peace International

Project description: To engage 20 young people aged 16–25 on a project-by-project basis over 9 months to produce a series of three visual art pieces. The work will explore and document Newham's Heritage by shining a light on the journeys of successful Fight for Peace alumni. Participants seek to share heritage and inspire future artists and athletes by exhibiting and communicating these stories to 200 young people across Newham (face to face) and 4000 followers via social media with the aim of inspiring peers by those who came before them.

Decision: Award grant of £9,490

Age of Difference

Applicant: Unique Community Charity

Project description: To engage a group of young people aged 14–25 through Brent Youth Theatre's (BYT) Young Company in an active research and development process. They will learn about the heritage of identities present in the diverse Brent community, using the material created to develop and perform an original musical based on Brent identities.

Decision: Award grant of £9,900

A History of Inclusive Education in the UK

Applicant: Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education Limited

Project description: To engage four volunteers from across the Bristol community, to review the organisation’s archive and produce a complete history of Inclusive education over the past 40 years. It will last for six months and include the production of a short documentary film and will run a community event.

Decision: Award grant of £9,950

Talking Drum

Applicant: IRIE! dance theatre

Project description: Through a series of community drumming workshops along with other volunteer sessions, it will focus on the heritage and tradition of African and Caribbean Drumming. Specifically, it will explore its role and significance in contemporary cultures for ancestral connection and memory, communication and expression, protest and resistance, and dance.

Decision: Award grant of £9,954

Fareham's Intergenerational Heritage Project

Applicant: THE INSPIRATION FEDERATION

Project description: To focus on the heritage of Fareham’s changing townscapes and landscapes, bringing together 60 primary school pupils and 40 care home residents. It will also work with partner organisations from the community to engage with their local heritage, finding out more about their local town and creating artwork and research to share with the wider community.

Decision: Award grant of £9,960

Unveiling Rainham's Hidden Heritage

Applicant: THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST MARGARET OF ANTIOCH, RAINHAM, KENT

Project description: To focus on the Grade I listed St. Margaret’s Church. It plans to research the eastern crypt, preserving its contents and conducting ground-penetrating radar surveys of the graveyard. The outcomes include the creation of a comprehensive digital map, a booklet explaining the heritage, engaging social media content, and integration with the national curriculum for schools in the area.

Decision: Award grant of £9,964

Kingswood Arts Masterplanning

Applicant: KINGSWOOD ARTS CIC

Project description: Looking at Kingswood House in Dulwich Wood, London, it will deliver feasibility work including a full measured survey, architectural masterplan and business planning support. It will explore the opportunities for the development of the building and business with a particular focus on functionality, sustainability and accessibility and how this might be achieved.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Voices of Woolfardisworthy – Stories of Church and Community

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of All Hallow's Church, Woolfardisworthy West

Project description: To engage with the built heritage of a Grade I listed church, collecting oral reminiscences and improving interpretation with the installation of an Info Point.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

A Village Apart, Villages Together

Applicant: Somerset Film and Video Ltd

Project description: Working with local residents from Burtle and the surrounding villages in the Children Polden area, the organisation will explore and add to the social, industrial (agricultural and railway) and environmental (landscape and wildlife) history of their community. This will be achieved through still image and film archive, in particular the C S John Sparkes film and photographic collection.

Decision: Award grant of £37,644

Glitter Hearts: Older Women's Unseen Archives

Applicant: LIZ CLARKE & COMPANY

Project Description: To engage with older women and non-binary audiences to explore an archive of materials relating to Live Art. Through doing so, it intends to make a predominantly academic archive accessible and relevant to underserved audiences.

Decision: Award grant of £38,500

Up the Allotment!

Applicant: Loop Labs

Project description: To encourage local communities in Newham to be actively involved and learn about local food growing heritage through workshops, creative activities, growing activities, developing recipes and creating an oral history archive, book and exhibition.

Decision: Award grant of £48,058

REcollections: Handling Youth Culture Histories

Applicant: Museum of Youth Culture CIC

Project description: Based in London with elements in Glasgow, Liverpool and Bolton, it will develop an acquisition policy, provide conservation training and research, identify and acquire a physical collection of youth culture heritage objects from 1920–2020.

Decision: Award grant of £78,109

Behind the Walls, Our Modern Mental Health History

Applicant: Heads On

Project description: To explore the changes in mental health care nationally and in Sussex over the last 40 years. From in-patients in closed asylums to being cared for by community mental health services (late 1980s-1990s), the journey will be shared through the collection of 35 oral history interviews, sharing the results through exhibitions and showcasing events.

Decision: Award grant of £80,876

Paper, Print & People: an exploration of Exeter's papermaking heritage

Applicant: Double Elephant CIC

Project description: To investigate the heritage of papermaking in Exeter through a series of artistic workshops, illustrated and audio heritage trails and volunteer research into the history of the Countess Wear papermill site.

Decision: Award grant of £98,665

Common Threads – a generational journal journey, with exhibitions and workshops, exploring textile heritage

Applicant: Milton Keynes IAC

Project description: To deliver an environmentally-conscious community heritage project based in Milton Keynes. It will take place in three phases; R&D, creation and sharing, and will primarily work with students from local schools to explore and celebrate migrant cultures through the histories of textiles.

Decision: Award grant of £99,258

'Custom House, Our House': Intergenerational Voices on the Impact of community-led Regeneration

Applicant: Royal College of Art

Project description: To explore ethnography as a creative-activist method in socially-engaged arts and heritage research and practice, utilising participatory and dialogical archiving methods, specifically oral history, to capture regeneration experiences within Custom House’s diverse communities.

Decision: Award grant of £99,980

Project Phoenix: Reopening from the ashes stronger, more resilient, delivering an inclusive world class STEM heritage experiences to inspire the next generation

Applicant: We the Curious Limited (WTC)

Project description: To install new operational systems, undertake a governance review/training and develop heritage skills and strategy with an aim of increasing organisational resilience. WTC are due to reopen in March 2024, following three years of intermittent closure following firstly, the Covid19 pandemic and then a roof fire.

Decision: Reject

Moor Imagination Centre: Heritage and Hope

Applicant: Moor Imagination Collective CIC

Project description: To purchase and renovate the Grade II listed Buckfastleigh Methodist Church back to life with the intention of creating a community hub to be used for grassroots performances. It will include a young people’s advisory group, an oral histories project, a physical and digital archive as well as a community weaving project.

Decision: Award grant of £160,000

Witney's got Wool and what else?

Applicant: Witney & District Museum

Project description: To explore the industrial heritage of Witney’s blankest industry, recording the social heritage journey from factories closing in 1975, the closure of Early's factory in 2002 of Witney and the rapid transformation of Witney since. The output of research will be the redevelopment of a permanent gallery dedicated to 'What happened to Witney after The Blanket Industry' based on a current pilot Temporary Exhibition '350 years of the Blanket Industry'.

Decision: Award grant of £198,096

Reviving All Saints in the Community

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of All Saints Edmonton

Project description: The applicant, a Grade II*-listed church in a deprived area, will improve the management of the heritage building and strengthen the capacity and resilience of their organisation. It will also increase their understanding of local audiences to provide meaningful engagement opportunities. It includes urgent capital repairs to the south chapel parapet, which currently poses a health and safety risk.

Decision: Award grant of £215,833

Stars and Spires

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical parish of St.Bartholomew, Burstow

Project description: A Grade I-listed church will be restored, including its medieval timber tower and will have a new improved appearance to its hall space. A rich and varied programme of activities targeting, mostly children and young people, ranging from astronomy workshops, concerts and displays, wellbeing walks and heritage craft workshops attract a diverse range of people to the St Bartholomew.

Decision: Award grant of £220,909

Stories of Harrow

Applicant: Harrow Together Ltd

Project description: To identify and share the social heritage of under-served groups from Harrow, launching a community grant scheme for community organisations based in Harrow. 15 grants of £10,000 will be awarded to community organisations to undertake a heritage project and increase participation in heritage, ending in a project showcase for the participants.

Decision: Award grant of £249,028

W&S Society Archives Project

Applicant: Warborough & Shillingford Society

Project description: To digitise the W&S Society’s archives and host a dedicated archive website.

Decision: Reject

African and Caribbean Arts and Culture of 1980s England

Applicant: Livety Ltd

Project description: To deliver an intangible cultural heritage and digital skills focused project in Tottenham, North London. It will work with students to produce digital outputs, exploring and celebrating the lives of culturally significant UK-based African Caribbean artists from the 80s.

Decision: Reject

The Silchester Trail

Applicant: Silchester Parish Council

Project description: To replace four of the five interpretation boards along the Silchester heritage trail which have fallen into a state of disrepair and ensuring the route continues to be fully signposted with finger posts and waymarks.

Decision: Reject

Discovering Dover Heritage

Applicant: Quiz Trail CIC

Project description: To increase engagement with Dover heritage by providing local schools, community groups and hubs a history and heritage based self-guided walking tour created by the applicant, Quiz Trail CIC.

Decision: Reject

Repairs to south west gable of St Goran Church

Applicant: St Goran Parochial Church Council

Project description: Urgent repairs to South West Gable of St Goran Church.

Decision: Reject

Militia Crossing 24

Applicant: The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) Dining Club

Project description: To take a coach of their regiment’s club members to Caen for a three-night stay to try and identify any surviving relatives of five casualties of the Normandy landings who were buried and recorded with the incorrect unit details in 1944.

Decision: Reject

Saving Sharks using Mucous

Applicant: The Pat Smith Database

Project description: To collect 250 mucous samples, using a non-invasive technique from shark species caught and released by sea anglers. These will then be made available to scientific organisations and results also shared with all stakeholders, building trust and collaboration as well as knowledge on shark species to help protect them.

Decision: Reject

Albanian Cultural Arts Project

Applicant: Ardhmeria Ltd

Project description: To mitigate against the loss of Albanian heritage by delivering an Albanian Cultural Arts Project in and around Greater London, where the majority of the UK’s Albanian population reside.

Decision: Reject

MAZED WEST

Applicant: Liskerrett Community Centre

Project description: To engage with the heritage of Cornish ‘droll’ storytelling, creating a podcast, a website for the collection of Cornish folktales, puppets, a book and a video and sound archive. The activities and results of the project will be promoted and celebrated through two events.

Decision: Reject

Churchyard Tree Removal to Protect Church

Applicant: Exmoor Parochial Church Council

Project description: To remove a group of diseased trees putting St Luke’s church at risk. The church is also in need of a media player to enable hymns to be played when there is no organist and a new carpet.

Decision: Reject

"Brixton Chronicles: Unveiling Forgotten Narratives"

Applicant: Involve 2 Evolve CIC

Project description: To create a film documentary and an interactive digital platform that will capture and narrate the stories, memories, traditions, and cultural practices of the often overlooked individuals residing in Brixton.

Decision: Reject

Beat the Clock: Honouring 100 years of Social Dancing in England

Applicant: Round in Circles Productions CIC

Project description: To archive and celebrate the cultural history of social and popular dance in England from 1923–2023 and promote active engagement with the organisation’s archives through website publications, a radio and podcast series and four live events.

Decision: Reject

Rising Waters

Applicant: Chew Valley Performing Arts

Project description: To deliver a community heritage and performing arts project, focused on the history of Chew Valley Lake in North East Somerset. It is split into two phases: research, development and schools engagement, and production of a community theatre performance.

Decision: Reject

Great Western Voyagers

Applicant: Theatre Orchard Projects Limited

Project description: To deliver an oral history research/digital skills project in Weston, North Somerset. It will invite participants to engage in oral history workshops, contributing to a short animation film that will then feature at GLOW 2024, an annual light festival.

Decision: Reject

The Hive

Applicant: foreland Fields Charity

Project description: To build a new, 5-acre, education, recreation and training centre 'The Hive' for special needs and disabled young people and adults in Thanet, East Kent. It install access paths, a forest school, nature walk, horticultural centre and sensory garden.

Decision: Reject

The Youth Breakthrough & Development "BEHIND THE GROOVE" Project:  Celebrating The Roots & Legacy of UK Dance Music & Culture

Applicant: The Youth Breakthrough & Development Project

Project description: To explore how UK dance music helped to break down racial and social barriers through a collection of photographs, books, flyers and other memorabilia. The aim will be to host series of historical and social events and media training workshops, which will focus on providing skills training to 50–70 young people between the ages of 16–25 as a way bridge the gap between disadvantaged young people and higher education as well as engaging a wider audience with UK dance music heritage.

Decision: Reject

Celebrating the Creative Cultural Heritage of Migrant British Asian Women and their Communities

Applicant: Hamari Heritage

Project description: To engage people, particularly older British Asian women and their families, in an exploration of their own cultural heritage using oral history and interpretation.

Decision: Reject

Discovering The Saxon Frontier, Hampshire's Hadrian's Wall

Applicant: The Newton Valence Project

Project description: To research, explore and further discover the archaeological remains of the Saxon frontier that crosses East Hampshire.

Decision: Reject

PEOPLE POWER: PAST AND PRESENT

Applicant: Optimistic Foundation CIC

Project description: To Waltham Forest’s energy heritage through oral histories, archival research, and a range of activities, many of which have a heavy arts or community focus.

Decision: Reject

Dench Couper Arts Centre

Applicant: Couper Collection Sussex CIC

Project description: To create a ‘Dench Couper Arts Centre’ in Sussex, which will host the Couper Art Collection, an archive of Dame Judi Dench’s life's work, performances, shows of the artwork produced at the site by beneficiaries, and visiting art exhibitions. It aims to develop plans to achieve this ambition, mainly by evaluating potential sites for the centre.

Decision: Reject

Gloucester's Stories of Communities in Action

Applicant: GL Communities

Project description: To explore the heritage of community development across social housing estates in Gloucester.

Decision: Reject

Werburgh Phase 2

Applicant: Parish Church of Hoo St Werburgh

Project description: To undertake conservation work to the Grade I listed Church of Hoo St Werburgh, including the creation of two new WC’s and kitchen facilities.

Decision: Reject

They Came Before Us – The History of Female Identifying and Non-Binary Creatives, Activists and Pioneers of Colour in the UK

Applicant: Collage Arts

Project description: To focus on the history of female-identifying and non-binary creatives, pioneers, and activists of colour in the UK. It plans to involve 60 volunteers split between Nottingham and East Sussex in archival research of nine historical figures through both face-to-face and online workshops, culminating in public showcase exhibitions along with other digital opportunities for engagement and skills development.

Decision: Reject

Finings Wood – rooted in the community

Applicant: Finings Wood Community Group

Project description: To secure, manage, restore and open Finings Wood, as well as deliver a training and engagement programme.

Decision: Reject

Sharing Secrets: Trent Park's Secret Listeners Revealed

Applicant: Trent Park Museum Trust

Project description: To fit-out the basement rooms of a proposed museum at Trent Park House, Enfield. It forms a small component of a wider £2.4million capital project to create a museum attraction over the lower floors of the house.

Decision: Reject

Making Coastal Heritage Accessible for All

Applicant: The Wildheart Trust

Project description: To focus on capital works to Sandown Granite Fort and interpretation installation, with additional activity programmes targeting young people and SEND groups.

Decision: Reject

Living amongst the Sarsens: Revealing the Hidden Heritage of the Valley of Stones, Dorset

Applicant: Past Participate CIC

Project description: To explore the Valley of Stones landscape (Dorset) through archaeological activities, guided walks, talks, and signage installation.

Decision: Reject

50 years of Jacksons Lane

Applicant: Jacksons Lane

Project description: To celebrate their upcoming 50th anniversary, it will combine capital works with an activity programme and archival research/documentation.

Decision: Reject

New Collections Management and Digital Asset Management Systems at the Wallace Collection

Applicant: The Wallace Collection

Project description: To implement a new Collections Management System and Digital Assets Management System. It focusses on auditing and digitising the Wallace Collection’s current collections, as well as scoping out new systems.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

200 years and beyond

Applicant: THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST GEORGE WITH ST ANNE AND ST MARK, KEMP TOWN, BRIGHTON

Project description: To restore St George's Church, alongside signage installation and workshops/concerts.

Decision: Reject

What shall we do with all this stuff?

Applicant: Julie’s Bicycle

Project description: To utilise a cohort learning approach to help museum practitioners imagine a sustainable future for their collections. This learning will result in a shared resource for museums and communities.

Decision: Reject

Care(in)g community – theatre for all

Applicant: The Dot Collective

Project description: To adapt two classic universal stories selected through consultations with communities they’ve chosen as multi-sensory professional theatre, touring them in three care centres in East Sussex.

Decision: Reject

Grant increase requests

Union Chapel's Sunday School Stories – a tale of dissent and social change

Applicant: Union Chapel Project

Project description: To deliver essential capital repairs and improvements to the Sunday School building and a programme of community engagement activities.

Decision: Award grant increase of £250,000 to make a total grant of £1,304,500

Transforming Bristol's old Magistrates Courts into a creative industries hub supporting young people

Applicant: Creative Youth Network

Project description: To restore the derelict Grade II Victorian Magistrates Courts in central Bristol.

Decision: Award grant increase of £226,621 to make a total grant of £4,930,791