Cultures and memories
Since 1994 we have awarded over £510million to more than 24,600 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.
What do we support?
We fund projects which help to explore, save and celebrate the traditions, customs, skills and knowledge of different communities.
This cultural heritage is sometimes referred to as intangible or living heritage. This is because it is constantly changing and kept alive when practiced or performed.
We also fund projects which document and share people’s memories. This often involves capturing oral histories and ensuring they are accessible now and in the future.
Project ideas
Our funding could help people:
- research and share oral traditions, such as storytelling or local dialects
- train others in traditional skills and crafts, from dry stone walling and blacksmithing to basket weaving and textile making
- research the origins of culture, such as music, theatre or dance, and create performances influenced by past styles
- share the history and fun of celebrations, festivals or rituals with new audiences, from games and cooking to carnivals and fayres
- capture accounts of traditional knowledge or pass it on, such as woodland management or home remedies
- record the stories of ordinary people through oral histories, for example about growing up, migration or work
- retell people’s memories about a place or event, such as a long-stay hospital, the miners' strikes or the punk movement
How to get funding
If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.
Projects
Young people discover the story of the Accrington Pals
Young people researched the experiences of the Accrington Pals in the First World War, developing a short film and workshop for secondary schools and encouraging others to make their own films.
Projects
Portobello Youth Heritage Project - 'Dig Deep'
Young people worked with a community arts organisation to discover the medieval heritage of their local area and build a stronger sense of community cohesion.
Projects
Park Place Remembers the Great War
Young people in Tredegar explored the history of a local memorial plaque through creative work and film-making.
Projects
Building Sights
Young people from across Nuneaton and Bedworth worked with the local charity, Mercurial Arts, the Borough Council and English Heritage, to create their own unique listing system and identify and record the buildings and sites important to them.
Projects
Revival of Ancient Crafts
Young people with learning disabilities practiced a variety of ancient crafts and shared new skills with their wider local community through a traditional fair.
Projects
Tribal: a cultural history of boxing in the East End
Young people explored the heritage of boxing in London's East End, including the social impact on the local community and its relationship to gangs and crime, ethnic identity and the entertainment scene.
Projects
Craven's Part in the Great War
This project was based on an idea taken from an original book, published by the Craven Herald in 1920, commemorating every soldier from the Craven District who fell in the First World War.
Projects
Heaton's Woodland Heritage
The wider community was involved in this project to uncover the natural and archaeological heritage of Heaton Woods, an area of ancient semi-natural woodland.
Projects
Discover Shipwrecks of the River Humber Area
Shipwrecks of the River Humber tells the untold story of Grimsby’s fisherman who went out on trawlers during the First World War.
Projects
Queen Alexandra Hospital Home - Our legacy to our country
Staff and volunteers uncovered a collection of over 3,000 photographs documenting how nursing care and rehabilitation of servicemen and women has changed since 1919.
Projects
Tracing the lost stories of local men in the First World War
Heroes of Chiswick aims to discover more about the lives of 23 men from the Parish of St. Michael (Sutton Court) who were killed on active service in France, Belgium, Gallipoli and elsewhere.
Projects
Tracing your roots back to Gallipoli
Twenty young people, aged 14-19, researched the lives of Bolton soldiers who had died during the 1915 Gallipoli campaign.