From bringing famous poets new audiences, to helping communities create their own poetic heritage, here are some of the many ways HLF projects are helping bring the UK’s poetry alive.

Remembering the UK's great poets

You'll find National Lottery projects celebrating great poets in every part of the UK.

From Glasgow to Swansea, here are just some of places where you can experience world-class artists and their works:

• Discover Dove Cottage in the Lake District, the home that inspired Wordsworth to write some of the greatest poetry in the English language
• Learn about 'the Bard' at Robert Burns' Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Scotland
• See the world's largest collection of materials relating to the life of Dylan Thomas at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea
• Walk through the South Derry landscapes that inspired Northern Irish Nobel Prize-winner Seamus Heaney, thanks to the Living Past project

Understanding communities through poetry

In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Taakin Heeds project helped a group of young people celebrate their famous dialect and its poetry.

A group of 16 to 19 year olds looked at Geordie poetry and songs through the ages. They learned about the dialect’s history, and gained new literary skills as well as a sense of identity and belonging with their heritage.

The project also helped the public to learn about the dialect by creating exhibitions, podcasts and films that shared the history of Geordie poetry.

Creating a new piece of poetic heritage

The Langley in World War 1 project in Manchester made an entirely new contribution to the story of UK poetry.

Local people researched the lives of their families, sourcing photographs and stories to build a picture of the community who lived on the Langley Estate, an overspill estate built during the 1950s, during the First World War.

They used what they found to write a community poem that brought together the work the group did together and the families’ stories, creating something that residents of the estate can enjoy for years to come.