England, Midlands & East: delegated decisions February 2024

England, Midlands & East: delegated decisions February 2024

Schedule of decisions under delegated powers for England, Midlands & East at The National Lottery Heritage Fund in February 2024.

5 February

National Lottery Grants for Heritage

East Norfolk Scouts History Project

Applicant: East Norfolk District Scout Council

Project description: To hold community engagement events to help research and inform a book summarising the history of Scouting in Great Yarmouth from 1910 to 2023.

Decision: Award grant of £7,250 (100%)

Congolese Twins Birth and Naming Ceremony

Applicant: V12 OCEAN CIC

Project description: This intergenerational project seeks to explore and record the intangible Congolese heritage surrounding the birth and naming ceremonies of twins.

Decision: Reject

Wieśniacy Polish Folk Song and Dance 75th Anniversary

Applicant: Wieśniacy Folk Song and Dance Group

Project description: To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Wieśniacy, one of the oldest Polish folklore groups in the UK. Through dancing, singing workshops and weekly practices open to all the community, young and older members will learn about heritage, culture and folklore in the year leading up to the celebration concert.

Decision: Award grant of £8,000 (80%)

Honey Lives On

Applicant: The Rudyard Lake Trust

Project description: To restore, display and design interpretation around the former trip boat and captain's launch named Honey, in Rudyard Lake, Staffordshire.

Decision: Reject

Brum & Bass – The History and Heritage of Drum and Bass Culture in Birmingham

Applicant: ViewfinderUK CIC

Project description: To research, document and disseminate the heritage of drum and bass music in Birmingham between 1994 and 2009, reflecting the evolution and impact of the drum and bass subculture.

Decision: Award grant of £60,453 (99%)

Winterley Lane Heritage Trail

Applicant: Winterley Lane Allotments

Project description: To improve wildlife and community use for a key green space in Rushall, Walsall, and establish a new heritage trail.

Decision: Award grant of £249,065 (100%)

Electric Palace Archive Project

Applicant: Harwich Electric Palace Trust

Project description: To safeguard the archive, increase its accessibility, be searchable online, and provide a valuable resource for the Electric Palace and the history of film and cinema.

Decision: Award grant of £249,893 (95%)

A Wild Journey

Applicant: St John's Moulsham Parochial Church Council

Project description: To undertake landscaping works to the churchyard of St John's Moulsham, Essex, to improve spaces for people and nature. The project will also deliver activities for specific audiences.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000 (81%)

Undercurrent Research Phase

Applicant: Revoluton Arts CIC

Project description: To uncover the hidden histories of social activism within youth movements and emergent music genres along the River Lea in Luton and East London in the 20th century.

Decision: Award grant of £37,135 (92%)

Bulmer Bricks: Building a Resilient Future for Traditional Brick Making

Applicant: The Bulmer Brick and Tile Company Limited

Project description: To explore options for, and begin to implement, the establishment of a separate charity responsible for Bulmer's education work, skills training and collections. The project intends to protect the legacy of this historic brick manufacturing company, whose Suffolk site dates back to the Middle Ages.

Decision: Award grant of £93,500 (95%)

A New and Resilient Future for The Great White Horse Hotel

Applicant: The Great White Horse Hotel CIC

Project description: The first phase of a major plan of repair and refurbishment of the Grade II* listed The Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich. The hotel dates from 1518 and this project will help better understand its condition and opportunities for engagement, drawing up outline proposals for the future whilst focusing upon governance, fundraising and the business model.

Decision: Award grant of £99,440 (100%)

Skills for Swills – helping school communities discover the willow weaving heritage of the East Anglian fishing industry

Applicant: The Nest Community Art CIC

Project description: To develop accessible education resources to explain the heritage of the East Anglian fishing industry. Workshops and Heritage Days will record and share memories and craft skills between generations.

Decision: Award grant of £16,320 (98%)

Maritime Heritage Skills – The Next Generation

Applicant: CIRCLES ALT ED CIC

Project description: To provide opportunities for young people who are not in mainstream education to learn about maritime heritage in their local area, as well as gain specific skills, in a structured course format.

Decision: Award grant of £57,900 (100%)

Firm Foundations, Flourishing Futures

Applicant: Museum of Cambridge

Project description: This resilience project will strengthen infrastructure and resource capabilities, to build capacity for a sustainable organisation and to reach a wider audience to diversity and broaden income streams.

Decision: Award grant of £99,790 (100%)

Fenland Orchards Projects Landscapes and Skills

Applicant: CP Learning Trust

Project description: This project in Wisbech focuses upon traditional skills relating to Fenland heritage alongside management of a community orchard through engagement, creation of a Fen garden and programmes of actions, events and activities.

Decision: Award grant of £248,654 (100%)

Reimagining the Royal Gunpowder Mills

Applicant: Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Company Ltd

Project description: To support the ongoing resilience and future planning of Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills in Essex.

Decision: Award grant of £250,000 (82%)

My Museum

Applicant: Full House Theatre

Project description: This project for Wardown House Museum in Luton will enhance the interpretation of the collection with a new narrative-led children and family route through the museum, creating opportunities for children and young people to access with interactive experiences and engage with the cultural heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £81,166 (59%)

Generations We Are Bloxwich

Applicant: One Love Community Music and Arts CIC

Project description: One Love Community Music and Arts will collect stories from post-war Bloxwich, including those about local industry, immigration and racism. Charting these stories will showcase the rich tapestry of experiences that make up the town today.

Decision: Award grant of £98,395 (100%)

BLAST Heritage Lab Pilot Project

Applicant: BLAST Fest Ltd

Project description: To develop a programme of research and events that reveal the contributions of African and Caribbean communities to UK arts and sciences since the Second World War.

Decision: Reject

Bute Street & Heritage Spaces

Applicant: Bute Street Projects CIC

Project description: To facilitate the exploration of Luton's heritage through creative outputs, and share them with target communities within 1.5 miles of Wardown Park.

Decision: Reject

Matthew's Story

Applicant: Comfort Centre Leicester

Project description: To extend community outreach to spread awareness of the challenges faced by people living with sickle cell disease and thalassemia and by their families: how living with this condition can affect mental and physical health, affect education and employment prospects and lead to social isolation.

Decision: Reject

Going Wild in Westhope

Applicant: Wild about Westhope

Project description: To undertake a programme of woodland management to improve woodland biodiversity and to further enable volunteers to carry out management and wildlife monitoring works.

Decision: Award grant of £9,300 (56%)

Restoration of St Andrew's Church West Doors

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Andrew Rugby

Project description: To restore the hinges and doors to the West porch to allow safe use by more people and enable better access to the church.

Decision: Reject

Jaywick Matters

Applicant: Colne Radio Community Interest Company

Project description: A pilot project to capture for local radio some of the history of Jaywick through the memories of older residents of this coastal community.

Decision: Reject

Leah Manning – A Life in Education

Applicant: Arbury Primary School

Project description: To research social reformer and educationalist, Leah Manning, and her story. This will involve six after-school sessions, historian talks, workshops and development of a theatre piece. The project will also involve the digitalisation and display of papers and the development of an online learning resource. It aims to bring together local universities, a primary school, a secondary school and a local theatre company to discover and share the local heritage story.

Decision: Award grant of £9,810 (100%)

All Saints Church Electrical Repairs

Applicant: All Saints Church, Paston

Project description: To repair the electrical system in All Saints Church in Paston.

Decision: Reject

KFA 35 Year Anniversary – exhibition Striving For Unity

Applicant: Khalsa Youth Football Academy

Project description: To explore, celebrate and understand the heritage of the south Asian community members of the Khalsa Football Academy (KFA), in the organisation's 35th year.

Decision: Award grant of £9,932 (100%)

Bringing Georgian Britain to life – engaging communities in living history

Applicant: 9th Regiment of Foot

Project description: To help educate and inform the public about Georgian Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, through face-to-face interactions with costumed living history participants and authentic historical artefacts, alongside the development of engaging digital resources.

Decision: Reject

Future Business Options – Old King's Head, Kirton

Applicant: Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire

Project description: To explore the options for the long-term operating model for the Old King's Head and look at a viable long-term business proposition. 

Decision: Reject

Smithy Schools: Heritage Blacksmithing Skills Workshops

Applicant: Hereford Make CIC

Project description: To tour local schools with portable forging equipment in order to demonstrate heritage processes and related heritage activities, and to enrich the curriculum experience for students, leading to an increase in interest in learning heritage trades.

Decision: Reject

15 February

Heritage Places

#HP Heritage Collaboration Framework

Applicant: Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Project description: To create a collaborative framework leading to a co-designed action plan that will set out priority heritage projects and programmes for the next five years.

Decision: Award grant of £249,332 (100%)

National Lottery Grants for Heritage

From The Slave Ship To The Spaceship

Applicant: Batanai Arts

Project description: To use arts-based teaching in Peterborough to educate a range of audiences on the history of the slave trade, British involvement and Black heritage.

Decision: Reject

Community Service

Applicant: Stan's Cafe Theatre

Project description: To create a touring exhibition to uncover and record the stories of Black police officers in the West Midlands during the 1970s and 1980s. The project will complement and accompany a touring theatre production of the same name about the life of one of the West Midlands's first Black police officers, Trevor Prince, in the 1980s.

Decision: Reject

Winters 2023: Laying the Foundations

Applicant: W W Winters Collections Trust

Project description: W W Winters is an historic photography studio, with premises, records and collections dating from 1853. The purpose of this project is to build on pre-existing work and lay the foundations for a future restoration of Winters’ premises and for its rebirth as a community focused organisation for the benefit of the people of Derby and its surrounds.

Decision: Award grant of £9,101 (90%)

Friends' Voices: Capturing more NHS volunteering stories – West Midlands, Wales, East Regions

Applicant: Attend

Project description: This oral history project will identify, preserve and disseminate the heritage of volunteering in the NHS across East of England, West Midlands and Wales by collecting oral histories from Friends groups in those regions.

Decision: Award grant of £99,916 (100%)

Wilding Campuses Pilot

Applicant: Students Organising for Sustainability UK

Project description: This pilot project will provide opportunities for students, young people and communities in Nottingham to connect with nature and develop valuable skills to help mitigate and adapt to the climate and ecological crises through a partnership approach.

Decision: Award grant of £210,402 (94%)

50 for 50 – Sowing More Seeds

Applicant: The Henry Doubleday Research Association

Project description: To work with local communities and the Heritage Seed Library to find and conserve heritage and heirloom vegetables.

Decision: Reject

Decades Rewind – 'A nod' to Walsall's 80's and 90's culture

Applicant: Mettaminds CIC

Project description: To explore the memories and social history of Walsall town centre from the 1980s and 1990s.

Decision: Reject

Walsall Archive for All

Applicant: Walsall Council

Project description: To digitise the Jack Haddock Collection, a collection of local importance that documents all aspects of transport and its context predominantly in the 20th century. The project will engage with local residents to collect audio and visual material for the digital archive that reflects the borough's evolving identity.

Decision: Award grant of £249,020 (100%)

Derby's Egypt – Reinterpreting With And For The City

Applicant: Derby Museums

Project description: This project will re-curate Derby Museums' Ancient Egyptian collection. This important collection will be re-interpreted and made physically and ethically more accessible to a wider range of people.

Decision: Award grant of £120,022 (62%)

Sickle Cell Stories – Then and Now

Applicant: Plasma of Hope

Project description: This project will collect oral histories and run engagement activities with people in Walsall living with the genetic blood disorder, sickle cell disease.

Decision: Award grant of £99,500 (100%)

Synthi 100 – RESOUNDING

Applicant: Krafthaus Arts CIC

Project description: To fully restore an EMS Synthi 100 and turn it into an interactive exhibit for educational and creative purposes. The project will document and archive the history of the Synthi 100 and its restoration process and use it as a teaching tool for workshops and material focusing on the history and technology of electronic music.

Decision: Reject

Walsall's Windrush Sisters

Applicant: Walsall Black Sisters Collective

Project description: This project will collect and share the heritage of the Windrush generation in Walsall and the stories of the founding women of the Windrush Sisters Collective.

Decision: Award grant of £234,719 (95%)

Black Care

Applicant: Literati Arts CIC

Project description: To collect and archive memories from people in the Black community in Leicester who have been in the social care system. The project will share this heritage with the social care sector.

Decision: Award grant of £49,943 (100%)

Hertfordshire Explores the History and Heritage of British Black Icons

Applicant: Educational Diversity CIC

Project description: To develop a website and learning resources to support education around diverse heritage.

Decision: Reject

1933 Everest Exhibition Display Case

Applicant: The Friends of White Hall Centre

Project description: To create a display of modern mountaineering clothing in Buxton, Derbyshire, to compare with the historic clothing worn by Sir Jack Longland on the 1933 Everest expedition.

Decision: Reject

Holy Trinity Much Wenlock Bell Restoration Project

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Much Wenlock with Bourton

Project description: This project will repair and renovate the church’s bell mechanism and provide a fixed banister to the steep spiral staircase.

Decision: Reject

Our Story

Applicant: RicNic

Project description: To provide teenagers from a deprived area and from diverse ethnic backgrounds the chance to explore and celebrate their shared cultural and youth heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £3,390 (100%)

Yeoman Hill Park Memorial

Applicant: Mansfield Woodhouse Community Development Group

Project description: To create and install a new war memorial in Yeoman Hill Park, Mansfield Woodhouse.

Decision: Reject

Collection Stories – Restoring Peterborough Arch

Applicant: Nene Park Trust

Project description: To increase the number of people that engage with Peterborough’s outdoor public sculpture collection, including children and young people. The project will provide skills and training opportunities through conservation work of the historic Arch, and increase the resilience of the collection, ensuring heritage is in a better condition.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000 (100%)

“Working together”: Buxton Methodist Church business model review to broaden involvement in management of our building (which has well-used community facilities) and increase resilience

Applicant: Buxton Methodist Church

Project description: A resilience project to look at the business model and governance structure for the organisation and its 1849 building, a community heritage asset.

Decision: Award grant of £9,995 (73%)

The Dudson Collection

Applicant: VAST Services (1920)

Project description: To transfer the collection details of the Dudson Museum in Stoke-on-Trent to the MODES cataloguing system and enable further resilience work and volunteering.

Decision: Award grant of £9,900 (100%)

Preserving Legacy: Heritage Safety-Fencing Project

Applicant: Wigmore Group Parish Council

Project description: To install a fence to the local churchyard, sympathetic to the site’s historical and architectural context, renovate steps including installation of a handrail, repair a gate post at the eastern entrance, and provide a public bench.

Decision: Reject

Butts Chapbook Project

Applicant: Walsall Creative Factory CIC

Project description: To involve and engage residents living in, or connected to, the Butts area of Walsall in local history and arts and crafts, through the collecting of content, writing, illustration, design and printing of a chapbook. Chapbooks are a historical community publication like penny dreadfuls, published by local people and sold in the markets. The chapbook for this project will consist of stories of the cross-cultural life and history of the local area, which includes Asian, Polish, Afro-Caribbean and white British residents. 

Decision: Award grant of £10,000 (100%)

50 years, 50 voices

Applicant: Bassetlaw Community and Voluntary Service

Project description: This project will collect and celebrate oral history stories of individuals involved with Bassetlaw Community and Voluntary Service throughout our lifespan for the 50th anniversary of the organisation.

Decision: Reject

Grantham House

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Wulfram, Grantham

Project description: To look at a feasibility study and condition survey for the building to help make the community asset more accessible and useable by a wider variety of local groups. The project includes heritage talks and events.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000 (100%)

Project Collaboration and Inclusion

Applicant: Woodhouse Farm and Garden CIC

Project description: To provide facilities for wet weather options at the site, by purchasing a marquee, as well as to inform visitors about the historic features of the farm, near Lichfield.

Decision: Reject

Funky Fens: Youth-Led Local Histories and Heritage

Applicant: Shared Assets CIC

Project description: A pilot programme to inspire and empower young people to connect with the ancient landscape of the Fens, keeping its unique skills, knowledge and stories alive.

Decision: Reject