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Community heritage

Community heritage

The interior of a 1950s hairdresser's shop. A visitor is having their hair styled by a stylist in vintage clothing. A child sits in a high chair next to the visitor.
Credit: Nigel Roddis
Celebrating community heritage can help people come together, feel pride in where they live and save stories and traditions.

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 that are researching, conserving and celebrating the heritage of a community or place.

These projects could include lots of types of heritage, such as people celebrating living customs or improving a historic green space. What's most important is that the project involves and benefits the community.

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • research the impact of a historical event on their town, and share their findings through displays, talks and online
  • investigate the names on a war memorial
  • crowdsource documents and photographs linked to the LGBTQ+ community, creating an online archive and exhibition
  • set up an audio trail around a range of buildings, parks and monuments in a town
  • enable a youth group to research their local history and create an animated film about their learnings

For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.

How to get funding

If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.

Explore our available funding
A crowd of people in front of The George pub stand behind a red ribbon
Cutting the ribbon at the opening of The George, Wickham Market, 4 September 2025.

Projects

Community effort saves historic Suffolk village pub

Our funding supported hundreds of locals to rescue Wickham Market’s last pub, preserving a valued gathering place.

A detailed illustrated contemporary folk map outlining the course of the River Teifi
Idris Mathias manuscript map. Credit: The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Projects

Llais yr Afon: Giving a Voice to the River Teifi

This project brought together communities across the Lower Teifi Valley to celebrate and protect the river's rich natural and cultural heritage.

in a film studio a person wearing a hearing aid watches computer monitors
D/deaf people were involved as crew and interviewees in the making of the project's film. Credit: Zebra Access.

Stories

Grantee Q&A: adapting oral history methods for Walsall’s D/deaf community

Bob Marsh, Managing Director at Zebra Access, and Robyn Swannack, Project Manager, offer their reflections and advice on helping a community tell its own stories while accommodating a wide range of access needs.
Person standing in front of a display of roller posters
Rosemarie with 'Neurodiversity through the ages' display

Projects

Neurodiversity through the ages

Educating local communities in Grimsby about neurodiversity throughout human history, including – the development of psychiatry as a discipline, the history of diagnoses and how society treated neurodivergent people.

Shelves full of pamphlets and bookmarks highlighting significant LGBTQ+ writers
Lavender Menace in Edinburgh. Credit: Andrew Thompson.

Stories

Five community spaces that made LGBTQ+ history

Lavender Menace, Edinburgh Founded in 1982, Lavender Menace was the first LGBTQ+ bookshop in Scotland. The shop, and its successor Wilde & West, soon became a hub where people could meet, share experiences and discover LGBTQ+ literature that was hard to find elsewhere. Today it’s been reimagined as
five people on a tour of an allotment garden on a sunny day
An activity in the community garden for Roots, part of Belfast 2024's Our Future Heritage programme.

Stories

Grantee Q&A: delivering a heritage-inspired creative programme

We asked Christine Osborne from Belfast City Council to share what she’s learned from the Council’s Belfast 2024 project journey – from developing their application to building a legacy plan.
Trevor Swinburne talks to a group of the community.
Retired professional football goalkeeper Trevor Swinburne previously played for Sunderland. Credit: Foundation of Light.

Projects

Improving community wellbeing through heritage-based learning

Coals to Goals empowered under-served communities to share their memories, knowledge and skills while exploring Sunderland’s rich mining and football heritage.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.