20 November

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

Reclaiming our Roots: Afro Hair Heritage and Empowerment

Applicant: MC Female Network CIC

Project description: This project seeks to save the intangible heritage of traditional afro hairstyles through the collection of 25 oral histories and workshops with 50 Black women in Birmingham, as well as an online exhibition.

Decision: Reject

Zimbabwean Cultural Mental Health Perceptions Mind Changes

Applicant: Community Spotlight

Project description: This Derby-based project would involve workshops and training for elders and young people to express their views on mental health and then have facilitated discussions. The content would be produced into a digital booklet by an artist.

Decision: Reject

The history and heritage of amateur sports in Coventry

Applicant: SDH in the Community

Project description: This Coventry-based project seeks to increase participation with heritage through young people aged 11-13 from local schools developing their skills by researching and recording the history of amateur sports in Coventry.

Decision: Reject

St Mary's Church: Fit for the Future

Applicant: Eardisland St Mary the Virgin Parochial Church Council

Project description: This resilience project for the Grade II* listed, St Mary’s Church in Eardisland, Herefordshire, will undertake a range of development tasks to enable the PCC to create a strategic plan for repairs, sustainability and community engagement.

Decision: Award grant of £43,097 (89%)

Restoring the stained-glass window in the chapel at Shutlanger Village Hall

Applicant: Shutlanger Village Hall

Project description: This project will carry out essential structural repairs and run engagement activities focusing on the stained-glass window of Shutlanger, near Towcester, Northamptonshire.

Decision: Award grant of £23,334 (100%)

Merrions Wood Trust: 100 years celebration

Applicant: The Promenade

Project description: This project aims to deliver a series of capital works in Merrions Wood, Walsall, including installation of a boardwalk and hide, recreation of historic gates and biodiversity management.

Decision: Reject

Remediation of Worksop Priory

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Worksop Priory St Mary & St Cuthbert

Project description: This project will assess the repairs required to address the deteriorating condition of the Grade I listed Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire, as well as supporting resilience work and plans to improve environmental performance.

Decision: Award grant of £72,840 (100%)

Rasta Baby, Where Are They?

Applicant: First Class Foundation

Project description: This oral history project seeks to preserve and celebrate the cultural heritage of the Windrush generation and their descendants, particularly the Rastafari movement in Birmingham.

Decision: Reject

History of Radio

Applicant: Gateway Community Media CIC

Project description: This project aims to capture the memories of local residents and the history of local radio in Basildon, Essex.

Decision: Reject

Coaches, caravans and camping: memories of trips to the seaside

Applicant: ERM (Eastern Region Media) CIC

Project description: This Norfolk-based project aims to explore and celebrate the cultural heritage of traditional British seaside holidays.

Decision: Reject

North Aisle roof recovering and downpipe repairs

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of Preston Capes

Project description: This project for the Grade II* Listed St Peter and St Paul Church in Preston Capes, near Daventry, Northamptonshire, would make repairs to the roof and cast iron downpipes.

Decision: Reject

Together We Rise

Applicant: Prominent Women Organisation Interest Company

Project description: This project, based in Bourne, Lincolnshire, would record oral histories of stories, memories and songs through group counselling workshops for women in detention centres across the UK.

Decision: Reject

Babbinswood Farm and the Future

Applicant: Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society Ltd

Project description: This project would enable the acquisition of pastureland and woodland of part of Babbinswood Farm, near Oswestry, Shropshire, to enable it to continue with organic farming.

Decision: Reject

Digitising the History and Legacy of Oaklands College

Applicant: Oaklands College

Project description: This project would preserve and digitise the historical archive of Oaklands College in St Albans, Hertfordshire, as well as recording a collection of new oral histories of current and retired staff and former students.

Decision: Reject

History of Rewilding

Applicant: Clapham Film Unit

Project description: This UK-wide project would record oral histories from people involved in rewilding projects in England, create a documentary and run workshops to engage people with the heritage of their areas.

Decision: Reject

Belonging Through Time: YMCA Norfolk at 170

Applicant: YMCA Norfolk

Project description: This project seeks to engage young people with the history of YMCA Norfolk to celebrate its 170th anniversary, expand their skills and provide a range of youth-led engagement opportunities.

Decision: Reject

Luton On The Runway, Timeless Threads

Applicant: Att10tive Social Enterprise CIC

Project description: This project aims to preserve, explore and reinterpret Luton's unique heritage of hat-making and fashion innovation. Through workshops, pop up exhibitions and the creation of historical displays, the project would engage residents of all ages in uncovering local stories, skills and traditions that shaped Luton's identity.

Decision: Reject

Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future: Preserving Roma Heritage

Applicant: Union Romani Voice

Project description: This Ipswich-based project aims to document Roma customs, empower Roma voices and create accessible educational resources that foster greater awareness and appreciation of Roma identity.

Decision: Reject

From Factory to Faith: The Story of Guru Nanak Gurdwara & Sikhs in Leicester

Applicant: Guru Nanak Gurdwara

Project description: This project seeks to research, document and preserve the history of Leicester's oldest gurdwara and the city's Punjabi Sikh community heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £102,126 (95%)

Waterways

Applicant: Women's Wellbeing Ltd

Project description: This project will research and celebrate the history and connection of Birmingham migrants in the 20th Century with industrial heritage and the city’s waterways.

Decision: Award grant of 59,676 (100%)

Black Country Roots and Realities

Applicant: Genesis Sun Foundation

Project description: This Wolverhampton-based project will train young people from African, Caribbean and mixed heritage backgrounds to become active custodians of their own heritage, with a focus on post-Windrush migration from the 1960s onwards.

Decision: Award grant of £121,024 (100%)

M1 60th anniversary of two villages memories

Applicant: East Peak Countryside Associates Community Interest Company

Project description: This project seeks to record reminiscences and engage the local Derbyshire community with the history of the construction of the M1 motorway and its impact on the social and environmental landscape.  

Decision: Reject

Rebel Frequencies: The Untold Story of Birmingham's Unlicensed Airwaves

Applicant: ViewfinderUK CIC

Project description: This project aims to collect stories and memories related to the history of pirate radio in Birmingham.

Decision: Reject

Boliyan, Gaaliyaan and Sangeet

Applicant: Women Empowering Women CIC

Project description: This Birmingham-based project seeks to celebrate local heritage by recording folk songs and oral histories about migration and identity. Access to this heritage will be improved through an exhibition and workshops for schools and intergenerational audiences.

Decision: Award grant of £14,206 (100%)

Woodland Heritage Skills

Applicant: Woodland Heritage Limited

Project description: This UK-wide project, based in Herefordshire, will help preserve traditional woodland management skills which are at risk of being lost through a range of inclusive training workshops.

Decision: Award grant of £224,897 (94%)

Our Heritage, Our Voice: Preserving and Celebrating Bedford's Black and Ethnic Stories

Applicant: JJC Outreach C.I.C.

Project description: This project will safeguard the unwritten histories of Bedford's African, Caribbean and Asian communities.

Decision: Reject

Working towards creating dementia-friendly parks, outside spaces and nature reserves: development of a guide and environmental self-assessment tool

Applicant: University of Worcester

Project description: This Worcester-based project will develop and test an environmental self-assessment toolkit to help parks, nature reserves and other outside spaces become more accessible and welcoming for people living with dementia.

Decision: Award grant of £153,057 (100%)

My Grandad Knew Elvis

Applicant: Enriching Communities C.I.C.

Project description: This project seeks to celebrate the heritage of 1960s music culture, with a focus on the memorabilia of Albert Hand, from Heanor, Derbyshire, a record shop owner and publisher who introduced Elvis Presley's music to the UK.

Decision: Award grant of £175,535 (95%)

To discover and record the lives of those who dies in WW1 as listed on the Sawston War Memorial

Applicant: Sawston Youth Group Ltd.

Project description: This project will involve young people from Sawston, Cambridgeshire, researching the lives of those 45 fallen soldiers named on the village's First World War memorial, concluding in an exhibition, presentation and celebration event.

Decision: Award grant of £19,570 (91%)

Lowewood Museum: futureproofing our community's heritage

Applicant: Lowewood Museum Trust CIO

Project description: This resilience project will support the Trust managing the Grade II listed Lowewood Museum in Hertfordshire to develop a more sustainable model of operating, with master planning, community engagement and improved environmental sustainability.

Decision: Award grant of £245,967 (95%)

The Belper Night Watchmen Reports: a Halloween ghost walk

Applicant: Company Blood Theatre Club

Project description: This project will create an event based on characters from Belper’s Night-Watchmen reports of the 1830s, to take place at Strutts Community Centre, Belper, Derbyshire, as part of the town’s 250th anniversary celebrations in 2026.

Decision: Award grant of £36,345 (94%)

Bringing St John the Baptist Church, Campsea Ashe, into the 21st Century

Applicant: Parochial Church Council of Campsea Ashe

Project description: This project aims to undertake repairs and internal alterations to the Grade II* listed St John the Baptist church of Campsea Ashe, near Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Decision: Reject

25 November

Grant increase

Hammerbeams, Heritage and Health: Restoration at St John's, Badingham

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of Badingham

Project description: This rural Grade I listed church, featured surviving medieval fabric and an early-sixteenth century hammerbeam roof, the project’s focus. The proposed capital works would remove the church from the At-Risk register, alongside activities to engage the local community and young people with the natural heritage of the churchyard which would be delivered with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT).

Decision: Award grant increase of £38,693 to make a total grant of £81,569 (72%)

27 November

Grant percentage increase

Saving St Guthlac's Tower for future generations

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of St Guthlac's Church, Stathern

Project description: This project focuses on the conservation of Stathern's church tower with an engagement programme encompassing the wider village's heritage including partnership working with the local Field Detectives group to locate the lost Hacker Hall.

Decision: Award grant percentage increase from 44% to 47%